The BNR (another way)

[GeraldH]

Now that the overall roof is complete at Pewsley attention has turned to restoring the old Triang signalbox. It was quite draughty in there with no glazing and this also posed a security risk. The absence of a lever frame also meant that staff were wandering around changing points and signals manually. The chimney was also missing which did not help during the winter months.

The door has now been panelled to improve security and the glaziers will arrive shortly assisted by a new access at the lower level. A new (replica Triang) chimney has been sourced (Ebay) and painting has commenced.

 

 

A new lever frame has been constructed from parts already in store (panel pins and wooden trim).

 

 

The frame base has now been painted and the colours will be applied ot the levers shortly. No more need for staff to wander around the station throat dodging trains.

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by GeraldH

[GeraldH]

Fred the Pewsely signalman has been sent down to the workshop to have a look at the new levers. They're very robust, but they are a little stiff!

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by GeraldH

[GeraldH]

Pewsley signal box is finally finished. The flash is not very flattering and some of the paintwork could be better, but if the workhop staff will use 30+ year old paint... having said that the unopened tin of Humbrol matt enamel varnish was only a couple of years old and that was just as bad .

 

Edited April 27, 2022 by GeraldH
Image

[GeraldH]

The official photographer has recently been granted access to the other side of the lines leading out of the junction station providing some different views. The newest of the three preserved Class 16 diesels can be seen taking a mixed BR/BNR freight train down to Brundlewick for marshalling, The BR wagons will then be sent through the tunnel to the UK.

 

 

The night mail can be seen on it's way back from the Pewsley extension. This is normally hauled by a diesel, but had a preserved Prairie on the front for the benefit of visitors to the island during the Bank Holiday. Some of the BNR's French Blue locos can be seen on shed in the background.

 

[GeraldH]

To assist drivers of the ore train a new marker post has been installed at Pewsley so that they know exactly where to position the first ore wagon to leave them enough space to run round before passing over the unloading bridge.

 

 

A trial service was operated today with the BNR's flagship diesel. The operating department weren't convinced that it would manage the heavy train on the lines extreme incline, but it was surprisingly sure-footed and is now likely to see regular use on this service. The extra lead castings on the bogies probably helped as did the tyres .

 

[GeraldH]

Hornby turntables are rather fragile and if the rails on the deck shift so that they are not perfectly centred they can foul the rails on the exit tracks causing the chairs on the deck to break off. The BNR obtained a damaged deck some time ago at very favourable rates and as other projects have ground to halt it was decided to attempt a repair.

The loose rail was clamped onto the deck and then a blob of JB Weld epoxy was placed where each chair had snapped off. After 4 hours the epoxy had solidified, but not yet reached full strength allowing the excess to be trimmed off. Once fully set after 24 hours a little extra can be added if required and the chairs filed to shape.

 

[GeraldH]

The BNR has been a bit short of push-pull coaches since services were expanded to Pewsley. These use its innovative system which works with all of their locos both steam and diesel. Work has now started on a adapting a third coach to the system and with this vehicle it has been decided to retain the corridor connection to maximise operational flexibility. The part converted end is beginning to resemble a 4TC driving coach.

 

 

[GeraldH]

The line's preserved 9F has been behaving erratically lately and failed on a Santa Special having to be rescued by the not yet completed Class 21/29. Once dismantled it didn't take the maintenance crew to spot something suspicious. An uninsulated power feed was causing a short. To get the 9F back on the Santa Services quickly a piece of insulation (paper) was temporarily slotted in and the 9F is back in service.

 

[GeraldH]

The paintshop has been at a standstill while they figure out how to connect their old (Humbrol airbrush) spraying equipment to a new compressor. The old equipment had a connector designed to connect to a propellant can of compressed air. These propellant cans have become rather expensive and can run out at inopportune moments and so management decided to invest in a modern compressor (Fengda FD-18-2 Mini). No adaptor seemed to be available off the shelf and so considerable head scratching and research took place. The only way it seemed to obtain a male propellant fitting was to procure a airbrush tyre adaptor and it was decided to try and attach this to a 1/8 BSP adaptor in some way. The paintshop had already mistakenly purchased a 1/8 to 1/4 BSP adaptor and so it was decided to use this.

 

 

The attachment between the two was achieved by creating a plastic inner sleeve from some waste material in the workshop stores (part of a retractable biro) and this was turned down to size using a drill and a file.

 

 

The parts were then stuck together using epoxy and the paintshop can now hopefully get back to work.

 

[GeraldH]

The BNR have for some time been looking for a full brake to match their standard 54' Triang Mk1 coaches. The availability of cheap, good quality BG bodies via Replica Railways seemed to provide a potential solution. The stores had a Triang 54' underframe from a damaged coach that had to be scrapped and so it was decided to shorten the BG body to fit the Triang underframe. A previous attempt was successful, but the coach was destroyed by a supposedly plastic friendly paint stripper. The new coach body can be seen here being shortened along with the Triang donor chassis and the remains of the previous BG which was retained as template.

 

[GeraldH]

Workshop staff have been busy preparing footboards for the full brake. As always the BNR have been recycling materials and some scrap plastic in the stores (SIM card holders) has proved to be exactly the right thickness. Cutting proved a little tricky and it's important to get the cuts close to vertical so that the footboards will land up perpendicular to the coach solebar. Several damaged footboards on other coaches have been repaired in this way in the past.

 

[GeraldH]

The BNR's loco department have been spending quite a bit of time resurrecting a Class 21/29 that looked to be destined for the scrapyard. The engine was running rather erratically and was particularly noisy on one direction. The engine was dismantled for cleaning and it was suddenly noticed that part of the holder for one of the brushes was missing so that the brush was not properly held in place when working in one direction.

 

This part is hard to come by now and so the missing part of the brush holder was built up using epoxy. Running has improved and the noise reduced, although it is still not quite good enough. A little running in might do the trick...

[GeraldH]

Management recently suggested that workshop staff make some progress on their existing projects before starting new ones and cluttering up the place. The line's third push pull coach is about to undergo trials after a trip to the paint shop. Unfortunately someone didn't clean the paint shop very well before spraying commenced and a few bits of detritus have become embedded in the paint. It's not too bad from a distance and some matt varnish may help after the decals have been added.

For some reason the BNR's locos have been getting a coat of matt varnish while the coaches remain in a gloss finish. Now that a new compressor has arrived, the coaches may also get treated to some matt varnish as well as their decals which have been in store for several years.

 

 

Several of Ballybongle's recently arrived citizens jumped aboard the new push-pull coach during the photocall. At some point they might realise that the coach isn't going anywhere at the moment 🤔  .

 

 

The Class 21 has also visited the paint shop. It looks quite smart with it's black window frames. The buffers and handrails will be fitted after the decals and a coat of matt varnish.

 

[GeraldH]

 

The railway has recently taken delivery of some second hand track. Most of it is steel which will be installed on the steepest gradient to see if it improves adhesion. One section had damaged sleepers where it had previously been fixed to the trackbed.

 

 

To ensure passenger safety the damaged sleepers needed to be repaired and this was done using epoxy. This was then filed to shape and scored using a knife to create a woodgrain effect. New fixing points can be drilled into adjacent sleepers. The repair is quite robust and once the track is ballasted and weathered no-one will ever know.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by GeraldH
typo

[GeraldH]

After a year of delays the salvaged Class 21 has finally entered service. It's original power unit is still causing trouble and so it has been temporarily replaced with a spare. The railway is experiencing a shortage of larger diesels at the moment and so the loco was rushed through the paint shop. This nearly ended in disaster due to issues with a well known brand of enamel matt varnish which has resulted in a rather speckled roof. The Class 21 should be hauling some of the winter passenger services soon.

 

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Hope they checked the steam heat boiler !

 

manna

 

[GeraldH]

Another long running workshop saga has ended with the completion of the new shortened Treplica full brake (Replica body on Triang chassis). Issues in the paintshop means that this one also has the speckled patchy grey roof. The roof could be stripped and repainted, but there is the risk of damaging the other paintwork so it may be left as is. The paintshop are looking to change suppliers to Precision Paints, though supplies seem to be quite hard to get hold of.

 

[GeraldH]

Attempting to get the rescued Class 21's original Ringfield power bogie running smoothly has proved to be a long running saga. Initially it seemed that the brushes were not being held firmly in place due to a damaged faceplate rivet and so the missing part of the rivet was built up using epoxy. This did not, however, seem to solve the problem and so new hollow rivets were ordered (3.5mm diameter, 5mm long). As the workshop staff did not have a riveting tool, they bodge fitted it with a punch and a vice. It looked good, but running was still not smooth.

 

At around the same time it was discovered that the armature windings had been "repaired" previously seeming unbalancing things, so a spare armature was found and fitted in the workshop, but the running was still erratic. The loco then entered trial service, but the armature was getting stuck at slow speeds in one direction. This meant that the loco was often unable to reverse resulting in marooned and rather frustrated passengers and so the disgraced loco was returned to the workshops.

 

 

On close examination it was noticed that the new bodged rivet was fractionally off 90 degrees and rather than attempt another bodged riveting exercise, it was decided to use a spare faceplate that had been tucked away in a dusty corner. During trial fitting it was noticed that the top mounting clips were in the wrong place for the Class 21's power unit. No spare faceplates appear to be available for this particular power unit, but the careful use of filler (Milliput) meant that a new fixing (self tapping screw) could be engineered.

 

Now the saga is finally[?] over and BNR's number 12 has entered passenger service, although the paintshop didn't cover themselves in glory with this one. Despite now running fairly well, passengers seem a little nervous when this one turns up at the head of a service, perhaps the loco should have been numbered 13?

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Maybe a conversion to a CD motor may have helped.

 

manna

[GeraldH]

On 12/01/2024 at 01:00, manna said:

Maybe a conversion to a CD motor may have helped.

 

Yes with hindsight it might have been easier and possibly improved running.  As the spare faceplate was available it was decided to try and use it.  Correct faceplates for Ringflelds in Hornby Class 25, 29, 35 and HSTs are now very hard to source.  People that have done the CD motor conversions could make a few pennies by putting the old faceplates on Ebay 😊.

[GeraldH]

The track gangers finally found some free time to install steel rails on the BNR's steepest gradient. Steel rail apparently has a greater coefficient of friction than nickel silver rail and it was hoped that this might improve adhesion, allowing some of the less powerful locos to work on the branch to Pewsley. To test the hypothesis trials were first run on the existing nickel silver track using a lead weighted wagon. The wagon was weighted just to the point where BNR's loco No. 1 was unable to progress.

 

 

Some speedy tracklaying then took place, along with some adjustment to the pre-used fishplates. After tea and chocolate biscuits No. 1's crew took on the challenge...

[GeraldH]

Well sadly I have to report that the track replacement made no appreciable difference to haulage 🙁.  Although there seemed to be more friction when cleaning the steel railhead, perhaps the tea and biscuits changed the driving behaviour of No1's crew? Nevertheless in the wheel world 🙂 loco No 1 still ground to a halt on the gradient. There's only one remaining loco on the BNR with Magnadhesion (well the engineers think it has) an E2, but rather surprisingly even that didn't seem to be greatly affected. So the original nickel silver track has been reinstated and the older steel track will be placed in reserve for a (non) rainy day 🙂 .

[GeraldH]

The latest loco the enter the BNR's workshops is a fairly recently arrived K1. It always had fairly floppy valve gear on one side and there was a mysterious loss of plating on the associated connecting rod. Trainspotters on the platform alerted management to the possibility of impending failure and fear of disaster led to the locos withdrawal from service. An attempt to tighten up the valve gear on the floppy side resulted in catastrophic failure with the cross-head becoming completely detached. As spares are not available, the K1 spent sometime laid up, but it was eventually decided to attempt a repair using parts lying around in the BNR's works.

 

 

[GeraldH]

After a lot of head scratching and breaking two drill bits (0.3mm) the workshop team managed to drill two holes into the crosshead where the previous cast fixings had partially disintegrated. The first hole was drilled all the way through the bottom of the crosshead, while the second was drilled partially through, inside the remainder of the damaged pivot. Trying to get these holes centered without a drill press required a certain amount of patience and a bit of luck.

 

 

The plan was to glue some steel pins into these two holes with the pin heads holding the valve gear in place. It turns out that pin heads are not always symmetrical and care was needed to select good ones. Cutting the pins did sometimes result in the head or the remaining shaft shooting off across the workshop! As a result Bluetac was put on the head of each pin before cutting to improve workforce safety.

 

 

Finding a pin the correct size for the partially drilled hole for the connecting rod proved particularly difficult as the hole tapered in. Attempting to turn down the shaft of a stainless steel pin proved too difficult and in the end a pin rather shorter than depth of the hole had to be used. This didn't look as elegant as the pin at the bottom of the crosshead, but being on the inside it is not visible to passengers.

 

 

The whole assembly has now been placed back on the K1 which has re-entered service successfully... so far 😊.