Hi,

Day 8 at Aylesbury Depot was as follows:

Today I worked both 'Upstairs' and 'Downstairs' on the North Driving Car of a Class 168/1, No. 168110 ( the real vision of my Model!). We started off by checking the brake pads. This is done by sliding a chunk of metal 13mm deep inbetween the brake disc and the section that holds on to the brake pads. We found that the outer brakepad of wheel 2 was out of spec. Wheels are counted clockwise from the second man's side of the unit (if I remember correctly!). The Brakepad is changed by releasing a clip on the brake calipers and turning the caliper to ease the brake pads away from the brake disc. It is then a matter of releasing a single clip and sliding out the 2 parts of the brake pad. Replacing the pads is simply the same process, but in reverse!

We then moved on to greasing the Antiroll bars. This involved putting a air-powered greasing gun on grease nibbles on the end of the bars, then applying the grease until new grease is forced out of the bar. We then moved on to greasing the Cardon Shafts, these are little bit more difficult to grease than the antiroll bars due to the nibbles being hidden on the joints. However I managed to put the gun on and apply the grease, this time listerning out for a cracking nosie from the shafts.

Once this was completed, we moved on to our 'Upstairs' work, checking and clean the CCTV. This involves lowing the interior roof panels and taking down the Public Infomation System (PIS) Pods to revel the cameras. We then cleaned the cameras on the North Driving Car and replaced the PIS pods before going to have some Lunch. We back back and moved onto cleaning the other 2 cars in th unit.

After finishing this, we moved back along to the North Driving Car to carry out a gangway check of the gangway between the North Driving and Middle Cars. First we opened the Bodyend Cupboard to isolate the Gangway doors. The Bodyend Cupboard contains all the control panels and MCB's (Micro Circuit Breakers) for various parts of the passenger section of the car. After Isolating the doors, my apprentice moved on to releasing the clips of the gangway floor and lift it up. Once he had done this, I climbed down in the gangway (which is very wobble) to check the coupler for damage and the gangway for rips, tears and leaves. After I had completed this, my apprentice lowered the gangway floor, reclipped it and de-isolated the doors.

We then got down from the car to check the height semi-automatic coupler at the front of the of unit. The coupler was in spec with the top of the coupler at 1054mm above rail level (sorry, but I can't remember the specifications). To end the day we greased the coupler

Simon