Saturday 6th February - Inaugural Workday

On Saturday 6 February, the inaugural workday on 4468 commenced.

Although a small group were present, good progress was made on preparation of a number of issues to be dealt with in the restoration of the engine.

The No. 2 end was vacuumed out, rubbish removed and 'sugar soaped' clean in preparation of it being painted out. (At the same time, we also discovered that mobile phones and sugar soap cleaning water do not mix, after it fell out of the shirt pocket of a certain oldmate when he reached over to wash his rag clean...)

Here we see some pictures of the No. 2 end cleaned up and although it looks much better, it still needs a good painting out to make it nice for the crews.


















Progress was also made, like the No. 2 end a couple of weeks back, to clean out the interior of the No. 1 Control stand. These stands get clogged up with diesel fumes and dust from years of operation, and good practice is to clean them out as advised by our electrician old mate.

Here is a couple of pictures prior to cleaning, and we can see Karl hard at work cleaning between the various contactors and other electrical components.



















When the engine was prepared for moving from Lithgow in November last year, the original speedo pick up was found to had been permanently borrowed by some other organisation, and the exposed axle box interior needed protection. Even the speedo 'stud' has been taken too!

To solve the issue short term, the preparation team took up a knacked speedo to fit over the hole, which sufficed until the engine came down to Canberra, but now the time has come to fit the proper speedo.

Here we see the missing stud, the old stop gap speedo, and Gav fitting the new 'overhauled' speedo to the axlebox.





















Another problem with the 44 class is the propensity for running board drain channels to accumulate lots of mud, dust, rust and other gunk. Here we see Keith starting to remove krud out of the channel, and what was removed from a length of about four feet - unfortunately, it seems there is lots more to go before we're on top of it ...!!!
















... and of course looking on we see Duffman up-top, Lindsay and Kerry with 'other' along side of 3016 adding the final touches to it before it heads up to Sydney next week for a wheel turn and a small holiday to RTM for the annual steam festival. (see www.nswrtm.org for further details)

















Next workday is on Sunday 21 February - the more assistance, the quicker we get 4468 back on the road!

P.S. Dont forget to book your ticket to our fundraising trip to Kandos on Saturday, 20 February 2010. Contact the ARHS front office on (02) 6284 2790 or email trains@trains.org.au to reserve a spot!