Aln Valley Railway

Longhoughton Goods Yard - no-one, continuation of work on the rail crane to sort the slewing issue; sorting out of tools, etc; general tidying of site; other tasks as required, Today was cancelled due to poor weather

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, TS, MH, IC, continuation of work on the rail crane to sort the slewing issue; sorting out of tools, etc; general tidying of site; other tasks as required, Baz and Dave used the tractor to move some of the stockpiled AS1 chaired wooden sleepers and used them to start to lay out siding 3. A few lengths of 95 RBH were moved up from the stockpile and turned in. Mark arrived after lunch and left with Dave to collect road trailer 2 from Cambois, and also obtain some fixings from Chevington. While they were away the rest of the team continuued with siding 3. On return the crane was shunted up siding 2 and ammendments were made to the line of siding 1 allowing the HPA to be shunted up.

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, IC, TS, continuation of work on the rail crane to sort the slewing issue; sorting out of tools, etc; general tidying of site; other tasks as require, Baz and Dave swapped the battery on the tractor and used it to pull the rail crane down to the middle of the yard. Joined by Ian they then oiled all the rollers, refitted the top ball race, and then used the tractor to pull the jib round. This helped ease the mechanisms and proved the crane is capable of slewing. The damaged spider rod had been repaired by Ian and was refitted. We then slewed the crane by hand. and stoped it on the centre line. The runner was pulled down and the jib lowered to rest. The majority of the grease cups have been cleaned of old grease and refilled with fresh grease, though it is planned to replace these with grease nipples. Tom was sorting wod, and Kay was working on the 165DE.

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, IC, RJ, MH, continuation of work on the rail crane to sort the slewing issue; sorting out of tools, etc; general tidying of site; other tasks as required, Baz and Dave made a secondary enterance to the Mark 1, assisted by Ian. Kay and Roland replaced the outer nuts on the crane spider. Mark rebuilt the wheel bearings on road trailer 2.

Longhoughton Goods Yard - MH, KSW, continuation of work on the rail crane to sort the slewing issue; sorting out of tools, etc; general tidying of site; other tasks as required, Work on the crane has continued - the outer ring has been bolted together and numerous washers, bolts and split pins put in place. Electrical work on the coach has also been undertaken

Longhoughton Goods Yard - BS, DMS, KSW, RJ, continuation of work on the rail crane to sort the slewing issue; sorting out of tools, etc; general tidying of site; other tasks as required, All the spokes have been replaced, and straigtend the best we can. therollers have been refitted and the the roller frame has been re-assembled.

Longhoughton Goods Yard - DMS, GAS, Focus was on the rail crane. We wire brushed the shaft and then used a knife to clean the gap between the collar and the shaft. On removing the chocks the collar dropped down under its own weight, but was still a little sticky to turn. If was pushed up again, and chocked up while a strip of emery cloth was run round the shaft, this was then washed with diesel and cleaned with a rag. The collar now turns quite freely by hand without much force. The problem we now have is that some of the spokes for the rollers have become bent out of shape. We have removed the majority (stored in the workshop) as this also helped access to the shaft, one has unfortunatly shattered. It turns out that the suspicion that the collar is hollow is infact true.