Shed turn - Axle boxes & polish

 Today marks another step in the journey toward post-COVID return to reality - my first winter shed turn since 2020. I like shed turns - you get involved with the railway out of season, work on the locos and have the chance to enjoy the banter & abuse only the workshop provides.

Today, we are checking, cleaning and topping up tender axleboxes, first on the WD, then the Y14 and the 7F. Today, the locos are all having ultrasonic testing on their axles to look for cracks, so all the axle end covers have to be exposed. Driver Dave takes the Y14, and I get started on the WD 2-10-0 90775. It's got eight wheels on the tender with white metal bearings; the bearing is above the axle, and below the axle is a cotton oiler that wicks lubricant from the reservoir in the bottom of the box up and onto the bottom of the axle, where it can run around and lubricate the bearing.

Here I've got a washing up bowl under the box and I've opened the drain plug to let the old oil out:

It's cold and the oil is thick, so I have set up the same arrangement at all eight axleboxes to give them some time to drain:

Here's the cotton wick oiler, showing the thick woven pad with the long tails hanging out of it - the pad is pushed against the axle by the spring steel frame, and the long tails sit in the oil reservoir and wick the oil up into the pad. In this picture I've hung it over the bowl and squeezed the oil out:

While those were all draining, I refitted the covers over the tender axle boxes on the 9F, which is to be the reserve loco for February half-term. This one has Timken roller bearings - it's a much more modern loco having left the works on 6th April 1959.

Once I'd got all the covers back on the 9F's axle boxes, I returned to the WD. I scraped all the gunk out of the bottom of the axle boxes and refitted the oilers, filling them up with clean oil and refitting the covers.

Next Driver Dave and I moved on to the S&DJR 7F, to do the same job. It's outside in the yard; it's a sunny winter's day and there a Muntjac deer in the field on the other side of the running line.

You can see here the same style of oiler, mounted on the spring frame which keeps it pushed against the axle:

There's no drain plug on these boxes, so you have to suck the oil out. Fortunately, the engine has seen very little use and the oil was very clean - we just inspected the oilers and topped the boxes up.

After lunch, Driver Dave and I moved on to the Y14, which has been steam tested ready for service in the half term holiday. Turns out I will be the first to get out on it this season - I have a third Man turn on the 12th February. Dave and I gave it a good clean and polish:

Shame about the overhead crane, but she polished up well:

More next week.