Removal of axle boxes.

But first a bit of digging - this was required to remove packed in dirt on the rails to roll the sets into the Shed as this road is not connected at present to the yard. This made life a lot easier on the back. It's amazing what you find - washers, bolts, nails, stones, and earth of course! No surprise really. The wheelsets were moved onto 1 road to allow the 6 axle boxes to be removed from the journals. Using a jacking trolley to support them, the pins were pushed out and freed. All parts were then re-united and marked for future re-assembling. The thrust plates and journals were greased by Nick and, along with Alan, Denzo tape was applied to protect the moving surfaces. Nick then started to clean the driving set with the hot wash, uncovering some blue paint. Dave McNicoll (in a separate communication) said it could be the first time of painting at the railway in Prussian Blue. I contacted Roy Lambeth to see if he had any photos of this but unfortunately not. It would have been nice to think it was original NCB blue.

The wheelsets will be cleaned, grit blasted, NDT'd and repainted for protection. They will be sent to the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland at Whitehead for new tyres.

All 3 sets on 1 road. a bit of digging had to be done to allow the tyres to engage with the rail.

Wheelsets ready to have the axle boxes removed.

4 of the axle boxes removed, ready for cleaning and marked for future work.

Nick Thompson greasing the journal and thrust plate.

All 6 axle boxes removed from wheelsets. Tyres removed from driving set previously by John Hunt.

New denzo tape applied and the start of the high pressure cleaning underway!

Some blue colour appearing during the cleaning. See text above.

The leading and trailing wheelsets.

And as an extra - one wheelset was used as a test for the Plasser & Theurer crane by John Sinclair.