​A round up of activity in the first week of August at Darlington Locomotive Works. The paid engineering staff and contractors work closely with volunteers to deliver testing and refurbishment of components for Tornado.

• After needle gunning and sanding last week, this week the smokebox door has been painted, so far it has received a coat of grey primer and 2 coats of black under coat.

• The team have spent a couple of days this week undertaking a hydraulic test on the Superheater header, the pictures below show volunteer Georgie Bee setting up for the test on the dry side of the header, and after several hours chasing and nipping down leaks from the dog balls we eventually achieved success with a 500-psi test.  The following day (this time with volunteer Steve Wood) they set about resetting the header to do a hydraulic test on the wet side, and this is where the challenges started, as they were unable to seal a leak on the main input flange. After trying several methods and materials, with the flange coming on and off many times as they tried to seal the leak, eventually they had to concede defeat. Now a special joint will be made to seal the flange.

• Volunteer Oliver Brooke is in the process of cleaning the 4 old Commonwealth axle boxes, and in time they will be sent to Nemesis as service exchange units.

• The rocking bar control brackets have all been through the sand blaster and repairs completed, and now they are being painted before they can be assembled.

• During inspection cracks were found in the welds on the rocking bar locking catches, and after welding the picture shows volunteer Martin Baistow applying the first coat of primer to the catches.

• A bit of bench work by volunteers Nik Proctor and Oliver Brooke. Oliver is cleaning and polishing the LHS regulator handle while Nik is working on the cylinder lubricator oil reservoir, the reservoir has been thoroughly cleaned inside and out, the sight glass has been removed and cleaned and internally some of the old painted has started to lift so this has been removed and cleaned ready for repainting.

• The support coach, No. 21249, has been on the road this week as it has moved from the GCR to Nemesis Rail in Burton in Trent in anticipation for the fitting of the refurbished bogies, the picture shows 21249 on the low-loader just before unloading.

• Work on the overhaul of the spare commonwealth bogies has this week focused on the fitting of the new bearings to the wheelsets, the picture showing a set of new bearings on the wheelset.

To support the work on Tornado's overhaul, please consider joining The Overhaul Club or making a one-off donation.