The second report - John Wilkinson

Last week we made good progress with the strip down of the loco prior to inspections and the subsequent boiler repairs. The cab was removed from the loco on Monday after much preparation work during the previous week. Jon Pridmore, Dan Howden and John Wilkinson gently lifted and adjusted the position of the cab until it finally came free at the back of the loco. The good news here is that there has been little resultant damage to wiring and pipework in consequence.

There is evidence of fretting on some of the pipework where it has rubbed against another part of the loco, this produces work hardened and brittle patches in the pipes and there will be resultant repairs required, all these are being noted in order to ensure that we pick up all them before the reassembly process.

The loco after the cab had been removed with backhead fittings and cladding still intact - John Wilkinson

Jon Pridmore and Dan then spent the remainder of the week carefully removing the backhead fittings and cladding. The cladding proved rather resistant particularly the bolts which hold it together which had rusted in place due to the moisture which had built up under the cladding. This has slowed stripping down process and when the cladding is replaced the bolts will be coated in grease to try to alleviate this problem in future. By the end of the week, as can be seen in the next image, the cladding in the cab area and the backhead fittings had been removed. A considerable amount of work has also gone into preparations to remove the next two sections of cladding forward from the cab area which is not visible from the pictures.

A view from a similar angle after the cladding had been removed - John Wilkinson