Thurs 17th/Fri 18th - Maintenance Report

Graham has kindly stepped forward to help compile some reports on the maintenance side of things in our department. While we wait for Mr Google to get his act together and allow Graham to be added as an author, here's his first report:

Friday

Today's team consisted of John, Ian, Anthony, Martin, and Graham.

This week we concentrated on rake 1. It was placed in P2 so that we could have a go at replacing the rotting step board on M35308 and do the type C inspection. Legionella avoidance flushing activities continued, this time on rake 2. During the morning the step board was replaced…

... and the type C exam was started. Interior and some exterior checks were completed in the morning and the rest of the exterior checks where completed in the afternoon. We found a loose pin on the break adjustment rigging which we removed, cleaned, greased, and refitted more firmly with shim washers:

Sometimes we have to hose these bits down before we start as they can get rather cacked up:

…controlled emission toilets are high on our wish-list!

We also found a few bolts with missing split pins…so we put in replacements:

…and the odd birds nest to remove. We crawl and walk along the whole rake checking for anything obviously amiss as we go…

…together with things we have to check like brake clearance and wear…

…sometimes finding things like a loose nut & bolt to tighten on an axle horn plate. 

Eventually we come to the end of the rake, and the most important task of them all…

…filling out the paperwork!

Thursday

Richard & Richard have been doing more electrical work… Every now and again we need to make sure our spare batteries are charged - this should be once every six months. We have built a test rig which allows batteries to be put on test as well as monitoring when they are being charged.

The bottom left is the 24v charger and above this is a charge balancer which ensures when two series connected batteries are being charged, one is not overcharged and the other undercharged. The test box shows the voltage on either of the batteries as selected by the upper switch by the voltmeter (in this case, battery 2014/09). The blue wire is connected to the linking connection between the two batteries. The charger we use has Bluetooth monitoring and the next two pictures show the status whilst charging at full current (bulk mode) and when it is charging at maximum voltage (absorption mode). We are gradually replacing all our working carriages to this type of charger - 75% so far have been converted.