Friday 13th - Essential Maintenance

 Although normal volunteering is still suspended during lockdown, selected safety critical activities are allowed to continue. Naturally this includes carriage maintenance, we can't emerge from lockdown trying to run trains only to find all of our carriages need examining all at once. So thanks again to Graham for the report, and the whole team as ever for doing such an important job.

The usual gang at Winchcombe this time for buckeye checks on the rake in platform 1 and the start of a few parts of the Type A exam on the RMB currently getting attention in the works. We did what checks we could at this stage of it’s preparation. Some though are best skipped for the moment….bodyside check….FAILED…doors missing! Hopefully it all be ready and checked before too long.

Doing the buckeye exams requires a shunter to get at other than the two end couplings, kind of obvious, but it means that it has to be scheduled when someone qualified to drive the shunter is available to help split the rake, and it tends to get done at Winchcombe because that’s where the shunter and driver are.

The buckeye coupling exam consists of the following checks…

The jaw droop is mostly affected by wear of the support plate which sits between the cross beam and the drawbar casting…

…eventually these have to be replaced to maintain the correct height for the couplings on different vehicles to engage correctly. It is not something that has to be done too often fortunately as the vehicle would have to visit the works to get this done. Mind you it has to for most things related to buckeyes, they are a bit big and heavy!

We also check general condition of the coupler and look for wear and cracks in the casting of the coupler and the draw hook…

…which can be seen when the buckeye is in its lowered position. The hook gets worn from the buckeye support pin which holds it in the raised position, and the support pin gets worn by the hook. Both are checked to make sure this is within tolerance…

When the buckeye is raised the support pin is pushed through the buckeye casting and the hook to hold it in the raised position. We have a special tool (bent bar) for raising and lowering the buckeye. In shots below Martin can be seen jiggling the support pin free whilst Anthony takes the weight of the buckeye casting and lowers safely using the special tool…

The reverse works just as well.  When the support pin is put back in position it is held in place by two weighted tails that drop down (not to mention rust and dirt as we deliberately don’t lub it)…

We also have to make sure the jaws open/close (reasonably) easily and that the jaw pin rotates freely and is not damaged or bent…

We also clean off as much of the external grease and dirt we can so it doesn’t get in there and act as grinding paste. A squib of WD40 helps soften the old dry grease still inside. The jaws are checked for tolerance when open and closed to ensure correct engagement with other vehicles…

…the narrow part of the gauge should fit between the jaws and the slightly wider bit shouldn’t. The jaws are opened by yanking on a chain attached to the locking pin release arm…

The locking pin is pushed up by yanking on the chain (and lever) and this allows the jaws to spring open…but only if you can give the chain a good enough sharp enough tug, and the jaws are free enough. Not everyone has the knack to release the jaws first time. Ian seems to be expert in our team!

Further underneath we have to check the condition of the hook drawbar, it’s side-to-side movement control gear, it’s rear retaining pin, it’s load shock plates, and the rear retaining bolt, nut, and split pin…

…sometimes the side movement control gear are huge rubber bushes, sometimes coil springs…

…we check that everything is still there, still firmly done up, and generally looks ok. Then we do the next one…and the next one…and the next one…

Oh….and course after each one mark on the buffer beam when we last did it…

…Buckeye Exam November 20!