The volunteer group overhauling Alco locomotive ‘Mountaineer‘ has released its January work, with volunteers returning to the Glan y Pwll Workshops after the festive period.

The wood developments have continued with the front supports to see if these can be connected to the smoke box saddle rather than the smokebox itself.

A new lubricator drive, which is similar to those found on the WHR Garratts has also been mocked up.

Moving on to the reverser, and a new location for the reverser has been found on the previous made rear frame supports, which will stop the need to have a packing piece on the reach rod when the reverser was attached to the boiler.

Focus on the locomotive itself has turned to disabling the cylinder pistons, which has involved removing the piston rod from the cross head.

Cotter pins have been removed and stored, along with the front cylinder and piston valve, that were removed and refitted to allow for an inspection of the bores, which will need to be measured in the future to find out what work is needed.

All of the welds in the firebox have now been ground down to allow the boiler tubes to be removed.

Further NDT, or Non Destructive Testing, has been carried out, with the thicknesses on the firebox tube plate and inner fire box being taken, all results so far are as positive as the boiler shell.

The NG15 Project has lent the team an endoscope, which is a small camera that plugs into a phone to allow for the inside of the boiler to be looked at.

When this was used, it was found that the boiler had been coated in boiler treatment so the decision has been made that the boiler needs to be fully washed out to avoid any future confusion.

If you would like to support the Mountaineer team, you can do so in a number of ways:

• Donate via the Ffestiniog Railway Society Appeal Page
• Purchased merchandise from the Mountaineer website
• Email Patrick Booth to get involved in the overhaul