Pipe Down

I've begun to refit the steam feed piping to the engines from the boiler starting at the front end (because there is a section that will need to be remade but can't be done until the rest is in place).

This 'underneath' photo shows the steam pipe in white which runs down the centre of the loco under the water tank.

Curved white steam pipe descending from the engines above

The straight section of the pipe extending beyond the axle was unsupported on arrival in 2004 but there are fixings for support brackets on the bottom of the water tank (the grey thing in the centre of the photo).

Progress today was to attach the small bore pipes from the engines to a 'Y' piece which connects to the wider bore steam feed pipe.

Rear engine viewed from right hand side

View from left hand side, front engine on the left

The pipe from above

And the next job...

... is to connect the long straight steam feed pipe. Before that can be done, the mating face at the boiler end needs to be cleaned-up to make a leak-free seal.

All these pipe joints, bar the one at the bottom of the 'Y' piece, have used annealed copper washers with graphite grease. The one at the bottom of the 'Y' kept its original joint material but with new graphite grease.