Keeping the Heat In (A Cover-Up!) (3)

February 23rd 2015 saw the integration of the side skirts with the boiler top cover. (Compare to this).

Boiler Top Cover with Sides fitted

There were still a few screws left to do after the above photo was taken but they are now in place and it all fits together (with a bit of persuasion)!

The next task is to take the complete top cover off again to allow space for other boiler top constructions. Firstly the superheater steady plates and secondly the vertical supports for the top cover.

Not obvious above is that the semi-circular cladding plates have also been fitted around the boiler top. Back in June 2011, they looked like this after their restoration but it has taken a long time to actually get them fitted.

Cladding Plates

Worthy of note is that they are fixed by screws into existing threaded holes in the circular angle iron girder around the top of the boiler side cladding plates. The stainless steel screws used were an odd thread for this situation in that they were 2BA (which cost a lot more than metric screws nowadays!). It is odd that Sentinel should have used a BA thread where all other screws were Whitworth.