The Diary of the Building of a 5" gauge Stirling Single

    

Preparing for steam test in 2025
5th November 2025

I have found my micro Torque Wrench


Making the gasket well I hoped it was but the gasket material moved as I was using the wrong backing. New backing ordered !!!

I also changed the cutter as I used thicker gasket material for a second try.

The Cricut is making 6 passes as I put it on Leather 1.6mm deep to try and ensure a well cut gasket.


6th September 2025

All was going so well until I sheered the top right hand bolt.

The gaskt was made and fitted well, the gasket was applied to the cover and the cover placed in position and three bolts secured ok and then the last bolt sheered on the final tightening up !!!!

So now I have to remove all the bolts with head and then figure out how to remove the remains of the brass bolt!!

Friends have suggested that I purchase "Easy Out" which I have done and hope to receive it tomorrow.

7th September 2025

Re-cutting the gasket as to other one will be damaged when I have removed the blanking plate. I have had to use masking tape along the top and down one side in an effort to stop the material shifting whilst being cut in the Cricut. This worked and I set the machine to make three more as spares.

8th September 2025

With the aid of a helper, our gardener, I was able to lift the front end of the engine and a chunk of timber was placed under the front bogey which will make looking into the smoke box much easier.

A first try with East Out whilst accessing the hole did not  drill into the broken bolt!

So it will have to be a dismantle and remove the unit. I will need to loosen off the two unions that feed steam to the cylinders and then remove the two 2BA nuts and then take off the blast nozzle and may be need to move the blower pipe out of the way.

Hopefully the assembly will come out if not the the smoke box will need to be removed which will necessitate removing the material put in to seal up the smoke box so that a vacuum caused by the blast of spent steam going up the chimney.


So I have been able to remove the two unions to the cylinders and the blast nozzle but I cannot find my 2BA socket so play stopped for today !!!

BUT new BA set ordered and should have them Tuesday !!!

You can see that the Blower pipe will need to be bent down a little to allow removal of the assembly.


9th September 2025

With a new set of BA sockets, I found the 2BA one fitted perfectly into the recess, where the two behind nuts exist within the Smokebox progress at last and may be tomorrow I will try to extract the assemble where the bolt has sheered.

I am now making the gasket for the steam unit and the boiler.


12th September 2025

The adjustable wrenches I have bought arrived to day and I hope they will help to extract the assembly from the loco.

The 5BA and 4BA stainless steel bolt arrived today.


13th September 2025

A friend joined me in the workshop after a breakfast at Elm Ct  and we assessed the situation and whilst were were able to make the steam assembly move forward the petticoat fouled it so we proceeded to try to remove the petticoat from the chimney but this did not budge.


So lets see inside what the problem is !!!

As you can see from the picture the reason to remove the petticoat is because it fouls the removal to the steam header.

Even after a lot of hitting it still remained in place.

Then I tried to remove the smoke box after removing all the sealant to make the smoke box vacuum tight. That did not work.


Having found the the petticoat was not just a tight fit but that it had been silver soldered into position using cutting gear in the drill an attempt was made to clear away the petticoat.

Whilst it appeared to work to start with an alternative plan was needed.


So my friend had brought along a diamond toothed cutting blade so we decided to cut the top of the smoke box off to gain the access.
Here you can see the access to all the part within the smoke box of course a repair will now be devised once the front end has proved to be water tight on a hydraulic test.
Here you can see the regulator front piece and the super heaters almost fully out.
14th September 2025

A day off working on the loco as my wife and I were to attend a BBQ at Bregar and Wormshill Railway where I have been part of the Volunteers and will in future help out with painting when requested.

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