Not a great deal to report today with a small team.  Jim finished painting all the interior panels and I cut wedges for the roof assembly.  In the afternoon we dry fitted the waist rail on C side, the right way up this time. Then spent quite a long time trying to fir the waist rail on the end panels but found the anle of the joints difficult to deal with.  Hopefully next week we can get them fixed.

A great day

I went to Huddesfield to collect the wheels today.  1/2 a ton of grey cast iron.  They look great but the foundry have had a steep re-learning curve to reproduce what Miller's made in the 1890's.  However they look good and we got them safely back to Leeds and unloaded.  They were put on the Transit with a fork lift truck, we unloaded them by sliding them down two old corner pillars from 107.  They ahve now been painted in red primer and will be stored until we get the axle's designed and machined. 

On the car iteslf Jim and Stephen persevered with the triangular fillets and now both sides are done and in primer.  the ends should be done next week.

Pictures to follow tomorrow.

Another day and getting colder each Wednesday.  Today it rained and I had to be careful not to get the roof sticks too wet as I sanded them. I managed to finish sanding the other 8 roof sticks.  The next job is to cut another set of wedges with the grain in the right direction and to finish off a few minor jobs on the monitors then we can start assembling the roof. Jim carried on with getting the first coat of paint on the panels. Today he first of all put a coat of shellac knotting over the triangular fillets on the inside and then got a coat of primer on the interior of C side.  Stephen carried on fitting the fillets on A side so that that is now ready for painting next week. 

Not a lot to report today.  On another tack entirely Paul Brearley, Jim Soper and I went over to Heaton Park on Sunday and rode on L53 done up in Leeds livery. For me it was my first ever ride on a horse tram. A foretaste of what is to come with 107. On a more serious note a plaque was unveiled in Leeds 6 to the memory of Alex Brown, this was unveiled by his brother.  Alex was the man who saved Leeds 6 but he was also the person who found 107. He will be sadly missed.

Today Jim spent the day sanding and filling A side pannelling and then warming it up with a fan heater before putting the first coat of primer on.

Paul started to fit the rubbing rail on C side.  After we had got it on we realised it was upside down.  Next week its start again and get it lined up with the continuation on the end bulkhead.

I continued to fettle the tenons on the roof sticks and they all now fit easily into the upper cantrail. (This goes on after the roof structure so must slide onto all 12 roof sticks at once).  Then it was time to start to clean and sand down the sticks ready for fitting.  I got 4 of the 12 done and trial fitted 2 of them to the monitors. They look good.   Now all we need to do is find a supplier of shellac so that we can put a coat on the exposed bits of mastic inside the tram, before painting.

What a day.   The first chilled iron tram wheels for possibly a hundred years were cast in Huddersfield today.  Bernard Donald and I were privileged to be able to watch the process of mould making and casting from start to finish.   The wheels were cast at H Downs and sons Ltd in Huddersfield.  This is a long established family firm that specialises in one off and short run castings.  

The castings are all serially numbered for tracing purposes and are labelled "MILLERS PATENT, HUDDERSFIELD, 2009."  Today the two wheels that are going to be fixed on the axles were cast and the two that will be free to rotate (To provide a primitive form of differential) are due to be cast on Friday. 

  

On the left Bernard is holding a 'chill' that will be placed in the mould to form the hard wearing tread. On the right the moulder is starting to pour the sand over the back of the pattern to form the lower half of the mould.

  

Here the lower half of the mould can be seen with the 6 chills around the circumfernce. On the right the iron for our wheels is being tapped from the cupola furnace into a ladle. 

The iron was then poured into the completed mould until it was full.  It will be left overnight to cool before being turned out of the mould.

Meanwhile back at the tram Jim spent the day drying out the pannelling on C side with a hair dryer before applying the first coat of primer.  Stepehn carried on applying triangular fillets to the pannelling inside.   All in all a good day.