A second working day this week but a great one with another milestone reached.  On Friday I picked up all the glass for the ram from Cyril Isaacs & Co of Leeds, all 125 Kilogrammes of it along with the templates.  At 9.00am Jim and I opened up and got prepared and cut the final glazing beads. These were then drilled using anohter hi tech expensive drilling jig.

At 9.30 Richard Hancock arrived and set to work to start fitting the glass.  The first job was to take the pieces out of the cvar a few at a time and match them up with their respective template so tnhat we could put them in the correct opening.

Here some of the side windows can be see propped against the seat bearers.  I envtually cracked the codes that Oakland Glass had used in preparing the glass. We then started and very shortly the first windows were in.  Richard did the glazing, I followed fitting the lead corner beads and Jim cut the remaining beads to their final length.

By 2pm the job was finished and Richard had done a great job and much neater than Jim or I could have done it.  We were very grateful for him turning out in his own time to do it.  The final result was worth it.  Each pane was labelled with it's weight and area.

A steady day of preparation ready for glazing the tram on Saturday.  In the morning I picked up the tie bars that connect the bottom of the axleboxes.  These tie the whole structure together and also keep the wheelsets the correct distance apart so that the brakes work properly. They look and feel heavy enough for the job.  At the tram Jim and I spent the day drilling, mitreing, cutting and fitting glazing beads, some 60 in all.  These have to be ready for Saturday morning and Jim has taken them home to coat them in Cuprinol and then primer.  A drilling jig made the drilling of all the angled screw holes a lot easier.  Hopefully I will have some photos on Saturday when we glaze the tram.

SIX YEARS SINCE THE START OF THE PROJECT.

Thursday, September 8, 2011 at 6:15PM

modify remove organize post follow up

Another week of steady but unspectacular progress.   I was Billy No Moates on Wednesday for a variety of reasons and spent the day installing a rear seat bearer and then trying to sort out the design of the seats.  This is being copied from various marks on the surviving end screens and also Chesterfield No 8 at Crich.  The area under the window sill is vital and various mouldings have to be correct.  I decided to make a mock up and set to work.  I'd forgotten to take my Jogsaw so brought the work home lateron and worked in the garage until 9.30pm.   The result is this.

Here the mock up is installed with various temporary mouldings at the top. 

The seat is in two sectins that wedge together to lock into place.

This shows the joint at the back that makes it work.  The mock up isn't right but we now think we know what we need to do.

Also today Dr Richard Gibbon, ex head of engineering at the NRM came over, with Derek rayner, the technical editor of Old Glory to inspect the tram.   Dr Gibbon liked what he saw and has agreeed to become the engineering advisor to the project.    I also had a meeting with Cyril Isaacs of Leeds who have agreed to supply and fit the glass at no cost.  They are jointly sponsoring the project with Oakland Glass of Dewsbury.  I took the templates for the glass down this afternoon and hpefully we should be able to glaze the tram before the end of the month.  The glass, which is toughened, will be dicretely kitemarked.