More progress on several parts of 107 today.   Jim had tidied up the sides for the mudguards so Stephen and I spent time making up the first one and this is the result.

Dovetail joints at each corner.  It needs a top brace and then a plywood covering as well as a few other details, just 3 more to make.

Meanwhile Malcolm Johnson continued with his marvellous turning work. First of all he drilled a hole through the test handrail knob at 58 degrees.  This is the finished result.

It should look fine on the staircase.

He then started work on the production ones in the copying lathe.

Here the first one is emerging with each pass of the tool.

The pattern is behind and below the tool post.

The hydraulic copier head can be see going round the red painted pattern.

By the end of the day the first one was ready.  Meanwhile on the tram we fitted the C side seat back so that Jim could mark out the end plates as well as various other small jobs.  All in all a good day's work.

Another day with various small jobs being done but still progress.  Away from the tram timber for the mudguard boxes has been taken to the joiner for planing.  Today Mike carried on shortening bolts and then set to work boring out steel and brass handrail knobs.  The end result was a trial fit of one of the upper deck handrail

Not very good pictures today as I forgot my camera

Jim and I spent our morning putting the final screws in the upper deck seats and then in the afternoon spent time putting the brackets on that hold the base of the stairs to the platforms so that they no longer move slightly as we climb them.  Jim also discovered an original Starbuck dash pillar at Whitkirk that Rob Jones from Merseyside had given us 7 years ago.

Quite a find as we had forgotten it.  It saves me having to design new ones from scratch, and Malcolm Johnson at Middleton thinks that he can machine 3 more from steel bar.  he is busy at the moment making a trial handrail support in steel.  If the method works then the final ones will be turned in rather more expensive brass bar.  All small bits of progress but good to see. 

Can I take this opportunity to wish all readers a very Happy Christmas wherever you read this.

Well, a really Cold Wednesday to start with but our hosts at Middleton did wonders and actually got us some heat at the far end of the coach shop.   A good team turned up.  Mike Cook got stuck in drilling and fettling step brackets and then trimming coach bolts to length and putting new thread on them.   Jim got to work sorting out more of the landing latts and at the end of the day had finished a very tricky job but B end look good.  The spalyed latts look fine.

Mike waring carried on screwing the last of the latts down at D end and ian worked on putting filler above all the small screws that hold the latts down.   the end result of these labours means that the top deck looks nearly finished.

They just need the filling finishing then they can be painted.

I spent the morning measuring various things to do with the handrails and mudguards.  The mudguards go under the seats and over the wheels. After lunch when Mike had finished enough bolts we set to and after a team effort got the B end step on. 

The finishing touch will be an extra piece of sheet steel at the left hand end to help support it.  Already it has made getting on and off the tram a lot easier.   It didn't even deflect under my weight!!

All in all a good day.

We only got half a day's work today as we started off by trying to tidy up at Whitkirk.  Anyway during the week I had had the timber for the platform steps machined and also had a big batch of Whitworth bolts zinc plated.   As well as that I got six 45mm diameter steel balls machined which will become ifixing for the intermediate rail on the staircase handrails.  Mike Waring, Jim and I went down to Middleton after lunch and carried on with upper deck floor latts. Jim and I also did some marking out for the the platform steps.  I then spent the rest of the afternoon drilling and cutting latts whilst Mike and Paul fixed them.  We also worked out a sdesign for the latts on the two landings and fixed the first one of 9 at B end.  All in all not a bad day's work.

Jamie

A rather gloomy and overcast day weatherwise and a reduced team.  Paul and I started by laying out the beads on the D end canopy.  The long ones had been machined during the week and they are needed to fit the canvas on the canopies.   Michael arrived before lunch and carried on screwing down more floor latts.  After lunch Paul took his patterns home to work on  the beads at home and I helped Mike by cutting various latts to length to fit round the feet of the the seats near the landing.  By the end of the day we only have about 20 more latts to fit and it is starting to look good.  A bit of design work on the platform steps was done and hopefully they should be ready to fit on our next working day.