Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 4:02PM A very sad day. This morning I was told that Bernard Donald had died after a long battle with Asbestosis. The sympathies of all the team go out to his widow Margaret and the rest of his family. Bernard had been involved in tram restoration for over 50 years and had had a keen interest in trams from childhood. He was involved in the restoration of Leeds 399 and it is thought that it was asbestos in the Armley Mills area that he was exposed to at that time whilst working on 399 in the 1960's. He will be greatly missed by all of us especially Jim Soper who had known him since they were both in the same class at Leeds Grammar School in the early 1940's. He was secretary of the LTHS for over 40 years and was also a member of the Tramway Museum Society and several other tram related organisations. He has been responsible for the engineering design of 107 and I am very grateful that in the last few weeks of his life I was able to turn his notes and calculations into detailed production drawings for the suspension and running gear. I was also able to check details with him until nearly the end, indeed I was texting him details of spring design in hospital and receiving detailed and carefully thought out replies. The team decided that the best way to honour Bernard's memory was to carry on with 107 working to the highest possible standards.
Jim and I were both subdued today but still managed to achieve quite a lot. We prepared and mixed 3 large tubs of grey gloop, for waterproofing the ceiling and did various tidying up jobs on the ceiling boards. These included sanding d0wn the tops of the boards and making sure that no screws were proud of the surface. We then put masking tape along all the seams to stop gloop running through. This wasn't easy but a Heath Robinson contraption allowed us to do it with one of us at each end of the car. (Pictures next week, I promise.) Then the last job was to lay out the canvas on the ceiling and cut it roughly to size. Hopefully many of the creases will have dropped out by next week. All this is in preparation for fixing the canvas next week.
Away from the tram the springs have been ordered, after a final OK from bernard, and the axlebox guide rods have been bought and taken to Elliott Engineering in South Leeds for machining.
RIP Bernard Donald.
Reader Comments (1)
I am sorry to hear about your loss, death from asbestosis is unfortunately it can lay dormant for many years. People have only recently been made aware of the impact working with asbesos can have.