Just Jim and me today.  Everyone else wimped out but we still got some work done.  The first job was to clear the drive of snow in case the wheelsets arrive on Friday.  That got us nicely warmed up so we then worked on the details for the first roof board.  This, we have discovered, interlocks with some of the trim pieces that cover the joints on the outside of the pillars.  These are now ready, having been fabricated from off cuts from the ventilator boards.   I spent some time cutting out 8 chocks, ready for the wheel move, as well as making extra sleepers for some temporary wooden track that will go in the lorry and on the tail lift.  Nothing spectacular but some slow steady progress.  Next week if the temparature rises we will try and finally fit the first roof planks and associated mouldings. eanwhile the axles have now been machined but we won't pick the wheelsets up for at lest a week as my wife is due home from hospital having ahd a knee replacement.  Some things have to come before trams!

A Truly 'COLD WEDNESDAY'.

This was the sight that greeted me when I got there this morning.  The snow was falling heavily but Jim turned up as well and we managed to get 2 hours work done trying to fit the first roof plank.  We have discovered that this is more complicated than we thought with some trimming and detail pieces to be made before we can screw it down.  Jim started on one of those and I sorted out the fixing holes for teh plank.  However after 2 hours we called it a day.  The tram shed is unfortuantely not snow proof, especially when a north east wind is blowing, as this photo shows.

As you can see the anturarl airconditiong vents that have helped 107 to survice also let the snow in.  Better luck next week.  Also hopefully the wheelsets will be delivered next week.

A really cold Wednesday.  Well no snow but there was ice on the car this morning when I set off to Batley to collect the first prototype rubber cone for the suspension system.  It was still cold but just above freezing when we made a start.  The first job was to assemble as many poarts of the suspension as we have got.  The great surprise was that they all fitted together perfectly despite having been drawn out by me and maade by four different firms in duffering materials.

Here is part of one half of a supension unit with a rubber cone with a spring setat on top of it.  Then the coil spring with another seat on top of it with the spreader bar that will tie the whole axlebox assembly together above.  The cone looks like this:

The next step was to mount it in our high tech test jig and measure how much it was compressed with a load of approx 240lbs.  The weight was achieved very simply. I stood on the plank and ian measured the deflection with said high tech device.

We will now have a kuld made for this shapoe and after slight adjustments to the ahrdness of the rubber will have 16 produced.  There are two inside each coil spring.

Meanwhile work continued in other areas.  Jim and Ian installed the door protector plates and I finished drilling the canopy support brackets for B end.  Now that D end canopy bend is in place the end of the tram looks very different.

The temporary landing is seen on the right.  We also wet fixed the moulding to the underside of the first upper deck plank and Ian finished off the waterproofing of the canvas.  Malcolm has worked wonders with the lights and has also put some more very useful power sockets in. 

Away from the tram the patterns for the axleboxes and bearing plus the last of the supension components have been commissioned and an order for a prototype oiler is to be placed shortly.  The other great news is that the proof reading of Volume 5 of Leeds Transport has now been finished and we should be able to start the publication process very soon.

Another day of good progress.  Paul and Jim spent the day fixing the D end canopy bend.  This is now fixed after a few alterations to the brackets and has transformed the appearance.  I will try and post a photo next week.   I spent the day fixing the first upper deck plank on C side along with it's associated drip rail underneath.  We discovered last week that we had missed a series of screws that hold this rail in place.  We found a solution using some 3" coach screws screwed in from the rear of the upper cantrail.  These take the horizontal stresses produced when passengers pull on the handrails.  This also looked good and has now been removed ready for wet fixing next week. Ian our chairman joined us this week and spent the day putting another layer of waterproofing gloop on the roof canvas and various other pointing jobs. 

Away from the tram more steelwork has been sourced with delivery of 16 steel donuts that will act as seats for the springs.  The wheelset manufacture is still ongoing and the drawings for the patterns for the remaining parts of the axleboxes are nearly ready.

All the information from the upper deck planks has now been fed into the CAD drawings and the picture below shows the result.

This shows the area that the seats will occupy and each small mark shows where something will be attached.  The green lines are the known areas where floor latts were.  Over the coming weeks these will now be extended to complete the plan.  Also we can now start on the design of the seats and the seat frames.

Yet another steady progress week.  Paul spent the day planing the top of the ventilator boards to match the upper cantrail, Jim  spent the day filling the screw holes in them then rubbing them down.  I concentrated on measuring the ceiling planks yet again and finally cracked the positions of the seat support legs.  These are now entered up on the CAD drawing and the seat frame shape is appearing.  The next job will be to design the frames and decide whether to get them fabricated or cast. Malcolm appeared and is now tidying up the lighting wiring and removing all the old redundant stuff shown in last weeks pictures. 

Away from the tramshed we took delivery of the stretcher bars for the axleboxes.  These were tried with the suspension rods and they fitted!  The rubber cone is  now at prototyping stage and the steel for the spring seats has been profile cut and taken for machining.  Measuring of the few remaining bits of upper deck planking ahs also shown the position of one of the inner feet for the end seats so the design is coming together even if I am in deep trouble with my better half for bringing dirty old bits of wood home.