Well, a great day with real progress. Not very noticeble outside but very much inside the car. Jim Ian and I were the team today. Ian finished off some top coating of suspension parts this morning and Jim spent the day installing screens and also starting on the seat rails. The front rails looked excellent with their legs and he managed to get the cut out for the end of the rail cut into one of the screens.
I spent the day hanging the first of the doors at B end. First of all we had to take a little bit off the top of the door to make it fit, then after testing it I had to take the axles out of the runners and drill them for split pins at the right position. This wasn't easy but I managed to use Bernard's lathe to do it, using the tool post to hold the axle while the drill rotated in the chuck. Here is one of the wheels mounted on its hanger prior to drilling.
Elliot Engineering have made a very good job of these runners and axles. The hanger has been cast new by Dennis Harper Ltd. of Bradford from a pattern made by Heritage Patterns of Lockwood.
Once the axles had been drilled these were refitted with Loctite and the washers and split pins fitted to retain them. The the door was hung.
Here is the side door runner assembly that is only in cast iron as it's not normally visible.
The complete door looks like this.
We worked out that there was last a sliding door in the tram in October 1901 when it was withdrawn. The doors then had hinges fitted. Some work was done on the other door which should be fitted next week. All in all a very satisfactory days work.