Another week of steady progress both on the tram and away from it.   On Friday I went to Sheffield and collected the coil springs. On my way home I called at Featherstone to inspect the wheels that have been machined.

 

Here you can see the 4 wheels after machining. The right hand picture shows the detail of the loose wheel which has it's oilways cut inside the bore and the tapped hole for mounting the oiler.

Today I spoent the morning cleaning and measuring more surviving bits of roof planks to try and find out how the seats were mounted.  After lunch I finally found the sets of holes that i was looking for and now need to work these into the CAd drawing to finalise the seat design.  Paul and Jim spent the morning fettling the ventilator boards and getting them ready for fitting.  I also managed to find bernard's Die nuts and sorted out the bolts for the landing brackets.  These were fitted after lunch and them Jim and Paul mountd the ventilator boards.  these transformed the appearance of the tram.

Here you can see C side with the vent strip in place and B end with the brackets that support the canopy bend and the landing.  We ahve fitted a temporary landing for the time being to locate the canopy bend.

Stephen also arrived after lunch and spent his time tidying put the top garage ready for us to take delivery of the wheelsets.  It was great to see some track laid ready for them.

 

 Now that's progress You didn;t know that they are laying tram track in Leeds!

Another day of preparation.  Jim spent the day cutting out the gaps at the bottom of the ventilator boards and sanding them so that everything lined up.   I spent most of the day putting cuprinol on all the upper deck floorboards.   These were done on the wall outside and at least the wall won't suffer from wood rot as the Cuprinol was applied liberally.  Paul spent his time tidying up the tops of the corner pillars so that they are ready for the floor boards to be fitted. 

Malcolm appeared again and got two of the new lights working.  This will help as the dark evenings approach.  For the last hour I spent my time recording marks on the surviving roof plank from A side.  Initially the various holes didn't make much sense, but when compared with the drip rail it started to come clear.  I now know exactly where the handrails were fixed and how and also found the fixing holes for what I think were the feet on the seat frames.  This will all get plotted into the CAD system and compared with other known dimensions and so we should be able to get the layout of the upper deck sorted.

The springs will be ready for collection this week and other parts of the suspension/axlebox assembly are being manufactured in Batley.  machining of the wheels and axles is progressing and now that the floor planks are out of the top garage we can clear it ready for the delivery of the wheelsets.  All in all another good, though fairly war, Wednesday.

Jim and I set off with the best of intentions to get the first of the roof planks fitted.  However we had both realised that there was still quite a bit of preparatory work to do before we could fit the first plank which is to be along C side.  Jim spent the day marking out the boards that hide the edge of the monitors which we call the vent strips.  These are made from lightweight yellow poplar known as canary wood and have cutouts along their lower edges to let water out. 

I spent the day working out how the canopy bends will be fixed.  The outer end rests on a bracket secured to a corner pillar.  The inner end rests on the landing which in turn is supported by two brackets.  Each of the brackets is fixed diferently due to the structure it is fastened to so each brcket has to be marked and drilled individually. This took me most of the day but by the end three brackets were fixed and a temporary landing installed so that we could offer up the canopy bend. 

We also got another team member as Malcolm Hindes turned up and started to install the four new strip lights that will be helpful this winter.  Bernard had bought them some time ago but never got chance to fit them. 

Not a spectacular day but steady progress.  Away from the tramshed the machining of the wheelsets is progressing and the stretcher plates that form the top of the axlebox units have been ordered. 

Anothr good day with the four remaining members of the team present.  The main job that Jim and I tackled in the morning was to put the canvas on the central part of the roof.  This involved lots of grey gloop (Mastic and White Spirit) that we mixed last week.  The job went much quicker than we expected. 

Before showing the roof, here as promised is the Heath Robinson device that Jim and I used to get the masking tape the length of the car roof.  The stick was about 8' long and I stood at one end and passed it to Jim who could just reach it.  I then pulled it towards me unrolling the tape.  We then taped each joint in turn.  2 bits of ply, 1 screw and a length of scrap wood.  No expense spared.

Once we had covered the sealed ceiling plankswith gloop we spread the canvas and then gave that another full coat on top.   After that Jim carried on fixing the blanking panels at the ends of the monitors and I screwed down all the filler pieces that go on top of the roof sticks.  They also hold the canvas down.

 The small filler strips can be seen in the foreground.

Here is one of the monitor corners after the blanking ieces have been fitted.

 After that we did various small jobs like drilling and countersinking the door protectors redy for fitting next week.   Not a bad days work.  In the meantime the first parts of the suspendsion system have been machined and several ore drawings are finshed ready for the pattern maker so good but steady progress.  exactly what Bernard would have wanted.

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.