Birch Grove's repairs

The boiler has had its insurer's inspection under hydraulic pressure and in steam, passing both tests.

The boiler a few days after its steam test, showing the now slightly sooty backplate. [Click on the image for full-size picture.]

The inner flap part of the firehole door has been replaced. The old flap had a gap all around of about one inch, which is thought to have been a smoke reduction measure done in its last days working at Nine Elms.

The plate registration number stamped into one of the new boiler plates.

Some pipework is being installed prior to the boiler being replaced in the frames. The picture shows the left trailing axlebox and its lubrication pipes. Originally the axle jornal and the hornguides were lubricated with oil from the brass oilbox just visible at the top of the picture, the oil passing through channels in the sloping top of the hornguide casting. The journal is still lubricated in this way, but now the hornguides are fed with grease by the two pipes visible in the foreground.

The grease nipple console on the outside of the frames. This change has been made because the oil lubrication did not work well when ash fell on the axleboxes.

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