Repairing 3803 at Shack...

Hi there guys. A simple night tonight. After leaving work at 3pm I continued straight over to Shackerstone and began cleaning the wheels & frames of 3803 in the shed. Jason and Carl arrived within an hour and we set to in the smokebox of the Heavy Freight 2-8-0. For the last few weeks the locomotive has been squeaking from the drivers-side piston valve. As the problem has slowly got worse and worse we decided to take action. The hydrostatic lubricator feeds oil along piping under the boiler cladding, into the smokebox and into a check valve, before feeding it down the steam pipes to the cylinders. However, we did wonder if any oil was getting through and so removed the drivers-side pipe which connects the steam pipe and the check valve. Naturally, living in a smokebox, the pipes were covered in thick soot and so we got filthy in there. The piping was cleared of its blockage using the air compressor and oil was also manually poured into the steam pipe. We then reconnected the piping and cleared away our tools before shutting up the smokebox. We'll have to see how that goes on Saturday. The firebars which failed the loco last Sunday have been replaced with examples from a Bagnall 0-6-0 of all things! I left Shack at 9pm - * yawning *.  Cheers guys. Sam.