GWR 14xx CLASS - Kit TWO - Cylinders
The first task carried out was to clean the bores of the cylinders before fitting of the pistons to obtain a smoother operation. No problems encountered in fixing cylinders and steam chests together.
On fitting the slide bars it became apparent that there was some slight misalignment of the holes for the cylinders and those for the front slide bar support. The result was that the crosshead was about 1mm clear of the top slide bar at the front end but touching at the rear end. This caused considerable binding of the crossheads in the slide bars. To try and eleviate the problem I eventually had to shim between the front slide bar support and the top slide bar. This together with polishing the slide bars and crosshead eventually gave me a satisfactory free movement within the slide bars. I also had to open out two of the top slide bar supporting holes in the rear slide bar support to obtain a satisfactory fit.
The fitting of the slide bars turned out to be very fiddly. Oh! wouldn't it be nice to have small fingers.
The photo below shoes the cylinders and slide bars.
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