4270 Valve Replacement

With only one week left before the timetable starts 4270 needed her valves putting back in and covers putting back on. I have been lucky enough to see this job from start to finish and have written about taking the valves out and cleaning the studs in previous blogs.

Angela was overseeing the project with Richard and myself helping. The first thing that needed to be done was to cover the valve liners and the valves themselves in plenty of steam oil. Here is a picture of myself and Richard coating the valve with oil.

Once fully coated we lifted the valve onto a piece of wood on the running boards and attached a strap around it to take the majority of the weight whilst we maneuvered it into position. Once the back valve had passed through the front liner and into the steam cavity, we carefully lowered the front of the valve to locate the spindle into the gland at the rear of the cylinder. Once located we lifted the front so the shaft was horizontal and square to the port liners and pushed it in until the front valve was in the liner.

Once the valve was in position we put the valve spindle crosshead back onto the shaft and connected it back up to the rocking shaft. Once it was all connected back up we tested it worked correctly by moving the reverser through forward and reverse and once we were satisfied we replaced the front covers. Fingers crossed they hold.