Following on from the fun of the Laundromat Neville decided to spend another day of heritage activities without his mates and headed north to Paterson.
Regular bloggers may recall the early assessment of 629/729’s interior revealing the need to replace the old seat mount plates as most had deteriorated and were beyond ongoing use. Goodwin Alco has had these manufactured in quantity by our Oldmates at Negra manufacturing and we have now also provided enough to the TRMS for the RailCorp Heritage units 621 &721 to be also fitted with new plates and improve their seat mountings.
The day started with the usual broom tidy up of the cars as routing through the rubbish would surely blunt the blades very quickly.
The holes for the existing mounting points were also sucked out to remove debris & dirt.
To assist with the routing task Maywald Engineering International (MEI) were engaged to design & manufacture a jig to guide and limit the router movement. The unit supplied is a prototype known as the “Nana 2010” and is seen here in its ex workshop state. Like most MEI products the production version is planned to be released in “Grey Nurse” & “Verdant Blue” shades but more of that later…….
To mark out the job reference plate positions were measured and calculated & measurement screws installed in the vestibule walls to provide post lino installation references. Once these plates are installed they will disappear under the lino floor covering so an accurate plan of the seat bolt locations is required so holes can be punched through.
A blue chalk line was anchored and flicked firstly to confirm the early seat position reference
and then to also identify the point of the new installations.
With the centre lines established the individual plate and hole locations were marked out and the nut holes introduced thanks to a spade bit.
With the bolt holes drilled and cleaned out the Nana 2010 can be put to use.
With the alignment jig inserted the Nana is positioned using the drilled holes for the seat securing nuts as the alignment reference……
..and then the Nana is secured to the floor with screws.
With the alignment jig removed the routing fun can begin….
and a routeing frenzy results with shavings everywhere!
The new seat mounting plate is then trial fitted and if no adjustments are required….
the Nana is removed leaving the plate in place ready for screwing.
The original mounting positions are also being cleaned up with a quick route to ensure the plates sit flush.
At days end one mans efforts have the car (or half of it so far) ready for the floor covering.
It looks like theres only 3 days of solo routing to go, I wonder if it would be quicker with more workers???????
