The 21-29 wishes you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
We will be back in January.
Category Archives: Renovation
Work with the tracks goes on
We need to change all track bolts which are locked with sprints.
To get out of the old track bolts, first the sprint must be grinded out and the bolt should be ejected. Sometimes it is very much needed for it to succeed.
But now the whole band is dismantled and we have a hefty pile of track plates that will be made in order.
Mounting track
Now the left track is mounted. It was difficult to mount the last bolt, but with the help of a pipe wrench and two track tools it was possible to get it in place. Now it’s time to fix the second band and then it’s time for trial run.
Mounting track
Time to mount the left track. We pulled the track with a hand winch and added track parts. According to the instruction manual, each track has to consist of 75 plates, but sins the plates are old and worn, 73 seem to work properly.
Now it’s only the last track bolt that’s missing before the track is ready.
A review
More than 4 years have passed since we started renovating the 21-29th. We started with a complete wagon, which we were going to make ready for driving. We rolled it into the workshop
and after a few months it was mounted down and turned into a lot of loose parts packed in pallets and pink plastic bags.
Then the work began to blast and paint all loose parts. The larger parts we did not manage by ourselves so we sent them to a blasting company that had significantly better resources than we did.
When everything was blasted and painted, we started to assemble the wagon, which consisted of two main parts, body and undercarriage. The body was not so complicated, it was only doors, a tower and instrumentation that was to be mounted. The undercarrige contains of the power pack and the driving line and it was a hard jobb to get everything in correct order.
Then came the big moment when the engine and driving line were tested.
What remains is to fix the tracks and to mount the body. There is still a lot to do but now we see the beginning of the end of the renovation.
Track arangement
The track arangement consists of 14 bogie boxes, 7 pcs per track. Each bogie box has 4 carrier wheels, which means that the trolley rolls a total of 56 carrier wheels. The wheels do not have direct contact with the tracks, they are rolling on the bushes in which the track bolt runs. In order to extend the time when the wheels are in contact with the bushes, these have a bevel which is clearly visible on the bushes we have replaced.
The bogie boxes with their four wheels.
The track plates with new bushings where the bevel is clearly visible.
Worn track plates
The tracks are old and worn. Therefore the track plates must be adjusted before we can mount the tracks. The left picture shows an original plate and the right picture shows the same plate after it has been adjusted.
Renovate tracks
We are using a reamer to fit the new track bolts into the track plates. All in order for them to run smoothly over the drive- and tension wheels.
Time to fix the tracks.
During last spring and summer there wasn’t much done on the 21-29. There was a number of smaller projects with higher priority that took our time.
But now we are back on track again. These are the tracks to be checked and made ready. Each track consists of 75 plates and we have to change about 90% of the track bolts and also a large number of the bushings. To make it more easily done, we build smaller tracks with 5 to 6 plates, and then we put them together into complete tracks. Changing the track bolts is relatively simple, it takes a lot longer to fit the new bushes, but with patience and a good mood it’s possible.
In anticipation of being done 
and some with new track bolts. 
Finally!
Almost 3 months have passed since we did something to the 21-29. The reason is that we have been waiting for a delivery of spare parts to the track. Finally, last week some boxes arrived with the long-awaited parts.
Now we have a summer break, but in August we will start renovating the tracks again. When they are finished, the carriage can move by itself for the first time in almost 50 years. What a lovely experience it will be!
