If I had a hammer!

Well actually I do have a hammer - several in fact - and today my large lump hammer got some use at the Rocks By Rail Museum!

First off was the cover door to the hydraulic pump on Harriot the JCB. The red arrow shows where it should be but following some, should we say, slight mis-maneuvering, it is bent!

It had been bent some time ago and being thick metal was not going back into shape very easily. In fact the only way to get it back to shape was to cut along part of it with an angle grinder to free the flat side so that it can be beaten back into some resemblence of a flat panel. Once that is achieved it then needs welding back together. Simple when you just say it but not so easy n reality. Rob did the angle grinding and I have started the beating with my trusty large lump hammer!

You can see just how bent it is by the fact that straightening the edge has pulled it away from the curved part. With more brute force and welding it should be OK!!!

Before having time to do too much hammering and creating a lot of noise, Rob suggested, probably for the sake of everyone's hearing, that we ought to go up to the drag line and try to fully close the rear doors before the onset of Winter. Great idea and it was hammer time again! The problem was the middle door was jammed. Not sure why it was jammed but it needed moving to the right to weatherproof the engine.

Rob had hoped that his improvised car jack would do the business! 

As you can see it had possibilities and my hammer even played a small part! However it did not do the job !

Therefore it was hammer time! That, a bit of wood and me hitting it, without actually hitting me or Rob, had the door slowly moving into place. 

It needs more work but for now and over Winter it will do!

You can tell how far we moved it by that stripe of unfaded red lining and maroon paint to the left of the door. Only took us a couple of hours!

Back at the restoration shed I did notice that John has made further progress with the wagon with the end planks ready t go on and the sides are now up.

I wonder if he needs anything hammering!