23rd, 24th, 25th of april

These last couple of evenings have been spend grinding all the rust and old paint off the perch bracket, front forks and the flywheel.

 Perch bracket before gringing and painting with red oxide (plus chimney which has been replaced)

Perch bracket afterwards. The inside still needs to be done.

 The front forks before grinding and painting and.....

after half was rubbed down and painted.

before and after half of the flywheel was rubbed down.
All three of these are now going to be lifted and turned over so the other halfs can be cleaned and painted.
Going to be working on riveting the new firebox together tomorrow with dad. First time riveting so will mostlikely get burnt atleast once.

Old picture of 11836

This is a picture of 11836 when it ran into a works trench in Maidstone in may 1956. The Driver tried to dig a ramp to attempt to drive the roller out. In the end they required a crane although the crane also fell into the hole when trying to pick the roller up.

Work since then

The firebox has been taken out and also sent to the boiler makers to form the parts for a new one. My father and i are going to rivet the box together and put it in ourselves.

The rolls have been shot blasted and partly painted so are looking good now.

The roller has now been moved to our new home which makes life alot easier as it is in our back garden. The boiler has been partially rubbed down and painted with red oxide to help protect it, all motion has been remove aswell as the tender which you can see in the back ground which has also been rubbed down and painted with red oxide. you can also just seen the wheels to the left of the picture and the scarrifier on a pallet behind the boiler to the right.
I will post some more pictures tomorrow of work completed in the last couple of days,

more work

The rolls, perch bracket and front forks had been removed along with alot of the motion work.

The tube plate had also been removed and taken to our local boiler makers for a new one to be made and drilled.

Boiler

After having a visit from our boiler inspector, we were told that 11836 needed a new firebox, new front tubeplate and new smokebox.

So off came the smokebox......

and out came the tubes.

Information

Hi my names Daniel. This Blog is all about the restoration of the fulll size steam roller my dad brought about in 2006. The roller is an Aveling and Porter 8 ton single cylinder piston valve C type no. 11836 built in april 1927. Was delivered new to a J.W.Ellingham from Dartford who also owned 3 other engines at the time. These were: Foster tractor 13036 and manns numbers 1125 and 1133.The roller was the last steam vehicle they purchased. In may 1956 it was involved in an accident in Maidstone when it fell into a works trench, as did the crane brought along to lift it out. It was sold off in the early 1960's although never rallied. She stood in a farm yard 7 miles out of sittingbourne for 10 years until Mr J.Ullman Brought her in 1997. She was sitting in a field since then and is now living on the isle of wight with my father and I.

The day a dream came true

The day my father brought the roller. Hadn't move for best part of 20 years. Nothing was missing apart from a whistle and the aveling emberlem on the front. We couldnt wait to get her home to start work on her.

The engine hadn't been covered up very well, the sheets were all ripped so alot of the weather got onto her. My father spent alot of the time oiling her up, cutting away the grass and weeds getting her ready to be moved to the Isle of Wight.

The firebars and ashpan were stored in the tender. We were amazed at how complete she was. all the copper piping still there.

The roller arriving at the yard where she first lived when moved to the island. All the rolls were rolling freely at this point so wasnt too difficult putting her into position. Also steered freely. She was home.

In position ready to be stripped down and worked on. Not the ideal site to restore a steam roller but it had to do for the time being.