Archive for May, 2009

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Alongside the work on the Medway Queen’s hull in Bristol, David Abels and his team are simultaneously working on the engines under a seperate contract. Work has been progressing and past postings have show some of the work already been carried out. The last post regarding the engines was the successful movement of the HP cylinder from the cylinder block and the difficulty the LP was causing.

Well this week after weeks of pouring oil into the LP cylinder and loading the piston  with 12 off M 20 studs have done the business with the LP cylinder finally free with no damage.
 
 With both pistons out it is pretty certain that both can be reused.

A lot of work is still to be done before they can be put back into the hull so it is now more important than ever to raise the required funds. This can be done by direct debit, credit or debit card through our website.  Cheques and cash donation can be sent to our project office with full details available at www.medwayqueen.co.uk/contact.html.

MQPS

An update from the project office.

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Ship update

 

Bulkhead riveting and keel plating method has been resolved and now the flush riveting for the shell plating is nearly resolved. As you will appreciate this being the first fully riveted ship for 50 years, using new techniques, there has been some teething troubles, and as a result, the schedule has slipped by a few weeks but this is nothing uncommon with engineering. For this reason we can not lay the keel in the docks, so we are on the 6th going to unveil the keel.

 

Here at Chatham the paddle wheels have been dismantled to their component parts, and will be shipped to Bristol after the bank holiday, with some of the other parts and containers going to Damhead creek.  The next project the volunteers will be undertaking will be the re-building of the bridge and ventilators.

 

Regards

 

John and Brian

Learning the skills of yesteryear

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Chris and Simon learning the process of riveting on the keel of the Medway Queen's new hull.

Chris and Simon learning the process of riveting on the keel of the Medway Queen's new hull.

 

Now that most of the riveting process has been resolved work is progressing on the reconstruction of the Medway Queen’s hull. Recent activity has seen local students Chris and Simon getting hands on experience of riveting in the Bristol shipyard.