Now it's a Ruston. When you're done with it, it will be a Rustoff. I'll see myself out.

Tear it all the way down to the frames take the engine and gearbox apart and clean paint and lube everything going back together. Its as bad as its going to get right now so you might as well go all the way down son you dont need to come back and do it agin.

I like restorations like this because it's basically a "Build your own new-old machine" kit.

Opening up the crankcase is a good place to start. Before you get a boatload of bull##it ideas filling up the comments here I thought it would be a good idea to mention that more than likely the piston rings are stuck in the cylinders. Since the fuel injection has been open to the weather for who knows how long it’s advisable to pull the injectors as a starting point. After the injectors are pulled fill the cylinders with a 50/50 mix of acetone and transmission fluid either thru the injector tubes or straight thru the intake. The same mix is also good to pour over the valve train under the rocker boxes paying special attention to soak the valve stem’s under the valve spring retainers. Doesn’t hurt to soak the valve stems as it allows the mix to run into the valve guides further helping free up the valve train. Finally, after you’ve soaked the cylinders and top end for a couple of days warm up the outsides of the block with a propane weed burner, doing so for quite a while. The heat from the weed burner helps more than most folks realize to expand the cylinder bores as they’d be while running adding extra clearance is usually all it takes to free the rings from the cylinders. Rocking the engine at the flywheel with a pry bar after it’s been warmed up is usually all it takes to break an engine free after that no matter how corroded the pistons are, even after having cylinders filled with water in most cases. I’ve only had two engines that this didn’t work for and both of them had the crankcases filled with water and mud for years. As far as the injectors, start soaking them in kerosene before you begin disassembling them after they’re removed from the engine as parts washing solvent or gasoline have hardly any lubricity. You may luck out with the injectors after a good soak and avoid rebuilding them altogether since it’s been used as a yard engine. Anyway, good luck with your newest bad decision.

oh boy what fun I envy your task. I'm in the USA so I will just have the luxury of watching. What a great little locomotive!

First thing to do is to get the engine and gearbox out. Then get the wheelsets sorted and make it a rolling chassis. Once you've got the rolling chassis nice, you can gradually sort bits of it out and bolt them on. The YT rail restos where they do the cosmetic bits first, then realise that the work all has to be undone to fix the basic structure - do my head in. (Names will only be mentioned under duress)🤣The order of battle really does matter.

I recently bought a 1974 Austin Marina GT, one of about 20 US-Spec Marina coupes left in existence, from a retired mechanic in my town after sitting outside since 1999 with the engine/transmission out. This video makes me feel much better about it.

There is a little steem engine in a garden the village I live in that needs saving

Just donated 50 pounds to the fund. Good luck on the project! I'm from the States, and I would love to see this engine be returned to service.

i vote you name this one after Sir Williams Wife, would make them a matching pair :3

It's one heck of a project Lawrie! When you get to the stage where you need electrical work done, give me a shout (electrician by trade), I would be only too happy to help.

Looks like all the important bits are there and largely intact. A mate of mine who does mechanicy stuff on KZfaq managed to persuade Plus gas to send him some as a freebie (has has around 3k subs). Might be worth giving them a shout and see what they can do for you - it looks like you are going to need a lot of it!

Succes with the restoration 🚂🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚂

I don't think the holes in the frame would be a bad thing to keep. It might make transportation a little easier.

To unseize some of those things, try using a mixture of 10 parts of the cheapest vegetable oil you can find to 1 part acetone, well mixed and dump it liberally onto those seized up things. The acetone will lead the smallest oil molecules into the tiny nooks and help get things moving.

I just found this channel recently and damn, I can't wait to see this slowly get restored, love your content, keep it up!

Ruston 48? More like RUSTED 48, am I right? lol But seriously though! I'm just a broke nobody from the U.S, but I'm so happy for you and that poor forlorn little locomotive! It's so nice to see so many folks support keeping the little machine around. It tells the story of the folks that built and operated it. It's a shining example that we indeed CAN have nice things if we try!

you'd be surprised on how plants grow in strange places. The museum ship I give tours at had some teak wood deck planks replaced with douglas fur towards the end of its life which turned to mulch. So we had moss and grass growing out of the deck and I would joke during my tours that we had the "Battleship Zen Garden." the deck is nearly done being replaced after many many years of work

It truly is a Rust-on 48 lol, super excited to see more on this engine!

Sounded like an EBay reseller saying “Almost Mint Condition” in front of it.

Almost complete and ready to drive, it just needs to be completely rebuilt. After all, he has a template of what it should look like.

If you’re getting a taste for rescuing Ruston’s from scrapyards…there’s 2 hidden deep in a corner of a scrapyard in Shipley 😜

Was pleased you managed to save it 😎😎.

Absolutely in for the work party. Roll on the rebuild!

Definitely lives up to its name! Rust-on

Arguably better than mint condition: mints only have one hole through them, this locomotive has several!

It’s a big project but pretty straightforward, I’m involved with similar work all the time , take lots of pics of everything, bag up and label everything, it’s the old saying, how do you eat a elephant, one slice at a time Paddington Springs we rebuild the springs for you

It's a shame I live in South Australia otherwise I would be there every second weekend helping out, I'm a retired boilermaker with a lot off diesel engine and mechanical experience and this little Ruston would be right up my alley! I know it all comes down to money but if it was up to me I would rebuild the engine and box for good measure not just free it up and hope for the best.

Ever so pleased to be able to donate at the very beginning to get her saved. Enjoying every moment of progress. Love from Reading Model Engineers. David and Lily.

I have subscribed after watching you collecting it from scrapyard i think it is worth the effort

It's a gem . Looking forward to seeing it restored

I'm looking forward to the restoration. Good luck 👍

That diesel in the tank would be completely knackered

What a refreshingly honest, well scripted video. I am sure all contributors will be hoping for a restored loco running as soon as practically possible.

Brilliant work guys.

Maybe you could use some bridging pieces with captive nuts inside the frame and fit some neat plates over those gas axed holes? Then you would be preserving that part of it's history but 'tidying it up' a little.

Thanks

This would be great for one of those Laser rust removal machines to go ham on.

Fair play to you, put a bit of heat on bolts and some wd,nice project 👍

Thanks Lawrie, good effort! 🙏🙏

That'll keep you off the streets for gawd knows how long..Good luck,it's going to look stunning, keeping history alive!

I will watch the devolopments in the restoration with great interest

I would love to see a video of you getting the engine unseesed and running in a hour or longer video if it's needed

Great Job!

First job strip it back to bare frames and shot blast it weld what needs to be and paint up the main chassis you'll be glad you did if you weren't so far away I would enjoy getting involved with this but unfortunately not feasible for me

Ooh ! That's not far from me. Been hoping to visit for ages.

Nice !

I can't wait till it's up and running. Best of luck dude. 👍

Personally, with all the work needing done I'd very tempted to upgrade as many things as you can while you can to make a sort of super 48. For example the engine has as much power squeezed out of it as possible, better cooling, better breaks, sanders, anything that could be done to upgrade the little loco.

I might be building my own railway museum when I’m older, so I’m probably gonna have to do this sometimes

I see we have a video series for the next 15 years

Just keep using that can of WD-40 it will free up right quick 👍😎👏 From across the pond, it's nice to see these oldies but goodies being brought back to life.

Strip down and clean up crew required first. Pretty much the start of many a project. You will need a lot of angle grinders with wire brush wheels and a whole lot of green anti corrosive paint. Talking of colour schemes what have you got planned for this loco as it would be interesting to see a interesting industrial livery.

>:D LETS GOOOOO so happy you got to save it!

Made a small donation in the original fundraiser and I will happily buy a bag of rust to live on my shelf of all things that are good ... chunk of fordite, mylar from an apollo saturn 5, piece of the berlin wall, bolt from Fred dibnah etc etc I kind of hope you will keep those gas axe holes in the chassis.

I wonder if Mr Hewes and FitterMatt would come down and do some needle gunning

Need to get that motor and transmission off to the machine shop since the funds are already there.

great video

Lawrie, you’re an absolute life saver. Once restoration is complete, what colour are you gonna paint the rescued Ruston.

Wish I could afford to donate but fair play to all that have well done 👍

At least it's more solid than the Moggy :-) Looks like a lot of work, but having a solid frame to bolt new bits to seems a great place to start from!

also picture of the 3 in his book.

Awesome :)

Fair play mate have to break a few eggs to make an omelette, looking forward to seeing this old girl come back to life

You need a friendly person with a laser rust remover. If you have not seen then working, they are awesome.

"Almost mint condition," meaning "major issues, needs tuning" lol In truth, I'm looking forward to this restoration. Well done with getting this loco saved!

got a lot of work ahead of you and the work party best of luck

@lmm i would pull the engine and transmission completely strip it to bear metal via sandblast then have the block checked same with the transmission

Good luck with that, you will need it

Talk to the people from Bovington Tank Museum about restoration, at least no one has shot up the loco.

Subscribed love your channel

Can't wait until you start tearing into the motor cuz I'm really curious of what the condition of that motor is you know when you start tearing the valve covers off and the head off to be very interesting to see what it's like inside of that engine hopefully you make videos of that

Ruton and hornby

I can recomend Jones Springs in the midlands,

He looks like his name would be swanto. I don’t know why, but that’s what my mind is focused on.

Looks like you have quite a bit of work ahead of you. Good luck. I might pop along to help you. I do have quite a selection of tools I could bring a long (not basic household DIY tools)

If you wanna save some cash on the leaf springs, I'd get in contact with a local smithy. Leaf springs are one of the easiest things to low-tech fabricate, you start off with some scrap leaf from a junkyard truck or from a lorry shop and cut it down to size, beat it into shape and profile, and then re-heat-treat it. The fact it's a shunter also means the tolerances you're gonna be dealing with in the driveline are a lot looser than if it were something stronger or faster, so the rust in the gearbox is probably salvageable - in tractors, forge blowers, and other assorted bits of tired iron that don't have to go very fast, you can usually just pull em apart, clean off the mating surfaces, cast some new babbitt if the old bearings are too sloppy, and give it a good break-in spin with no load on it and a sump full of diesel fuel to self-clearance everything. Also, ISO roller chain is dirt cheap from AliBaba, no idea how good the quality is but you're not running anything particularly challenging or in revenue-earning service so it's probably good enough.

A bit of welding and a lick o paint and it should be back on the rails!

Nearly £15k raised!

Forget trying to start the engine pull it out and rebuild it along with the gearbox, easy to get to in this state . Springs are cheap plenty of truck spring places about

Since this is open for viewers to volunteer on, perhaps we should take a vote on what to name this one when restoration is complete.

Lawrie, let me know if you need a new "Ruston" Insignia for the nose cut, I have some contacts who could cut and ship it from the US... Dimensions? (Also, thoughts on sponsorship with a rust removal/Rust converter brand? lol, love the content Lawrie!

Hi Lawrie, did it have an enclosed cab, like your existing Ruston48,or did it have the earlier steam loco style cab-sides, like Queen Anne, on the Strathspey?

mechanically speaking it looks a lot worse than it actually seems, id love to get involved but i have my own locomotives to look after and i live on the other side of the planet. will be an interesting project to follow, best of luck with it. not many engines are saved from the scrappie like this anymore

A few rattle cans of paint and it is as good as new again.

Would be fun to come out and help out, but I’m in the US… looking forward to future vids

For rust removing, i,ve seen a video about DRY ICE BLASTING, with frozen C-O-2.

There is one of these as a static at Epping Ongar railway, it still has the engine and gearbox in it and is fairly complete, I think you may like to try and buy it off them as they seem to be selling off their stock

Some original paint left on it

PB Blaster works wonders on rusty things. I'm not sure if it's sold in Europe. But I imagine it is. Unless your country has some crazy law against it. Lol

Great job, so just asking wouldn’t your first job be to get the wheel set fix up so at least you would have one working Rustin . Keep up the great work.

I would happily help out, I do live in Norfolk & acrually not far away fom Whitwell & Reepham, but I have basic DIY skills at best 🤣

Is there any more info on this at Wellingborough wagon works me and a mate of mine (purple vision) love the history around the area of Wellingborough and this loco could well be a big part of it

Soon it will be a posh machine pulling a sleeper, a baggage car, and a dining car. I can almost smell pancakes, butter, and maple syrup.

wks nos 224345 mod longmore,393303 and 235517. From cohens book by jeffery grayer.

You could put those weeds in little pots and include one for donation tiers.

👍👍👍👍👍👍🕑🕑🕑🕑🕑🕑🕝🕝🕝🕝🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘VAMOS RAPIDO O TREM DA VIDA NÃO PODE FICAR PARADO BOA VIAGEM 👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👋👍👍👍👍👍

Living the dream, How long do you think it will take, 6 months before its up and running. Looking forward to your progress. 🚂🌄

*aggressive sand blasting sounds*

Lawrie’s found a new day bed.