Once again, apologies for the long, lapsed period of time since the last blog. My shifts have sadly meant that I haven't been able to get to Toddington as often as I would like but, hopefully, as they bed in this should change. It does mean, though, that there is quite a lot for this edition, so grab a cuppa, sit in your most comfy chair and let's bring you up to speed!
A couple of weekends ago - 29 and 30 October - saw our final special event of the year before things slow down for the the Santa trains and the New Year blast. Of course, this was our 'Mixed Traffic Gala'; in it's second year after the highly successful debut in 2021. This year, the format was similar however it had been decided that, rather than shoe-horn in all available locos, only certain locos would run on each day. Only the 'Deltic' 55019 'Royal Highland Fusilier' worked both days from a diesel perspective. This was the final time that the visiting Type 5 could be sampled on the Honeybourne Line before it was due to return to Barrow Hill.
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| Unusually utilising P2 at Cheltenham Racecourse, 55019 'Royal Highland Fusilier' soaks in the atmosphere one final time before it's last run to Toddington, on it's final operating day at the GWSR - 30 Oct 2022. (Courtesy of Frank Berry) |
The Saturday saw both Class 47's, 47105 and 47376 'Freightliner 1995' joining 55019 and DMU set L425. The Brush Type 4's worked as a pair all day, giving a rare opportunity for double-heading before 47376 is removed from service for some maintenance and TLC.
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| Class 47's, 47376 'Freightliner 1995' and 47105 roll down Siding 1 in readiness to work their first service on 29 Oct 2022. (Courtesy of Tony Richards) |
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| Not quite Karate Kid's 'Wax on, Wax off'!! Secondman, Dave S, practices his levitating optical enhancement exercises on 47376's windscreen during the Mixed Traffic Gala - Sat 29 Oct 2022. (Courtesy of Tony Richards) |
The event was, as last year, very well patronised bringing in more revenue for the coffers in what has been quite a challenging year. Services didn't run quite as well as they had last year with a number of operational challenges across both days, however this does (for the enthusiast, at least) add an additional dimension to the running as well as demonstrating the cooperation and flexibility amongst the operational departments. It also allowed the Sunday to have one final surprise - 55019 running on BOTH it's Napier Deltic engines for it's final run on the GWSR.
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| Back on shed after it's final appearance on the GWSR. (Courtesy of Tony Richards) |
After completing it's final outing on the GWSR, 55019 was given a brief disposal by the DPS crew ready for it's departure from Toddington. This weekend saw the loco fuelled and positioned ready for picking up by Allely's on Monday 14 Nov. More about that later.
Class 37, D6948's protracted lift and repair is almost complete, and a collective sigh of relief has been expended as the finish line is in sight. A couple of weeks ago, the final piece of the parts jigsaw finally arrived at Toddington.....the rubbing pads! This meant that we could remove the old plates, remove the old pads and gaskets, clean up the housings and fit the new fleuron pads along with the gaskets.
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| Each bogie has four of these cast housings. The rubbing pad sits in the central part of the plate with a gasket placed in the groove around the circumference. As you can see, these get very messy but also the gaskets are secured with some form of contact adhesive, making them difficult to remove without some serious elbow grease! |
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| With effort they came up pretty well! |
With the plates cleaned and free of detritus the new fleuron pads could be fitted along with the new gaskets.
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| And...voila! One of the plates containing the new rubbing pad and gasket in-situ on D6948's bogie. (Courtesy of Kev Jarvis) |
These should last a significant amount of time before needing replacing again, given that the old ones we removed are likely to have been in place for 20-odd years! However, with them in place, the EE Type 3 could finally be placed back on it's bogies. This was completed on Wednesday 9 November by the 'Wednesday Gang', who had completed the vast majority of the work on the loco since it had been lifted.
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| One very happy owner and some of the 'Wednesday Gang' stand in front of D6948 after she had been lowered back on to her bogies. From left: Paul C, Peter S (one of the four owners of D6948), Gareth J, Andy T, John G, Keith R, Paul G (Growler Group Chairman and Tech Officer) and Andy D (Diesel Head of Department). (Courtesy of Paul Cronin) |
With the loco now back on it's bogies, the final acts before she is back in service include reattaching all the ancillary and electrical cabling from the traction equipment into the body of the loco before the loco will be thoroughly tested and given a B Exam to ensure that she is ready to go for 2023. It's great to see the light, finally, at the end of the tunnel and to have both the Class 37's back in service.
37215 hasn't been neglected while it's sister has been receiving it's long awaited repairs. Since returning to service after it's generator flashover repairs, 'the blue one' has run faultlessly over a number of timetabled running days, the Mixed Traffic Gala and on a couple of Driver Experience days. Since being back in service it has been identified that the loco has a developing issue with it's buffers that, if left, could result in more serious issues further down the road. To nip these in the bud, the loco will have it's buffers removed over the winter shutdown so that they can head off to an external organisation for repair and overhaul. To allow us to move the loco safely, should we need to, over winter a spare set have been recovered and will be fitted temporarily. They aren't like for like but they will allow for the loco to be safely shunted, if needed.
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| One pair of the spare bogies that will be fitted to 37215 over the winter whilst it's own are away for repair. |
As well as it's appearance at the Mixed Traffic Gala Class 47, 47105, was also utilised on an ECS stock move on Thursday 9 November, 2022. This was to bring the Chocolate and Cream set back to Toddington from Winchcombe, where it had been receiving some running repairs and a re-formation. This was in preparation for the Santa Specials as well as our end of year Race Trains that we run in conjunction with 'At The Races'. These steam-hauled charters run twice during the year; once for the Cheltenham Festival in March, and for the November meeting ferrying punters from Toddington to Cheltenham Racecourse in style and free of the usual traffic issues that occur in and around Prestbury Park.
Carriage and Wagon's Class 03, D2182 had spent most of the Wednesday reforming the rake ready for 47105 to pick it up on the Thursday.
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| A pristine 47105 waits at Winchcombe after arriving light engine to take Rake 1 back to Toddington on Thursday 9 November, 2022. (Courtesy of Matt Pickford) |
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| 47376, along with 47105, sits in the headshunt at Cheltenham Racecourse during the Mixed Traffic Gala. 29 Oct 2022. (Courtesy of Tony Richards) |
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| With the autumnal weather continuing to be unseasonable at Toddington, 'Class 04', 11230 is prepped to shunt 55019 over to the fuel point and down to the car park. |
About 900 litres of diesel were pumped into the 'Deltic's' fuel tanks to bring it up to the level it arrived with. This is a standard clause of any hire, and is no different to when you hire a car from somewhere like Enterprise.
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| Fuel is pumped in into the tanks of 55019. Our new fuel point is an absolute God-send!! |
With the fuel tanks swimming with about 500 gallons, the 'Deltic' was positioned on the unloading road. However, after hooking off 11230, which then ran off to fetch and reposition Class 45, 45149, it was requested to move the 'Deltic' slightly as it was in the way of the work area of a group from the Steam Department. With Simon T busy with 11230, I fired up Class 04, D2280 to undertake the move.
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| Complete with it's DPS headboard, 55019 sits on the unloading road between the David Page shed and the Goods Shed ready for it's pick up on Monday. |
Although the Class 55 is not a personal favourite of mine, 55019's tenure at the GWSR has certainly been a resounding success during a difficult operating period for the railway. The addition of the Deltic Day, that saw '19' joined in August by it's sister 55009 'Alycidon' for a weekend celebration of the pair's entry into preservation was a huge opportunity for the railway to impress - achievement unlocked! The feedback received from the Deltic Preservation Society (DPS) and the punters who turned up to sample the loco on the Honeybourne Line for the first ever time has ensured that next year will be difficult to trump, but will also open up more opportunity in the future. There has already been passing talk of one of the DPS's other locos spending time at the GWSR when it is back in service, although nothing formal has been proposed...just speculation. However, if it was to materialise, I am sure the DPS would be made very welcome again.
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| With the 'Deltic' being repositioned on the unloading road, 'Peak' 45149 was moved over onto Road 8. |
'Peak', 45149 was moved over onto Road 8 so that it could have a bit of TLC and the batteries could be charged as it is due to haul a volunteer Fish and Chip special on Monday 14 Nov. Unlike other locos in the fleet, Class 45's (as well as their sister classes 44 and 46) have two banks of batteries - one on each side - and these have to be charged one bank at a time. As the loco had not seen much use since the summer it was decided to check the de-ionised water within the batteries, refilling any that were low, before charging them. Andy T and Tony R made a start before being joined by myself after shunting the 'Deltic'.
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| Andy T and Tony R open up one of the two battery boxes on the Cotswold side of 45149. The batteries sit on a board that is mounted on runners. This means they can be slid out to be changed, checked or inspected. |
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| One complete bank of batteries are pulled out for inspection. Much bigger then your car battery and a lot more expensive if they go BANG!! |
With the batteries checked and topped up with de-ionised water the loco was hooked up to the charger. Richard S got to grips with the traction motor blower bushes, checking them for any adverse wear.
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| Up in the cab, Tony and Richard get to grips with removing the inspection covers giving access to the traction motor blowers. This is a bit of a pig of a job as the hatches are on the secondman side of the cab and are situated behind the rather large handbrake wheel. |
The loco's water was also topped up and the oil levels checked on the ancillary equipment - these being topped up as required - before the loco was fired up and FTR completed. This threw up a slight issue with the brakes at one end which prevented any brake force being created. However, this seemed to correct itself and enabled Richard to move the loco under it's own power to the fuelling point.
After fuelling, Richard, Tony and myself took the 'Peak' over to Siding 1 to see if the brake issues returned or if we could operate without issue. In fading light we made several passes up and down the siding with no issues identified. Once satisfied, we shunted the loco back to it's usual stabling point at the bottom of the yard in the company of Class 20, 20137.
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| The 'Peak' gets in on the diesel action as the light fades. It never fails to surprise me just how quick a loco of this size can be fuelled using the high capacity feed! Certainly a lot faster than a car at the local petrol station!! |
Back in the shed, Dave S was continuing to wield an angle grinder as he makes further inroads on the body work of Class 26, D5343. With plenty of corroded steel plate yet to be removed, Dave made a start on some of the upper body side steel that had corroded below the grilles along the cant line.
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| Simon T and Dave S inspect a piece of corroded body work above one of the engine room windows. |
The main area that Dave had earmarked next for the attention of the angle grinder was the drivers side corner pillar and cab side plate at No. 2 end. This was showing signs of bloating as it had been identified that, whilst back in BR service, the loco had sustained impact damage and, rather than cut it out and reweld new plate, a new piece of plate was just welded over the top. Water ingress had occurred between the two plates rotting one and bloating out the other! The only remedy was to cut them both out.
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| The cabside plate is cut out and the original skin removed - although most just fell away! You can actually see a remaining piece of the original plate clinging on just above the solebar. |
The cab front was also earmarked for removal (as you can see in the picture above) as this had also bloated out. The multiple working receptacle was also in the wrong place and so this was cut off and will be refitted. The lamp bracket was also removed but will be refitted at some point.
Dave continued to cut away with impunity! What he revealed showed again just how Scottish weather affected the Class 26s and Class 27s, but also the 'workarounds' that existed for keeping these hardworking locos in traffic.
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| Having removed the corner section..... |
Removing the corner section of the cab front revealed a trio of surprises.....1) An impressive dent and buckle that had not been repaired, obviously caused by an accident at some point in service; 2) The loco had had 2 previous cab front skins which had been cut away and replaced - a fair bit remained attached to the outer, newest, skin due to rust and corrosion; 3) Yes, that is the inside of the cab you can see! The crew had no protection at all from a front on impact!
However, away from the body work, the overhaul of the engine is now pretty much complete. You may recall that the engine was started back in September and the ancillary equipment proved. The roof has also received a coat of primer and the bogie at No. 1 end has been painted with it's black top coat.
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| D5343 viewed from No. 1 end. Notice the sparking black bogie and the test application of BR Blue paint on the cabside flank. |
Elsewhere in the shed, Dave M and Ian R were busy needle gunning inside 47376's engine room removing paint and encrusted oil in readiness for the engine room environment to have a bit of a spruce up, as was done with the cabs over the Covid lock downs.
With the peak running season at an end, it allows for the maintenance tasks that take a back seat during the season to be moved up to the top of the pile. As well as readiness examinations, equivalent to the old BR 'B Exam', we will be busy with other jobs that have been put off for one reason or another, or that need significant time allowance to complete. This includes the governor replacement work that Class 24, 5081 will endure. The final public diesel running for the 2022 season will take place over the end of 2022 and into the first couple of days in 2023. More details on these will be announced in due course, including the loco allocations. Keep an eye on here or on the GWSRDiesels Twitter page.
