No respite!

July has started off where June finished.....passenger numbers continue to astound and wall to wall sun with temperatures well into the late 20's and early 30's!

Inside the Diesel Mess on the 1st July, the thermometer read 37.4 Celsius and for those of us attending the mid morning department meeting a very uncomfortable hour or so, slowly stewing in our own sweat! Even copious amounts of tea (or water, depending on your poison) could not keep the collective temperatures down. A slight breeze outside made things slightly more bearable until one got to work!

Whilst the meeting was conducted Mark E was continuing the preparatory work on No. 1 bogie of 5081 which was earmarked for refitting beneath the locomotive on the 8th July. Mark was to join us in the meeting for the last 20 minutes; taking a break from the heat in the shed.

Almost there! No.1 bogie is fully reassembled redy for refitting under 5081.

The brake calipers ready to receive brand new brake blocks.

The painting of the bufferbeam on 47376 'Freightliner1995' had been completed in time for it to take its place for its rostered duties over the weekend.

So clean you could eat your dinner off of it......maybe not!

New steel added to repair corrosion holes. No more drafty cab!

47376 gleams in the sun awaiting its turn of duty on the PURPLE timetable.

The other Brush Type 4, 1693, was also receiving some more attention with sanding continuing along its bodyside and on the front ends. Dave finished off the lower part of No.1 end before removing the tail lamp cases and starting to remove paint from these. He would also go on to do No. 2 end before heading out on 47376. Rumour abounds that a colour scheme has now been chosen by the owning group, however, this remains a closely guarded secret.

Covering everything in the shed in dust! 1693 receives its rub down.

New steel plate for the handrail. Notice the Immingham shed code sticker.....the loco was only based there for 6 months during 1973.

Tail lamp holders removed and sanded.

However, you can catch up with the ongoing refurbishments of 1693 and 5081 (plus other locos in the fleet) during our Gala over the 27th, 28th and 29th July as both locomotives will be on static display. More details are at the bottom of this blog.

Whilst Dave was busy carpeting the shed in paint dust myself, Andy D, Steve M and Ben E ventured outside to perform a little experiment using his Class 73. E6036 is to be used with the Class 117 (as is his Class 20) over the Gala on 'drags'. One problem that was needing overcoming was how to couple up the locos to the DMU. Rather helpfully the vacuum pipes on the DMU are on the same side as any facing locomotive meaning that coupling up was proving difficult. In BR days, a rescuing locomotive would be stopped short, the vacuum pipes connected and then the locomotive would be shunted forward before being coupled to the unit. Time consuming and potentially too dangerous for a heritage railway. A better, and more expedient way was required. Andy had managed to secure a trio of spare vacuum pipes from our colleagues in Carriage and Wagon for us to try. After firing up the ED, we shunted it across to Siding 2 where the 117 was having a spot of running maintenance courtesy of George.

Steve and Ben clamber out of the ED as I have set the road ready to back up to the DMU.

As George, Ben and myself look on, Andy and Steve wrestle with the vacuum pipe to see if a solution can be found.

After trying the shorter extensions, this one worked well. Steve, though, was a little worried about how far down it now hung and the possibility of it catching. 

A winning solution. A jubilee clip, a spring and a hole on the DMU buffer beam. Blue Peter eat your heart out!!

With a solution found and agreed on Andy raced off to get ready for his turn with Dave.

Dave and Andy pass by on 47376.

With not much else happening, Steve, Ben and I turned our attention to 20035, Steve's spares donor. Steve was keen to remove the remaining louvre doors, the sanding pipework and the battery box covers. After initial attempts, the louvre doors were left for another time. Therefore, I went after the sanding system pipework and Ben went after the battery box covers. A lot of the pipe work, given the length of time the loco has been in store (here and in France), has become more than a bit stubborn and, after a lot of cursing, shouting and lubrication, one part of the sanding system came away from the sanding box. The others weren't quite so willing and a date with the cutting disc awaits.

One stubborn piece of Class 20 pipework.

Ben was having much more luck with his angle grinder and the battery boxes. He was able to remove both doors that will now go into Steve's spares reserve for D8137 and 20228.

Battery acid does a lot of damage to the inside of the box. 

A Tortoiseshell Butterfly takes a break from the heat on the Timken wheelcap. 

The following weekend - 8th July - saw an important milestone in the refurbishment of Class 24, 5081. When I arrived at Toddington Road 10 was strangely vacant with only D8137 in attendance. 47376 was sat in the sunshine outside. The mess room was also eerily quiet! After a quick search round I found Martin, Tim, Mark S, Dean, Paul G, Mark E and Dave M all in the David Page Shed! No, they hadn't defected to the Steam Department. 5081 had been shunted onto Road 7 where the Motive Power Departments lifting jacks are located and was being prepped ready for lifting and repatriation with bogie No.1. It is a very exact science, not least of all because of the weight being moved. Paul, Tim and Mark are all railwaymen and the importance of getting it right was not lost on any of us, least of all them.

The refurbished bogie sits in the sun ready for resiting under the locomotive. 

5081 sits on Road 7 whilst the lifting jacks are moved into position. 

A precision job. One of the jacks is positioned next to the lifting point and is raised until the pin can go through both the jack and lifting block. Any unevenness could result in the loco falling from the jack.

The final pre-flight checks.

Tim, Paul and Mark deep in conversation as the loco is suspended above the shed floor.

Flying high!

With bogie No.2 then removed, No.1 was repositioned back under the locomotive. The 'spare' bogie was also removed, to be turned on Monday and repositioned back under the locomotive in place of bogie No. 2.

Out front in the car park, heritage of another persuasion was taking place. The 8th saw the railway's annual Bus Gala taking place. This year a record 40+ buses had confirmed attendance ranging from more recent DDA compliant single deckers to 60+ year old Bristol buses. The weather, again, was stupendous - the temperature in the low 30s (although the thermometer was showing 43.8 in the Diesel Mess!), which saw a bumper crowd attend. Many taking the opportunity to ride up to Broadway on one of two open top Bristol buses in attendance.

National Welsh...brings back memories!

Diesels of a different persuasion.

Another that brings back personal memories....a Bristol Omnibus Bristol RE. 

Crosville's open top Bristol Lodekka.

Back in the yard, George had moved the green DMBS W51363 onto Road 9 for a little running repair.

George positions W51363 over the pit on Road 9.

The Saturday had saw more work on Brush Type 4, 1693's overhaul. The tail light holders had been removed from the loco, sanded and primer added. They were hanging on makeshift hangers, the heat in the shed aiding drying.

Tail light holders, primed and drying out. Flame cuts from two of RES's Class 47 fleet adorn the rear wall.

More sanding!

Matt continued with some sanding on No.2 end of the loco. At the end of the day the loco was positioned in the car park ready to have the roof section lifted on Monday after 5081 has its bogie turned. 

I was rostered on the last turn of the day with Kev on 37215. After things had calmed down a little the blue '37' was moved out into the yard (along with D6948 to minimise the amount of dust getting on to the body work) and prepped. Matt was observed doing it by Kev before I went and completed the prep ready for service as part of my Driver training and Gala preparations for Matt. Prior to this Kev was busy repairing one of the Growler Group's tail lamps. An audit had been done in the previous week that had identified that none of the electric tail lamps worked in the department. Under new ORR regulations all have to be operational so it meant sorting out the lectrics and testing batteries. However, these aren't any old batteries and are very difficult to source.

You won't find these in your local Halfords. The acid crystals give a definite indication of why they failed!

Work was also continuing on the 'Bubble Car', W55003. With a lot of the body work completed and awaiting painting, the majority of the doors refitted, attention has moved onto the electrical systems and on the mechanical side of things. The Class 122 will also be on display for our Gala.

No filter required!

The only other thing to be happening over the weekend was some of the more mundane Gala preparation. Around the walls of the shed we have some presentation posters that give people information about the fleet, the department and how they work. Its probably been about 4 years since they were at floor level and cleaned. Also, with the shed being off limits for most of the year, not a lot of people actually see them! One of the things I have been charged with was getting them down, cleaning them and then looking at how else we could present them so that more people would see them - or at least the ones describing the fleet. Paul beat me to it, as he was up during the week. He managed to get them all down and cleaned some. These were refitted on the wall inside the shed except the one that gave an overview of the Department. This one, he bolted to the outside of the shed next to the entrance so that anyone going down into the yard can read it. During the DMG meeting it was quite noticable the number of people that stopped and read it! The remainder I cleaned up ready for the Gala. Most would be place next to the respective locomotives or by the respective owner group stands.

Ever wondered what the inside of a Class 47 looks like?

It was then time to get 37215 out to the Signal Box to await the arrival of the last train from Broadway so that we could take it forward to Cheltenham. Its lucky that we get such a good view of the Cotswolds.........

Waiting for GOD........Dinmore Manor!

So......GALA news!

As previously mentioned we now have TWO hydraulics visiting for our Back to Broadway Gala. We have Beyer Peacock Type 3 'Hymek', D7017 courtesy of our good friends at the Diesel Electric Preservation Group at Williton (WSR) as well as the previously advertised BR Type 4 'Warship' D832 'Onslaught' from the Bury Diesel Group (ELR). Timetables and provisional locomotive allocations are available on the gala section of the GWSR website or by clicking HERE.

This year's Gala will be the first to offer a fully open site to visitors - therefore not requiring those people who just want to have a nose around the sites to buy tickets. However, do remember that if you wish to travel on any train service over the three days YOU WILL NEED TO HAVE A VALID TICKET/WRISTBAND TO TRAVEL! Ticket inspectors will be travelling on all services and penalty fares will be in operation. Also, Hailes Abbey Halt will not see stopping services during the event.

If you want to know more, or you want a stand or bring a model railway to the event visit the GWSR Gala page HERE.

We hope to see you there to share in the biggest Diesel Gala the GWSR has ever hosted.