Since Christmas I have been sans car and my job has allowed me to have Wednesdays free regularly - the only day I can borrow my partners car without her needing it for work so, over the last couple of weeks I have headed up to lend a hand. In the 5 years of volunteering the Class 24 is the loco I have probably worked least on so it was a good opportunity to get to know it, or its wheelsets, a little better.
30 Jan
On ariving in the car park at Toddington I was met by the site of a large mountain of spent ballast and a row of rusted and partially stripped bogies. Our colleagues in P'Way are in the midst of their winter operation replacing sleepers along the mainline adjacent to the MPD yard. They had also started to level off the 'head shunt' siding at the MPD throat. Since the reinstallation of the southern turnout the siding dropped down grade quite sharply so the opportunity was taken to level it off, hence why the bogies (usually stored in the siding) were now in the car park.
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| Class 47 wheelset. Large pile of ballast in the background. |
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| Class 37 wheelsets - excuse the shadow! |
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| Martin wrestles with the fitting of one of the cylinders. |
Everything was in hand so I was tasked with clearing out some of the Growler Group's container and stripping down a number of horsehair filters. The main spares container is a proper Aladdin's Cave of spares for keeping 37215, and to a lesser extent D6948, in service but over 20 years of existence has meant that the amount of spares the group has acquired has grown beyond what is reasonably needed. Some working elements that were not required by the group have been sold or donated to other groups whilst a fair amount had been stripped and the usable parts removed before the rest ended up in the skip. Some bits were potentially of interest to the enthusiast and were earmarked for the Growler Group stand or ebay stores in the future to help raise a small amount of the much needed funds that any restoration group needs to continue.
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| A body side door (one of a pair) from a Class 37 based at a certain London depot when it was in the 'Dutch' Civil Engineers livery. It has an inscription to the right of the 'Cockney Sparrow'. |
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| It reads ''LE God' Dave Titheridge E/H'. Nobody has any idea from what loco the door came from or who this Dave Titheridge was! |
There was a fair amount of 'stuff' that was assessed by our Technical Adviser, Paul G, that ended up in the skip - mainly because they were broken. With 37215 being lifted from its bogies at some stage during 2019 it also gave the opportunity to identify what items we had spare just in case any of the smaller items needed replacing on the bogies when the loco is lifted.
Out in the yard more evidence that 20035 is on borrowed time.
Back in the shed and it was time to look at the four filters/anti-freeze pots that were found in the container. These use horse hair in the filters and are, therefore, quite precious although the units themselves aren't usually replaced often. From just visual checks it was pretty obvious that two were beyond saving and, after the horse hair was removed, they were stripped and the remnants sent to the skip. Two were in reasonable condition, one more so than the other, so the better parts from the demic two were transplanted to make two very good units.
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| A complete unit with the filter to the left and the anti-freeze filler in the centre. |
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| The refuse. Two damaged or poor quality units. |
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| All bagged up. The horse hair filters removed for safe keeping. |
At the end of the day Paul, Martin and Mark had got to a point where the bogie was nearly ready for dropping back down onto its suspension springs. Part of the brake rigging needed refitting with new pins and bushes first, and that was to come next week.
06 Feb
Advancing on 7 days and it was hoped that, by the end of the day, the bogie of 5081 would be dropped onto its springs. I arrived to find Martin, Mark, Paul and Mick trying to manipulate the pins and bushes to fit snuggly for the second part of the brake rigging.
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| At the start of the day. The nearside rigging and all the brake cylinders in situ. |
The near end rigging had gone in without too much trouble and was running reasonable freely. Any thought we all had of the far end (nearest the loco in the pictures) bar doing the same was diminishing very quickly. It was fairly obvious that, at some point, the bogie had perhaps been damaged and the original pins and bushes had been fabricated to take the damage in to account. The new ones had been produced to spec and would just not line up correctly. Several theories were thrown forward as to why nothing was lining up, many were dismissed with a quick try or by measurement. Many blows with various sized hammers helped in one way but would sometimes throw up a secondary issue. Proper headscratching moments! However, perserverance is key and, eventually, it all came good with some ingenuity, plenty of grease and copaslip coupled with oodles of force! We were all a little concerned that the frame did not move without a fair bit of force, courtesy of Martin, and that there could be a chance of the new brakes binding.
Sadly, this is something that we would only find out when the bogie is fully back under the loco. That said, the more it was moved the easier it did seem to move....maybe as the weather warms, and when the loco is back on top, it will continue to run more freely. With satisfaction that it was completed we all headed for a well deserved lunch.
I hadn't noticed before but as we prepared back to the mess room Mick pointed out that the no.2 end bogie on 1693 had been needle gunned back to the metal. Not a nice job having done some of that myself during the refurbishment of D6948.
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| 1693's bogie all needle gunned back to the bare metal. |
After lunch it was back to the bogie of 5081. Part of the plan for the day was to get the bogie dropped back onto its springs. The morning activities were looking as though this part would be jeopardised but collective will prevailed. A raiding mission was launched to the Steam Department to borrow their small hydraulic jacks so that we could drop the bogie down from each end in a uniform way. As we traipsed across the yard one of the Class 04s, 11230, was propelling DMBS W51363 back into David Page shed for it to have its seized bogie bearings assessed. It did give the unusual sight of the 'Bubble Car', W55003, out in the yard.
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| 11230 and W51363 inside the David Page Shed. |
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| W55003 sits in the yard. DMS W51405 can be seen poking out in the distance. |
With the small jacks placed under the bogie at each corner it was time to start dropping the bogie down ensuring that all the springs, pistons and the bearing hubs all lined up with the right recesses in the bogie. A little manipulation of the positioning of the wheels using bars and chockes in order to line up the bearing boxes and the bogie slowly slipped down on to the springs. Compared with the morning job this one went without much of a hitch and, by mid afternoon, the frame was back where it should be. It now only leaves the big items, such as the traction motors, to be refitted before the bogie can be placed back under the loco. Things are well on track for the Class 24 to be back in time for the main Gala in July.
As you are probably well aware all of us that work within the department, and across the whole railway, are volunteers - save for a few paid roles within the Management structure. If you are keen to volunteer, not necessarily in the Diesel Department, but feel that you have some time (no matter how small) to give to the railway then you may wish to visit Winchcombe Station on the 16th February or on the 16th March where the Recruitment Team are staging the second and third of our 'Recruitment Days'. You don't need any special skills just a desire to assist in the running of the railway and learn as you go along. There really is a job for everyone!
If you are interested visit the GWRT site here and it will tell you all you need to know about the roles available and what to do if you wish to attend one of the Recruitment Days. There is also a nice little leaflet to read which you can access here.
Why not come and join us!
