The end of last week at Toddington saw the steam engines that had been guests at the Cotswold Festival of Steam in May leave for their respective home lines but the Diesel Department saw an arrival......the agreement for which had been on and off the table a few times.
At the end of 2018, the Cotswold Mainline Diesel Group (CMDG) were approached by the Llangollen Diesel Group with regards to their Class 26, 5310. Their Class 26 had suffered a failure with its No2 Traction Motor and this would require a loco lift. The LDG were looking for somewhere to undertake the work that had lifting facilities and the CMDG not only had access to lifting equipment but also had a spare, refurbished Traction Motor and the expertise to help. An ongoing dialogue ended up with 5310 appearing at Toddington on Thursday.
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| Class 26, 5310, on its home track at Llangollen. (Courtesy of Terry Pic |
Part of the agreement is that the loco can, hopefully, take part in our July Diesel
Gala along with the CMDG's own Class 26,
D5343, in order to help celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Class starting on British Rail. However, this is dependant on a large number of factors - not least that it can be fixed and there are no other issues. Further updates will, I'm sure, be made in due course.
The last week also saw another of our long term maintenance projects reach a conclusion. Our ex-ASW shunter, '
DES' was refitted with its rods on Wednesday 5th after 18 months out of traffic due to a severely damaged centre bearing rings and axle box. It was also given a quick shunt - the first time it had moved under its own power since being taken out of traffic. Photos are courtesy of Paul Jones.
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| 'DES' wheels are prepped ready for the rods to be refitted. |
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| With the wheels all centred members of the 'Wednesday gang' get to grips with fitting the rods back onto the mounts. |
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| Growler Group Technical Officer Paul Good checks the tolerance levels on the centre pins. |
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| Paul hammers the flange back into position on one of the wheel mounts. |
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| For the first time in 18 months 'DES' sits on complete axle sets prior to a brief run around the yard. |
The next, and final stage, will be the shunters' Fitness to Run exam and loaded test run which will hopefully see the locos return to action in the very near future.
Sadly, things weren't so rosy for EE Type 1/ Class 20,
D8137, which has been removed from the active roster with a power issue. The locos owner, Steve M, had identified during a run up at the end of May that the 'Chopper' was having trouble powering up. Investigations into a possible Traction Motor issue have started but, as the Gala gets closer, time is of the essence to get it fit for its rostered turns.
