Its been a while since the last episode of diesel delight; hopefully a good Christmas and New Year was had by all and, despite the absence over the last month, work on the fleet has pressed on unrelenting as ever.
The restoration of 1693 (47105) reached an important stage over the Xmas period. The roof has been off the loco for a significant period whilst work was done in the bowels of the engine room and the radiators were lifted out and refurbished. With the radiators back in situ, the welding work completed and the fan repainted and resited, the roof was carefully hoisted into position and refitted.
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1693 sits in the sunlight pouring through the shed rooflights. The roof now refitted and the external fabric of the loco is all back in place.
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Bodywork continues to be rubbed down and primer added. The owning group are aiming to be in a position to test everything at some point during 2020 with an anticipated first start in 7 years not too far away, either. Attention will then switch to the boiler in order for the department to have two boilered locos for the winter months.
Sister loco 47376 'Freightliner 1995' has also had some remedial work completed on its coolant system after springing a leak during the operating year. The repair is almost complete and the loco should be fighting fit for the new season in March.
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| 47376 'Freightliner 1995' sits in front of 1693. The radiator vents are raised to allow access to the radiator bars and the site of a minor leak. |
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| Two of the roof mounted radiators on 47376 have been removed in order to access the tanks underneath. |
The visiting Class 26,
5310, is nearing the end of its stay at Toddington as it is planned to leave for its home base at Llangollen in the next month. Its traction motors have been returned and are just awaiting final fitting when the jacks become free again.
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5310 sits in the yard at Toddington early in the New Year. (Courtesy of Paul Jones)
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| 5310 basks in the New Year sun at Toddington in the company of W51363 and E6036. E6036 festively adorned with tinsel as it was operating on the Permanent Way train during works at Stanway. |
Elsewhere on the Class 26 front, our own D5343 continues to have its facelift in the David Page shed. The team have continued to remove all the corroded elements around the roof joins and down towards the buffer beam. A significant amount of new metal work has also been welded in place. Some of the old filler material removed goes back to its days in Scotland and the extent of the corrosion continues to surprise.
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| The extent of the corrosion on D5343's No. 1 end is clearly evident. (Courtesy of Paul Jones) |
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| The amount of filler and paint dust adorning the roof, buffer beam and the chassis of the Peckett (to the bottom left) showcase the amount of work gone on to remove the damaged areas and old paintwork. (Courtesy of Paul Jones) |
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| Dave S hard at it welding a new piece of steel to the front. (Courtesy of Paul Jones) |
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New plate steel adorning the front of D5343. (Courtesy of Paul Jones)
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| If we look through the nearly square window......Tony R hard at work in the cab of D5343. (Courtesy of Paul Jones) |
There is still a significant amount of work to do and the time frame will be tight with the loco due to go to the Somerset and Dorset in March for their gala. The owning group, however, are confident that the work will be completed in time.
Also in the David Page shed, Class 04 'Shunty' (or D2280, for those not in the know with its nickname!) has been on the jacks for a few weeks whilst repairs were done to its wheelsets and axles. Whilst it has been up in the air, the owner (Brian P) and his repair team have also taken the opportunity to do some painting and sprucing up of the underframe.
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| D2280 flying high on the jacks whilst it has its undeframe refurbishment. |
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D2280 has had a repaint as part of its underframe refurb. (Courtesy of Paul Jones)
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Work also continues on the bogies of both Class 20, D8137 and Class 37, 37215. With 37215 the bogies have been cleaned and the new dampers fitted. The motor blowers have also been readied for fitting and the traction motors have been cleaned with a number of the insulator pots being replaced due to damage. All of the bushes have also been replaced in readiness for reuniting with the locomotive. With the main reservoir air leak on sister, D6948, getting worse it is hoped that the bogies can be refitted before the new season so that repairs can be affected quickly and both Class 37's can be back in active service during the year. D8137's bogies are continuing to be cleaned. The traction motors have been assessed with at least one likely to be replaced with one of the refurbished ones from the recently scrapped 20035.
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| One of D8137's bogies. |
On the subject of Class 37, D6948, the boiler is still away at the company affecting the repair of the pipework and, sadly, the process has stalled a little meaning the envisaged timescale has had to be redrawn. This saw the proposed running over Xmas and the New Year was retimetabled and the GREEN days were substituted for RED due to no steam heat capability amongst the fleet. On the plus side, it does mean that there is now more time to get the repairs done before winter running requires coach heating. Hopefully the summer won't be too much of a washout!
Finally, our department AGM was completed on the 18th January with the usual updates on the 2019 running season. Although passenger numbers were down on 2018 (the Broadway effect!), 2019 saw in excess of 125.000 passengers and an overall increase in diesel operation. 2020 will see a further increase in diesel operation, although this will primarily be on weekdays utilising the PURPLE timetable. The new timetable is up on the GWSR website and the running roster will be published in due course. Also during the AGM, the proposed visitor for our summer Gala was announced. This was also announced to the outside world at the beginning of this week. Following on from the success of last year's visit of Class 50, 50035 'Ark Royal' the committee have secured the appearance (due to usual caveats) of.....
.....Class 55, 55019 'Royal Highland Fusilier', courtesy of The Deltic Preservation Society, for another first - the first time a Deltic has ever run on the Honeybourne Line! RHF will stay with us from the Gala in July through to October as was arranged last year with 50035 'Ark Royal' including a number of extra running days and events. Full details will be announced on the GWSR website in due course.
Here's to 2020 being another fantastic year.
