Not quite what we had hoped for!

 As we are all probably more than aware, June 21st passed with the Government extending lockdown rules for another month. This meant that the proposed restart of normal services on the railway didn't happen, ergo the diesel fleet would have to potentially wait again before being allowed out of hibernation fully. So, it was back to continuing to prepare ready for when we do, finally, get the go ahead. 

The Sunday just gone (27th June) saw 'Diesel Day 3' with 47376 'Freightliner 1995' doing the honours. As with the previous two days, the ticket sales were good - so much so that extra seats were made available. However, on the day, the numbers weren't quite as hoped, but there was still a decent number in attendance to enjoy the first run of 47376 since 2019. The weather, lockdown extension and the Mid Hants Diesel Weekend may have affected numbers but those in attendance certainly enjoyed the day bringing much needed revenue to the railway as well as to the Brush Type 4 Group coffers.

47376 departs on the 1000 Toddington - Cheltenham RC.

Trainee Signaller Mark Wilson prepares to take the token at Toddington Box as 47376 returns. 

After returning from it's first visit to Broadway, the 'Duff' heads back towards Cheltenham.

Heading away from Toddington towards the 5mph TSR at Toddington Yard South turnout. 

Back at Toddington MPD there were a few of us around with work continuing predominantly on Class 26, D5343. More cutting of rotten metalwork had occurred on the Saturday courtesy of the man with the cutting discs, Dave S. Dave had also managed to weld in some new bits of steel as well as conducting one other important duty.....involving Cat C. Although she was well and truly getting her paws under the table, general consensus was that the yard was no place for a cat to live so, with help from his partner, Dave was able to capture Cat C and take her to Cheltenham Animal Rehoming Centre. Hopefully she will find a home where she can get all the attention she craves - and not get covered in dust, oil and grease! 

Anyway, back to the locos...…

A nice new piece of steel on the front of D5343.

One of the many areas that requires new steel is a central patch on No. 1 end of the loco where, in the 1970s, many of the class (D5343 included) were fitted with a pair of headlights for use on the Far North lines in Scotland....an early forerunner of the high intensity headlights subsequently fitted to all locos in the mid/late 1980s.

26043 at Thurso on 21st June, 1978 clearly showing the headlights between the centre discs. (Courtesy of the Derby Sulzers website, https://www.derbysulzers.com/inverness.html) 

This area had been plated over when the headlights were removed however, the steel and filler that had covered the repair had degraded causing a depression and the paint to fracture. With other body work repairs ongoing, the chance was taken to repair this as well - even though Dave had only painted the front ends back at the beginning of 2020.

There was a team of 4 of us working on the body work on the Sunday with myself, Simon and two relative newbies, Adrian and Gareth - cue the shouts of 'which one' when any one called out 'Gareth'! The loco was shunted out of the David Page shed with all eyes on the weather as the McRat is currently minus its fibreglass roof section, however we were lucky with only a passing light shower during the middle of the afternoon. 

Out on the apron of  Road 6, Adrian made a start with the sander on the cab roof above No. 2 end before dragging the steps down to the other end to sand off the cab roof of No. 1 end.  

Adrian makes a start sanding around the cab roof. You can see the steel removed from the side of the loco and the solebar has had a start made on paint removal. 

Gareth was given the job of sanding off one of the engine room doors down in the CMDG container before giving Simon a hand with a couple of preparatory jobs on the engine. 

I was armed with the needle gun to start, clearing out rust from a channel that runs along the body of the loco in the engine room, although it would normally be covered by the engine room floor. It was a very common place for water and other fluids to collect and therefore the rust accumulation was pretty high. With the new cuts done by Dave S the previous day we could easily access these areas to clean them out and then coat them in Zinc primer paint. 

You can see the extent of the corrosion that has occurred around the pipe and along the gully. 

The corrosion was cleared using a needle gun and a hoover before the application of the Zinc Primer. 

I also stripped some of the paint from the base of the electrical cubicle so that it could also be treated with the Zinc primer as the water ingress had eaten a number of small holes in the side. 

Paint stripping on the electrical cubicle.

I was later joined by Adrian on applying the Zinc as Simon wanted to move the loco onto Road 9 so that we could finish off some work on the Cotswold side of the loco. With the loco moved, I joined Adrian on the sanders to finish off the bodyside. It was possible to make out the mark of the 'Lion and Wheel' emblem by the end of the day as well as the many coats of colours that the loco had worn when in service, including BR Green, BR Blue and Civil Engineers!

Some Civil Engineers yellow shining through.

Back in the shed Steve M set up the charger in order to give D8137's batteries some juice with a view to firing up the engine just to keep it ticking over. He then set up taking one of his spare traction motors apart to give the armature a clean and to check the overall condition of the unit just in case there is a need to swap traction motors over on the bogies of D8137. Its been a couple of years since the 'chopper' was taken out of service due to a power fault, but Steve remains hopeful of getting the green 'Type 1' in to service before the end of the year. With his former ED, E6036, now safely arrived at the Cambrian Heritage Railway, Oswestry, focus is now on getting D8137 and 20228 back into serviceable condition. 

Tom and Kevin were busy with the Bubble Car, centring their work around the backing framework for the windows. The previous weekend also saw some work on the 3-Car Class 117 and on W51360 repairing some areas where the paintwork had started bubbling. W51360 has also had its historic crash damage repaired by Carriage and Wagon and is now awaiting some new yellow paint. The CDRL have also announced the putting up for sale of Class 107 DMSL, Sc52029. The DMSL arrived at Toddington back in 2015 (I think) with a view to pair it up with W51360 as a power twin set. However, given the manpower needed to tackle the refurbishment of the Class 122 and Class 117 vehicles - as well as the spare Class 117 DMS, W51372 and TCL, W59505 - the group have seen fit to let the Class 107 go. If you are interested, or know someone/a group that may be, you can see the information at http://www.gwsr-dmu.co.uk/offers-invited-for-52029/  

Class 107, DMSL, Sc52029, still wearing a patchwork Strathclyde PTE paint scheme at Toddington Yard. 

As far as diesel running goes for 2021, all eyes are now on the new Secretary for Health and the Prime Minister and their next announcement on or before the 19th July. There is one confirmed running day with the recent announcement of a 4th Diesel Day on Sunday 18th July with 37215 as the booked motive power again. As previous, tickets have to be pre-booked and you can do that via the GWSR online ticket portal - https://gwsr.vticket.co.uk/product.php/533/diesel-running-on-sundays

37215 returns to shed after the first 'Diesel Day' in April 2021.

Hopefully this will be the precursor for much more favourable news on the following day. Keep hoping!