' BoCo' makes further strides back to operation
THE restoration of the sole- surviving Class 28 Metropolitan Vickers Co- Bo diesel has continued to make steady progress under the custodianship of the East Lancashire Railway- based Class 15 Preservation Society.
Since D5705 was reunited with its bogies, some external bodywork has been repaired and all useable parts from the spare power unit have been stripped.
Since then, the society has focused almost all attention to the locomotive's interior.
Society electricians have been busy in the electrical cubicle, where all of the large components have been fully overhauled and, where possible, bench tested. Motor contact boards Nos. 1 and 2 have now been wired in and refitted to the wall.
Restoration progress
All of the end- to- end cables from No. 1 end have been pulled through into the cubicle, having previously been looped up in the trunking. They have been routed to the locations in which each of the cables is to be terminated and a start has been made on terminating the wires.
Wiring in No. 2 cab is ongoing, fitting it in around when the cab is empty. Also, within No. 2 cab the air pipes located under the floor have been replaced due to them being rotten.
The brake frame has been completely rebuilt, with all the pipework and valves overhauled. The wiring is now being fed in and terminated to the relevant items and will be finished sometime this year subject to when access to the locomotive can be achieved following the Covid- 19 lockdown, which has led to all work being suspended for the time being.
More pipework has been located and refurbished, and a start to refurbishing the valves beneath the locomotive has been made. They are being worked through systematically by removing one, stripping it down, cleaning it up and reassembling once a thorough check has been made to confirm all is okay.
Inside the engine room/ cooler group area, the No. 1 end traction motor blower and snail have been refitted. The motor was overhauled some time ago, as was the snail. This has been refitted and the wiring fed through to it.
The V8 power unit ( Mk. 3 version) has had all of its heads, pistons and liners removed, and they will be replaced by the ones recovered by society members from the spare Crossley power unit ( Vl 2 version with interchangeable parts) as this had lower engine hours.
Considered one of the least successful - but undoubtedly among the most distinctive regarding their appearance ( some say the ugliest) - of the products of the Pilot Scheme for diesel locomotives built under the 1955 Modernisation Plan - 20 ' Metrovicks'were built at Stockton- onTees between 1958- 58. However, their two- stroke Crossley engines - the choice of which had been influenced by Oliver Bulleid - proved problematic and suffered frequent failures. By 1961, the entire class was handed back to the manufacturer for remedial work on the noisy engines and to cure problems with cab windows falling out while running.
Survival
The whole class was withdrawn from service during 1967- oS, and all but one had been scrapped by the end of 1969. By chance, D5705 survived, renumbered 515705 and used from December 1968 by the Research Division for its Tribology Test train and subsequently used as carriage heating unit No. TDB968006 at Bristol Bath Road before being stored at Swindon bought for preservation in 1985. At first it was moved to Peak Rail and later to Bury.
The 'Metrovicks' also proved a disaster in miniature. Hornby Dublo produced a 00 gauge version in 1961 and it was all but shunned by the public, with just 30 models sold in three years. When Tri- ang took over Hornby Dublo, a total of 3150 were still in stock unsold.
The type proved somewhat more successful in children's fiction, forming the basis for BoCo, a character in The Railway Series children's books by the Reverend W Awdry and the spin- off TV series Thomas and Friends, numbered D5702.