What’s Happening To…?
Our monthly round up of restoration projects around the country, compiled by Pip Dunn.
20016 – Brechin: The third and final loco of the trio of Class 20s recently purchased by a member of the Caledonian Railway Diesel Group for restoration at the Scottish heritage line made the long journey from Wishaw to Brechin on November 6. It follows the move of 20081/088 and the plan is that two out of the three Type 1s will be restored. None of them have run for more than 25 years and they have been in open store at various sites over that time.
27007 – Brechin: Rumours suggesting the loco has been scrapped have proved unfounded. The Type 2 arrived from Ropley a few years ago in a very sorry state, with much of its bodywork missing as well as all its internal equipment. However, it is deemed to be a long-term project and will be repaired. The group has all the parts required for the rebuild. Right now it’s benefitting from undercover storage and drying out. The CRDG says the scrapping story is “probably just someone having fun”! It bought the loco to prevent it from being scrapped and give it a secure future.
31285 – Wolsingham: As expected, the Weardale Railway has bought 31285 and 31459/465 from HNRC. They had been on hire to the railway for a number of years and will now be used for the line’s catering and evening event trains as before. HNRC has now sold all its Class 31s to heritage railway groups after a brief flirtation with assembling a fleet of the type for possible hire contracts. Other examples are 31235 at the Dean Forest Railway and 31255 at the Mid-Norfolk Railway.
31466 – Lydney: Repairs to the Class 31 have been completed along with a full repaint into EWS livery. This was the only 31 to carry that livery in traffic, although 31255 – also preserved and at the MidNorfolk Railway – was repainted into the same scheme when it was withdrawn to allow EWS to test its new painting facility at Toton.
D7076 – Bury: The rebuild of the Maybach engine in the Hymek is almost complete following the failure of a cylinder liner seal. The engine is built up and timed, ready to be craned back into the loco, which will be up and running in 2021.
37097 – Brechin: The EE Type 3 is currently being repaired in the workshops at Brechin and should be the next loco to return to traffic and join D5314 and D5370 in the active fleet. Once the 37 is back in traffic, attention can turn to the three other Type 2s awaiting repairs, 25072/083 and 26035. They are under cover in the storage shed.
Presently the CRDG’s big focus is on improving its diesel loco engineering and storage facilities yet further. It is fortunate that all of its locos have been stored inside for years and this will continue when it moves to another facility on the railway. This will bring
everything under one roof. The stored locos are always taken out of the shed for viewing during diesel events. The line’s next diesel gala is planned for August 2021, pandemics permitting!
37906 – Shackerstone: The sweet sound of the Ruston-engined Type 3 being started was enjoyed at the Battlefield line on November 9 as repairs continue to return it to service.
40118 – Tyseley: Work has continued on the Class 40 at Tyseley and in mid-October all three of the water tank hanger brackets were cleaned up following removal from the old tank. They are now ready for welding to the new tank. That welding has to take place with the tank in situ under the loco so that the tank brackets line up correctly with the hanger brackets. While the welding is taking place with both tanks under the loco, the two balance pipes can be welded on as well. The pipe fittings have been cleaned up and repaired where corrosion had set in. To get the spacing right between the two fittings on each tank, the new joints will have to be fitted between the flanges. These have been made ready using a compass cutter for the large hole and wad punches for the small holes.
The main generator has progressed as well, with the last three busbar spacers finally wrestled into place, and a start having been made on putting them in.
D832 – Bury: As noted in the last issue, D832 has been returned to traffic, freshly repainted into BR blue, having had a huge amount of bodywork and fabrication work carried out. The loco’s first trains were spent running as D818 Glory in recognition of the many parts surrendered by this loco to help bring Onslaught back to operational condition all those years ago.
45133 – Swanwick: The dedicated team working on the restoration of the Class 45/1 have been busy of late. The driver’s desk is in the final stages of finishing. It has new 3mm steel welded onto its existing framework and has been sprayed in green primer, undercoat and then gloss grey to help with protecting the steel work. The Formica was cut out, holes drilled in it and glued down to the desk, which was then refitted with other components reattached to it. The final tasks will be to refit the control handles once they have been cleaned and then affix the new transfers for the controller tower.
In early November the power handle, reverser and start lever were all cleaned, with all the old paint removed and a quick polish given in preparation for painting. A very light coat of etch primer was followed by a two-pack grey primer and finally a couple of coats of two-pack black to finish off. The next task will be picking out the ‘on off full’ and the power notches in white.
It’s the little jobs that require such an attention to detail that are often not seen by the general public when locos are in traffic.
47105 – Toddington: Another step forward in the return to service of 47105 was made on October 24, 2020 when the Brush Type 4 moved under its own power for the first time in eight and a half years. It was moved over a pit in Toddington Yard where the traction motors where checked. Following this it was started and took power to shunt 47376 around the yard. This is a major step forward in the restoration and should lead to a test run in the not-too-distant future. Meanwhile the repaint continues, with work moving to No 1 end, which should receive some undercoat for the yellow end soon. It will appear as 47105 in BR blue with domino headcodes, but will return to traffic without its steam heat boiler. It will bed in while repairs to the boiler are completed in the shed at Toddington. This will then be refitted once it has been checked and recertified to allow the loco to heat trains again. 47376 – Toddington: The former Freightliner Class 47 has proved to be a reliable machine in its near two decades in preservation and is currently having its cab floors replaced with new material.
50015 – Bury: October 17, 2020 was another productive day at the East Lancashire Railway for the ongoing repairs to 50015 Valiant. More rust holes have been filled in and the cabs have been vacuumed and wiped down.
D1041 – Bury: Following the completion of work on Hymek D7076’s engine, the Western’s ‘A-end’ Maybach MD655 engine is next in line to be rebuilt. The next stage of the thorough and painstaking overhaul of Western Prince will see much heavy maintenance and require a lot of financial support for radiator elements, electrical machine (compressors, exhausters etc) overhauls, oils, engine parts, AVRs, bogie work and modern preheaters. Once these are completed, the ELR will again have working hydraulics of Classes 14, 35, 42 and 52.
Work has, and will always continue to progress towards D1041 running again, which is far closer than when the mammoth task began in 2004. Please visit the D1041 Western Prince Facebook page for the latest information about the overhaul.