What’s Happening To…?
Our monthly round up of restoration projects around the country,
D9518 – Williton: It is now ten years since the Class 14 moved to Williton after a long time out of use at both the Rutland Railway Museum at Cottesmore and the Nene Valley Railway at Wansford. The loco arrived from the latter in a very sorry state having not worked for decades and been open to the elements and so it was in need of a complete refurbishment. It has been completely stripped down, reducing it to a collection of parts, and these are being refurbished or renewed. It’s a very long-term project and there is no date set for a return to service.
The restoration team has continued work on the wheelsets, filling and sanding to provide a good surface for painting. The sandboxes have been removed, repaired, painted in undercoat and are ready for painting and refitting to the frames. The loco recently marked 52 years since it gained the accolade of being the last Class 14 to officially work for BR back on April 19, 1969 with trips from Radyr to Roath and Maindy. It was then withdrawn at Cardiff Canton along with D9500/02/14/27, while D9521/24/36/38/55 were laid up at Swansea Landore. Several of these locos passed into industrial use and D9518 clocked up 17 years with the National Coal Board at Ashington.
D9526 – Williton: D9518’s classmate D9526 remains under tarpaulins on No 1 road, just outside the old goods shed after being ‘evicted’ from its shelter because of the structural issues that are currently affecting that Grade II listed building. It has undergone a 250-hour inspection and is awaiting a test run to Bishops Lydeard so that it can go over the pit at Westridge shed and have an underframe examination. Once that has been completed the Class 14 will be able to return to service.
D8233 – Bury: ‘Lockdown 3’ has had a massive effect on progress with both D8233 and D5705 (see below), however restoration did continue on various fronts. The ex-CIE traction motors have had a thorough overhaul at Bowers Electricals. The group took delivery of four brand new pinions (or spur gears), manufactured by TK Engineering & Gearcutting in Nottingham. Bowers pressed these on to the tapered shaft on the motors and bench-tested them.
Meanwhile, the ELR team started the overhaul of the axles, polishing the plain bearing journals and creating a new profile on the tyres. The 67 gearwheel teeth on each axle are also being polished, by hand! Hopefully all four axles will be completed by the summer when the team will reassemble the bogies.
D5054 – Bury: A driver’s key broke off in the cab door on the Class 24 and the door had to be removed to get at the lock. Once the door was off the lock was removed and taken to the workshop where, as expected, a broken BR1 key end was found inside. The lock has now been cleaned, oiled and refitted, as has the door.
D7612 – Buckfastleigh: On May 9 the ‘Rat’ had its necessary exams (and a polish) so it will be ready for the running season and its trip to the Mid-Hants Railway in June.
D5705 – Bury: Over the last 12 months the restoration of the Class 28 Co-Bo has been very much affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in July last year the Crossley power unit and generator were moved into the works at the ELR and after fitting the custommade pieces of equipment, and with the overhead crane taking the weight of the generator, it was possible to gently ease it from the engine. Considering the generator and engine haven’t been apart for probably more than 50 years, they separated pretty easily. The generator has been sent away to Bowers in Chesterfield, along with four traction motors destined for the Class 15.
Work on the engine has now started and, apart from cleaning, it has been subjected to a thorough inspection and evaluation of what needs to be done. In the very near future a start will be made on the engine rebuild. Work on the wiring is making real progress. It is hoped that the majority of the control wires will be terminated in the cubicle by mid-2021 so that some testing can commence. The team still has to replace the big wires that link the generator to the cubicle and the cables that feed the traction motors, but these will be sorted at a later date.
During the latter part of 2020 the generator was dismantled by Bowers and it was found that
one of the interpoles had issues. However, once it was dried out, and retested it was found to be fine. The generator has been cleaned and painted and is now in a state to be put back together.
33002 – Buckfastleigh: The Crompton has been out-shopped in the British Rail departmental, or general user, all-over grey it carried from April 1990 to January 1991 before having the yellow upper bodyside added to make it a ‘Dutch’ loco. It is the fourth preserved Class 33 to have carried this livery, but the first 33/0 after 33/1s 33103/109 and 110.
D6566 and D6575 – Williton: The Class 33s have returned to action at the West Somerset Railway on crew training specials between Bishops Lydeard and Williton. They have also been used on some ECS moves to position stock ready for the railway’s reopening on May 22.
33110 – Burnham-on-Crouch: The repair of the secondman’s side framing is nearly complete. The driver’s side has been removed but it is in a bad way, only being held together by rust!
D7017 – Williton: The Hymek remains in the yard at Williton and has had a wash and the tarpaulins removed from the roof. The plan is to lift the Type 3 in late June or July so that its bogies can be rolled out and the springs changed. No doubt there will be other work done while the loco is lifted, but it is hoped the job will be completed in the autumn so that D7017 is available for service in 2022.
D7018 – Williton: The other Class 35 at the West Somerset Railway, which only returned to traffic two years ago, remains inside the shed undergoing an investigation on the control block of its Mekydro hydraulic transmission. After several attempts to get the automatic gear change function working as it should, it has been decided to switch the control block for one that was used previously and is known to be good. This will hopefully resolve the immediate problem and allow more time for the delinquent control block to be further investigated to find the blockage (or stuck valve) that is preventing proper function. At worst, the transmission will be locked in second gear and the loco will run in the same way as it did in 2019.
37403 – Bo’ness: On April 30 the English Electric 12CSVT power unit was reunited with the loco. Once it was lowered in, the team checked that the crankshaft deflections were spot on before bolting it into position and making a start on the various pipework and electrical connections. There is still a lot of work to do but the loco is getting closer to a main line return.
40118 – Tyseley: With lockdown restrictions easing, the group restoring the Class 40 has been able to get back to doing some work on the loco. On May 1 the first of two turbo brackets were refitted to the generator end of the power unit, and the bodyside on the B side received its final coat of paint, some months after the previous coat.
40145 – Crewe DMD: The Class 40 Preservation Society’s main line registered loco was last repainted in the summer of 2013 at Barrow Hill. Now, an agreement has been made with Locomotive Services to have it repainted as part of the contract that has seen it on hire to LSL for several months.
It will emerge in British Railways green. However, before the repaint can be undertaken it needs some bodywork repairs to address areas of corrosion. Now that D213 Andania has returned to main line use, work has started on prepping 40145 for those bodywork repairs, including removing the headcode boxes, disconnecting the OTMR, GSMR and TPWS to prevent damage while welding is done, and marking up areas of body work for attention. The nose doors will also be removed to deal with corrosion and service the hinges.
45133 – Swanwick: A professional welder was prevented from carrying out repairs to the floor because the silencer was being welded back up, so instead volunteers have been carrying on with other work. The generator end of the engine is now in gloss and the turbo stand was painted inside and out and refitted on May 7. The reassembly of the turbo was also due to start in May.
47077 – Williton: Efforts have been made to get the Sulzer 12-cylinder engine ready to start after a long period out of use. The various tasks that were in progress were stopped to put it in a safe condition to allow power-up and start-up. The ‘triple pump’ was run to prime the oil, fuel and water systems and everything was looking good. Unfortunately, when the moment came to press the start button there was a click, but the engine did not turn over. Although the 48 individual batteries had been kept fully charged over the last year or so, their lack of use meant that charging had become ineffective, leaving them too weak to do their job. The plan is now to replace them.
47596 – Dereham: The loco has been painted in British Railways green. It has kept its Aldeburgh Festival nameplates, although the headcode panels haven’t been refitted.
50026 – Arlington Fleet Services, Eastleigh: In mid-April the team looking after Indomitable was working on the AWS/TPWS wiring to try and find the TPWS fault, sadly with not much luck. They did refit the two AWS bells that had been removed for bench testing. 50026 had a UAT in early April and no problems were found, so it is good for another three years and that’s another thing ticked off the main line certification list.
50030 – Rowsley: After the enforced lay-off due to lockdown, the team returned to Rowsley on April 18 to crack on with the restoration of 50030 Repulse following last year’s engine lift. A key priority now that the power unit is out is to get the bodyshell watertight. The same applies to the cabs as the team moves on to refitting and restoring the controls and air pipes behind the driver’s desk. The Renown Repulse Restoration Group (RRRG) has stated its aim is to ensure 50030 has a very long and secure future in preservation ahead of it by doing this work now. It’s also at least ten years since 50030 has had a proper repaint and the RRRG says it wants to respect Peak Rail’s wishes not to have a pair of rusty-looking wrecks cluttering up its site. As a result, it has started scraping, filling, sanding and painting the roof and front of the cabs, while the engine compartment has had loose paint and rust removed and red oxide primer added where a professional welder will be doing the re-plating. It has since been realised that the roof area is a fair bit worse than was originally thought, but fortunately the welder has offered a very good quote for fixing the worst of it.
D1010 – Williton: The Western is waiting patiently for 47077 to be finished so it can enter the shed at Williton for the next phase of its restoration. With the remedial work on its failed transmission still held up by lockdowns, volunteer
effort will be focused on the cooler group renovations and a long list of bodywork repairs. This loco will be the subject of a fund-raising campaign to cover the cost of the specialist sub-contracted services that will be needed to return it to service. The funds generated by a new booklet, D1010 Western Campaigner – from Merehead to Minehead, will be added, along with revenue from the sale of secondhand books. You can order the booklet from https://bit. ly/3tBTtxp
D9008 (cab) – Barrow Hill: The cab of D9008 has received volunteers’ attention with a clean to remove all the dirt and dust. The next task was to remove the nose hatch doors, which took some effort as the bolts were rusted. Eventually, with the use of brute force and a bit of swearing, they finally came off and a start was made in sanding and priming them. The cab was painted in areas where the nose end doors came off. The bufferbeam and buffers were painted in undercoat and various parts of the cab’s bodywork were given the fill and sand treatment. The main area of concentration was in blending out the weld line created by extending the cab.
Two engine room windows were sourced along with other parts such as door handles and light surrounds, ready to send for chroming. The cab windows were stripped down to remove the glass so that the frames can go away as well. Other work included the refitting of the nose end grills and headboard brackets, which is a small start to the process of putting it all back together.
D9009 – Barrow Hill: The Deltic Preservation Society (DPS) has welcomed two new volunteers who both have MoD experience. Work continues on returning Alycidon to traffic and recent jobs undertaken include removing the junction boards inside the cleat boxes on the bogies, although this task suffered slow progress due to inaccessibility and the need to find the right tools to suit the location. Work has also continued on removing the motor contactors and reverser. In mid-April work was done on the power units for D9009 and D9015, with the main work on Power Unit 451 and fitting one of the new exhaust collector drums. The old collector drums are life-expired, with corrosion, oil leaks damaging the lagging and the metal becoming thin in places. At the other end of the power unit the locking clamps were fitted to the quill shafts that connect to the engine crankshafts. The engine is now ready to accept the main and auxiliary generators.
D9009 had various jobs carried out, including on-going electrical repairs. The electrical contactors from both cubicles have gone away to a specialist repairer for overhaul. The bufferbeam painting project is now about 90% complete. On May 1 preparatory work was done for the start of the cast bogies repairs. The Deltic has now been stripped of all traction switchgear, which was sent for overhaul, apart from the field divert contactors that are in a decent state of repair. The traction motor connection boxes under the loco are being stripped down or removed to facilitate refurbishment of the insulated panels inside. These are suffering from electrical tracking to the loco frame, leading to poor insulation readings.
D9015 – Barrow Hill: The DPS’s junior volunteer, working on the Junior Training Programme with an experienced volunteer, has received some guidance and instruction on Tulyar. One of the volunteer team has continued with the installation of the new elements in D9015’s cab heaters, very essential items. This leaves only one heater to do. The roof sections have been cleaned in preparation for the installation of the radiators, which are currently being cleaned out. Work in the engine room to ready it for the power units to be fitted later in the year has continued. The windows have been masked ready for painting and in early May, the yellow warning panel on the nose was marked out and a thin coat of buff undercoat was applied.
55019 – Barrow Hill: The last air tank in 55019 was removed to go away for its ten-yearly test. This was the tank in the No 1 nose end under the traction motor blower, which had been taken out the week before. The blower stand had to come out first, which is usually a two-man job. However, it was impossible to socially distance in the nose end, so it had to be a oneman job and therefore took longer than usual. Nevertheless, everything is now ready to be sent for repairs.
The fire bottles were scheduled to be the next to be removed and sent away for their ten-year certification, so the DPS is doing both the tanks and fire bottles simultaneously to save time. One of the new collector drums was lifted into place on PU 451 for a trial fit, and that was followed by a permanent fitting when the correct size lock nuts were available. It is destined for D9009.
71001 – Shildon: Following on from the last issue’s picture of 71001 in undercoat, the loco has now had a topcoat of BR blue applied along with its TOPS numbers.
89001 – Soho: The loco completed its planned low-speed movement testing at West Midlands Trains’ Soho depot on April 22. Several moves were made around the depot and in the sidings, up to the depot’s 5mph speed limit. Some used the depot’s shunter 08805 as an extra load. On May 6 the loco was collected by the Rail Operations Group using 37884 to return it to Barrow Hill.