Wheel flat curtails ‘Black Five’ Welsh foray
AN EMERGENCY brake application has been cited as the probable cause of tender wheel flat spots that brought a main line run into Wales by ‘Black Five’ No. 45231 The Sherwood Forester to a premature and ignominious end on April 2.
The Crewe-based Stanier 4-6-0 had been working Locomotive Services Ltd’s (LSL) 05.58 Crewe to Carmarthen private charter (1Z30), assisted by Class 20 No. D8107 Jocelyn Fielding 1940-2020, when the brake application had to be made near the summit of the line at Berthddu Crossing, south of Llanwrtyd on the Heart of Wales line. The reason has not yet been made known, but lineside trespass may have been a factor.
The sudden braking apparently caused the tender wheels to lock, and the leading pair sustained significant ‘flats’ owing to them sliding over the rail for some distance before coming to a halt.
Speculation that the flats were actually caused by the tender handbrake being left on after a water stop at Llandovery had not been substantiated at the time of writing.
As a consequence, No. 45231 was declared a failure at Llandeilo, about 20 miles north of Swansea, and the loco, together with the support coach, was shunted into a nearby siding.
The Class 20 then took the heavily delayed train on to Carmarthen alone, arriving some 460 minutes late shortly after midnight.
Recovery was undertaken on April 13 by Railway Support Services (RSS) using LSL Type 3s Nos. D6817 and D6851 and a special WheelSkate developed by RSS more commonly used to rescue failed multiple units.
The skate was fitted to the offending tender wheelset to lift it clear of the rail surface and with No. 45231 in light steam for cylinder lubrication purposes, the convoy set off for Port Talbot via a complex 35-mile route mainly via freight-only lines, at a maximum speed of 20mph.
The ‘Black Five’ was subsequently conveyed by road from Port Talbot back to Crewe over the weekend of April 17-18, where an investigation into the precise cause of the wheel flats is ongoing.