Great Gable News No. 157 - October 2008
Dear Members,
Welcome to issue 157 of Great Gable News which celebrates twenty six years of production this October. Thanks are due to those members who choose to receive their newsletter electronically which allows their subscription to be spent elsewhere. Please mail the Club if you would like to take up this option at mk44004@msn.com. Our cover picture features 45005 at Sutton Bonnington and illustrates our memories articles for this issue about local photography of familiar peak hauled trains. Our next newsletter will be produced during the first week of December so please submit your news, views, nostalgic articles and pictures for inclusion to the Club address before then.
44004 Great Gable The internal battery charger commissioned and the locos batteries are now being charged so the engine can be run up and checked. The loco is next in the queue for the bodywork to be completed and a repaint into green livery which we expect to complete next year so that we can celebrate D4's 50th birthday in September 2009. Any donations towards the green repaint would be gratefully received at the above Club address since green repaints cost around £800 compared to a blue repaint at around £300. This difference is due to the variety of colours used on green liveried locomotives.
45041 Royal Tank Regiment took part in the August Bank holiday Derby Works Open Day recreation event at the MRB hauling the 12:05 service from Butterley on Sunday 24th August. The loco was a last minute substitute for D182 on Monday 25th August when D182 developed an electrical fault and 45041 hauled the 13:15 from Butterley on this date.
45041 was also in action at the September 6/7th MRB diesel gala hauling services on both dates alongside D2138, 20227, 31108, D212, 47401, 50007 and some DMU’s. On return to the shed after working its services on the Sunday of the event, a small hole was discovered in the end cover of the loco’s heat exchanger spraying hot water into the engine room. The leak was repaired when a replacement end cover for the heat exchanger was fitted on Sunday 14th and the loco started to prove the repair. 45041 was used to haul 31108 from Swanwick Junction to Riddings for collection by an EWS loco on Wednesday 17th September. EWS 67027 collected 31108 and towed it to Toton ready for a move to the Wensleydale Railway so 31108 could take part in the railways diesel gala. 45041 was used on Friday 19th September being hauled from Swanwick to Ironville behind 6233 and its support coach. At Ironville, the steam loco ran onto the mainline and 45041 ran light engine back to Swanwick with the single line token. On Thursday 25th September 45041 ran down to Ironville to collect 31108 and return it to Swanwick Junction following its trip to the Wensleydale Railway.
The locos livery is becoming quite faded and a repaint into its current livery is planned for 2009 – another £300. 45041 worked at the diesel and steam weekend on Sunday 28th September and operated alternate services with a steam loco. 45041 or D182 will top and tail Butterley to Swanwick Junction shuttle services during the evening of the MRB Fireworks display on Saturday 1st November.
45108. Bodywork repairs are now complete with some welding being required on the locos nose end crowns, both of which have been removed to allow repairs to take place. The cab roof vents have been removed for repairs and the holes in the cab roof plated over to avoid corrosion inside the cab in future. The large bodyside grills were removed to allow the welding to take place and these are being gradually repainted and refitted to the loco. Starting on the roof, the bodywork is gradually being sanded down and some of the bodyside cab gutters removed to be sanded down and repainted before refitting to the loco. The class 45/1 Preservation Society, owners of 45133, have allowed the group to go through the ‘old’ batteries from 45133 and test them with a view to keeping the better cells to create a set good enough to start 45108. It is planned for 45108 to be painted in undercoat and sheeted over soon before being taken outside the shed at Swanwick. This will allow 44004 to enter the shed and have its bodywork completed over the winter. A repaint into BR Blue livery of 45108 is planned for 2009 – another £300.
D182 The repaired silencer was installed on Sunday 27th July and the loco now seems considerably quieter. The loco hauled the 13:15 ex. Butterley on Sunday 24th August at the Works Open Day event and was booked to haul the same service the following day. Following over two hours of shunting on the Monday morning, D182 ran to the departure signal from Swanwick Shed to take up its passenger turn. When the signal was cleared to allow D182 to run off the shed the loco, would not take power. After several minutes of fault finding, 45041 was quickly readied to replace D182 and further investigations were undertaken on D182. Eventually it was found that the coil in the voltage relay was defective. The offending relay has was removed and repaired. The loco will now take power in air brake mode but not in vacuum so further investigations are underway to find the fault. It is hoped to complete the top end overhaul of the loco over the winter by removing and overhauling the other 6 cylinder heads.
44008 Penyghent hauled trains at the Peak Rail Diesel Gala which was held over the weekend of 20th/21st September, sharing services with 31270 and 47635. The loco has recently been fitted with a quarter set of replacement new batteries allowing the tired ones to be replaced since starting the loco has become a problem. The owning group are considering the use of a small air compressor to build up the air pressure before an attempt at starting the loco is made. Class 44’s have air operated start contactors requiring the air system to be charged before a start engine is possible. This means that the batteries get severe use running the locos air compressor to build up air pressure in the locos air system, before turning the engine. D4 was modified from air-start many years ago and like 45’s and 46’s is started and then the compressed air is left to build up before the loco can be moved.
It is planned to overhaul the locos injectors and the group hope to get the isolated traction motor on the loco checked out over the winter. There are also a few minor air leaks to be located and resolved. The group are planning to manufacture a headboard to be used next year to celebrate the fact that the class 44 is 50 years old in 2009. D8 has a running day on 4th October where the loco is planned to haul all of the railways services for the day and is planned to work top and tail with a steam loco at the Halloween event on Friday 31st October.
45060 Sherwood Forester has had all of the damaged windings from its generator removed, cleaned out internally in readiness for the new windings. The next job is to make a former to enable all of the new windings to be pressed into shape and then insulated. Updates about the work on 45060 and 45105 can be found at http://carl9188.fotopic.net/ 45060 has provisionally been booked to appear at the Swanage Diesel Gala, Friday 8th until Sunday 10th May 2009 after missing out this year due to the generator repairs.
45105 is progressing very well and the Rail Power event at Barrow Hill over the August Bank Holiday gave an excuse to show the loco off. Bodyside grills were refitted to the loco and it was painted on one side in BR Blue. The nose end at number 2 end was repainted and the headcode blinds fitted replacing the domino headcode that had been present for some time.
The vacuum exhauster has been reassembled and fitted into position under the brake frame before being tested. There is still some pipe work to be fitted around the exhauster.
Bodywork repairs continue with the drivers and secondmans side cab panels being replaced at number 1 end with new brackets fitted for the hand rails. The driver’s desk has been fitted and completely rewired at number 1 end. Replacement batteries have been fitted to the loco allowing the first start of the loco for over 4 years to occur on 20th July and the locos traction motor blowers, compressors and radiator fan to be tested. These items have not been run for 21 years since the loco was withdrawn on 11th July 1987 at Tinsley following a traction motor fire whilst working 1F11 the 16:48
45112 The Royal Army Ordnance Corps was used on some of the shuttles at the Barrow Hill Rail Power event held over the August Bank Holiday. 45112 worked top and tail with D9520 on the short demonstration line with two passenger coaches on both Friday 22nd and Sunday 24th August. The locos buffer beams had been cleaned with a needle gun and painted red again. The yellow ends have also been repainted.
66011 hauled 45112 from Barrow Hill to Knottingley on Friday 5th September as 0D45 the 14:50 Barrow Hill to Knottingley running via Beighton, Swinton,
45118 The Royal Artilleryman failed with a brake fault prior to working services at the
The
D123 took part in the Great Central Railway’s Mail by Rail event over the weekend of 26th/27th July because no steam locos were available. On the Saturday of the event D123 missed a trip as the number 2 end straight air brake began to blow through and lost all of the loco’s air quicker than the compressor could create it. The loco was retired to the shed and a replacement straight air brake fitted which allowed the loco to continue working services at the event. Over the weekend of the event, D123 hauled a variety of freight, passenger and empty stock trains.
D123 was booked to haul the 12:15 and 14:15 diesel hauled services from Loughborough on 30th/31st August, but in the event both of these services were hauled by a spare steam loco that was in steam and available. On Wednesday 3rd September, D123 was used on ‘drive a loco’ services all day, hauling two empty stock trains from Loughborough to Leicester North and return in the morning and then a light engine trip and another empty stock trip in the afternoon.
With no driver available for the booked loco, D1705, on both Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September, D123 hauled the diesel turn on Saturday and Sunday. Monday 8th September saw D123 haul an evening passenger trip from Loughborough to Leicester North and return for Network Rail staff that had been on a training course at the railway all day.
Wednesday 10th September saw D123 haul its heaviest train since it was preserved as part of the testing of the newly built A1 steam loco 60163. 3 test runs were planned to allow the A1 to haul 11 coaches from Loughborough to Leicester North, with a diesel on the north end to haul the train back to Loughborough as the train was too long to allow an engine to run-round at
The GCR held its end of year diesel gala from Friday 12th until Sunday 14th September, with D123 taking part alongside 5 other diesels and a DMU. On the Saturday of the event D123 hauled two return trips of the line and Sunday 15th September it hauled 3 trips of the line. On Sunday of the event, D123’s third trip was piloted by D5185 to recreate the old Midland Region practice of double heading and using pilot locos.
D123 hauled the 13:15 service from Loughborough on Saturday 20th September which is usually the lunchtime steam hauled dining service. On this occasion the service was formed of passenger accommodation only with the dining train departing Loughborough at 13:30. D123 will haul the diesel turns at the Great Central Railway over the weekend of Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th October and is expected to take part in the railways Santa Specials through December.
45132 had its generator disconnected from its engine and sent away for repair on Tuesday 29th July.
45133 was on display at the Midland Railway – Butterley’s Works Open day recreation over the August Bank Holiday in ex-works condition. The loco has been repainted into BR Blue livery with full yellow ends and retains its high intensity headlights. Unfortunately the painter gave the loco red bufferbeams, following the previous colour the bufferbeams had been painted, forgetting that black bufferbeams had been requested. It is planned for the loco to have the bufferbeams painted black at a later stage. Initially it had been hoped that the loco could be started at the event, but unfortunately when an engine start was attempted on the Bank Holiday Monday, it was found that the batteries were not up to the job. The Class 45/1 Preservation Society, owners of the loco, are looking at options to replace the locos batteries.
The overhaul of 45135 3rd Carabinier at Bury on the East Lancs Railway is progressing well. 48 new transition bushes have been made and a cylinder head stud that broke off when a cylinder head was removed has been drilled out. The back of the cab bulkhead has been needle gunned and primed in red oxide. New rubber has been purchased for the push tubes with the rebuilding of the fuel pump and push rod equipment planned for October. 4 of the 6 cylinder heads removed from one bank on the power unit have been overhauled, with one more of the originals to go. The other cylinder head has been scrapped due to a loose and worn valve stem. This head will be replaced with a yet to be overhauled one.
The nose end crown and front from the number 2 end of 45149 has been removed, followed by the traction motor blower that is housed in the number 2 nose end. The group have overhauled the spare traction motor blower from the cab/nose end of 45128 and once new carbon brushes are fitted, this traction motor blower will be installed into 45149. Whilst the nose end has been removed from the loco, the opportunity has been taken to remove and paint some of the exposed pipe work and remove the driver’s instrument panel for overhaul. Overhauled instruments have already been refitted into the driver desk at number one end.
The power unit was craned back into the loco on August 5th, which is a major step towards the locos return to traffic. Most of the pipe work at the free end of the power unit has been reconnected, with only a few hoses required to finish the job. The fuel pipe from the header tank to the engine is required since it is missing. During power unit lift it was noticed that the instrument panel on the brake frame had some broken brackets. These have subsequently been repaired and spray painted along with the fuel drip tray.
The engine room roof is receiving attention with the doors removed. Some riveting was required as well as new roof clamps made which involved folding quarter inch thick steel as some were missing. The locos injectors have also been sent away for assessment/overhaul.
A start has been made to the locos bodywork, with the external area around the electrical cubicle the first area to have metal cut-out followed by the areas around the radiators.
46010 was started up for the first time this year during the second weekend of August and was tested by running around Llangollen shed. The planned bodywork repairs have not started due to lack of shed space and the decision of the Llangollen diesel group to reduce the size of their diesel fleet. The diesel group advertised all of their fleet of locos (D8142, 25313, 37240, 46010 and D1566 as well as a diesel shunter) as available for sale by tender with a closing date of 31st July 2008.
At the beginning of September it was announced that the Llangollen diesel group were to keep 25313, 37240 + D1566 and D8142, 46010 and the diesel shunter being sold.
46035 Ixion resides at the Crewe Heritage Centre with many parts removed for an overhaul that was started when the loco was at Leeds Midland Road Freightliner Depot, but through pressure of other work was stopped. Nothing has been done to the loco since its arrival at the Heritage Centre at
Mikes Memories Autumn
The view of 45005 flying along with the turbo whistling through the cutting at Sutton Bonnington on October 5th 1985 is a particular favourite of mine. It captures a few elements that I like, the location, diesel loco photography, 45005, countryside, blustery sunny autumn days and Peak hauled train services. To take these elements in order, the location at Sutton Bonnington in the long cutting through which the
Photographing locos was a very rewarding hobby for me in the 1980’s. I enjoyed the planning and map reading to find locations, walking across fields to find the best vantage point, researching train movements, waiting in anticipation and then the thrill of the chase to get a good picture. And of course the element of chance finding something unexpected here like an extra Flyash train to or from Ratcliffe on Soar power station. I don’t photograph trains today, in too many ways it’s just not the same as back then.
45005 was a favourite local engine of mine which, along with many other Toton peaks, became very familiar faces around the country. Spending much of her life at Toton she was a regular around the
The local countryside is feels like home being familiar and attractive as well as this being a rural village location. Photographers don’t generally like to take pictures in the summer because the sun is too yellow so spring and autumn give better pictures. My picture isn’t technically great but it is valuable to me as a reminder of those times spent capturing Peaks at work. I love autumn days too and good weather doesn’t end when August does. Autumn brings brilliant sunny days with unexpected sunshine and warmth mixed with signs of the coming seasonal changes such as rain and blustery winds to chase the leaves from the trees.
The train service pictured is 3C01 the 10.13