Great Gable News No. 162 - August 2009
Dear Club Members,
Welcome to our 162nd edition of Great Gable News. Prompted by D4’s 50th birthday celebrations on September 26/27th, I think we should reflect on the achievements our part time voluntary organisation has seen where this newsletter represents 161 issues I have compiled and produced over 27 years. In the Memories feature towards the rear of the newsletter, I have indulged myself (as usual) by reflecting on my own experiences in diesel loco preservation that started with Great Gable in June 1981. Since then we have been successful in acquiring representatives of each Peak class for our collection and personal enjoyment.
44004 Great Gable Since D4 was started in May, the engine silencer has been removed after a hole was discovered. Using the on site services at the Midland Railway, the silencer was shot blasted to remove rust scale, weld repairs made and the unit lifted back into the loco and reconnected. Great Gable was started up again on Sunday 19th July without problems although the loco could not be left to run for too long due to low fuel. Many patches of new steel have been welded into the bodywork and new weather strips fitted to protect the joint between the cab and bodywork keeping water out. The cab roof ventilators have been cleaned and years of corrosion damage repaired by fabricating new ventilators. The repaint of the loco is in progress where the body sides and roof have been rubbed down. The loco has been moved into the diesel depot at Swanwick junction for the paintwork to be completed in August.
Inside the loco, the air intake area for the engine has been cleaned and painted. The engine intake filters have been cleaned, oiled and refitted. The engine heat exchanger has had corrosion damage in the end cover repaired. The three fire bottles have also been replaced inside the engine room after removal to allow electrical repairs.
Great Gables’ 50th birthday weekend
Plans for a weekend of Peak running featuring D4 as the star are being made for the weekend of 26th/27th September in celebration of D4’s 50th birthday anniversary. A special timetable of services over the weekend of 26th/27th September at the MRC will be Peak hauled by D4, 45041, 45133 and D182 subject to availability. An article about Great Gables preserved life has been submitted to Traction magazine for publication in September and press releases sent out to the principle railway magazines. Great Gable will carry the Peaks Express headboard from the railtour she hauled in October 1977 from Toton to
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I would appeal to any Club members who have time to spare to offer their help over this weekend where we may need assistance with various simple tasks such as handing out leaflets on the train or selling merchandising on the train. If you feel you can do this then please contact Mike Kerry at the Club address above. A DVD of preserved Peak thrash is being produced by Derby Club member John Goodale (sales details to be confirmed). The event will allow you to immerse yourself in Peak nostalgia for two days. Two invitations are being discussed for Great Gable to visit other railways next year.
45041 Royal Tank Regiment remains operational and available for service. The ‘Tank’ is next in line for bodywork repairs and repainting again in blue livery.
45108 was filled up with water over the weekend of 18th/19th July and checked for water leaks. It was discovered that one of the end covers on the locos heat exchanger needed to be repaired and repairs were completed last weekend to cure the old Peak problem of cavitation and corrosion in the water system. With a set of batteries now fitted in the loco, it was possible to run the triple pump to check the water system under pressure. A few jobs were discovered like controller interlocks not working, sticking fuel pumps, bleeding the oil and water systems and various leaks but this is another step forward in the return to traffic of the loco. Further equipment checks are being undertaken prior to a start of the loco later this year. She has appeared on the internet and on our website in glorious blue livery and will be on display at the Great Gable 50th birthday weekend on September 26/27th. Work to repair the corroded internal air pipes continues as does internal cleaning.
D182 is serviceable and hauled the 11:10, 12:20, 13:50, 15:05 and 16:15 departures from Butterley top and tailed with steam loco 6233 on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th July. D182 was at the east end of the train, working from Hammersmith to Riddings. D182 has been invited to the Nene Valley Railway diesel gala which is being held from Friday 2nd until Sunday 4th October and will be moved as part of a convoy of locos from the Midland Railway Centre to the event.
44008 Penyghent had a spare set of injectors overhauled and fitted over the Winter. The loco developed a fault that meant that even when the master controller was moved to the off position, the triple pump continued to run. This was traced to a dirty contactor. The loco has also had a corroded pipe in the cab bulkhead repaired recently.
D8 was used in some filming work for a show called Skeletons during May and took part in the Peak Rail diesel gala over the weekend of 27th/28th June. D8 hauled two passenger and one freight train on each day of the diesel gala. The loco hauled all services at Peak Rail on Saturday 25th July as a 50th anniversary celebration event (even though its actual date into traffic was the 18th December 1959). The loco had been specially cleaned using a caravan wash cleaning agent which made the loco shine. A special headboard ‘D8 Penyghent 1959 – 2009’ was also carried during the day.
45060 Sherwood Forester has relaxed at Barrow Hill since its trip to the Swanage Railway in May and 45105 remains sheeted over in the yard at Barrow Hill whilst the team at Barrow Hill have concentrated their efforts on the restoration of 33035.
45112 The Royal Army Ordinance Corps continues to see use at Barrow Hill as an ETH supply for the Cargo-D air conditioned coaches based there as well as being used for shunts when the load is too much for 73134. Since the loco’s AVR has been tested and the Alternator field circuit connected up the right way, many of the problems the loco displayed at the Dartmoor Railway have gone although an earth fault remains.
45118 The Royal Artilleryman has moved from the Northampton and Lamport Railway to RVEL in Derby for insurance repairs to damage caused by cable theft last year on Monday 3rd August.
D123 continued its busy schedule during the period under review with testing work, some filming work and hauling some of the railways regular passenger services. On Wednesday 3rd June the loco was used to run to the reception siding at Quorn and collect the Network Rail Panel Wagons and the newly arrived 47714 and haul them back to Loughborough.
The following day the loco was used to run backwards and forwards over the 10 track panels that make up the railways newly constructed noise site. The rails of the noise site have been welded up and a track breather installed at each end of the site, so that the track mimics continuously welded rail. The noise site can be found on the Down line just South of Quorn and Woodhouse station. New wagons to run on the network have strict noise limits that they must adhere to and there is nowhere else in the country that this noise testing can be undertaken. Previously wagons have been sent abroad to Switzerland for noise testing!
Monday 8th June saw D123 hauling the Network Rail Panel Wagons at speeds up to 60mph on a mileage accumulation day. On this date the 1000Km (622 miles) of fault free running carrying track panels was completed on the Great Central Railway which was one element of the testing work completed. On Wednesday 10th June D123 was used for a diesel driver experience course consisting of two return trips of the railway with coaches. The customer had requested to drive D5830 but when this was started, the fire bells rang continuously although no fire was obvious. As a consequence the class 31 was failed and D123 substituted. The following day 47714 and D123 were used to test the newly built Freightliner Lowliner wagon for laden brake testing. Both 47714 and D123 were on the north end of the wagon with 47714 included as it needed a test run to prove it was fit for traffic as well as for passing out drivers of D123 on the Class 47 because it is the reserve engine for any high speed testing on the railway.
The Great Central Railway was used for filming Cemetery Junction, a film directed by Ricky Gervaise and Stephen Merchant based around Reading in the early 1970’s. The film crew required diesels rather than steam locos and when they were given the choice of all of the operational diesels based upon the GCR, they selected D123 as their ‘main’ loco and D1705 for some secondary filming. D123 was used to move a selection of coaches to Rothley on the evening of Sunday 21st so they would be out of the way for when filming started the following day. From Tuesday 23rd until Friday 26th June D123 was used in filming shots but only on Thursday 25th June did the loco venture out of station limits at Loughborough. On Thursday 25th D123 was used for the final scene of the film where the main characters are on a train leaving Cemetery Junction. The filming was done around Kinchley Lane with the loco running at 60mph hauling 6 coaches. On one of the trips the train was halted by radio message at almost 60 m.p.h just before it reached Kinchley Lane as a cloud was in the wrong place for the film crew!
D123 hauled the regular diesel hauled service on Sunday 28th June before returning to testing work the following day with measurements of the noise site being undertaken. On Tuesday 30th June D123 hauled the Network Rail Panel wagons with a long bogie ‘Perch’ wagon on either end over the noise site for noise readings to be taken. At lunchtime the wagons were turned in the yard at Quorn by Heanor Haulage so that noise readings could be taken from the wagons ‘other side’. It is not possible to take noise readings from both sides unless the track is in single line use due to the noise picked up by the microphones over the other line when something passes.
Paperwork for the Great Central Railway to be allowed to run test trains at speeds of up to 75mph was received at the end of June following a major infrastructure upgrade around the curve at Kinchley Lane on the Down line. D123 was used on the evening of Wednesday 1st July to pass drivers for driving at 75mph for some of the subsequent testing work that has been booked on the railway. On Thursday 2nd and Monday 6th July D123 was used with the Lowliner wagon in a series of slip tests, where the distance the wagon took to stop was measured at speeds up to 75mph. On Thursday 2nd the wagon was laden and on Monday 6th empty.
The Freightliner Lowliner wagon has been fitted with its own wheelslip detection units on each bogie and these units were tested on 9th July when washing up liquid was sprayed on to the railhead from the wagon behind D123. The wagon brakes were then put on, independent of D123’s brakes to try and make the wagons wheels slip so that the wheel slip detection units could compensate for this. Just before lunchtime a high pressure fuel pipe split on D123 so testing had to be temporarily halted while the loco was retired to Loughborough shed and a new pipe fitted. Two half days of testing on 16th & 17th July were also undertaken with D123 and the wagon when tape was secured to the railhead and then soaked in water to simulate leaves on the line. Again the wagon was independently braked from D123 to try and slide the wheels so the detection units could be tested compensating for the problem.
D123 was also used over the weekend of 11th/12th July to cover the diesel hauled passenger service since a driver was not available to drive D5830 on Saturday and D1705 on the Sunday. In addition, the Sunday morning DMU turn was not staffed so D123 hauled 2 coaches in place of the DMU. The following Sunday D123 again hauled the diesel turn. Due to all of the high speed running the loco had been doing as part of the testing almost every brake block has been changed over the last couple of months due to the amount of wear they get braking from speeds of up to 75mph.
D123 was specifically requested to take part in the Great Central Railways Mail by Rail event which was held over the weekend of 25th/26th July. The highlight to the Mail by Rail event is the Travelling Post Office Mail collections at Quorn where a special viewing area is constructed to allow the public to watch the mail collection. The TPO trains are allowed to run at 35mph through the mail exchange apparatus. This year was the first year that mark 1 TPO vehicles have been used at the event as the vintage TPO vehicles that have been used at past events have been retired. The Vintage Carriage Trust who own and maintain the TPO coaches were very keen to have D123 haul the TPO as many of them remember the TPO train when they were younger watching trains pass through Burton on Trent.
D123 hauled the first TPO of the day on Sunday 26th July, departing Loughborough at 10:25 before hauling a variety of freight and passenger trains through the day. The following day D123 was in use for a drive a loco course during the afternoon hauling two trips from Loughborough to Leicester North and return with 6 coaches. D123 is booked some further testing in August and is then to take part in the Autumn Diesel Gala at the Great Central Railway which is being held from Friday 11th until Sunday 13th September. The loco is also booked to haul the diesel hauled service on Sunday 20th September.
45133 stepped in to haul the 11:15, 14:00 and 16:15 services from Butterley on Sunday 19th July, the rostered loco 33201 was not available. The loco is part way through an engine room repaint and has spent some time recently over a pit to allow the greasing of the axle boxes and traction motors to be completed. The brake hangers and traction motors still need to be cleaned. 45133 is expected to work trains at the D4 50th Anniversary event at the MRC over the weekend of 26th/27th September.
45135 3rd Carabinier is still out of service at the East Lancs Railway due to on-going pipework and engine repairs and the loco is not expected to return to traffic until 2010.
On-going track work in Toddington yard has hampered the progress on 45149 mentioned in the previous issue of Great Gable News. The sump drain has yet to be reconnected as the loco needs to go over a pit for this to happen. The silencer needs a repair to the internal baffles and some of the spigots that hold the cover on top of the silencer are broken so 13 new replacements have been made by group.
Two new feet for the silencer have been made as the originals were broken off in 1993. The silencer roof section was also repaired by the group’s welder. The engine intake air filter is now back on top of generator following an overhaul that included parts from a class 37 cab being used and some welding repairs. The last engine room floor panel has been repaired (another outstanding issue from when the group took ownership of 45149). This floorplate goes over the main generators bus bars. The floorplate had been twisted and required straightening using a JCB and brute force! The next tasks are to sort out the broken red glass fibre cover (does anyone know of a spare that the group can negotiate over?) and replace the leather bellows between turbo charger and air intake which was in poor condition.
The nose end is back on at number 2 end with the side door frames being refitted and about 50 new holes drilled in the new plate work to fasten the nose end onto the loco frame. The tail lights have also been re-fitted. The nose-end louvre doors will need some special attention due their poor condition. In the cab, a start has been made on back bulkhead wall insulation. Two floor panels have also received new aluminium trim. It is planned to refit the power controller, cooker cupboard and various bits of pipework into the cab in the next couple of weeks. Bodywork repairs on the loco have reached the filling, sanding and priming stage on one side of the loco.
46010 has had minor repairs to its heat exchanger undertaken as one of the many tubes was found to be leaking and needed to be blanked off. The loco was then successfully started and took power at Llangollen on Saturday 18th July. Mechanically the loco was found to be in a reasonable condition, especially taking into consideration the amount of time out of service. A video of the first start of 46010 in over 18 months can be found on YouTube at the following address – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bA3_qqeQfw A new home for the loco is being sought following the locos owning group receiving an eviction notice to remove 46010 from the Llangollen Railway.
Mikes Memories Another Great Gable Anniversary
Looking at the cover picture of Great Gable standing proudly in the platform at Butterley station back in September 1984, I can see a lot that reminds me of what this hobby means to me. First of all is the loco itself in which I became a shareholder in the owning company back in 1981 when the newly formed Peak Locomotive Preservation Company Ltd sought contributors to buy a Class 44. I thought after committing £250 of my savings that I would either get my money back if the bid was not successful or become a part owner. We won the bid and became Great Gable’s second owners after she had served for 22 years service with British Rail and am confident at the time that no thought at all was given to how long this pass time would last. After 28 years, I am getting used to it and all it means to me and all it entails to keep the locos operational.
The next most important element about owning a diesel loco is the people around you to support. We are very lucky over many years to have dedicated regular volunteers who sacrifice personal time and Sunday lunches to work on our locos almost every week. I cannot stress this aspect of loco ownership too highly for it would be too much to own a loco by yourself and even worse working alone trying to keep one operational. There is no fun at all without appreciating a shared experience.
The event pictured also required a great deal of commitment from the owners simply to arrange the event and prepare the loco where unseen hours are spent in an effort to please the visitors so they will come again. Comradeship is everything in a large scale hobby like this as are useful contacts to assist with specialist knowledge and material necessary to keep these beasts.
The people in the hobby also mirror life itself since we can see the first Footplate Inspector at the Midland Railway standing by D4’s cab door, Bill Foster. Bill and fellow footplate man Roy Holmes, both formerly of Westhouses shed and later Toton, were always enthusiastic and helpful guiding us new boys in the art of train handling even though the maximum speed on private lines is 25 m.p.h. Sadly both of these experienced gentlemen of the railway have now died.
Money is very important too in a potentially expensive hobby like this where even a simple commodity like paint costs £80 per tin. This is after all not easy work or car restoration because you must use railway industry grade material and equipment. Tools from Machine Mart just wont do for loco work. The cover view at the 25th birthday event for Great Gable shows sales stalls attending the event to raise money for our hobby. We used to have our own sales stall but the effort and expense attending events coupled with a declining event calendar over the years has seen this activity discontinued. Our locos are now funded by monthly contribution from the shareholders of a small but regular donation that builds up into share purchases over the months and provides revenue for the restoration process. The Great Gable Club too has a role here where subscription money and many generous donations made at the time of subscription renewal provide valuable revenue streams for the locos.
Visitors to the host railway are essential for the continued existence of our locos since without a railway to operate on, where would we be? When Great Gable first arrived at the Midland railway Centre, the line only went as far as Swanwick junction which itself was an undeveloped former colliery site. Of equal importance are the facilities to service the needs of diesel locos and we are truly fortunate that the Midland Railway whilst short in length is a very capable location to restore locomotives where almost any task can be undertaken. Our own group has renewed the wheel tyres on two of our four locos, changed traction motors, repaired generators and engines, bodywork and all of the other smaller pieces of equipment that go to make up an operational diesel loco.
Back in 1984, not much more than a phone call to British Rail was required to cause visiting locos to appear at an event, such were the strong links between the heritage railway and the real railway. Over time now much of this history is forgotten so to attract a visiting loco to our September event this year would mean paying a massive bill for hire and insurance of an expensive asset. Back in 1984, Class 24 97201 attended the event at no cost since the nationalised railway was well aware of its history and therefore willing to support such events. Even the BR cinema coach appeared for events at no cost to us via several shunts and parcel train moves around the Midlands to get it to us from Birmingham. The 25th anniversary event saw staff at Toton send locos to display including a Class 31 and 56 again without cost.
Our cover picture has all of these elements, an operational loco, railway people, visitors, unseen commitment, fund raising sales stands and friendships. I hope the September 26/27th event goes well this year and is well attended with glorious sunshine. I look forward to meeting you there and enjoying the opportunity to bath in Peak nostalgia. And of course I hope to witness the 75th birthday of Great Gable on September 26th 2033 by which time I will be 75 too. Will Great Gable still be operational then? That’s something to think about and look forward to.
Next newsletter out during the first week of October 2009 for which editorial contributions should reach the Great Gable Club address in the preceding week for inclusion.
www.greatgable.co.uk