There has, unfortunately, been a long gap since the previous report so there is now a lot of catching up to be done...
A lot of things have happened during the intervening period but the most notable was the official opening of Corwen Central Station during the weekend of 3/4 June. The station is a real credit to the members of the railway (past and present) who had the vision and engaged in the fundraising, design, construction and commissioning, much of which took place in user-unfriendly weather conditions!
Information about the services that our railcars have provided can be found under 'Out and About' below and work that has taken place on the railcars at Llangollen and Butterley can be found under 'Unit-specific work' below.
Since the previous report all of the railcar services have been operated by the Wickham class 109 and/or the hybrid class 104/108 in 2- and 4-car combinations.
Following the replacement of its no. 2 gearbox the Wickham class 109 unit was given a test run to (almost) Glyndyfrdwy and back during the evening of 27 May. The gearbox passed with flying colours and the outing provided this rare opportunity for a picture of the unit standing next to the Glyndyfrdwy outer home signal...
We were pleased to be able to join our colleagues in the Steam and Diesel departments in providing a three-train service to/from Corwen Central during the official opening weekend for the new station on 3/4 June. For that we used the 4-car unit which also provided some Saturday evening trips to transport railway staff and volunteers to/from a celebratory 'do' at Corwen...
The power car 50454 was given a Fuel Point (FP) exam and some repairs were carried out in trailer 56223 to try to prevent water leaking into the passenger saloon when the header tank for the toilet and washbasin is filled beyond a certain level.
A rummage through the stores resulted in the discovery of a number of the original timber beads as well as some of the aluminium ones for the cab...
It is not yet clear how many of them will be suitable for re-use but even the ones that are not will provide useful templates for the construction of replacements.
One of the timber beads was found to fit just above the driver's door...
A panel in the rear compartment was removed to gain access to the passenger communication (passcom) cable and some thought was given to installing a removable panel to facilitate ease of maintenance in the future...
A curved piece of timber that had been constructed as a "homework" project for the area above the driver's window was trial-fitted prior to being taken away again for minor modification...
The painting of the roof was completed and the buffer beams were needle-gunned, primed and painted with red gloss...
Wickham Class 109 (50416/56171)
The faulty no.2 gearbox was replaced with a reconditioned one. The process involved removing a section of exhaust pipe and a silencer to gain the necessary access, disconnecting the things that are connected to the gearbox (cardan shafts, air pipes, belts etc.), unfastening the gearbox, lowering it to rail level using a lifting trolley, moving it out of the way, and then doing all of those things in the reverse order with the replacement gearbox...
The penultimate step was to fill the gearbox with oil...
...and the final step was to commission a local photographer to secure the necessary picture for the group's photo album...
The unit was then taken on a test run to Glyndyfrdwy and back (see 'Out and About' above) to make sure that the new gearbox performed correctly. It did.
The faulty gearbox joined another one (ex 50528) that had been on the naughty step for a while. Both of them will now be sent away for assessment and hopefully repair...
The first dark green undercoat has now been applied to the outside of the vehicle...
...and green gloss has been applied to the insides of some doors...
Members of the Cravens restoration team kindly broke off from their Cravens duties to produce and trial-fit some wall panels on the secondman's side...
At first glance this might look like some point rodding outside a signalbox...
...but it is, in fact, a luggage rack. Following the discovery that it is almost impossible to reassemble the luggage racks after taking them apart for cleaning, due to the seemingly random positions of the screw holes, it has been decided to use the alternative technique of removing, cleaning and replacing one component at a time. The above picture shows that process in operation.
Unfortunately the 'Curse of the Gloucester' struck again when it was discovered that the luggage racks are almost impossible to install in the vehicle due to the fixing holes in the brackets failing to line up with the fixed bolts in the bodywork. Much lifting up and down of the rack ensued until it was possible to secure some fastenings near the middle prior to working outwards.
The job of fitting beading to the windows continued albeit with a minor distraction that no doubt caused a sinking feeling (in more ways than one?)...
Thanks to Allen Chatwood, John Joyce, Graham Parkin, Tez Pickthall and Craig Robertson for supplying the pictures.