One of our long-standing drivers, Dewi Davies, decided to hang up his 'handle and spoon' and retire from driving at the end of his driving turn on 18th October. He didn't want any fuss so we had to cancel our plans for 11 pipers piping, 10 lords-a-leaping, 9 ladies dancing, 8 signallers flagging etc. Nevertheless, we owe Dewi a big thank-you for his 30+ years' service, during which he undertook several additional roles at various times including that of Traction Inspector. He has driven almost 17000 miles since the records began in 1994 and rumour has it that he predates the records. The following picture shows Dewi driving the class 104 as part of a recent 'shunt-a-thon' at Pentrefelin...
As it happens, the class 104 also bowed out of service this month because of the need for repairs to its bodywork.
That wheelset will enable us to rebuild the bogie that was recently reduced to a kit of parts in the shed in order to provide parts for a repair to the class 104.
.The 'Unit-specific work' section below gives a flavour of the work that has been carried out on our railcars at Pentrefelin (Llangollen Railway) and Butterley (Midland Railway).
In keeping with tradition, we held our Heritage Railcar Weekend during the first weekend of October. This year's event was centred on Glyndyfrdwy, with one train shuttling between there and Llangollen and another shuttling to/from Corwen. The first train of the day from Llangollen to Glyndyfrdwy was a 6-car on the Saturday and an 8-car on the Sunday. That was the first time that we had operated an 8-car unit for many years! Saturday also saw an evening 'land cruise' train that did a return trip to Corwen with a stop for refreshments at Glyndyfrdwy.
The weekend also provided the last opportunity for people to ride on the class 104 for a while due to it being taken out of service immediately afterwards for much-needed repairs to its bodywork.
The following pictures give a flavour of the event...
It was suggested that the following picture, of class 104 vehicle 50454 and Wickham vehicle 50416, could be given the steam-flavoured caption, "Two A3s at Glyndyfrdwy"...
How's this for precision stopping...?
And finally - a driver's eye view from the evening train at Glyndyfrdwy on the Saturday evening...
The restoration has seen a lot of progress in recent weeks. As well as more beading being cut, drilled, stained, and installed in the vestibules, some 3x2 timbers were installed in the cab ceiling in order to split it into three panels...
Another of the doors received attention with the lock stripped, greased and reassembled. Unfortunately, the door lock receiving plate put up a bit of a fight thanks to some broken screws that had to be drilled out. It was then necessary to tap some new holes prior to securing the plate with new machine screws.
The heater fuel tank and some of the associated plumbing was removed and steam cleaned in readiness for painting, and some of the front bufferbeam components were also removed for similar attention.
Some investigation into the toilet cubicle plumbing was carried out. The tank will need to be tested for leaks before the internal team gets in there and covers it up!
It was surmised that water had found its way into one or more cylinders due to a failed head gasket and that turned out to be correct when the opportunity arose to dismantle the engine a few days later...
It turned out that the head gasket had blown to a stud and a water passage...
The unit has been placed inside the shed where it will be subjected to a winter work programme including the tidying up of the roof of 56223 (especially the cab roof) and attention to the radiator fan drives of 51618 which have been sounding unhappy for a while now.
Work on the class 127 is made difficult by the high density of underfloor equipment so the diagnosis and repair of the radiator fan drives will have to be preceded by the removal of lots of other equipment in order to gain access to the 'scene of the crime'. For a similar reason, what would otherwise be a relatively easy job of replacing the fuel filters is made doubly difficult by a heater being in the way...
The paint that was applied to the class 127 a couple of years ago is already starting to lose its shine and so it is being given a coat of varnish to make it shiny again...
Work on the Gloucester class 100 trailer car has progressed with the installation of more beading and wall panels...
Thanks to Allen Chatwood, Ryan Hughes, John Joyce, Mike Martin, Graham Parkin and Martin Plumb for supplying the pictures that were used in this edition.