The rebuilding of the cab of Gloucester Power car 51118 is now showing great signs of progress as the pre-cut front sheets are welded into position, giving an idea of what the completed vehicle will look like.
At the same time all the interior sliding windows and quarter lights are being removed so that new ones can be made.The current plan is to proceed until the bodyshell is complete and watertight before deciding on the next step to be taken.
A cold and damp Pentrefelin shed saw several members at work over the weekend. The weather was typically winter Welsh and the units were all frozen over.
Perhaps the biggest achievement was the successful completion of repairs to a dripping tap in the Class 104 toilet compartment. This might not sound like much but it involved the removal of much of the plumbing and then the sink itself so that the appropriate joints could be dismantled and new seals fitted. The sink is now fully reassembled and we hope this job won't have to be done again for a while.
Elsewhere in the depot work has started on the M-Exam of the Class 127/108 unit. This is the six-yearly heavy exam and to make a start we changed all the filters, some of which are in pretty inaccessible places. Unfortunately a bolt securing one of the filter bowls was broken and this had to be changed for one from stock.
A large contingent of seats has been loaded into the van and transported to the trimmers. These are for the centre section of Class 104 50528 and once this is done this will be the second time that this set has been retrimmed during its preservation career.
Work is progressing well on the cab rebuild of Gloucester 51118. The driver's side pillar repair and corner is now more or less complete and there was a major step forward when the new laser-cut cab front panels were delivered this week.
The Class 141 worked both days at the weekend at the Midland Railway but during the week it had attention to one of its speedometers which had stopped working. A small rewire has cured the problem but the speedo is still slow at returning to zero and we'll be looking at replacing it.
Also fixed was a fault on one of the power doors which had become defective. This was traced to a terminal block in the electrical cubicle which was not allowing current to pass through and has now been fixed.
Work is progressing well to rebuild the cab front of Gloucester Driving Motor Brake 51118. Repairs to the corner structure on the secondman's side have been completed and the fabricated new corner section has been welded in.
On the driver's side cab corner metal is being carefully cut out to see what work will be required, while at the same time repairs are being carried out to the frame. The method of repair being used is different to that used on the trailer as this time we are able to do the work without taking out the cab desk, something that will save us a great deal of time later on.
A first coat of top coat green has been applied to the newly-completed secondman's side of the coach which really brings the project to life.
It seems that the winter 'shutdown' period gets shorter and shorter each year. This time we had exactly seven days between the last duty of 2016 (on New Year's Eve at Llangollen) and yesterday's Sunday service at the Midland Railway Butterley.
Sam Bridges sent us this picture of a rather overcast Butterley and with the 141 awaiting its first passengers.
At Llangollen work has progressed on the Cravens trailer 56456. The last of the full length pieces of timber that will eventually support the new ceiling panels have been fitted into place as has the curved timber fitting to the toilet end wall.
Members tackled some of the 'matters arising' from recent running days on the Class 104 unit. Adjustments were made in the throttle motor box on 50454 where engine no 1 wasn't doing much in the first two positions. A couple of air pipes were also exchanged as they were leaking. A blowing throttle motor piston on the other vehicle was also sorted out.
At Butterley work's been concentrated on rebuilding the framework for the cab on Gloucester Power car 51118. Currently the corners and corner panels are being rebuilt and panelling fitted to the sides, just ahead of the cab doors. Work to remove the remaining sliding lights and quarter panels is also under way.
A Happy New Year to all of our readers, supportes, and volunteers.
There were some interesting workings at the Llangollen Railway's 'Winter Warmer' event last Friday and Saturday which saw a four-car unit hauled by a Class 26 locomotive and also hauling two box vans, much in the style of the 1950s.
In the workshop at Pentrefelin the repainting of the Wickham progresses with undercoat now applied to the secondman's side of the power car. A badly dragging sliding door on the cab of the trailer was repaired after it was found that bolts had fallen out of the top bracket.
Elsewhere there was a van running between Llangollen and Butterley taking seats from the 108 and the 104 for retrimming and also spare seat frames from the 104 which will go to the power coaters in due course.