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27th September 2021

APPEAL: Please raise donations for Llangollen Railcars whenever you shop online!

Please consider turning your everyday online shopping into FREE donations that will help to support the maintenance and restoration of our railcars. You can do that by shopping via https://easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/llangollenrailcars/ or, in the case of Amazon purchases, signing up to Amazon's fundraising site https://smile.amazon.co.uk and choosing Llangollen Railcars as your chosen charity. Each eligible purchase will then result in the online store making a small donation to our charity. Every little helps so thanks in anticipation of your support!



General


The period since the previous report has seen the hybrid class 104/108 enter traffic and an "all hands to the pumps" effort to remove the Wickham's faulty no. 1 engine in order to investigate the nature of the fault.


Information about those and other happenings can be found in the appropriate sections below.



Out and About


With its internal/external "refresh" complete, the hybrid class 104/108 unit consisting of class 104 power car no. 50454 and class 108 trailer car no. 56223 was finally allowed out to play on Saturday 25 September and it spent both days of the weekend working the 'C' timetable alongside a locomotive-hauled service. The following photographs show it resting at Llangollen and Carrog stations respectively on the Sunday...

Hybrid class 104/108 at Llangollen

Hybrid class 104/108 at Carrog

Prior to that the class 108 fulfilled a number of weekday turns and is seen here waiting to cross to the main line at Goods Junction on its way from the depot to Llangollen Station on the morning of Thursday 23 September...


Class 108 at Llangollen Goods Junction



Unit-specific work


Cravens class 105 trailer car no. 56456 (undergoing restoration at Llangollen)

Some more wall panels were cut and fitted in the rear compartment...


Class 105: Fitting more wall panels

It was also necessary to cut and fit more timber round the fuel filler pipe so that the wall and fuel pipe cover could be fastened to it.

A search for some half window beading with a recess to take the sliding window catch eventually struck lucky...


Class 105: Half window beading with recess



Wickham Class 109 50416/56171

The no. 1 engine, which had developed a knocking noise, was removed for investigation. That was carried out by lifting the vehicle enough to get a 4-wheel permanent-way trolley under the engine, lowering the engine on to the trolley, lifting the vehicle to enable the no. 2 bogie to escape (closely followed by the engine on its trolley) and then reinstating the bogie to make the vehicle mobile again.

That clearly took some time but, thanks to a time-lapse video, the whole sequence can be watched in 2.5 minutes!

After the engine had been lowered on to the permanent-way trolley...


Class 109: No. 1 engine after being lowered on to a trolley

it was moved to a location where a team of experts set about dismantling it...


Class 109: Dismantling the faulty no. 1 engine

After the "bottom" end of the engine was exposed...


Class 109: Bottom end of the faulty no. 1 engine

it was discovered that, as suspected, there was a crack in the crankshaft (highlighted with a red circle) near the big end bearing of the no. 1 cylinder...


Class 109: A crack in the crankshaft of the no. 1 engine


Thanks to Dewi Davies for producing the time-lapse video and to Allen Chatwood, Brian Nicholls, John Joyce, Graham Parkin and Martin Plumb for supplying the pictures.

13th September 2021

APPEAL: Please raise donations for Llangollen Railcars whenever you shop online!

Please consider turning your everyday online shopping into FREE donations that will help to support the maintenance and restoration of our railcars. You can do that by shopping via https://easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/llangollenrailcars/ or, in the case of Amazon purchases, signing up to Amazon's fundraising site https://smile.amazon.co.uk and choosing Llangollen Railcars as your chosen charity. Each eligible purchase will then result in the online store making a small donation to our charity. Every little helps so thanks in anticipation of your support!



General


A big thank-you to everyone who responded to news of the recent graffiti attack with messages of support, donations etc. It was very much appreciated.


Information about the work that has been carried out on our vehicles at Llangollen and Butterley since the previous report can be found in the unit-specific sections below.



Out and About


Since the previous report the Wickham class 109 has been used for all of the passenger services up to, and including, Saturday 11th September when its number 1 engine developed a fault that required immediate investigation (see the class 109 section below for more information). The baton was, therefore, passed to the class 108 for the services from Sunday 12th onwards.





Unit-specific work


Hybrid class 104 power car no. 50454 / Class 108 trailer no. 56223

Regular readers will know that the aforementioned vehicles were recently coupled together to form a hybrid 2-car unit that can be used while their normal partners are undergoing repairs, and that the subsequent internal/external "wash and brush up" became rather more involved than originally anticipated. In the case of the outside of the class 104 power car, for example, it turned into a multiple-day, two-person exercise of filling, sanding and painting with undercoat. Most of that took place outside during a period of favourable weather but, so as not to tempt fate, the vehicles were split again and the class 104 power car moved into the shed for the work to be completed inside. The pictures below show the filling, sanding and undercoat-painting team making its way round the back and secondman's side of the vehicle...


Class 104 no. 50454: Filling, sanding, painting undercoat

Class 104 no. 50454: Filling, sanding, painting undercoat

Class 104 no. 50454: Filling, sanding, painting undercoat

...with the gloss painter in hot pursuit on the driver's side...


Class 104 no. 50454: Painting gloss



Class 108 51933/54504

A section of flexible exhaust pipe that had lost its flexibility was replaced on the exhaust of the no. 2 engine. The flexible pipe is needed to cope with the movement and vibration of the engine so the no-longer-flexible one that was removed was thought to have been responsible for the recent fracture further along the exhaust pipe.





Wickham Class 109 50416/56171

A previously-noted knocking noise from the no. 1 engine became considerably worse by the time the unit returned to the depot at the close of play on Saturday 11th September. Initial investigations suggested a crankshaft fracture and it was thought that an engine swap might be the most expedient way of getting 50416 up and running again. With that in mind, some time was spent preparing the spare engine for reactivation...


Preparing a spare engine for use

...and various components were disconnected and/or removed from the faulty engine as a way of gleaning more information about the nature of the fault as well as preparing for the engine swap...


Class 109: Dismantling the no. 1 engine



Class 127 vehicle no. 51618 (undergoing bodywork repairs at Llangollen)

The bodywork repairs to the secondman's side of the vehicle continued with the dismantling of the secondman's door and the first passenger door...


Class 127: Doors removed for dismantling

Each of the doors had its pull boards, trim panels, locks, and 'scissors' (the springs that push up the droplights) removed for servicing or replacement as appropriate...


Class 127: Dismantled doors


Thanks to John Joyce and Martin Plumb for supplying the pictures.

6th September 2021

APPEAL: Please raise donations for Llangollen Railcars whenever you shop online!

Please consider turning your everyday online shopping into FREE donations that will help to support the maintenance and restoration of our railcars. You can do that by shopping via https://easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/llangollenrailcars/ or, in the case of Amazon purchases, signing up to Amazon's fundraising site https://smile.amazon.co.uk and choosing Llangollen Railcars as your chosen charity. Each eligible purchase will then result in the online store making a small donation to our charity. Every little helps so thanks in anticipation of your support!



General


Since the previous report, it has been a very busy period for us, both in terms of the provision of train services and the maintenance/restoration work carried out although we regret to report that the latter included some work that we had not bargained for...

When one of our drivers turned up for work on Wednesday 25 August he was dismayed to discover that two of our vehicles had been spray painted by vandals who, it was subsequently discovered, had gained unauthorised access to the site during the early hours of the morning.


51933 graffiti damage

56223 graffiti damage

Fortunately, rapid heroic efforts by members of our group, helped by some other volunteers at Pentrefelin, using copious quantities of rags, solvents and "elbow grease" resulted in the removal of the graffiti with only minor damage to the paintwork...


56223 following the removal of graffiti

51933 following the removal of most of the graffiti

When the above picture was taken the solebar was still to be painted with some black paint to complete the job.

We are very grateful to all of those people who were prepared to drop everything and help to put things right in the nick of time. Needless to say the mindless vandalism resulted in time, effort and funds being diverted from more worthwhile things.



Information about the work that has been carried out on our vehicles at Llangollen and Butterley since the previous report can be found in the unit-specific sections below.



Out and About


Since train services reached Carrog once again on 21st August, the class 108 and the Wickham class 109 have, between them, run on fifteen days (at least two of which were added to our roster at short notice) and completed almost six hundred miles. All of that was done without incident, although there was one morning when the class 109 had to deputise for the class 108 which failed the 'fitness to run' examination due to an exhaust problem. According to the driver it "sounded like a boy racer's Corsa"!

On the 'associated fleet' front, the class 108 51907/54490, which spent many years based at Llangollen before moving to the Midland Railway, Butterley, carried an impressive number of people at its new home on Wednesday 5 September when it was used to shuttle people to Swanwick for an event organised by the local council. By the time the gates were closed after lunch for crowd-control purposes, it had transported 1600 people (or 3200 single journeys)!





Unit-specific work


Hybrid class 104 power car no. 50454 / Class 108 trailer no. 56223

A great deal of work has gone into preparing this recently-marshalled hybrid unit for use.

Internally the repairs to the vestibule ceiling and the guard's seat and surrounding area in 50454 are largely complete...


Class 104 50454: Repaired vestibule ceiling

Class 104 50454: Repaired guard's seat and surrounding area

and the application of some whiter-than-white paint to some ceiling panels in 56223 has resulted in a significant improvement...


Class 108 56223: Painted ceiling panels

Externally, aside from the considerable effort needed to remove graffiti from 56223, as has already been reported above, paint was removed from the windows of both vehicles in keeping with the philosophy that, when the scenery is a selling point, it helps to be able to see it through clean windows...


Class 104 50454: Removing paint from the windows

Class 108 56223: Removing paint from the windows

What started as some minor repairs to the bodywork of 50454 gradually turned into a larger-scale, multiple-day exercise of sanding, filling and painting with undercoat.

Having discovered a hole in the bodywork we got someone to look into it...


Class 104 50454: There's a hole in my.....dear Liza

Uugh - sorry - that was bad even by my standards but I couldn't resist it.

Class 104 50454: Fill, sand, repeat

Class 104: Painting undercoat

With all of that work taking place the resident spider was presumably beginning to get nervous...


Class 104: Spider's web



Class 105 Cravens vehicle no. 56456 (undergoing restoration at Llangollen)

The first wall panel was fitted in the rear compartment...


Class 105: Installing the first wall panel in the rear compartment



Class 108 51933/54504

Aside from the removal of the graffiti, which has already been reported above, the class 108 needed a repair to its no. 2 exhaust which put up a bit of a fight and required a trip to Halfords for some bits and pieces.





Class 127 vehicle no. 51618 (undergoing bodywork repairs at Llangollen)

The work to repair the bodywork continued along the secondman's side where it was decided to renew a complete panel instead of fitting multiple patches - something that is likely to turn out to be easier and better in the long run. Having removed the panel, it came as no surprise that the framework will also require some attention...


Class 127: Bodyside repairs

As a trial, a door panel was cut and then viewed from near and far...


Class 127: Sample door panel

Class 127: Sample door panel



Class 100 trailer car no. 56097 (undergoing restoration at the Midland Railway, Butterley)

The job to remove, reseal and refit the roof vent plates was completed and then attention returned to the inside with the installation of a couple of wall panels in the first class section...


Class 100: Installing a wall panel in the first class section

Class 100: Installing a wall panel in the first class section


Thanks to Allen Chatwood, Jim Jeffrey, Mike Martin and Graham Parkin for supplying the pictures.