A lot has happened since the previous report with our units busy providing services on the Llangollen Railway and our members busy carrying out maintenance/repair/restoration work. The majority of work has gone into our most recent acquisition, the 'Calder Valley' class 110, as will be seen in the 'Unit-specific work' section below.
Giving the class 108 a wash after its recent outings.
Banished from the yard temporarily, the Wickham sits and awaits the yard to be shunted around. The class 26 passes on the third service train.
Heading back to depot after everything else was back in place. Another 1200 litres of fuel dispensed in one session.
The 4-car class 108+109 set in the process of swapping positions with the 2-car 127/108 set, as 2-car operation had been requested by the Railway for the start of the following week.
Since the previous report the railcar services at Llangollen have been provided by various combinations of the class 108, Wickham class 109, and the hybrid class 127/108.
The Wickham class 109 and the hybrid class 127/108 worked as a 4-car for the Railway's Classic Transport event during the weekend of 4-5 July...
'Diesel George' wonders how he's going to get the Wickham to its destination - it will need quite a run-up at Corwen to clear Green Lane!
Stuart, normally to be found dealing with woodwork and panelling in 'Cravens' car 56456, turned his hand to plumbing for a change. The supply for the toilet and sink was all reconstructed, and a new drain produced that can double as an emergency supply for lineside fires or coolant!
The sink hadn't had water in it for over 15 years.
Mike works on cleaning the remaining original panelling, where replacement would be difficult.
The 'missing luggage rack' project continues with the front tube now secured to the partition. Not sure if the luggage rack holds the partition still, or the partition supports the luggage rack? A bit of both perhaps!
Class 108 51933/54504
Taking steps ... a replacement step in production for the class 108 trailer cab.
The sliding windows in the Wickham set were cleaned out, and several were fettled in assorted ways. Benn demonstrates key equipment for this task.
George reassembling one of the sliding windows that had shed the plastic slider from the top.
Also noted during the exam were several seats where the fabric has suffered from exposure to sunlight. The cloth was manufactured for this railcar when it was restored nearly 25 years ago, but some was held back as a strategic reserve - it may be its time to see the light of day. Another expensive job coming up.
Oliver sitting in "the chair" and learning some of the basics of the controls.
Learning about vacuum brake systems and tests from George. The knowledge and understanding needs to be passed on to the next generations.
Favourite job for a hot day - testing the heaters. This one refused to run at all - a fan blade had broken loose and jammed the fan. A simple enough fix to replace the fan.
As if one heater wasn't enough to sort out on a hot day, another wouldn't play. The fuel solenoid wouldn't open unless given a few more volts from a battery charger. Again, a previously-tested spare was fitted, and heater no. 4 burst into life.
A few final checks and the fire system decides to play up. Fortunately a simple relay adjustment has dealt with it for now.
Class 110 51813/59701/51842
Graham and Shaun build up the first of the second class seats for class 110 vehicle 51813. They are rather more involved than the simple ones that most of the fleet have.
Admiring the end result. Only another 13 of those to go! This 'Trojan' moquette first appeared in the late 1950s, and appeared in a wide variety of vehicles over the next decades. A few railcars had it, though it was less common than the 'Bournemouth Blue' found in our class 108.
The first class seats are a similar design but with arm rests. These are being trimmed in 'charcoal check', another reproduction of a late 1960s design that was used into the 1970s and beyond. Debate continues as to whether the stripes should be horizontal or vertical - both have been seen in BR-upholstered vehicles. Ten more of these to build up as well.
The centre car arrived with a few broken windows. Finally we plucked up courage to investigate how to change those.
Graham investigates whether the window rubber we have in stock is suitable - for once we were lucky and it did. One window changed, the smaller ones will need to wait a little until we get some manufactured.
Elsewhere on the 110 ... Llion and Adam greasing axle bearings. One produced a broken circlip, but that appears to have been from some previous breakage - none were missing.
"Under the shade of a BSK" or something. Tom works on cleaning up the light fittings back to bare aluminium. A few techniques were tried before we finished up with some paint stripping pads in an angle grinder.
Andy 2 and Tom working on light fittings in the shed.
Ten light fittings reassembled and ready to refit next time. The plastic spacer fits between the (curved) ceiling and the (flat) light fitting.
More seat construction. They are quite a complex construction compared to the simple ones in the 108 that we did a couple of years ago. Declan, Shaun, John 2 and John 1 working through the pile.
Part of the day's produce ... a total of 12 of these pairs of seats were finished by the end of the weekend, enough for both first class saloons. The flooring needs sorting before they can all be fitted. Second class seats are for another day!
Painting the Formica partitions? Not quite ideal, but they had been covered over in BR days, then the covering was removed but left a poor finish. That had been previously painted to sort-of match the walls. A fresh coat will tidy the partitions up for now.
The end result is pretty tidy for now - not too far off the wall panel colour.
Homework ... air and vacuum gauges from the Calder Valley for calibration and smartening up. The fibreglass binnacle could also use a tidyup as well, and some improved gauge lighting.
Thanks to Allen Chatwood, John Joyce, Andy Lowe, Mike Martin and Stuart Phillips for supplying the pictures that were used in this edition.