The Wickham strays into unfamiliar territory to retrieve 56223 and put it back on our road in the shed.
In keeping with our usual tradition, the whole fleet was winterised shortly after our operating season finished at the end of October. That involves checking the antifreeze concentration in the engines, topping up with more antifreeze if necessary, and draining the toilet water tanks.
Measuring the antifreeze strength to figure how much more to add just in case we get a long cold spell during the winter. Do we get those any more?
Mostly it's a case of adding a couple of litres to counter any dilution that has occurred during the running season and restore the correct strength.
The 'Unit-specific work' section below gives a flavour of the work that has been carried out on our railcars.
A bit of 'bling' for 56456: door handles and grab handles re-chromed.
Christmas approaches: the interior of the class 108 part way through the process of being decorated for the 'Siôn Corn' specials in December.
The first class section of the class 108 part way through receiving its Siôn Corn decorations.
Oil & filters change for 51618. Almost 50 litres per engine.
The front and driver's side of 51618 looking very shiny once more, after a coat of varnish.
Fan drives, alternators and various other bits stripped off 51618 for attention. The fan drives have been thumping about a bit for some time due to worn rubber mounts.
The glamour of preservation ... steam cleaning the underneath. Somehow the fallout seems to end up on whoever is operating the steam cleaner.
Some of the produce from underneath sees the light of day for the first time in 40 years or more. Here the two compressors and fan drive gearboxes await attention from the steam cleaner.
Fan drive mounting brackets. The rubber bushes had deteriorated after (at least) 40 years of heat and oil and that was the cause of the fan drives thumping around.
Drawing out the remains of one of the old bushes using an improvised 'puller'.
Fortunately some "new" bushes were in stock, so we didn't have to go hunting around to get some made.
56223's fibreglass cab roof was starting to look a bit 'manky', so it was time to sort that out.
Sanded back to the original fibreglass, now 65 years old, and a bit porous in places.
Mixing resin for the cab roof. The kitchen scales probably won't be the same again!
Freshening up the grey while we're at it
First coat of white resin on the roof, and grey on the rest, to match the rest of the fleet.
Thanks to George Fletcher, John Joyce, Andy Lowe, Graham Parkin and Martin Plumb for supplying the pictures that were used in this edition.