March 2012

Shed space under the crane in "Number One Shed" is required to progress the engine repairs to 20 007, although at the present time this job has had to take a back seat due to other commitments elsewhere as well as at Ruddington, work will have resuming on the loco very shortly. (And hopefully come to a natural conclusion of having the loco available for traffic again). 

03/08/2011

As reported last time, the loco's number 1 bogie was dispatched for tyre turning at LNWR in Crewe, and has now returned and has been replaced underneath the loco.

Once the bogies were replaced underneath the loco, the task of re-connecting all of the Traction Motor cables (8 per motor, 32 in total), and various brake hoses and hand brake linkages could begin. All of this work was carried out in the days prior to the May Diesel Gala to ensure that the loco was fit to operate.

Sadly, during this work, it was noticed that the loco appeared to have a low coolant level, but on the other hand, a slightly higher than usual oil level in the sump of the engine. After further investigation it became clear that whilst the loco had been out of traffic one or more of the piston liner seals had become defective and that now, most of the engine coolant was now inside the sump along with the lubricating oil. ("Oh dear, what a terrible shame, how dreadfully inconvenient" we all said to each other).

Towards mid June, we investigated where the coolant leak was inside the engine, and discovered which liner seal was leaking. Work has now started to dismantle the engine to remove the air inlet manifold, exhaust, cylinder head, piston and connecting rod and finally the piston liner. Ironically, once all of this has been carried out (removing around 1 ton of steel, and aluminium from the loco.... mostly out of the roof of the loco), the procedure to change the piston liner seal will take less than 5 minutes. Then everything else can be refitted.

04/03/11

E6016 was used to shunt D8007 into the shed before We lifted the loco off her bogies today so that the cab end bogie can be sent off for tyre turning at Crewe LNWR, everything went as planned and the haulage was provided by DJ Milner Haulage, whilst the loco was in the air the oportunity was taken to examine the condition of the underneath of the loco for any defects etc, and also carry out some maintenance to items you cannot reach usually and the bogies are being given some running maintenance also. Hopefully D8007 will be seeing alot more action very soon.

11/10/10
Our oldest mainline loco continues in traffic having seen use at the railways two day "Diesel Gala" earlier in the year, and also over the weekend of the recent "Mixed Traction/Traction Engine Gathering" where the loco worked passenger trains with RSH "Ugly" Number 56, and also a demonstration freight with Class 25 "D7629".
At the present time 20007 sees limited use due to a problem with the loco's trailing wheel set, which received a large "flat" in BR service prior to our ownership of the loco. To rectify this the loco would normally require a trip to a wheel lathe to have it's wheels turned and re-profiled, but sadly due to the age and wear of the wheel sets that 20007 stands upon, this would result in the wheel sets becoming too small for regular usage (this is especially important with the GCRN being fortunate to have a connection to the mainline, as in the future it is hoped that the loco may visit other railways and may require to be hauled on the "Mainline", so the wheel sets will have to conform to the standards laid out by Network Rail). Fortunately, we have a spare set of bogies with almost new wheel sets fitted, so its our plan over the latter part of the summer to lift the entire loco and carry out a bogie and wheel set change. This will enable to be used more frequently in the future, and now with the cab heaters also working will become popular with the crews and visitors to the cab.
But (as with everything there's always a "But" and always something else to do), in the meantime we are also planning to carry out some minor rectification work to the loco's power unit (engine). This will see the timing chain adjusted, and also a fuel injector change. This hopefully will clear up some of the heavy smoking that the loco suffers from in the cold weather (although all English Electric engines always smoke, sometimes in quite a spectacular manner whilst cold).
After this work has been carried out we hope that "007" (as it is known to us) will become a more regular performer.