reddragon
Established Member
Probably best you can't remember the last 2 years!Thanks....shame I sometimes can't remember what I did five minutes ago though!
Probably best you can't remember the last 2 years!Thanks....shame I sometimes can't remember what I did five minutes ago though!
Are the WLA still planning to go Mainline with it or has that plan changed?I’m really looking forward to Ranger coming back. I was on one of its last runs before it was taken out of service and reading through the work they’ve been doing on it, when it comes back it’s going to be one of hell of a machine.
As a nine year old, I saw Westerns during a family holiday to Cornwall in 1976. I might have even had one or two for haulage - I'll never know.
Golden Rail Holidays - remember them?
Rail / boarding house package holidays in Devon & CornwallI’ve definitely heard of them but I’m not sure what they were?
I do like some of the stuff BR did back in those days.Rail / boarding house package holidays in Devon & Cornwall
funnily enough my mother bought several sets of Golden Rail cups & saucers new from the local market - presumably fell off the back of a restaurant car..........
Excellent thread. Despite having never seen one 'in the metal', the Westerns are my fave of the hydraulics (barring the NBLs ofc lol), just so different to anything else.
Martin Loader - aka hondawanderer - has a selection pics of all 7 preserved examples in preservation, including D1048. This one of D1013 at Kidderminster is my pick of the bunch, as it captures the magic of the Westerns to a tee.
D1013 Kidderminster 13 October 1996
www.hondawanderer.com
Yeah, I wasn't at all surprised to see that he only one pic of Lady in view of her protracted restoration and overall elusive nature. Am pleased to see that she is being worked on however.Very nice shot of D1013 there. It’s quite telling that Martin only has one photo of D1048 though…
The Network Days are something I wish I had been alive to experience, the video/picture evidence of such events border on violating the proverbial watershed! Perhaps a subject for another thread...I do like some of the stuff BR did back in those days.
They were one huge party!The Network Days are something I wish I had been alive to experience, the video/picture evidence of such events border on violating the proverbial watershed! Perhaps a subject for another thread...
To put it mildly!They were one huge party!
There's a thread discussing those excellent Network Days elsewhere on this forum.
Back in 76 I think. Spent 2 days with a Rover ticket Exeter - Penzance and back with as much 52 haulage as I could find.
There were a fair few.
Alas the book did not survive. So just a memory.
Some on passenger, others on freight and stabled up in Newton abbot shed or tucked away in the station at Penzance.
Even spotted a couple of Hymeks at Laira.
It's the first time for some decades at least that the body is getting a full overhaul, taking it back to bare metal throughout. The good news is that it's reported that most of the bodywork is still in good condition, with the main repairs needed being around the cabs, and to the front valances, one of which had been rather crudely repaired decades ago following damage. Wherever necessary new steelwork is being welded in, and the opportunity is being taken to rebuild the damaged valance to its correct profiles, so the ends match each other. When finished, the body should be structurally sound and weatherproof for many years to come.Great to hear that campaigner is getting some love again, hasn't it previously had transmission or other issues which have rearer their heads again?
Seems like it's getting some fairly extensive repairs, the bodywork alone looks like a huge task.
my first train journey a few days after I was born was via a Deltic from Durham to York to meet some relatives. Didn't get the number. Sorry. Had been a tough week.Let’s be honest, a journey behind either of them on a service train for a couple of hundred miles would be an assault on the senses compared to anything modern
I actually had a trip over the Woodhead line when I was about two years old and I completely failed to write down any of the numbers or log what I had for haulage that day…my first train journey a few days after I was born was via a Deltic from Durham to York to meet some relatives. Didn't get the number. Sorry. Had been a tough week.
Sounds positive! Getting the engine overhauled must be "fun".Back to Westerns.
There’s an update on what’s going on with D1015 here:
It's the first time for some decades at least that the body is getting a full overhaul, taking it back to bare metal throughout. The good news is that it's reported that most of the bodywork is still in good condition, with the main repairs needed being around the cabs, and to the front valances, one of which had been rather crudely repaired decades ago following damage. Wherever necessary new steelwork is being welded in, and the opportunity is being taken to rebuild the damaged valance to its correct profiles, so the ends match each other. When finished, the body should be structurally sound and weatherproof for many years to come.
The B end transmission failed in service in 2018. Dismantling the transmission for repair needs specialist skills and tools, and it's hoped that this will be done by a specialist workshop in the next couple of months or so. The extent of repairs needed will of course depend on what the dismantling reveals.
The most recent update is here, and describes the transmission and the repairs :Thanks for the update on 1010, can voith still help the preservation movement with transmission repairs/spares if they still make any???
Seem to remember someone telling me once that western transmissions are complex tricky sods to deal with.
Mechanical wise what's state of its 2 MD655s? Seem to remember before it went off it was a decent runner.
Headlining this week is the long-awaited move of the torque converter rail from the transmission of Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ which has now been delivered to a specialist engineering firm for disassembly. This is a major step forward in the resolution of an issue that occurred during the first day of the 2018 Diesel Gala when the ‘B’ end transmission seized and the loco had to be withdrawn from service.
I was on one of the last runs before the transmission problem and I seem to recall one of the engines was blowing fumes through its breather just by one of the bogies. That might not be a major issue but it may indicate that it required some attention.As far as I recall, the engines were fine when the loco was in service, though I'd assume they will need some TLC after several years out of use.
All the last ones were Blue Full yellow endsGrowing up in Ashton Vale on the west side of Bristol with the main line at the top of our road I probably saw a fair few of them in the early/mid 70s but too young to have been paying enough attention. I remember lying down watching the tops of trains through the gaps in the plank flooring of the ‘black bridge’ footbridge (which is grey these days with a solid floor alas) and the only specific memory is of seeing a train with ‘old fashioned’ chocolate and cream coaches which were probably pullmans. Didn’t really start paying detailed attention until the WR namer duffs caught my interest on a family holiday at Teignmouth around 80/81. There is also a vague memory of a national news item on the TV about a type of loco retiring and crowds coming out to watch which might have been the wizzos, as I was probably more switched onto things when the Deltics finished and would have remembered that in more detail.
Did they all finish service in 77 in blue with full yellow ends or did any retain older liveries to the end?