June 2016 Engineering Report

Permanent Way
A separate report on Spring Outdoor Week appears elsewhere in this issue, as usual, so will not be covered here. The Outdoor Gang had some work to do preparing for the Week itself, getting power tools tested and running properly and making sure fuel and other supplies were available and in the correct places. Once the week was over there was some urgent ballasting and tamping to do on the Six Bends site and some essential boscage clearance at various sites, all to allow the passenger trains to run on the 13th March. Further ballasting and tamping has been taking place since at the same location with the intention of lifting the speed restriction.

Another Outdoor Week job that required finishing off followed on from the re-sleepering of the Wharf coal road point, which required more ballast and some tamping, whilst one of the switch rails did not operate properly when refitted and had to be taken up to Pendre for some attention in the large vertical mill. Temporary timbers were dropped into the point to allow a road vehicle to pick up Loco 4 for a brief visit to the Severn Valley Railway’s Spring Gala. Further timbers were also fixed into position, rather more permanently, at Quarry Siding where the road crossing has been extended by a few feet in the Abergynolwyn direction, making the turning round of a road vehicle much easier.

Loco. No. 4’s outing involved more work for some members of the Outdoor Gang. The Railway had purchased several lengths of pre-assembled steel-sleepered track for use at this event and for future occasions where a visit to an event by one of the Railway’s locomotives might be considered beneficial. These were delivered to the Engine House at Highley on the Wednesday before the Gala, unloaded by our staff using our Bobcat, which had been taken over there on the same day, then a few lengths were laid out ready for the locomotive to be unloaded onto on the Thursday. Once the locomotive had arrived, this useful little machine was used to lay out the rest of the track, then after the event, was used to load the track onto the back of the low loader, behind the locomotive, for the trip back to Tywyn. After unloading at Wharf the track panels were loaded onto the unrepaired frames of Boflat 37 and taken up to the Guest House for storage away from the corrosive sea air.

An Ash tree, has been removed from the trackside at Brynglas. The tree was dying, the trunk was hollow and branches had been falling onto the line.

Steam Locomotives
Loco No. 1, Talyllyn, was available for use until a photographic charter during the first week of operation, for which the air pump and standpipes were removed. Both were refitted later in the same week and the locomotive has been running well since.

Loco No. 2, Dolgoch, was also in use until the charter when it too was stripped of its air pump and standpipes for photographic purposes, being returned to traffic later in the week, just in time for Easter. The air pump itself failed on the Saturday of the Road to Adventure Gala with a stripped thread on its rear control piston; the engine was needed for the recreation of the extension opening train on the Sunday, so a late night ensued for some of the locomotive department’s staff, who initially tried replacing the piston rod and piston with a spare, without success, then rebuilt the failed one and reassembled the pump again, finally being treated to the sound of a working pump somewhat after 22.00 and in the process missing the 70’s disco which was taking place at Wharf.

Loco No. 3, Sir Haydn, is still being worked on in the Vale of Rheidol’s workshops. The rear wheels have been checked and one has been found to be loose on the axle, as we suspected, so a new axle will be required. The boiler repair schedule has been agreed with the boiler inspector and will involve the fabrication and fitting of a new inner firebox, together with all new stays, some building up of small areas of wastage to the barrel and to the back of the front tube plate and re-tubing. Further cleaning is being undertaken to assess the condition of (and any remedial work required to) the axleboxes and frames. The cylinders really need boring to correct wear, but there is not a lot of metal left in them so they are being carefully measured up to see what will be possible.

Loco No. 4, Edward Thomas, was stripped for and passed both cold and in-steam exams, with the paperwork just arriving in time for the locomotive to take part in the Severn Valley Railway’s spring gala, where it operated on the special purchased length of track, mentioned above, giving footplate rides and attracting a lot of attention. It has seen regular use since its return and is running well.

Loco No. 6, Douglas, also passed cold and in steam inspections and the lubricator drive has been rebuilt to improve its operation. The spare leading springs held in stock, together with the ones on the locomotive were all tested in the works hydraulic press, establishing that none of them were the same and some differed widely. A full set of replacement springs has been ordered and, in the meantime, the two best spare springs were fitted, together with spacers to correct the locomotive’s tendency to lean over. This has been successful, but when the locomotive was returned to the running shed the chimney hit the third smoke hood, fortunately without causing any damage; a small section has been cut off the bottom of the hood to give a little clearance.

Loco No.7, Tom Rolt, celebrated its twenty-fifth birthday over the May Gala weekend and a small group assembled at Abergynolwyn on 2nd May to commemorate the naming ceremony. Since the last report the new piston rod has been made and fitted, some of the motion has been overhauled and the safety valves have been steam tested. Initially one of the safety valves operated correctly whilst the other opened properly, but would not close again. After some adjustments and a little re-machining of the components it too worked correctly and the new valves were demonstrated to the Boiler Inspector when he came to see Loco Nos. 4 & 6 in steam. The boiler exam on this locomotive is actually due in mid-August, so rather than strip it down for a cold exam after Easter, as originally planned, this will now be left until after Spring Bank Holiday at the end of May.

Diesel Locomotives
Loco No. 5, Midlander, suffered another gearbox failure, when a different clutch rod sheared in much the same way as one did last year. The gearbox was stripped down again and this rod too was replaced; the others were also carefully examined for cracking or signs of excess wear, but all seemed fine, so the gearbox was reassembled and filled with oil, since then the locomotive has run well, even working a passenger train as part of the early May Gala.

Loco No. 8, Merseysider, has now been collected. The Driver’s Air Brake Valve has been stripped, cleaned and checked over for use on Loco No. 7.

Loco No. 9, Alf, continues to run well; it was also able to take a role in the recent Gala, working "top and tail" with Loco No. 7 on the shuttle service to Nant Gwernol from Abergynolwyn on the Saturday.

Loco No. 11, Trecwn, entered traffic after the scaffolding around the paint shop was removed. It is very similar to No 12 although some drivers feel that it runs more smoothly. It is starting and running well and has seen quite a bit of use on engineering work. This Engine has also been serviced: the oil and filters have been changed in the engine and transmission.

Loco No. 12, St Cadfan, has been in the workshops for a couple of weeks whilst the brake blocks were replaced and the other longer cab handrails removed from Loco No. 8 were fitted, after the set fitted to Loco No. 11 proved very effective. The speedometer failed and was repaired using the drive cable and gearing unit off the spare locomotive. The water pipe from the rear of the cylinder head to the cooled exhaust manifold was removed and both flanges were rejointed. The joining hose was replaced. The fuel sediment bowl was dismantled and cleaned. The cab floor section was removed for inspection, the supports and bottom of the cab wall were cleaned and painted with a rust converter and two coats of Red Lead. A set of steps was fitted to the south side of the Loco, to give access to the fuel filter.

Carriage and Wagon
All the passenger stock was brought back down to Pendre as soon as this was practical; the open carriages have not improved during their period of outdoor storage and some of the doors were still stuck fast at the end of April when they were about to be needed for the Gala trains, fortunately the hot dry weather has helped to free everything off, but the time may be approaching when we have to look at providing these useful vehicles with more durable bodies. Carriage 8 was still missing one door, which had been removed for repair as previously reported. The corroded steel door frame had been repaired and painted before Christmas and with the joiner’s shop available again, even although virtually empty, it was possible to repair the wooden panelling, then refit the door using new stainless steel hinges. The bogie removed from carriage 18 some years ago made a welcome return to the workshops to complete its somewhat protracted overhaul and is now ready to take the place of the spare bogie under this carriage.

With the carriage shed pit available the Ffestiniog were able to send over their heating maintenance fitter and he traced the problem with carriage 21’s heating to a misconnected control circuit wire, which he was quickly able to sort out. The system is now working properly, although it is to be hoped that there will not be much need for it for a few months, at least. The process of fitting diaphragm type triple valves to the carriage fleet has continued with all the bogie vehicles and van 5 now so equipped, reducing the maintenance requirement substantially.

The Young Member’s Group started work on a spare MOD wagon chassis, which they stripped down and painted. They had a further small working group over Easter, which made some progress with the mechanical side of the job and the workshops have continued this work, fitting TR drawgear and bolting down a new wooden deck, with angle iron edge protectors, allowing the vehicle to join the Railway’s engineering fleet. A spell of wet weather forced the Outdoor Gang under cover, so they stripped the deck off Boflat 36, then fitted a new deck, utilising the serviceable planks together with a considerable proportion of new treated timber.

Building and Civil Engineering
The new publicity store at Wharf has been finished, apart from obtaining a little more racking to store some of the non-publicity items kept in there. The concrete base was cast in as planned, then a timber building was made up, in bolt together sections so that it can be moved in the future, should it be decided to extend Llechfan. It has been designed to resemble one of the original timber station buildings found on the Railway and is painted in our standard green colour. The yard area on the other side of the Llechfan garden access road has been cleared and a contractor was brought in to remove some of the old slate waste heaps and use the material to fill the ballast dock approach cutting up to ground level. The large flat area created by this work will be utilised to lay a temporary standard gauge track for the visit of Captain Baxter from the Bluebell Railway in July. Elsewhere on the Wharf site a new timber was needed in the ground frame platform, new display panels, matching those put up on the station approach last year, were put up in the Booking Hall, and the fresh air venting system in the Slater Room and the extractors for the first floor toilets were all put together properly and now work.

A heating system vent valve in the ceiling above the staff entrance to the new building began leaking and brought down some of the ceiling tiles. Once it had been repaired by our contracted service engineer new tiles were purchased and installed; with a stock of tiles on hand the rest of the building was checked over and odd stained or dirty tiles were spot replaced. The windows of the platform toilets were replaced last year when the building was refurbished internally, but the job was not in the original specification and they were not painted by the contractor. Some priming was started last year, but the work was becoming more urgent, so the "Tidy the Railway Weekend" group agreed to continue the work, finding a volunteer who not only finished the job, but has also begun painting the platform benches, another overdue job. Inside the toilets the temporary wooden cubicle doors fitted to allow the toilets to open for the 2015 season were replaced with proper laminated ones, completing the internal work. In Llechfan a folding seat was installed in the "downstairs" shower for use if required by the less able bodied.

At Pendre the contactors finished the work on the West Carriage shed on time and the painters were able to finish the painting of the steelwork, allowing us to begin clearing up and putting carriages away. Just sweeping up of the debris took a gang a full weekend and completely filled our waste bin, then the paint shop doors were straightened until they would shut and bolt, although a little more attention would be desirable if time ever permits. The paint shop floor has been painted and some of the racking and former contents of the paint store have been reinstated. The refurbished building is a vast improvement on what was there before, with lots of translucent panels allowing light to flood in and allowing train preparation to take place without the need for artificial lighting.

Further up the Railway the annual digging out of the compost from Dolgoch toilet was completed in February, much earlier than normal thanks to the warm weather which speeded up the work of the important bacteria. At Quarry Siding the felt roof had been damaged in the winter storms so a green corrugated roofing material, which we had tried out on the new publicity store at Wharf, was used to re-cover the building’s existing roof, hopefully rendering it watertight for many years to come. The same material will be used on the roof of Brynglas blockpost and scaffolding is being erected at the back of this building to allow this work to be completed shortly.

At Abergynolwyn the café end doors jammed after a hinge broke and the simple job of replacing it became a marathon after the very rusty hardened steel screws holding the remnants in place would not come out. Eventually the workshops provided a sharpened masonry drill with a hardened tip, which was able to drill them out. The café staff entrance has resisted several attempts to force it over the years, but it finally succumbed to old age and cracked right through the lock mounting block, so had to be plated up temporarily, then replaced by a complete new door.

Plant and Works
The Transit lorry need a fair amount of work before it passed its MOT, most of the items had been noted last year so did not come as a surprise, although a new sump was needed as the old one had been cracked sometime during the year and a leak on the fuel tank was apparently due to "attack by rodents", the first time a company vehicle has had that problem. It is now running well and in almost daily use. The recently fitted starter motor on the Combo van failed and was replaced under warranty. The breakdown of the Matisa was reported last time; when the engine was stripped a blown head gasket was discovered, as was suspected, so with the spare parts obtained it was quickly restored to operation. The flail has been brought into the north carriage shed for some attention, including the fitting of a new operator’s seat and the re-siting of the battery to a more accessible position.

Electrical and S&T
A lot of time has been spent in the west carriage shed, draining water from boxes, checking circuits, repairing fittings and re-hanging lighting. One of the fire alarm boxes was well filled with water and the battery inside it had started to disintegrate, so it was replaced before the system was reconnected to the rest of the alarm circuits and brought back to life. Also at Pendre more progress has been made with the locomotive shed lighting including the installation of emergency light units at strategic locations. The café equipment has all been PAT tested ready for the season, a faulty detector was replaced in the Llechfan fire alarm, a CCTV system has been installed at Abergynolwyn and temporary lighting was provided at various locations on the Railway for the photographic charter previously mentioned.

Overhaul of the spare token machines has continued, with some success and time has been found to attend to greasing of pointwork and connections at Brynglas.

Fault locating and testing has been carried out along the line. Faults were found and corrected above Brynglas and at the entry to the Loco shed.

Training
A "Gas Safety" training course, was held on 13th May for the Engineering team. The training covered transportation of gas cylinders, and using oxy-fuel gases safely with an equipment inspection workshop. The course was very useful and relevant to our operation. We are now able to and will carry out our own inspections. The course was held in the Slater room and the workshop at Pendre.

Fire Alarm Testing
The fire alarms at Pendre will be tested, every Thursday at 11am. The tests and any resulting actions will be recorded in the Fire alarm log book. The fire alarms at Wharf will be tested every Monday at 8.30am.

Dave Scotson/Stephen Davis