June 2014 Engineering Report
Permanent Way
The storm in February, which was briefly referred to in the last issue, provided plenty of work for the Outdoor Gang, with lots of trees blown down at many locations on the Railway, all of which had to be cut clear before the February service could run. Clearing up work proceeded through Outdoor Week and is still continuing at the moment, as piles of logs, branches and assorted debris is collected and taken for burning or storage as appropriate. Outdoor Week itself will be covered elsewhere in this issue as usual, although preparation work took up some of the gangs time in the run up to the week itself, as did clearing up and finishing off after the week.
Much of this clearing up work involved tamping through the re-laid sections, dropping ballast and ramping out the approaches, as the new track was higher than that on either side. Gauge maintenance has been completed in several locations after work was highlighted by the routine permanent way inspections; some sections needed spot replacement of sleepers as well as attention to rail fixings. A missing and flattened section of fencing was discovered above Tynllwyn-hen caravan site, caused by a fallen tree, which all took some time to clear up and make good, whilst the fences from Quarry Siding to Abergynolwyn have been closely inspected from both inside and outside the Railway to draw up a work list and allow bad sections to be prioritised.
At Wharf the crossing on the Engineer’s Sidings’ access point was causing concern and the workshops were asked to manufacture a replacement. This crossing is an ex-Corris Railway one, which has been welded up and patched on previous occasions; it is badly wasted and it was feared that the nose had become completely detached and that a steam locomotive might derail whilst running round, or going for coal.
With this in mind more urgent action was needed so the whole of the crossing was dug out, which also allowing the position of the sleepers to be determined for use in making up the replacement. It turned out that the rivets were still in place, but hopelessly ineffective due to wastage and wear. To keep the crossing safe until the new one was available the rails were packed up to the correct height then the nose was welded back firmly to the plate it was loosely riveted to, after temporarily wedging it in the correct position. The curved check rail was found to be very loose, with its fixings badly corroded, so this was provided with new bolts and tightened back up.
This work seems to have been successful, with much improved riding being reported by loco crews and work train drivers, so should survive until the new unit is ready to install.
Steam Locomotives
Loco No. 1, Talyllyn, was running well and ran during the February half term service without any problems. On 6th April it was returning from Abergynolwyn with the first train of the day. The driver had noticed a knocking noise, which did not seem very significant, on the up trip and this noise returned on the down journey. Unknown to him the two locking screws on the nut which locks the right-hand piston in place had come loose and fallen out. They were later found in the leading drain cock on that side. This had allowed the nut itself to come loose, although the piston stayed in place. As the train approached Quarry Siding and was slowing down for the token change, the nut finally came off altogether and dropped into the front of the cylinder, where it was hammered against the cylinder-end cover. Despite being squashed almost flat, it was still too large for the space available and the motion locked up; the forces involved then sheared off the rear crank pin on the same side and this allowed the rods to drop onto the track, where they caught on a sleeper. The connecting rod bent, but the side rod doubled back on itself, then snapped, finishing up hanging from the front crank pin, whilst the two wheelsets turned separately, jamming up the motion on the fireman’s side. The driver had made an emergency brake application and the train stopped very rapidly.
The engineers arrived on site by road and set to removing all the rods, allowing the engine to be pulled off the train and taken forward to Quarry Siding, from where it was collected by Loco No. 11 later in the day. It was clear that the locomotive had suffered quite badly; the rear crankpin had moved in the wheel casting and sheared off, whilst other pins were also suspected of moving in their holes. It was not known if the wheels had moved on their axles and the driver’s side piston rod had obviously mushroomed under the force of the impact, driving itself hard into the crosshead.
New driver’s side rods, new crankpins and a new piston rod were obviously going to be needed and there might even be the need for new axles. All this was work which was within our capabilities, but with the loco’s 150th birthday coming up in September this year and an already ambitious workload, this was clearly a job too far for our workshops. Fortunately the Ffestiniog Railway were able to make space in their work programme for the repairs and were prepared to undertake the work at a favourable rate, so the locomotive was moved to Boston Lodge for assessment. This gave some pretty unique photo opportunities, as Loco No. 1 was unloaded onto a FR flat wagon on the Welsh Highland Railway tracks in Porthmadog, then hauled, sat on the wagon, by “Linda” over the road crossing into Harbour Station, where the train was taken over by their diesel locomotive, “Upnor Castle” and worked into Boston Lodge itself.
Early assessments of the damage suggest that the wheels have not moved; the Ffestiniog have been asked to skim the wheel profiles and check the quartering thoroughly at the same time, which will confirm that all is well, or otherwise. They are extracting the old crank pins and will assess the state of the wheel centre castings once this is done. At the same time one of our members has organised the cutting out of a new set of rods from steel blanks, their machining and the casting of new brasses to fit into these rods. We are most grateful to this member for his help and to the others who have offered assistance in various ways, even though we have not been able to take up all these offers.
Loco No. 2, Dolgoch, has been running well and quietly, in contrast to her older sister. The expansion link die blocks have been built up and machine turned to take out some wear which had developed and the locomotive is ready for service.
Loco No. 3, Sir Haydn, remains at the Engine House on the Severn Valley Railway, but the fund-raising is making good progress, so the locomotive is getting close to returning and for an overhaul to commence.
Loco No. 4, Edward Thomas, received its new fusible plugs and passed the usual steam test, before returning to traffic. It is running well and has once again proved popular on Driver Experience trains.
Loco No. 6, Douglas / Duncan, Council agreed that the locomotive had to be repainted back into the red livery after the photographic charters and this was duly accomplished. While this was going on the boiler had a cold inspection and a steam test and the locomotive has returned to operation, running in both its guises, with appropriate nameplates.
Loco No. 7, Tom Rolt, is being prepared for a hydraulic test as these notes are being written. The tubes are all fully expanded and the bottom rows have been beaded over in the firebox. The locomotive will then be steam tested in the presence of the boiler inspector, reassembled and put back into traffic in time for the Spring Bank Holiday week. There is still some routine work to complete on the motion and this will be done before the peak season.
Diesel Locomotives
Loco No. 5, Midlander, is running well and distinguished itself by rescuing Loco No 1’s train after the major failure detailed above.
Loco No. 8, Merseysider, has also been running well, but the engine oil leaks are continuing, allowing oil to find its way into the starter motor, where it damaged some of the windings and stranded the locomotive at Brynglas. At present it is standing in the siding there, whilst the motor is rebuilt by an outside company.
Loco No. 9, Alf, returned to use following the repairs to the starter motor, but was not running well and diesel was discovered in the exhaust manifold. On examination it was discovered that the de-compressor mechanism had come out of adjustment and was holding an exhaust valve open, allowing unburned diesel out of the cylinder and preventing it firing. With this sorted out, attention turned to the governor on the fuel injection pump, which was found to be badly out of adjustment, requiring resetting. The locomotive is now starting and running well and is once again a most useful member of the fleet.
Loco No. 10, Bryn Eglwys, is still on the Railway awaiting the return of Loco No 12, so it can leave on the same lorry.
Loco No. 11, (yet to be named), now has proper Talyllyn buffers and a temporary fixed drawhook, allowing it to be used for day-to-day work and the Outdoor Gang have been getting used to it. Its cab is slightly smaller than Loco 8, so a full gang have to breathe in a bit, or a van has to be added to the train, but it is fast, powerful, quiet and so far very reliable. It does not have any train air brakes yet so can only be used for works trains, but these will be added in due course.
Loco No. 12, (yet to be named), is still at Alan Keef’s works. The wheels have been removed ready for re-gauging, whilst our works has machined down one of the axle drive sprockets, to fit the reduced space between the wheels and the starter motor has been rebuilt. It is intended to take both these items down to Lea Line and look at the wheelsets now they are out of the frames.
Carriage and Wagon
The wheelsets for carriage 1 have been profiled and are now ready for the axleboxes to be refitted. Replacement suspension links have been sourced and are being profile cut by an outside firm at a very reasonable cost. The broken spring in carriage 19’s Wharf end bogie has been replaced after the bogie was removed from under the carriage for the purpose. Painting work is well advanced and the final coats of varnish are being applied; one large pane of glass in the centre of the coach was found to be cracked, so has been replaced. It should be back in traffic for Spring Bank Holiday week, looking resplendent. Carriage 22 is progressing slowly; the doors have been re-hung and the locks and striker plates refitted, although there has not been time to cut or fit any of the panelling.
The storage heaters used in the coaches to keep passengers warm during the winter months have worked well, although they are very simple units and suffer from the usual disadvantages of this basic form of heating. There have been one or two occasions when guards have failed to plug them in properly overnight and the train sockets have overheated, causing some concern and they were never intended to be a permanent solution. Discussions with the Ffestiniog Railway about the diesel fired warm air heating used on the Welsh Highland and some Ffestiniog coaches lead to a request for a quotation from them to supply and install a similar system in one of our coaches. If this is approved then the intention is to fit a carriage soon after the peak season and evaluate its performance over the winter.
The status of the engineering wagon fleet has been reviewed and it is intended to hand over much of the heritage fleet, which sees little use nowadays, to the NGRM for safe keeping and restoration. They will still be available for photographic specials and for other purposes, by negotiation, but their future care should be assured.
Building and Civil Engineering
At Wharf the wheeled bin compound now boasts a set of galvanised railings to keep the bins in place and avoid falls from the raised edge; the outdoor gang helped out the air conditioning installers by cutting holes in the kitchen ceiling for the mounting and connection of the internal units and a hole in the outside wall above the staff toilet for the pipe run, then the contractors installed the equipment itself, which has so far proved very effective in keeping kitchen working temperatures reasonable. This equipment is very efficient and uses heat pump technology, so should not prove very costly to run. It can also be used for heating in the colder months, but the kitchen has never had much need for this.
The west balcony access door on the upper floor of the museum has always been a problem; it had no real function as a fire escape, despite being initially designated as one, whilst its exposed location allowed water and cold wind into the museum itself. It was never opened at all last year and after a risk assessment it was agreed it should be removed. The top window section was retained, whilst the rest of the door and frame was removed, the hole bricked up, plaster boarded and repainted; it is hard to tell that it ever existed and once the bricks have weathered it will be impossible. Other jobs have included cutting through a hole in the wall for the extractor fan in the Guard’s Room toilet, replacing a couple of rotten timbers in the platform outside the museum, re-felting the roof of the gas meter cupboard on the drive, shortening the cubicle doors in the public toilets to make cleaning easier and repairs to the trim around the manhole in the kitchen floor.
A change in insurers brought with it a demand for improved security at all our sites; at Wharf window locks had to be fitted where none had been installed, whilst those already fitted had to be overhauled and brought into use. External doors had to be provided with hinge pins and at least one new padlock will be needed on the Booking Hall doors. Similar work has also been needed at Abergynolwyn, whilst security improvements were also under consideration at Pendre, when a person broke into the North Shed, damaging the lock and cutting off the padlocks on the gas cages, stealing some gas bottles and our elderly gas trolley. We had good CCTV pictures of a hooded individual stealing the items and the workers in the local bakery raised the alarm after they saw him loading stuff into a car in the early hours. We have not had any reports of any progress with the investigation from the Police, although they did interview the witnesses and carried out house-to-house enquiries after collecting our video footage. The locks have been repaired or replaced and the security lock already purchased for the locomotive shed was hurriedly brought into use. Further improvements to security are under consideration, as is a fire risk assessment, as we do not want to add padlocks to doors which are subsequently designated as fire exits.
In Llechfan various small jobs have been required; three of the sash windows had broken cords, which were replaced, various drains became blocked and had to be cleared, the heating boiler misbehaved and needed repairs, whilst the winter storms removed quite a few slates, which had to be put back or replaced. In the garden the whole row of trees along the west side blew over in the February gale, as did some of those in the adjoining garden, needing cutting up and some further work to remove the corner stump and reinstate part of the south boundary fence in co-operation with our neighbour.
At Pendre another translucent sheet blew out of the North Carriage shed roof and had to be replaced, the same storm bent up the flashing around the stove chimneys and removed some slates, all on Pendre loco shed roof, in addition to the work needed on site to clear up after the burglary.
The new door at Brynglas blockpost swelled up in the damp weather and had to be planed down, whilst a leak in the roof here and another at Quarry Siding have both been attended to. At Quarry Siding the non-slip coating wore off the timber walkways, so these were covered in wire mesh, stapled down to give a good grip. Abergynolwyn has also seen a fair amount of work; the east end of the canopy valancing was damaged some years ago by road vehicles and the cracked framework had begun to rot, so this was removed and replaced using treated timber. The lead flashing was discovered to be much too short, relying on silicone sealant to keep out the water, so this was replaced with a new sheet of lead. The staff “guards” toilet and wash room was repaired some years ago, but its condition had deteriorated and the plumbing was a mass of redundant pipes, joints and dead ends as a result of alterations over the years.
The walls were stripped bare and repaired, whilst the plumbing was also removed and replaced. The floor has been tiled using left-over ceramic tiles from the Wharf café job, whilst the walls are being tiled using the same design of tiles as those on the walls of the Abergynolwyn public toilets. The stench pipe was routed up through the inside corner of the toilet cubicle and it was decided to alter this so it went out through the wall and up the outside of the building. When it was removed it was discovered that there were no seal rings on the pipe so it has been venting into the toilet area for many years! The end result of this work should be a much more attractive facility for our train crews.
Plant and Works
The Transit van burst a front tyre when it was forced to pull over onto a rock strewn verge by an oncoming bus, so a replacement had to be purchased, which will probably last a lot longer than the van; some enquiries have been made with a local garage who are looking out for a replacement vehicle. The Combo Van continues to run well and passed its annual MOT, although quite a bit of work was needed for this; the garage did comment that it is still fundamentally in good order and has quite a bit of use left in it.
The Matisa has been modified to remove some weaker elements of its design, mainly the small rollers the tamping units were sat on, which gave it its multi-gauge capability, but which were not needed for our purposes and kept failing. The engine mountings will need further attention, as will the belt tensioning devices on the engines, but it is available for use again. The stone blower appeal mentioned in the last report was launched on “Facebook” and has been quite successful, so much so that we should be able to order a machine in the near future. In the workshops a new crossing for the Wharf engineers’ sidings access point, as mentioned in the Permanent Way report, has been fabricated and is now sat on the floor awaiting spacers and riveting to baseplates prior to installation. The various white metal moulds used to re-metal locomotive brasses were all getting a bit old and battered so a new batch has been turned up by a visiting volunteer and are now in stock, ready for use.
A new timber frame was made in the joiner’s shop for mounting alongside the Bryncrug approach road, where a new design of publicity/ information banner sign has now been put up; the sign frame used opposite Wharf station was also refurbished and put back in place before a similar banner sign was put up there.
Electrical and S & T
As usual the routine work of replacing blown bulbs, electrical testing and minor fault finding has taken up a lot of the department’s time. At Abergynolwyn the telephone exchange developed faults in two of its selector units, causing it to jam and “hang-up” the junction telephone lines, in turn causing the Pendre exchange to malfunction. This led to a few problems with communications during the Sundays only service, when the mobile ‘phones carried by the trains came in very useful, but it was corrected before the season started.
Modifications to the IT and internal telephone wiring at Wharf and Pendre are continuing as staff move offices, all of which should make for a very flexible system for the future. Having replaced the burglar alarm and much of the mains wiring at Abergynolwyn, as reported in the last issue, the fire alarm would not work when reconnected and the control panel along with several of the detectors had to be replaced before the café could be opened to the public. The lighting in the staff toilet is also to be replaced once the other refurbishment work is complete, so the existing wiring has been taken out. The token machines have been checked over, adjusted and lubricated ready for a season’s use, pointwork has been greased and checked over at various locations, whilst the line clear release system at Abergynolwyn has failed intermittently, probably because of lack of use, needing further cleaning of contacts.
The department has been involved in the plan to fit a carriage with warm air heating mentioned in the Carriage Report above. The equipment will need batteries to be fitted to the coach and the provision of a charging system for these, so the opportunity was taken to join a visit to Boston Lodge to look at Loco No. 1, not to look at the locomotive with the other staff, but to study a Ffestiniog carriage fitted with the same heating system and see what batteries have been used and how these are installed.
At Pendre a major job is being undertaken in the locomotive shed, where many yards of old and rusty imperial conduit is being replaced, along with the elderly fluorescent light fittings, by new galvanised metal trunking and low energy led floodlights.
Dave Scotson / Martin Turner
