Update Spring 05
Power Unit ex 47287
Sorry for the late arrival of an update for the website. The group have been soul searching recently as to what to do regarding our cylinder head situation, just to remind people that the 3 that we used in an exchange loan deal were unusable which left us with a task of acquiring replacements. These items are also very handy to have as spares, so we dipped into the funds and visited a scrap yard in Yorkshire one Friday in January and successfully removed 6 cylinder heads from the power unit in the photograph. On return to Toddington, after stripping them down, it was found that only 1 was no good and will hopefully be exchanged for a usable one in the near future. The other components that were causing us concern were the piston liners themselves, as you will have read on this web site (and the Railway Press) some of them were damaged and needed machining to remove the damage. After obtaining quotes for machining we took the option that if we could we would get some from a scrap power unit and one day out of the blue our technical officer, Mr Steve Madge, and Mr Steve Benniston (benefactor to the group) successfully sourced 10 replacements. We are confident that out of the 12 that we have already 2 will be reusable.
Power Unit 45149
This view shows our power unit with the B bank push rod assemblies about to be removed. These have now all been removed and are currently being overhauled. In some cases new bearings have been fitted, again acquired during our recent spare part forays. At this end of the power unit you find the heat exchanger and the oil filter pack of which I am sure many followers of Suzler locomotives will be aware that the one item, namely the heat exchanger, is rather expensive. When the power unit was delivered to Toddington in 1997 the pipe work around these two items was damaged as was the oil filter casting, so we now have replacements ready. All the lubricating pipe work for the power unit has now been painted (joining the cooling pipes painted last year). Rocker covers have also been repainted, but more importantly the rockers themselves have been overhauled by Mr Keith Smith who has also been responsible for the overhaul of the rocker arm assemblies.
AWS
AWS is not essential for preserved locomotives as the instrument you see isn't used on preserved railways. However, with no.1 cab restoration coming towards an end some componenets from no.2 end have been removed for overhaul. Some of the items so far overhauled include the AWS horn, fire bell and associated switch, drivers light switch panel. The picture shows 3 instruments to make one, as is always the case with withdrawn and stored loco's people break in and break the glass of all gauges and instruments. We were fortunate that, although the 2 from 45128 and 149 had broken glass the internal fittings were in usable order. The light green one with the brass bezel (a throw back to how they were made in the 1960's) will be fitted to the loco.
External Ident plates
Hopefully during the year our body work specialist, Mr Matt Thomas, will be turning his attention to repairing some of the body work on 149. In preparation for when it's finished new external identification plates have been made by one of our members. The originals were made of plastic and prone to bulging and splitting, so our member took the decision to make replicas out of aluminium plate and, after they have been engraved, they are aluchromed prior to spraying (aluchrome is an anti corrosive form of plating). Then the letters are filled with an epoxy based paint.
The target for the year, now that we have a full set of components for the power unit, is to concentrate on the power unit, finish no.1 end cab (on display hopefully at the Railway's September Diesel Gala) and start on the body work.