With only a few weeks of the Winter maintenance period to go, loose ends are being tied up to get our locomotives fit for April and the start of the 2023 running season. Most of the work has centred around D6948 after the completion of the repair to the main reservoir air pipe and the maintenance on the bogies. A historic leak in one of the brake cylinders has also been repaired with the removal and replacement of the offending cylinder coupled with some remedial work on the timing chain, which had shown signs of stretching. Finally, the B Exam has been completed and, after an absence of nearly 3 years, the ‘Green Machine’ has been declared fit for traffic (pending a test run). For its return, D6948 has been allocated the first three turns in April on the 1st (Purple TT, last round trip), 2nd (Pink TT, whole day) and 4th (Purple TT, last round trip). There are also additional turns throughout April – please check on the group and GWSR social pages for more information. We look forward to seeing some of you at the GWSR to welcome D6948 back into traffic – usual caveats apply.
Although the primary focus has been on D6948, that doesn’t mean that 37215 has been neglected. Just after the end of the 2022 season, the round buffers on ‘215’ were removed and replaced, temporarily, with a set of oval ones. It had been identified that the round ones had started to show signs of failure and so the decision was taken to remove them and send them for repair. They are due for return imminently and the B Exam will also be completed in the coming weeks. There has also been a small coolant leak identified which, although not causing the loco to be taken out of service, will need rectification in the very near future. Lastly, with its sister returning to the roster, the removal of the two leaky compressors from 37215 can be organised, with them being replaced with a pair of overhauled ones that we have in stores. This is a job that has had to be placed on the back burner whilst keeping the loco in service.
Hopefully, it won’t be long before we have both locos back on the active roster for the first time since 2019!
