Chuffed to Bits

A couple of weeks ago, things were starting to look a bit dire from the Back to Black gala point of view.  Rumours that 2807 wasn't going to be able to make it back from Tyseley in time for the gala had hardened to certain fact.  This meant we were down to 7 locos out of the 8 originally planned.  Not the end of the world, the plans for 'driver for a tenner' at Cheltenham Race Course were put on ice and that was that.  The gala would still proceed OK without it.  Then in short succession came the news that Dinmore Manor was stopped with a boiler failure, 3850 was stopped on the West Somerset Railway with a 1" crack in her boiler throat plate and 4270 was yet to turn a wheel under her own steam.  The gala committee went into panic mode.  I was concerned from two points of view, firstly the gala, and secondly because a photo charter organised by Martin Creese had been scheduled for the evening of Sunday 18th May.   

The DMLL group however don't know the meaning of the word 'panic'.  With impressive efficiency, they arranged for Dinmore Manor to have her boiler repaired ready for the weekend under warranty, and so it was, she was only out of service for a precious few days.  3850 (which is of course a DMLL loco too) was more of a problem.  Initially I was told that it was certain that 3850 would be stopped immediately, not to run again in this boiler ticket.  After an inspection by the boiler inspector, this was changed from being 50/50 as to whether or not she'd be OK for the gala.  A cunning audacious and ambitious plan was put into place.   Saving me the trouble of having to try to remember all that transpired, here is a timeline of events from Mike Solloway:

"After 67,000 miles 3850 'stopped' on Sat 3rd May with a suspected leaking rivet on foundation ring.

Area cleaned/inspected thoroughly by WSR staff, over the bank holiday weekend, what was initially suspected to be a leaking rivet turns out to be worse, a hairline crack was visible.

RSA boiler inspector Bob Garnett booked to attend Minehead Fri 9th, DMLL representatives and WSR CME attend also. Initial thoughts of inspector were to lift the boiler and do a 'ten yearly' seeing as she only has about 12 months remaining. Panic set in, no GWSR gala visit, no photo charter no 7820/3850 double header, loss of WSR earnings for next 12 months etc. We certainly didn't want to be letting people down.

Repair methods were discussed and after thorough inspection of the affected area a repair method was drawn up using a welding process that should comfortably see the engine through to the end of her ticket.

Issue was then timescales, the engine was due to leave for the GWSR on Tuesday, it now being lunch time on Friday... A call to Allelys to see if they could extract the loco from Minehead instead of Bishops Lydeard was given a 'green light'. 
 

A tight squeeze, 3850 leaving Minehead.  Photo courtesy of Mike Solloway

We agreed with the WSR, as the loco's principle hirer, to repair the loco at Toddington where we would have a 3 day window once she had arrived and been unloaded to get the crack ground out and welded to exacting standards, NDT tested, checked by the boiler inspector and test steamed, tight by any standards, if it was to be achieved everything had to run like clockwork....

 Many calls were made to try and secure a suitably qualified welder with no success during Friday afternoon, though we did have one as a 'possible' but wouldn't be able to confirm until Monday. With the working week drawing to a close further efforts had to be abandoned. We split 3850 from her tender ready for transport and felt we could do no more until Monday morning.

By chance, whilst stopping off at Toddington on the way home I bumped in to Ray Lee who had, due to the ever reliable 'heritage railway grapevine' heard of our predicament. Suggestion was made that they may be able to spare a welder from the South Devon Railway who could carry out the repair for us. By the end of Monday it was decided to accept the kind offer of help from the SDR and to press ahead for a the repair to be carried out on Wednesday. Numerous NDT companies were tried until we found one who could fit in with our tight and specific timescale. Unfortunately, just to make the situation a bit more tense we had to leave the weld for a minimum of 24 hours to allow hydrogen to escape prior to the NDT Work. Our inspector called in on Thursday afternoon and was more than happy with the repair work carried out, the NDT people followed first thing Friday morning and liaised directly with the boiler inspector with their findings. With a bright green light given the boiler was 'boxed up' again and re-filled with water ready for a fire to be lit. All we could do now was wait until the morning and hope that all would be OK, if not she wouldn't be pairing up with 7820 for the day, a long standing aim for DMLL for the last 30 years....

3850's throat plate, stripped for repair, photo courtesy of Mike Solloway

Luck was on our side, aside from the odd drip/hiss from two stays due to slight disturbance by the localised intense heat of the weld repair near by, which was predicted/expected, we were good to go and a major milestone was achieved. Many DMLL shareholders turned up to enjoy riding behind the pairing for the day and the GWSR kindly agreed to let us sell our merchandise on the train throughout the day for which we are most grateful.

We would like to thank the staff of the WSR, GWSR volunteers, Royal Sun Alliance, Worcester NDT, South Devon Railway Engineering and our own volunteers for pulling out all the stops and working together to achieve all of the above in such a short time frame ensuring we met our commitments to the GWSR and 30742 charters."

I'd like to be able to bring you a selection of photos of the double headed trains from Saturday, but rather inconsiderately my eldest daughter had chosen that day to get married.  I had left a ladder propped up by her bedroom window for some time now, hoping that she'd get the hint and elope, but it wasn't to be. In the end, I suppose that I'm grateful that she didn't choose the gala weekend. 

7820 leads 3850 on Saturday, photo courtesy of Dan Wigg

7820 & 3850 at Cheltenham, photo courtesy of Mike Solloway

I am enormously grateful to Mark Young and Mike Solloway for keeping me informed as to what was going on with 3850, and to them and doubtless others unknown to me, for pulling off a miracle.  

4270 has been quietly progressing without much fuss in the David Page shed.   Unannounced, but widely guessed at, early last week, 4270 took her first moves under her own steam since withdrawal from BR service in September 1962.  The usual pressures of work prevented me and my camera from being there, but no matter, my spy network has done me proud once again:  Trainee fireman Pete Young was lucky enough to light her fire and bring her into steam ready for her first run.

4270 in steam, photo courtesy of Pete Young

Delightful shot of 5542 passing 4270, photo courtesy of Pete Young

Dan was out with his camera taking photos of 4270 too:

Photo courtesy of Dan Wigg

Photo courtesy of Dan Wigg

 

Ian Carpenter with 4270, photo courtesy of Dan Wigg

As you can see, she is till in undercoat, on Sunday evening, she was towed by 3850 down to Winchcombe, where she has entered the paint shop and is currently being painted by a gallant team led by Ian Carpenter, namely Andy Beale & Steve Jones wielding the paint brushes with Ben Evason doing the prep work and some painting.

3850 towing 4270 to Winchcombe for painting

4270 in the paint shop, photo courtesy of Andy Beale

Initially 4270 was a steam loco dept project, but subsequent to her acquisition by Jeremy Hosking, Ian Carpenter has been the person charged with getting her to ready to steam again.   Ian is usually loathe to say anything more about 4270 beyond "She'll be ready when she's ready", and even then you usually have to ply him with a few pints of Stowford's cider first (other brands do exist).  I was very pleased therefore when flushed with success at having achieved the goal of many years hard work, he provided me with the following quote for this blog.

"I would like to record my eternal gratitude to John Hancock and Steve Burnett for taking the time and trouble to set up the valve gear so well.  I would also like to record thanks to all the volunteers that have worked with me over the years for making it possible to steam 4270, and not least to Jeremy Hosking for making it all possible in the first place."

I'm sure that I speak for all of the gala organising committee, in expressing grateful thanks to Ian for pulling out all the stops to get 4270 ready in time fro the gala..

I wasn't sure when Black 5, 45379 was booked to arrive at Toddington in advance of the gala.  Roger Bush's email on Saturday with photos of her being prepared to leave the Mid Hants Railway to come to us came a a pleasant surprise:

45379 being shunted by a class 37, photo courtesy of Roger Bush

Waiting for the low-loader, photo courtesy of Roger Bush

I had a quick look in the car park at Toddington on Sunday afternoon, and sure enough, there she was:

45379 at Toddington, looking gorgeous in lined black.

So that's two out of our three visiting locos now on site, I do like it when a plan comes together.

I checked the cleaning rag bin on Sunday evening too, encouragingly it was looking fairly full.  Please do keep the rags coming in though, you'd be amazed at how many we get through during the gala week.

A good start

Once again, thanks to all who have contributed.

Finally, Sunday evening came round and the photo charter organised by Martin Creese of 30742 charters kicked off.  I've been out on half a dozen charters this year on a number of railways and seen practically no sunshine at all, so to have had a pretty much unbroken evening of it was a real treat.  3850, the freight train, Andy (driver), Phil (fireman) and Mike (owners representative),John Broomfield (guard) and Bill Tyndall (travelling signalman) put on a marvellous show for a packed out gallery of photographers, .  If you weren't there. this is what you missed:

Fetching the freight train out of its home at Winchcombe

 One of the problems of  steam loco photography is that on hot days, there is usually very little exhaust.  That certainly seemed to be the case to start off with.

Departure shot at Winchcombe...

...and another

 The air in the tunnel was cooler than the air outside, which helped make the exhaust stand out a bit.

Exiting Greet tunnel...

....and again...

.... and again.

 The next photo shows the talented Jack Boskett at work.  I am obliged to point out that 3850 was both stationary and about a quarter of a mile away at the time. Furthermore 3850 wasn't going to move until Martin Creese had called it forward.  For those of you with line side passes, don't try this whilst trains are moving, you will not make yourself popular.

Don't try this at home...  or on the GWSR

 There was a white van belonging to a bee keeper in Dixton cutting.  I couldn't be bothered to Photoshop it out, or the electric lines either.  Note that the distant signal is off.  It's our only non-fixed distant.

In Dixton cutting

Under Three Arches Bridge

 Down at Gotherington, the gallery set up to try and get some pseudo double track shots in Gotherington loop, which can look very effective.  As we were up on an embankment, with the sun by now very low in the sky, I spotted the potential for a silhouette shot.  Nobody else followed me into the field, so this is the only shot you'll from the charter of 3850 in silhouette with a signal in the frame.  I'm also very pleased that I managed to catch the sun at just the spot that it looks like it's been ejected from the chimney.

My favourite shot of the day

 We all jumped back on the train and headed a bit further south and found a similar field for us all to try the same type of silhouette shots from.  By this time, it was a fair bit cooler than it had been earlier, and the exhaust was standing out quite nicely.   Here are a few shots I liked:

Not too shabby

Sun glinting under the boiler, Phil nicely silhouetted on the footplate

A wider shot emphasising the wagons

  Many thanks to Martin Creese for organising such a magical photo charter, a great time was had by all.