Steam Loco Dept Weekend Away, Part Three

We have arrived at the third and final installment describing the recent weekend away.  Again, all photos and text provided by Donna Ludlow, except where otherwise credited:

Sunday 1st November – Llangollen Railway

Llangollen Town – Corwen, 10 miles

Our last day in Wales meant a trip to the Llangollen Railway and a move back to full size locos. To carry on the theme of the weekend of fantastic scenery, this route followed the River Dee for most of its length, although as it remained quite misty it couldn’t all be appreciated.
Our loco today was 5199 in BR black. 

5199 courtesy of Tom Evans

As with the Welsh Highland, footplate rides were available to two of us today and myself and Philip Bulford decided to take up the opportunity. Philip would be on the footplate on the way to Corwen and myself on the way back to Llangollen. However it didn’t quite go to plan for me, as being one who travels light I didn’t have the right footwear – that’s something I shall have to remember for next year. So I took my seat with everyone else to admire the scenery once again as we set off to Corwen.

Footbridge over the Dee. Photo by Malc Mackemsley

Photo by Malc Mackemsley

At Berwyn, crossing the B5103. Photo by Ashley Haines

 Tunnels always make a nice feature of a railway and Llangollen had its own to add to the enjoyment of the trip. Before entering we were all instructed to close the windows to stop the soot and smoke coming in but it seems like someone else forgot about one. It made for a very spooky looking photo, especially as it was Halloween just the night before – had a Spooky Special spectre overstayed its welcome?

Photo by Ashley Haines

On the way back from Corwen the mist and cloud cleared just enough for Tom Evans to capture this shot of this area of outstanding natural beauty.

Smile, you’re on camera! Photo by Malc Mackemsley

Tickets please! Photo by Malc Mackemsley

 Back at Llangollen it was time for a tour of their workshop. The first thing we were greeted with was 5952 Cogan Hall and its tender looking a bit unloved. It did look as though it was receiving some attention however.

 Inside the shed it was almost like déjà vu as they had their very own GWR 2-8-0 Heavy Freight Loco 3802 undergoing an overhaul. The 3850 at Toddington is having its own overhaul as we speak.

3802- A bit familiar

 Meanwhile Ashley found the best place in the shed to stand, right in front of a fire.

 Elsewhere in the shed there was a very impressive new build taking place – that of 6880 Betton Grange.

Shiny new rivets – It’s a shame they’ll eventually be covered with paint!

Boiler to the left, cab to the right

Amongst all the shiny bits was its boiler having some work done to it.

You can find out more about the 6880 ‘81st Grange’ project here:

After our tour it was time for some lunch at the café, and then the long journey back to Toddington started. I think we were all quite tired with most people falling asleep at some point but I thought it best not include photos of that!

This weekend had been absolutely fantastic and as I am still fairly new to steam I can happily say that I learned some new things along the way.

I am sure we are all very much looking forward to next year’s trip, wherever it may be.


Something came up, preventing me from getting to the GWSR on Saturday, but Donna has delivered the goods again, by providing me with the next three photos, one of Dinmore Manor, which aside from being decorated with the usual tinsel etc, was to be seen with a Christmas tree perched on the running plate.  No news regarding how it may have been secured in place, or even if it survived the day.

Pagan symbols on the running plate, photo courtesy of Donna Ludlow

 Donna also included these two photos showing the star of the dismantling of 3850's valve gear, although not seen in the shots, Roger removed the eccentric straps and rods.

A bit of light on the scene of the crime

Removed eccentric strap.

Many thanks indeed to Donna for kindly volunteering to write the three reports on the weekend away.

Dinmore Manor Locomotive LTD have kicked off a new blog to cover the restoration and hopefully in the not too distant future, the running of 3850.  It will probably feature a more in depth view of what is going on with it than will be covered in this blog.  If you want to know more about what is going on with 3850, then please click on this link.

And finally, I managed to get a bit of free time on Sunday and chose to spend it visiting the Steam Museum in what used to be part of Swindon Works.  Amongst the many exhibits, such as City of Truro (once based on the GWSR of course), KIng George V and the delightful Dean Goods, is a stunning selection of GWR nameplates and cabside number plates.  This small selection shown in thephoto below includes no less than 5 cabside number plates from Kings, which if you add in the two on King George V, means that over ten percent of the total ever made currently reside under the one roof.  That wasn't the reason for mentioning this though, a closer examination of the cabside number plates on display includes our own 2807.  You may recollect that Brian of the Cotswold Steam Locomotive (2807) LTD recently bought one of 2807's cabside number plates at auction, well here it seems is the other one.  I expect that the owning group knew that the other one was here, but I didn't.

A Bob or two's worth of brass!

Santa Season Starts

The first Sunday in Advent was the 29th of November, so I guess that last weekend was an acceptable time to kick off the railway's festive season with the first of the Santa Specials.  Christmas seems to have been in full swing in the shops since at least August, which to your blog writer seems far too early. 

Several members of the Steam Loco Dept (sorry, I forget who, doubtless someone will remind me and I can update you next week) have paid some attention to the railway's fading Santa Special headboards and they are now looking much tidier than before.

Who needs a red nosed reindeer when you've got a headboard like this!

 Edit:  We had two Santa headboards originally, an aluminium one and a wooden one. The aluminium one was repainted by Sean, and another aluminium one to replace the wooden one was made by Steve, who got it cast and powder coated.  Thanks to John for the update.

The first weekend of the Santa Specials saw just one loco in steam, Dinmore Manor, finally returned back to us after an extended tour of the Dartmouth Steam Railway, the Battlefield Line and the Severn Valley Railway.  It's good to have her back, though given the wintry weather over the weekend, perhaps her crews might just have preferred to be on one of our resident tank engines.

7820, Dinmore Manor, about to head off ECS for the first Santa Special

For Jonathan, it was his first firing turn since passing out in October:

Paul (l) and Jonathan about to set off on Dinmore Manor

Traditionally, Santa is known for having a large flowing white beard and wearing a red suit.  Dinmore Manor set off with a long flowing white beard, and even a white hat, but not much evidence of a red suit.

Dinmore Manor does her best Santa impression.

Drain cocks shut, she looked more like her old self

On Sunday, her crew even adorned her lamps with reindeer antlers:

"Lamplers", photo courtesy of Jamie Christie

Once Dinmore Manor had left Toddington, she spent the rest of the day shuttling over-excited children from Cheltenham Race Course to Winchcombe the North Pole, where they would meet Santa and his elves in Santa's grotto.  

Work has been quietly taking place on 35006, the centre big end bearing has arrived and has been machined:

One half of the centre big end bearing...

...and trial fittings of the bearing on the crankshaft journal have taken place.

I notice that the tool store has been tidied up, spanners and sockets allocated a home and put in them.  I hope that this state of affairs will persist and tools will be returned whence they came after use.  I don't know for sure, but I suspect that this is Clive's handiwork:

All as it should be in the tool store

It was cold, wet and miserable on Saturday, and while some of the early starters were trying to warm themselves up with a cup of tea in the mess coach, Nigel appeared to taunt us with a sticky bun for his breakfast.

There's nothing like a good healthy breakfast

There were fairly few people around at Toddington on Saturday, mostly because a fair few people were off for a buckeye coupling training session at Winchcombe in the morning and/or shunting and yard safety training in the afternoon.  

The work on dismantling 3850 has slowed to cataloguing and taking off site some of the components that had already been removed.  Brake hangers and brake beams here being loaded into a trailer for removal

Eleanor (l) and Chris loading a trailer

Off to be refurbished at DMLL's private site.

The water tank in the yard was receiving some attention, previously inaccessible bits when it was lying on a well wagon, were now being painted.  The centre car of the 117 DMU has recently been out shopped from the Carriage and Wagon Department and looked so good, that I thought I'd include it in the shot too.

Water tower and DMU centre car

Trevor finishing off painting the water tank

A bit of a shunt was required to get 35006 outdoors onto a pit (it was cold and wet out there, I'm surprised that they didn't want to stay in the shed) and to move 2807 onto the indoor pit.  One of the things that was in the way was the milk tanker used to store water for use in locomotive wash outs.  Unfortunately it had been sat around outside in the rain for a bit too long and the brakes had seized on.  Mark gave it some percussive therapy with a sledge hammer and finished it off with a liberal coating of motion oil persuaded it that it wanted to move.

Mark uses some gentle persuasion on the milk tanker

2807 heading towards the new indoor pit on road 7

Later on Mark was to be found in the shed fabricating an operating lever for Dinmore Manor's centre section drop grate, the existing one being a bashed about bit of scaffolding tube.

Mark at work

The reason 2807 was moved onto the pit inside the shed is that its owning group needed to prepare it for swapping out the pony truck underkeeps.  The one on the fireman's side has been losing oil at a greater rate than it should, and new underkeeps have been cast and will be installed over the coming weeks.

Gil (l) and Roger working on the pony truck of 2807

No work was taking place on 5542 on Saturday, but there was evidence of activity being about to take place.  The grate was out, and the components of a new brick arch were in evidence.  The deflector plate looks new as well.

Ready to be installed back in 5542's firebox

And finally, there will once again be a few Mutual Improvement Classes in January, one of which will cover the dark art of stripping and rebuilding a water gauge.  Definitely not something I'd be keen to do on a loco in steam unless I really had to.  As a demonstration aid, Chris has mounted 3850's water gauge on a board

3850, partially stuffed and mounted!