Restoration diary

Mark and Robert Burrows, Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst and I were on site last Sunday. Mark and Robert barred the power unit intended for 50030 round again, then did more scraping and cleaning below where the exhauster and motor blower sit at No.2 end. Dave continued working on cleaning and painting various sections of pipework. Jay and...

​Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. Dave is continuing to paint pipework in the engine compartment, and has started to refit various filters. The first pic shows painted fuel pipework. Jay helped me finish rewiring the centre desk panel in No.1 cab. We then moved into No.2 cab to bell out the same bunch of cables. Fortunately, the...

Mark Burrows and I were on site today. Jay Hirst was "unavoidably detained" when his car unfortunately broke down on the way to site.I disconnected seven wires from the base of the CU4 radiator fan control unit, as Mark had found the conduit containing the cables leading to it was badly corroded. Mark was able to disconnect the conduit without...

Mark Burrows, Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst and I were on site todayMark & Dave spent much of the day re-arranging things in storage to accommodate some items that will be moved soon as we prepare to refer them to 50030.Now we have identified all the wires that go to the roof-mounted switch panel above the driver's side window in No.1 ca...

Mark Burrows, Dave Rolfe, Carl and Sofy Looker and myself were on site today.Mark finished removing the rust from the engine compartment floor in Repulse where he'd previously cut out the rotten floor treads, generating a Sahara-size dust cloud!. Carl drilled out a rusted floor screw in No.2 cab so I could examine the underfloor heater an...

Mark Burrows, Jay Hirst and I were on site today working on 50030. Mark cut out the last of the rotten floor treads in the engine compartment ready for Ian the welder to fit new treads, while Jay and I belled out and marked the wiring that goes to the switch panels above the driver in both cabs. Photos in this report courtesy Jay Hirst.

Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst and I were on site. We continued the repetitive and rather dull-but-necessary task of cleaning out the engine room in 50030 ready for the return of the power unit nad overhauled generator in due course.Dave had found some heavy duty degreaser spray, and we used it on the sides of the engine compartment at the generator end whi...

​Mark Burrows and his son Robert, Jay Hirst and I were on site on May 16th. Following on from the work done by Ian Williams that we talked about previously, we carried on repairing the bodyshell of 50030 taking the opportunity of better internal access whilst the power unit is out. Mark and Robert continued on the outside of the no 1 cab around the...

As we've mentioned in previous posts here, one of our key tasks recently has been to fully repair the bodyshell of 50030 to make it fully watertight and ready to have its overhauled electrical machines installed. We have been hiring well-known locootive welder Ian Williams for this. Recent work has been to the roof and body sides of 50030. Many yea...

With grateful thanks to technical officers from the Class Fifty Alliance, a highly professional operation by contractors Steve Foster Cranes, the generous patience of our hosts Peak Rail and technical members of RRRG, on 29th September 2020 we successfully lifted the power unit from inside 50030, removed turbochargers from the ex-50008...

I went up again today as welder Ian needed access inside Repulse. Ian Kemp and Peter Carter were also there barring the ex-50008 power unit round and pumping oil through it. We do this as a mattter of course at each work party just to ensure this power unit remains in good internal condition ready for insertion into 50030 later this ye...

This weekend we had Ian Williams the welder on site, starting the bodywork repairs on Repulse. Joining me today was Mark Burrows, Carl and Sofy Looker.Ian cut out rotten steel around No.1 cab end and along the 'non-visible' side, where we had identified the worst corrosion. He did most of the cutting out yesterday, today was clearing the rusty debr...

Dave Rolfe, Wes Needle and I were on site on Sunday 17th February. Peak Rail have been reorganising their site during the first weeks of 2019 and opportunities for work parties were also limited by the weather. Dave was removing the brake adjustment parts off the bogies, as he'd identified some that were either worn or where there appeared to be ...

The frames for the air filters at the radiators end of 50030 were corroded, warped and generally unusable after 25 years or more out of traffic. Although we had a number of spares they likewise were not much good having been stored out in the open or in damp environments. We decided to "bite the bullet" and place an order with an engin...

Mark Burrows and his Robert plus myself were on site today. Mark and Robert carried on where my partner Mae had got to on the no.1 end cabsides of 50030, removing rusty paint bubbles, grinding and sanding smooth where possible, then adding filler, sanding again and priming, then painting with grey undercoat. When purchased in 2002, both 50029 and 5...

​My fiancee Mae joined me on site today, along with Carl and Sofi Looker. While Mae was hammering, poking and scraping at rust spots around the lower parts of the no.1 cab on Repulse (a recent target area we had decided to tackle), Sofie was top-coating one side of the six radiator fan resistor backplates, while Carl and I lifted and bolted tw...

On Sunday I went to Rowsley to see Dave Rolfe and catch up on what's been happening, unfortunately no pictures as my car was so full of stock after a sales event that day that the camera wouldn't fit in it!I'm pleased to say the radiator room is very close to being finished, the only tasks that need doing before the radiators can go back in in are:...

​19/6/2017 Deborah Stokes and I completed the rail grey topcoating in the radiator compartment, Dave Rolfe refitted another part of the radiator shutter actuating mechanism, while Wes Needle carried on in no 1 cab, refitting panelling to the driver's desk, though not without some effort as the panels were warped from storage and previous rushed fit...

Most of our efforts since Christmas have concentrated on preparing the radiator compartment for the return of the radiators now they have been repaired. It's been all hands on deck to clean up years of accumulated debris, attend to lots of corrosion, especially around the blower duct on the floor and the electrical trunking that runs either side ju...

The work party was attended by Dave Rolfe and myself plus Mark Burrows in the morning. Mark dropped off a set of cab desk panels for me to take a look at, then spent the rest of the morning searching through our stores of other cab parts. The panels appear to be in good condition but are missing the speedometer.  We have this item in stock els...