17/18 December 05 - Old Oak Common + Railtour

Thanks to Martyn Bane for some photo's from the prep day at Old Oak Common on the 17th December. The engine looked in terrific condition as you can see from these pictures, (click here), (click here) and (click here).

On the 18th, the loco hauled Past Time Rail's Yuletide Bard Express from Paddington to Stratford-upon-Avon and return. As well documented elsewhere, the railtour was over 2 hrs late leaving London owing to the coaching stock being caught in a Network Rail possession from another railtour the previous day. Both EWS & the support crew did what they could to pull back as much of the deficite as possible and the return was about an hour late getting back to the capital. The loco performed faultlessly all day for what turned out to be its last run of 2005 as the tour on the 30th Dec was cancelled.

14 December 05 - Water Wagon Test Run

Today saw the inaugural run of the society's water wagon as part of the light engine move from Tyseley to Old Oak Common in London. The wagon, based on a bogie container flat wagon, was marshalled between the loco and support coach for the move to London. The VAB inspectors on board the coach along with EWS undertook tests on route to check the vehicle's riding characteristics and upon arrival in London everything was pronounced satisfactory. It remains now to gain Network Rail approval to use the vehicle in a passenger consist. I managed to get some pictures on route and at some of the pathing stops. Click on the following links to view...

(Pic 1) Taken from the support coach between Leamington & Banbury.

(Pic 2) This picture was take from the support coach vestibule end, looking at the couplings between the water wagon & support coach to view the riding characteristics of the consist with the water wagon both full & later when half full. Safety measures were in place as this was the test viewing area for the VAB inspectors.

(Pic 3) Until this stop at Didcot Parkway, the water wagon was full and the flow between the wagon & tender was not open. Here, with about 1000 gallons in the tender, the flow was opened and subsequently water flowed between the two tanks and the tender.

(Pic 4) Everything was once again checked at this stop in the sidings at Hanwell. The water level in the tender & tanks had equalised with the tender level going up as the journey had continued from Didcot.

10 December 05 - Tyseley

This week the loco passed it's hot exam with the VAB and is therefore certified for another 12 months of running. This Wednesday (14th) see's the water wagon's long awaited debut on the main line as along with the loco & coach it will be moved to Old Oak Common in London. Martyn Bane spent the day getting the coach re-labelled with it's certification dates (click here) as well as getting the water wagon filled up as you can see in these pictures (click here) and (click here). On the loco there was still plenty to be doing. Graham was working on touching up some area's of paintwork that required attention. In this picture (click here) he was working on one of the boiler cladding straps. He also did some work on the front buffer beam and the tender. The spark arrestor screens were re-fitted into the smokebox after some modifications and the two Keiths loaded enough coal into the tender to keep a small fire going this week (click here)