Friday 27th - Maintenance

Report by Graham

The usual suspects back at a cold and foggy Toddington this week for door and brake exams to the maroon rake in platform 2 as part of their Type-A exams (internal & external).

It was a cold and foggy day so we prioritized doors and brakes in case we ran out of time or enthusiasm for the conditions. The whole Type-A schedule is rarely all done in the same session. Things like pad and buckeye exams often get a separate mission!

In the morning it was doors, doors, doors, and the afternoon brakes, brakes, brakes.

We walk down the inside of the rake checking all the doors, at least all those that are not marked as “Out-of-Use” with a notice or red ribbon wrapped round the handle. Those with a notice are likely to be semi-permanently out of use and waiting workshop attention. Those with a red ribbon have been marked recently by train staff and we will give these a check and see if we can get them functioning again. Sometimes we can, sometimes they too get a permanent notice and are put on the list for workshop attention.

We check the internal condition of the door trim and make sure nothing is loose or likely to cause a problem in operation. We open the window and make sure it opens/closes and stays where it is moved to without just dropping to its lowest position. We lean out the window and unlock the “budget” lock with a carriage key…

We then open the door using the exterior twist handle and check that it swings freely, the hinges are ok, any door retaining straps work ok. If the door is binding on the frame some Vaseline will be applied where the scuff marks are to prevent it sticking.

The operation of the door lock is checked…

When the door is opened the bolt (LH image) stays semi-retracted and the handle is in a near “vertical” position (this is important, pay attention for later). The ram at the bottom (RH image) is pushed in when the door closes on the frame striker plate and releases the bolt…

…we push it in with a thumb and then release the handle to check that the bolt springs out fully and the handle sits in a position obviously not “vertical”. 

The “vertical” vs “non-vertical” position of the handles is an important visual indication that the door locks are engaged. When a train is waved away from the station the station master might be waving to all the happy travellers on board, but he is also checking every door handle as the train moves by to make sure they are not “vertical”. Any that are near “vertical” means the bolt is not fully engaged in the frame and a signal must be given to stop the train and get the door closed properly by the guard.

Unfortunately, due to the wear of the mechanism the “vertical” and “non-vertical” positions of the handles are often not absolutely perpendicular or absolutely level, and the station master has to use a certain amount of discretion in interpreting the handle positions. The advantage at our railway is that the same carriages will be going by all day and a station master can check a suspicious door handle (as above) whilst the train is stationary and make a mental note of where it’s “good” and “bad” positions lie in order to avoid confusion later. On this particular door “vertical” was approx 7:05 and “non-vertical” 9:15.

We also check the door safety catch, which catches the door if the main bolt fails to engage…

…this is spring loaded and should pop out whenever the door is opened. The main bolt should catch behind this and prevent the door opening even if the bolt fails to engage in the main rebate at the back of the striker plate…

John wouldn’t let me shut his finger in the door to act as a pointer so I’ve had to use the screen snip marker pen!

We check that once this catch has engaged it will stop the door opening even with someone’s weight thrown behind it. John tries to mime this in the next image, but it needs a video really… (Videos can be accommodated! Ed.)

 BANG!

You put enough weight behind it several times to be reasonably sure its not going to give if anyone did fall against the door…BANG…BANG…BANG…BANG! But at the same time if it does give you don’t want to go head first out the door, so one doesn’t take a run at it from the other side of the carriage.

Finally the door is swung too firmly and it should shut and latch with an appropriately pleasing sound and action…

…leaving the handle in the “non-vertical” bolt fully engaged position. 

The door is then locked via the “budget” lock, the window raised, and we move on to the next and the next. BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… …. BANG… BANG… BANG… ………. BANG… BANG… BANG… 

The door checks are a bit noisy!

In the afternoon it was time to get down and dirty under the carriages…

Having made sure the rake wasn’t going anywhere…

With scotches (chocks), hand-brake, and NOT-TO-BE-MOVED board all deployed.

We always have a good look round whilst we are down there…

Finding things like manky vacuum hoses…

[spiders web in the extreme foreground…is that arty? I cant make my mind up. Perhaps if I hadn’t drawn a dirty big red arrow on it!]

…and this one we made a note of for replacement.

We were there to focus on brakes though.

We check that the block is located centrally on the rim and is not wearing due to any overlap on the outside lip of the wheel or up the shoulder of the flange. We check that split pins are there and the brake rigging is free to move. We check the block is not worn down into the wear marker recesses cast into the outer edge, if it is it has to be replaced. We also look at the marking on the rim. Above looks a bit “chattery” but we are mostly looking for flats, which will only get worse if left and mean even more tyre has to be turned down to remove it.

We release the bogie brakes by pulling the string on the cylinder valve…at the same time announcing “STRINGS!” to warn anyone under to keep clear in case of any vehicle movement that might occur as the brakes release.

The arm under the vacuum cylinder relaxes as any remaining vacuum is lost and frees it’s grip on the brake rigging which then allows us to check the adjustment…

One finger is too tight, two fingers is about right, three fingers is too slack. The one on the right is about where you’d add it to the jobs list.

The slack, or otherwise is adjusted via the horizontal adjustment bar that hangs between the wheels under the axle…just where it gets covered in cack from the toilet outlet…

Any found in this state would stay on the list until we had any opportunity to hose it all down first and let it dry. The above is a big contributor to why toilets are locked out-of-use on the trains at the moment.

Such fertilizer may also help the fungus eat away at the sleepers too. We noticed this one while we were between the platforms…

…another job for the P-Way gang!

As usual, the last job of the day is to tidy up tools and materials, and collate and make sure all the paperwork is filled out and signed so John can take it back to the office at Winchcombe for filing.

A Look in the Archive Part 2

Another look to see what was going on around C&W and beyond in the dim and distant past. It seems the workshops themselves had quite a lot of attention circa 2004, in addition to the re-organisation inside as shown last time, the main workshop was re-roofed:

This is the view from what will one day be the paintshop end, possibly a glimmer in someone's eyes at that stage but nothing more! Also at the paintshop end, around a similar time, a new roller shutter was fitted:

What was there before, original goods shed doors?

Just a year before the barn was concreted as well:

I guess that's Tony Seddon in the dark blue overalls, and Dave suggests he's accompanied by Pete Hackett and Derrick O'Brien. There weren't any pictures of the barn construction itself in this collection, maybe another box somewhere, but it was around 2001.

Speaking of Tony, although I don't think I ever met him, I recognised him immediately in this photo, as it was apparently his archetypal position:

Having made such a nice space in the barn, we were quickly invaded! What's all this?

Apparently this was during a track lay at Defford Straight. I presume we were the only department with lifting jacks at the time too.

Around the same time in 2004 this rather varied consist was part of some shunting training:

Other than Richard Johnson holding the lifting bar for buckeyes, again I can add no names here. Can anyone else?

away from C&W, here's Black Prince in 2006, a much missed loco:

At the time owned by David Shepherd, here he is on the footplate with Alan Titsmarsh in 2004:

It was jolly busy!

It's been suggested this was marking the return to service of Black Prince after overhaul.

This little gathering of C&W volunteers on an away day was to mark the centenary of Toddington station, built in 1904:

Thanks to Dave for the help, from left to right we have Steve Smith, Silvie Ottwell, Derrick O'Brien, initially thought it is John Randall - not sure now, Dave Ward, don't know, seen before but don't know, Colin Minchin, Eddie, Pat Green.

And finally for this post, a few locos to go "Oooh" at :-)

45596 visited the GWSR in 1997, just before the end of its boiler ticket. 

"925 Cheltenham" This was actually Repton from the NYMR, not the real Cheltenham, brought in and dressed up as part of the Cheltenham re-opening.

And City of Truro, on a proving run in 2004. Doesn't she look lovely!

Peter Bennett

 We are deeply sorry to announce that Peter Bennett who was until very recently Head of C&W, died last Sunday afternoon (22 November).

Peter was a longstanding member of Carriage & Wagon Department. In 2014 he was appointed as deputy HOD and in 2019 he accepted the position of Head of the Department. He decided to stand down from the role of Head of Department in September this year when he was diagnosed with cancer and it was while undergoing treatment at hospital that sadly he contracted coronavirus; the combination of both ailments proving to be fatal.

Peter did a huge amount of work to further the Carriage & Wagon Department and many readers will recall he also produced our Blog for 9 years. Only recently he was in charge of all the necessary arrangements for everyone to return to volunteering after the first lockdown. He will be sorely missed by us all.

Sadly not the Wednesday crew.

 With the rules as they are, we cannot do our thing ..... there are plenty of things to do but are not classed as essential.

So I thought to keep the railway theme going I would include some photos from a road trip we did in 2018.

We started in the Lake District, stopping in Coniston which a very good centre to work out from. For the technical minded there is a very good  albeit small museum in Coniston, featuring the rebuild of Donald Campbells Bluebird ..... it was on Coniston Water where he died attempting a new world water speed record.

I will start at the Ravenglass and Eskdale, it is one of the oldest and longest narrow gauge railways in England. It is 15'' gauge and is seven miles long, it has open and closed carriages ... we mistakenly went in an open carriage, it was rather cold.

It was built in 1873 and opened in 1875 to transport Iron Ore from the hills down to Ravenglass, It opened to passengers in 1876. Due to diminishing quantities of Ore and passenger traffic it was forced to close in 1913.

Today it is a great visitor attraction.

After a few days we moved across to West Yorkshire, which meant a visit to the 'Keighley and Worth Valley Railway'.

                                                                                    

It was opened in 1867, funded by wealthy mill owners. In a short time it became part of the Midland Railway until in 1923 at the grouping it was absorbed into the LMS. It was nationalised in 1948 and became part of BR, then due to road competition it closed in 1962.

The branch line was  re-opened in 1968 by the preservation society, just weeks before the end of steam on BR tracks.

 

One of its claims to fame, was that the line was used for the filming of 'The Railway Children' in 1970

Again it is well worth a visit.

As promised the Railway theme continues, not too far away is the 'Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. It was the former Midland Railway route from Skipton to Ilkley and was closed by BR in 1965

On arrival I proffered my Heritage rail pass, we were very enthusiastically welcomed upon finding which railway was on my card (GWSR). I can't remember their names but it was said, that after their own railway the GWSR is their favourite Heritage Railway. 

As usual we picked the right day to ride the train, it rained sideways but no matter it was a lovely visit.

We continued the holiday as far north as Seahouses, where we searched out long lost bits of the defunct Chathill to Seahouses line. Surprisingly there are a number of bridges and railway features, not least the walkway into Seahouses from our B&B. Next time I will see if I can find some photos.

From here we headed south to East Yorkshire, to finish our holiday at Goathland (Aidensfield) but more of that next time.

A look in the archive

With a month of no C&W work, I was wondering what to do with myself and the blog. As usual, both were busier than I expected, but nonetheless I thought a delve into the C&W archive might be of interest. Michael Jackson was a long time volunteer in the department until his retirement in 2016. He recorded a huge amount of stuff that went on at the railway for many years, and left it all in the office for posterity. I grabbed a huge box marked 2000-2007 which looked promising.

Starting off with a few improvements being made to the works in 2004, this picture was captioned "Discussions lead to decisions":

This was the new Mezzanine floor in the workshop. This allowed the woodwork team a new workspace, what luxury it must have seemed! 

Dave Ward on the left, Eddy on the right.

Next up, some folk might remember the LMS saloon that was, from what I can gather was a lengthy restoration. Here it is on its inaugural test run departing Winchcombe, hauled by King George:

On towards Gretton (Not Cheltenham yet, nearly though!)

Sadly the inspection saloon was little used other than for Princess Anne re-opening Cheltenham racecourse (of which more in a bit). I believe it was only used a handful of times before being withdrawn around 2008 with a leaking roof. It sat out of use for another 4 years before eventually being sold moving to the SVR where it remains tarped. It seems a shame after all the work put into it. As a fan of pre-nationalisation vehicles I'd have loved to have worked on it!

As for King George, this loco had the distinction of being the only steam loco ever owned by the railway directly. I don't know when it was withdrawn, but it was sold to Didcot in 2011 when the railway was in dire need of money and could see little future use for it. Here it's on a rather smart looking BR freight set at Toddington in October 2001. Anyone know what the occasion was?

I couldn't find out when it was withdrawn, but it held the distinction of being the first steam loco to take a train to Cheltenham Racecourse in the same year:

The great and the good gathered, this was purely a press opportunity, presumably to help raise funds for more work, as the extension didn't open until 2003. I suspect the reason for the black and white photos was because it was a very foggy day!

On the left looks like Bob Stark, stalwart of the Cheltenham group to this day, then behind him Jim who still works with P'way. I'm fairly sure somewhere in there should be Wayne Finch who was a member of the commercial department at the time, and on the right Ian Crowder, who is our publicity officer.

Seeing as we're at Cheltenham, I'll finish off this post with some pictures of the re-opening itself. 

Here C&W volunteers are awaiting the 12 coach special to Cheltenham at Winchcombe. Faces that I can pick out include Andy second from left, then Malcolm underneath the corner lantern, Christine and Richard Johnson towards the right, and Tony Seddon with the beard on the right in the background.

A few more recognisable faces, that looks like Derek right at the back in the middle, with Phil Jones to the right of him, then right again in the foreground is Paul.

This is what they were waiting for!

Raveningham Hall was resident on the line at the time, and just as appropriate as Foremarke hall was to open Broadway 15 years later.

The good folk of Bishop's Cleeve seem pleased at out arrival!

And here we are! It must have been a great feeling that day. Note the surface hasn't been tarmacked yet, that won't happen for quite some time. I'm not sure what the yellow fence is all about, but that has thankfully gone, I don't think it lasted long!

I don't know exact dates as to whether the official re-opening occurred before or after the 12 coach volunteer special, but in any case, here is the Royal Train at Toddington that will take Princes Anne From Winchcombe to Cheltenham.

Note the inspection saloon behind Raveningham, handily separate from the rest of the train there being no corridor connection, and the royal train lamp code with all four lamp brackets adorned. Everything looks absolutely sparkling here, and it's probably one of my favourite photos of this collection.

Best suits required for the occasion! On the left, centrally looks to me to be C&W volunteers Alf Boston, Richard Unitt and Tony Seddon, and on the right Bill Hillier in the middle, now of the HRA.

Dave tells me that Alf was introduced to Princess Anne as our Endologist. When she asked what that was she was told that he dealt with the corridor end connections and her response was something like, "Oh, those concertina things!"

And finally the Princess Royal herself at the original booking office at Cheltenham racecourse. It looks like the painting hadn't quite been finished! 

I hope you've enjoyed this little foray into the archive, as a relatively recent volunteer I certainly have! There's probably enough photos for a couple more posts at least. If you have anything else to add, more names to faces, things I got wrong, please do leave a comment.

Edit - Thanks to Roger for these views of the inside of the inspection saloon taken not long before sale and move to the SVR. Apparently remedial works were ongoing up until the pandemic put things on hold.