Another week of action and progress at Williton, the focus of activity being 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ and Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’ D9518. Restrictions on depot attendance remain in place but we again managed to operate on four days out of the last seven, minimising risk and making better use of facilities.

47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ – Efforts were made to get her massive Sulzer 12-cylinder diesel engine ready to start after a long period out of use. The various tasks that were in progress around the loco had to be stopped and put in a safe condition to allow power-up and start-up. The ‘triple pump’ was run to prime the oil, fuel and water systems and everything was looking good. Several volunteers stood by with their cameras, ready to take a video of the event.

The DEPG’s 1965 Crewe-built Brush ‘Type 4’, formerly D1661 but now Class 47 number 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ residing on Number 3 road inside Williton Depot on 20th April 2021. Photo by Chris Shields © CC BY-NC 3.0

Unfortunately, when the moment came to press the ‘START’ button, there was a click – but the engine did not turn over. The batteries had decided that they were not going to co-operate and that was the end of it. Although the batteries had been kept in a fully charged condition over the last year or so, the combination of the age of the batteries and the lack of use has meant that charging had become ineffective, leaving the batteries too weak to be able to do their job. A locomotive without batteries is useless, so we now have to replace the 48 individual batteries that make up the full set.

Undeterred, our volunteers went back to their tasks and carried on, such disappointments being part of railway preservation life. Further attempts to start-up may be made this weekend using batteries borrowed from other locos and connected in parallel to boost capacity. Once started up, we will be able to complete our assessment of the work remaining to be done to get this loco ready for service.

Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’ D9518 – The ‘Tuesday’ crew comprising Terry, Colin F, Chris and Mark continued on renovating the sandboxes and getting them ready to refit to the locomotive frames. On the weekend, Colin G continued his work on the wheelsets, filling and sanding the surfaces to provide a good smooth surface for painting. The rate of progress is very encouraging!

One of the sandboxes from D9518 gets some serious attention from Colin at Williton on 27th April 2021. Photo by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

One of the sandboxes from D9518 ready for painting at Williton on 27th April 2021. Photo by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

Chris makes sure that the sandboxes from D9518 get a good layer of undercoat at Williton on 27th April 2021. Photo by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

OTHER LOCO NEWS:

Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6575 is in action this weekend on crew training specials between Bishops Lydeard (BL) and Williton (WN). This news was broadcast yesterday via our DIESELGEN email bulletin service. This loco will change places with sister loco D6566 (33 048) during Saturday afternoon and D6566 will then work back to BL and will also work the crew training turns on Sunday. An additional working that is scheduled for Thursday 6th May is an Empty Coaching Stock (ECS) move from BL to Minehead, where D6566 will attach to some newly-repainted coaches and haul them to BL in conjunction with BR(W) 4-6-0 number 7828 ‘ODNEY MANOR’. These moves are part of the preparation for the re-opening of the WSR on 22nd May 2021.

Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7017 – this loco remains in the yard at Williton, having had her tarpaulins removed and having had a wash, courtesy of Ian. The plan for this loco is to be ‘lifted’ in late June or July so that her bogies can be rolled out so that the springs can be changed. No doubt there will be other work that will need to be done while the loco is lifted, but we hope to complete the work during the autumn so that D7017 is available for service in 2022.

Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7017 stands on number 1 road in the South yard at Williton on 20th April 2021, with Class 33 D6566 (33 048) to her left and Class 14 D9526 to her right. Photo by Chris Shields © CC BY-NC 3.0

Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7018 – this loco is inside the shed on number 2 road and is undergoing an investigation on the control block of her Mekydro hydraulic transmission. After several attempts to get the automatic gear change function working as it should, it has been decided to switch the control block for a known good control block that was in use at some time in the past. This will hopefully resolve the problem and allow more time for the delinquent control block to be further investigated to find the blockage (or stuck valve) that is preventing proper operation. In the worst case, the transmission will be locked in second gear and she will operate on the WSR in the same way as she did in 2019.

A view of ‘Hymek’ D7018 through the former boiler room window of 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ taken on 26th April 2021 while both locos were residing in the loco shed at Williton. Photo by Natalie Royal © CC BY-NC 3.0

Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ – this loco is waiting patiently outside the shed on number 3 road for her opportunity to displace 47077 and enter the next phase of her own restoration. With the remedial work on her failed transmission still held up by lockdowns, volunteer effort will be focused on the cooler group renovations and long list of bodywork repairs. This loco will be the subject of a fund raising campaign to cover the cost of specialist sub-contract services that will be needed to return this loco to service. The funds generated by our new booklet “D1010 WESTERN CAMPAIGNER – FROM MEREHEAD TO MINEHEAD” will go into this fund, along with revenue from sales of pre-owned books, so please help the fund grow by buying from our online store. Thanks !

Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ outside the loco shed on number 3 road at Williton on 20th April 2021, minus her lower front valances (already removed for restoration) and clearly in need of some bodywork repairs. Photo by Chris Shields © CC BY-NC 3.0

Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’ D9518 – information that was posted on rmweb earlier this week reminded us that our loco was the LAST of the class to perform work on BR back in April 1969 and one of the last ten to be withdrawn from service. Here’s an extract of some posts made by rmweb member “br2975” :

Many thanks to Neil Evans and to rmweb member “br2975” for bringing this information to our attention. After serving BR for a mere four years, our loco went on to do seventeen years of hard labour at NCB Ashington Colliery before retiring and eventually coming into our hands.

Bought from BR in full working order in 1969, NCB No. 7 (aka D9518) still had five more years of work ahead of her when seen operating at Ashington Colliery in this photo dated 25th May 1981. Photo by Colin Girle © CC BY-NC 3.0

Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’ D9526 – this loco remains hidden by tarpaulins on number 1 road, just outside the Old Goods Shed after being ‘evicted’ from its shelter because of the structural issues that are currently affecting that Grade II listed building. This loco has undergone a 250-hour inspection and is waiting for a test run to Bishops Lydeard so that she can go over the pit at Westridge shed and have an underframe examination. After that, she will be ready for service !

Many thanks to all of our volunteers who are hard at work maintaining, restoring, managing and fund raising for our fleet of heritage locomotives !

BOOK REVIEW – This week, we have another pre-owned book to offer via our online store, but this one is rather unusual and appears to be quite rare. “TRIBUTE TO THE FORTY’S – 1958 to 1986” is a paperback booklet, A5 in size (21 x 15 cm) with 100 printed pages and more than 200 photographs, all in black and white except those on the cover page. The booklet was published by the CLASS 40 APPEAL in 1986 and was clearly a success because seven members of the class have made it into preservation, including two mainline-registered examples.

This rare booklet has been very kindly donated to the DEPG for the purpose of fund raising, so we are offering it at £15, the entire proceeds of which will go to the D1010 restoration fund.

If you have railway books that you want to donate to us, please let us know by return email or by using this contact form so that we can work out an economic way of getting them from you. We appreciate your efforts to give us more items to sell to raise funds for the DEPG fleet.

ON SHED: We didn’t have time to include our usual ‘On Shed’ feature last week, but I felt a bit annoyed with myself afterwards because I found that the very next day, Monday 26th April 2021, I had a note to release an ‘ON THIS DAY …’ post to share two photographs that were taken exactly 40 years ago, so after waiting all that time, I missed the boat ! Here they are today instead.

FORTY YEARS AGO – there was an unexpected snowfall at the end on April, blanketing many parts of the country, including South Wales. This view of Ebbw Junction depot, on the western side of Newport, shows seven Class 37s and one Class 47, probably 47 901, at rest on the morning of Sunday 26th April 1981. The line going left is to Ebbw Vale, the four track South Wales main line is to the right, and Alexandra Dock Junction sidings are on the far right. Photo by Andy Royal © CC BY-NC 3.0

FORTY YEARS AGO – 37284 rests at Ebbw Junction (EJ) depot on the morning of Sunday 26th April 1981 along with 03382, a loco that was destined for use on the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley line in West Wales. Low bridges on that route meant that the 03 needed her cab cut down, so for reasons unknown, that task was allocated to EJ. The loco had come from Bristol Bath Road and hung around the depot for months before being modified and then heading west. Photo by Andy Royal © CC BY-NC 3.0

DEPG NEWS: The DEPG held a Board Meeting last Saturday, partly on site and partly by Zoom, and a synopsis will be prepared and included in next weeks’ roundup.

Last week, we asked this question …. which railway magazines do you buy on a regular basis ? 

We had several replies so we say thank you to those respondents, but we did not get enough responses to make a clear picture. Please reply to this email with the titles that you read and we will collate the results and share them in a future roundup. Thanks !

Membership – is your membership up to date ? If not, please renew by going to our Join Us page and selecting the appropriate membership ‘product’. This is a quick and easy way to keep your membership current. It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember your membership number – we will sort that out for you.

DEPG WEBSITE: Our ONLINE SHOP IS NOW LIVE so go ahead and visit our store!

Our new booklet, ‘D1010 – FROM MEREHEAD TO MINEHEAD’ is in stock so get your copy now! This booklet covers our Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ and its life in preservation, from Foster Yeoman’s quarry at Merehead to the West Somerset Railway to Minehead plus some interesting stories from the days when the loco was still working on the mainline. All proceeds go to the D1010 restoration fund.

WSR NEWS: The WSR ran another of their popular Zoom sessions for volunteers last week and again it was well attended and very useful and interesting. We applaud the WSR for their investment in time and effort to hold these very informative sessions.

Traincrew training activities continue with diesel haulage this weekend, as reported earlier. The weedkilling train will run this week to avoid a repeat of last year where volunteers spent many back-breaking hours performing hand weeding along the whole 22-mile length of the line!

The priority is to ensure that everything is ready for the return of public services on Saturday 22nd May 2021. These ‘excursion style’ services will run between Bishops Lydeard and Williton and must be pre-booked via the WSR website. It is really important to support the WSR to ensure that these services are a commercial success. Please buy a ticket if you can. Thanks !

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This week, we have plenty of ‘action’ photos showing the team back at work at Williton, hard at work on our several of our locomotives. We are still restricting the number of people on site at any one time, but we were able to operate on four days out of the last seven and we have made progress on multiple fronts. Here goes:

Saturday 17th April – Ian led the electrical work on 47077 which included inspections and scheduled maintenance on the electrical auxiliary machines (compressors, exhausters, blowers, pumps) and Gordon led the work on the refitting of the ‘NORTH STAR’ nameplates, which look very good indeed after careful restoration by Graham. Meanwhile, the Class 14 team comprising Simon, Colin and Terry made progress on the major subassemblies of D9518.

Class 47 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ gets reunited with her nameplates at Williton on 17th April 2021, modelled by Warren. The nameplates have been painstakingly restored by Graham and now carry the red background that was typical of the 1970s. A reflection of Gordon and ‘Hymek’ D7018 can be see in the glossy rail blue paintwork that was applied by WSR Restorations at the Swindon Shed in October 2019. Photo by Ian Robins © CC BY-NC 3.0

One pair of D9518‘s hornguides seen here at Williton on 17th April 2021, being prepared by Simon and Terry before re-fitting to the loco. Photo by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0 

Meanwhile, D9518‘s wheelsets get special treatment from Colin at Williton on 17th April 2021. The rough cast surface finish of the wheel hubs and spokes have been filled and will be sanded to provide a smooth finish before painting. A smooth finish on the wheels is much easier to keep clean compared to rough cast finish. Photo by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0 

Sunday 18th April – Ian made a temporary focus shift to the diesel-hydraulics and was captured on the depot CCTV cameras washing ‘Hymek’ D7017, the local seagulls having been using the loco for target practice. The faded paintwork of D7017 certainly needed some TLC.

Captured by the Williton depot CCTV system, Ian can be seen washing the sun-bleached and weathered paintwork of ‘Hymek’ D7017 on 18th April 2021. This loco is out of service and is waiting to be lifted so that her bogie springs can be replaced, hopefully some time this summer. Photo DEPG © CC BY-NC 3.0

Tuesday 20th April – a team of four led by Terry made progress on the main frames and horn guides of Class 14 D9518 and also started repairs to the sand boxes. We welcome new members and volunteers Colin Foxhall and Chris Lawton to the DEPG team and we hope to see them at Williton on Tuesdays in future, along with our new Publicity Officer and long-time member Mark Bladwell. All three are seen in the photos below, hard at work on the sand box restoration. Sand is used to provide extra grip if the wheels start to slip on a greasy rail. The delivery of the sand to the rail is carefully controlled by a valve to ensure that the minimum amount of sand is used. This basic and simple method of maintaining traction is still used on mainline locomotives today.

New member and volunteer Colin uses his restoration skills to attend to an area of thin metal on one of the sand boxes for D9518. Photo taken at Williton on 20th April 2021 by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

New member and volunteer Chris (left) is no stranger to the WSR because he is also a member of the WSR volunteer PW gang. He is seen working on one of the sand boxes for D9518 along with long-time DEPG member and Publicity Officer Mark at Williton on 20th April 2021. Photo by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

Another picture of Mark, this time at work freeing-up the threads on one of the sand boxes for D9518 at Williton on 20th April 2021. Photo by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

The first of six hornguide assemblies has been offered up to the frames of D9518 as a trial fitment. After careful positioning, the hornguides will be rivetted to the loco frames using techniques that are exactly the same as those used for steam locos, so the task will be subcontracted to WSR Restorations at the Swindon Shed. Photo taken at Williton on 20th April 2021 by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

A view of the temporary fitment, this time from inside the frames of D9518. Photo taken at Williton on 20th April 2021 by Terry Deacon © CC BY-NC 3.0

Wednesday 21st April – Andy and Natalie progressed the re-paint in the former boiler room and engine room of 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’, getting to some of the areas that are difficult to access. There is plenty more cleaning and painting work to do inside the loco, so more help would be much appreciated!

OTHER LOCO NEWS:

Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6575 was in action last week on engineering trains that covered the whole length of the line, gathering permanent way materials and delivering them to various places along the line. This running was briefed via our DIESELGEN email bulletin service. The next rostered working will be next Saturday but the line remains under the control of the WSR Infrastructure Engineering department so additional workings could take place without notice. The line is to be treated as ‘live’ at all times. We will send out another DIESELGEN bulletin as soon as we have details of the weekend workings.

Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6575 (33 057) was seen approaching Cottiford Bridge with an Infrastructure Engineering train on 21st April 2021. Photo by Steve Edge © CC BY-NC 3.0

Class 47 number 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ – Last week, we gave some reasons as to why this loco has gained ‘celebrity’ status, the first reason being that she was one of a small number of ‘standard Type 4’ locomotives that were adorned with names by the Western Region of BR in March 1965. Our loco carried the running number D1661 at the time and she was named on the same day as sister loco D1662 ‘ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL’.

The giant-sized nameplate fitted to D1662 continued a legacy that was established by the GWR in 1938 when ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0 steam loco number 5069 was named ‘ISAMBARD KINGDON BRUNEL’, with Swindon Works having to use a smaller character size than usual, just to get all of those letters into the available space on the nameplate!

The nameplate of GWR ‘Castle Class’ 4-6-0 No 5069 ‘ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL’ in the traditional position above the centre driving wheel of the locomotive. This loco, one of 171 members of this famous class, entered service on the GWR in June 1938 and worked until February 1962 when she was withdrawn and sent to the scrapyard (no doubt minus her nameplates). Photo by Wikipedia CC0

The Western Region of BR battled to continue some of the traditional practices of the old GWR and we can see that this practice was successful and continues to this day. That most famous engineer ‘IKB’ has been commemorated through the ages, first with Castle Class 5069 then with Class 47 D1662 (later 47 484) then with HST power car 43003 and most recently with ‘flying cucumber’ Class 800 number 800004, all of which are pictured below. The sad decline in grandeur of the nameplate is obvious – and its ultimate form, the vinyl transfer, has definitely lost some of the old panache !

Class 47 number D1662 ‘ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL’ became 47484 when modified for ETH in 1973 and changed from two-tone green to BR blue livery with a red background applied to her very long nameplate! Photo by Graham Turner © CC BY-NC 3.0

First Great Western Class 43 HST power car number 43003 carrying its ‘modernised’ IKB nameplate. Photo by Wikipedia CC0

GWR Class 800 ‘IET’ number 800004 carries a small vinyl transfer just below the driver’s side window commemorating ‘Isambard Kingdom Brunel’, as seen at Reading Train Care Depot in 2016. Photo by Wikipedia CC0

As mentioned last week, the nameplate on D1662 was not the longest in length – because that accolade went to sister loco D1664 when the name of that famous GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer ‘GEORGE JACKSON CHURCHWARD’ was applied to her at Swindon Works on 8th May 1965.

DEPG Staff Rep Andy recounts a story from way back when he was aged 10 or 11, when he got home from a hard day’s trainspotting on the platform of Cardiff General Station (now Cardiff Central) and told his steam-loving (and diesel-loathing) father that he had seen a loco with the most massive nameplate, starting with ‘George’ but he couldn’t remember the rest. To his complete surprise, and without even looking up from what he was doing, his father replied ‘”George Jackson Churchward, perhaps?”.

Class 47 D1664 ‘GEORGE JACKSON CHURCHWARD’ waits at Reading station on 9th August 1971, in original two-tone green livery but with full yellow ends and BR-corporate numerals with no ‘D’ prefix. Photo by Bryan Johnson © CC BY-NC 3.0

Many thanks to the website Class47.co.uk and to Wikipedia and their contributors for providing the details and photos for this feature.

BOOKS for SALE – This week, we have two more pre-owned books to offer via our online store, both from Bradford Barton publishing and both dated 1974. These books form part of a well-known series and although old and faded on the outside, the black-and-white content of these 21 x 22 cm books remains in very good condition.

BR DIESELS IN CLOSE-UP by Norman E. Preedy and H. L. Ford, published by Bradford Barton in 1974

BR DIESELS IN ACTION by G. Weekes, published by Bradford Barton in 1974

These books have been donated to the DEPG for the purpose of fund raising, so we are offering each book at £10, the proceeds of which will go to the D1010 restoration fund.

If you have railway books that you want to donate to us, please let us know by return email or by using this contact form so that we can work out an economic way of getting them from you. We appreciate your efforts to give us more items to sell to raise funds for the DEPG fleet.

DEPG NEWS: By way of clarification of what was written last week, it has been pointed out that the Diesel Traction Group (DTG) have already installed their spare heat exchanger into D1015 ‘WESTERN CHAMPION’ so the ex-class-56 heat exchanger that is being provided by the DEPG is going to be stripped and the core cleaned and tested before installing it into a Class 52 housing, and this will then become the spare for D1015. Many thanks to Bob Clegg for straightening that out.

Membership – is your DEPG membership up to date ? If not, please renew by going to our Join Us page and selecting the appropriate membership ‘product’. This is a quick and easy way to keep your membership current. It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember your membership number – we will sort that out for you.

DEPG WEBSITE: Our ONLINE SHOP IS NOW LIVE so go ahead and visit our store!

Our new booklet, ‘D1010 – FROM MEREHEAD TO MINEHEAD’ is in stock so get your copy now! This booklet covers our Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ and its life in preservation, from Foster Yeoman’s quarry at Merehead to the West Somerset Railway to Minehead plus some interesting stories from the days when the loco was still working on the mainline. All proceeds go to the D1010 restoration fund.

WSR NEWS: The WSR are continuing their traincrew training activities with steam haulage being provided by WSR ‘Mogul’ number 9351, running between Bishops Lydeard and Williton on weekends. The priority is to ensure that everything is ready for the return of public services on Saturday 22nd May 2021. These ‘excursion style’ services will run between Bishops Lydeard and Williton and must be pre-booked via the WSR website. It is really important to support the WSR to ensure that these Covid-safe services are a commercial success, so please buy some tickets if you can. Thanks !

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Last week, we provided information about the re-opening of the WSR on Saturday 22nd May 2021 and the subsequent expansion of workings through to the summer peak, where the BLUE timetable includes a regular diesel loco-hauled service that starts on Saturday 3rd July, running from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard and back, with an additional working between Bishops Lydeard and Williton. This gives us 27 days of running with 60 miles per day, so 1,620 miles in total during which the DEPG will be providing the haulage.

In addition to this, we will of course be supporting the WSR with engineering trains, empty coaching stock moves and short-notice backup ‘Thunderbird’ locos in case of any issues arising with the steam locos that will be intensively working the majority of services.

The logical choice for the diesel loco-hauled services are our Class 33 ‘Cromptons’ D6566 (33 048) and D6575 (33 057) because these locos can be crewed by both WSR and DEPG crews, offering versatility and flexibility for the WSR’s Operating Department. This is especially important when changes to rostered services need to be made at short notice.

However, to provide some variety and allow some of our other locos a chance to share the workload, we intend to have ‘Hymek’ D7018 and Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’ D9526 available for as many days as possible. The reason that we are limited in the number of running days for these locos is because of availability of crews. The lack of running over the last year has prevented our trainees from ‘passing out’ and the WSR resources must be focused on training and passing crews in the most efficient way to address their own needs, so Class 33 drivers will be the priority.

In the background, we will be working on ways to expand the use of the diesel-hydraulics and we will keep everyone informed via our website and also via our DIESELGEN email bulletin service.

Last week, we wanted to bring attention to the major upgrade that is taking place at Seaward Way level crossing, just outside Minehead Station, so we had intended to include a photo of one of our locos approaching the crossing. However, the photo that we used was not at the level crossing – it was at Kentsford Farm crossing, which is between Watchet and Washford! Here’s the photo again, but this time with the CORRECT caption. Thanks to those eagle-eyed readers who reported this error (all such reports are welcomed, honestly!). 

Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7018 puts on the power at Kentsford Farm crossing, on the climb to Washford on 21st June 2019. The loco had just returned to service after a thorough overhaul that lasted 24 years! See our booklet ‘HYMEK D7018‘. Photo by Mark Ireland © CC BY-NC 3.0

To explain some more about the upgrade to Seaward Way level crossing, it is interesting to note that this crossing did not exist 30 years ago – it was built when the area was under development, as can be seen in the following photos (hopefully correctly captioned this time):

The crossing is being upgraded to a full-barrier type with CCTV facilities to cope with the significant increase in both vehicle and foot traffic along this road. Changes to the signalling layout will also allow locos to run around their trains without having to cross the road, simplifying movements within station limits and reducing the disruption of road traffic. These changes will create a significant amount of re-training and familiarisation work for train crews and ground staff, but will yield benefits for train turnaround times and station operations. Click here to read more about this development.

LOCO NEWS:

47 077 – Our ‘celebrity’ Class 47 has been getting the attention again, as we concentrate on completing the bodyside and roof overhaul and getting her ready to leave the confines of the loco shed. When ‘outshopped’, ‘NORTH STAR’ will be wearing a livery of BR blue from the late ‘seventies, when she was based at Cardiff Canton and carried the BR ‘double arrow’ logo in addition to nameplates with a red background (she ran without the BR logo for many years after first taking on the blue livery). Last weekend, the air filters that sit behind the grilles at roof level were cleaned and reloaded with fresh filter material, getting her one step closer to a test run. 

Other than reported above, the status of our locos remains unchanged this week, due to lockdown. Many thanks to all of our volunteers for their continuing dedication to keeping our locomotives in the best condition possible.

ON SHED: Now that we have completed our booklet on Class 52 ‘Western’ D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’, we can now start to share the many photographs that were sent to us for consideration for inclusion in the new booklet. In the end, we had many more photos than we could fit in, but this is a good thing – so don’t be dissuaded, keep ’em coming !

Here’s an atmospheric shot of D1010 at the fuelling point at Bristol Bath Road depot, with just over one year to go before the end of the Class on BR:

DEPG NEWS: The easing of Covid-19 restrictions is the main news this week and the Williton depot returns to ‘normal’ as from tomorrow, subject to a limit of 12 persons on site, so we can now restart work on ALL of our locos. Attendance at the depot needs to be booked in advance. New volunteers are welcome – simply email contact@depg.org or use the contact form if you would like to come along and help (remember to obtain or renew your membership first). There is something for everyone, but we do need to spread the attendance throughout the week to make sure that we keep within the limits of our facilities, and remember, all attendance has to be booked in advance.

DEPG WEBSITE: Our ONLINE SHOP IS NOW LIVE so go ahead and visit our store!

Our new booklet, ‘D1010 – FROM MEREHEAD TO MINEHEAD’ is going to be delivered to us during the next few days. This will allow us to get pre-ordered booklets out in the mail starting from April 14th so PLACE YOUR ORDER NOW ! This booklet covers our Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ and its life in preservation, from Foster Yeoman’s quarry at Merehead to the West Somerset Railway to Minehead. All proceeds go to the D1010 restoration fund.

WSR NEWS: The WSR will be operating crew training special services from next Saturday onwards as the big effort to renew staff competencies gets under way. Gradually, this refresher training will extend to other forms of voluntary work as the assessors get through their priority lists. The DEPG stands ready to support the re-opening effort as necessary and we are working on a campaign to get maximum patronage on the diesel-loco-hauled services that will run on the BLUE timetable.

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This week, we have plenty of photographs showing Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6575 (33 057) in action on the ballast train workings that took place last Monday. The day started with some shunting in Williton, with D6566 (33 048) moving to take up a position in the DEPG yard so that she could get some attention later in the week. This then left D6575 free to run around her train of three ‘DOGFISH’ wagons and position them for filling with fresh ballast. Then, D6575 hauled the train to Doniford, where the ballast was distributed along the newly re-laid formation. The empty wagons were then taken to the Permanent Way yard at Dunster and the loco returned to Williton light engine.

A number of our members and supporters were all safely positioned with cameras at the ready, so we received several excellent images of these workings, some of which are included below:

DEPG volunteer Class 33 loco manager Ian Robins and DEPG volunteer Tom Courtney have been attending to D6566 at Williton and have started to replace the fuel injectors with newly-refurbished parts. One of the high pressure fuel injection pumps will also be replaced as part of a programme of work to trace a possible fuel leak that appears to be gradually diluting the engine oil. Analysis reports show that the engine oil is currently at its lower limit for viscosity, so we hope that a solution is found before having to replace the engine oil.

The next scheduled working of our locos will take place in mid-April in support of the crew refresher training workings that will take place prior to the RE-OPENING of the West Somerset Railway ! We can keep you informed of diesel loco workings if you join our DIESELGEN e-mail bulletin service.

LOCO NEWS: This weekend, a small team comprising Gordon, Leroy and John Cooke attended at Williton to work on our Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ and get her started up, the objective being to prepare her to move under her own power so that our Class 47 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ can be extracted from the loco shed. This work has become essential due to the need to prepare our celebrity ’47’ for hire to another railway… but more about that at a later date!

Below is a short video clip by Tom that shows the Maybach MD655 V-12 engine at ‘A’ end being started up for the first time since November 2019 and a longer series of clips from two different perspectives that have been provided by Leroy:

The below picture, captured by the Williton Depot security system, shows the moment when the ‘A’ engine burst into life:

Other than reported above, the status of our locos remains unchanged this week, due to lockdown. Many thanks to all of our volunteers for their continuing work to keep our locomotives in the best condition possible, considering the circumstances.

BOOK REVIEW – This week, we are very pleased to have received a copy of a booklet dating back to 1985 entitled “IAN ALLAN MODERN RAILWAYS PICTORIAL PROFILE:8 The HYMEKS”. This booklet is in excellent condition and has been donated by member Ian Harden, to whom we are extremely grateful. We intend to raffle this booklet so that we can generate a contribution to DEPG funds while allowing the maximum number of people to participate, each with an equal chance of success. We will provide more details in a future roundup.

Also this week, we received two books from the daughter of the late Roy Hudson who passed away in 2013 after a lifelong love of railways. These books were produced in the late ‘seventies by our predecessors, the DIESEL + ELECTRIC GROUP in conjunction with Bradford Barton. We will also be including these books in the forthcoming raffle. We are very grateful to Roy’s daughter, Kim, for taking the time and trouble to send these books to us.

If you have books or magazines that you want to donate to us, please email us at contact@depg.org or USE OUR CONTACT FORM so that we can provide a postal address to you. Our diesel depot is only open for a few days of the week, so it won’t do to have a pile of packages outside the gate, but we will work out an alternative arrangement. We intend to offer pre-owned books on our website, starting soon !

DEPG NEWS: A Board Meeting was held yesterday via Zoom and many issues were discussed, not least of which was the impending re-opening of the WSR and the preparations that the DEPG has to make in order to be fully ready to support that re-opening. A synopsis of the meeting will be released as soon as possible.

DEPG WEBSITE: Our ONLINE SHOP IS NOW LIVE so go ahead and visit our store!

As mention earlier, we intend to create a new product category for pre-owned books, where we will offer items for sale that have been donated to the DEPG for the purpose of fund-raising. It may be possible to find some of these books on other pre-owned book websites, perhaps cheaper, but buying from the DEPG will ensure that 100% of your purchase goes straight into our loco funds – and you will get an interesting book in the bargain.

WSR NEWS: The WSR have now posted details of the ‘excursion style‘ public services that will start on Saturday 22nd May 2021, subject to the reduction of Government restrictions in force at that time. The timetable is colour-coded, so to find the details of a particular ‘excursion’ day, click on the appropriate coloured dot that is below the calendar graphics. For example, the BLUE timetable can be studied in detail by clicking this link.

We want to help to make sure that these services, and especially the diesel-hauled services, will be a commercial success, so please visit the WSR website and consider buying a ticket to ride.

To support the return to scheduled running, the WSR have announced that training and competence assessment of traincrews is restarting on Saturday 17th April and will run for 5 consecutive weekends prior to reopening on 22nd May. 

The WSR will be running another of their Zoom sessions for volunteers on Wednesday 31st March at 1800 and we encourage all of our volunteers to join these sessions. The next session will be hosted by Steve Williams and will cover Business Development on the WSR.

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Our Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6566 continued to claim the ‘most watched’ top spot after having worked the WSR ballast train on multiple occasions over the last two weeks. The ballast has been hauled from Williton to various sites along the line in the direction of Watchet. On Monday 22nd March, there will be more ballast trains working between Williton and Doniford in support of the track relaying work that is close to completion there.

However, they won’t be hauled by D6566 because she has failed a lubricating oil test and now has to stand down from WSR duty pending an investigation to find the reason for the drop in the viscosity of her engine oil. This is most probably due to a fuel leak in one of her high-pressure fuel injection pumps, resulting in diesel fuel reaching the lubricating oil sump, mixing with the oil and causing a reduction in viscosity. Her place will be taken by sister D6575 (33 057) who will be in action on Monday and D6575 will move D6566 to the DEPG depot for further attention.

DEPG volunteer Class 33 loco manager Ian Robins and DEPG volunteer Tom Courtney have been attending to D6566 at Williton and have eliminated the possibility of a fuel leak from the pipework that carries the high pressure diesel fuel from the injection pump to the injector. All eight rocker covers were removed and the engine was started up last Saturday, and allowed to run for a while so that any fuel leaks could be identified. This test showed no signs of leakage so additional investigations will take place during this coming week. Here’s a short video clip taken by Tom Courtney that shows the Sulzer 8LDA28 engine of D6566 running without its rocker covers in place:

Consider signing up to our DIESELGEN service where we (try to) let you know by advance email whenever one of our locos is called into action. In previous years, this service was used to post the dates and times of loco-hauled passenger services, but since Lockdown 1.0, we have expanded it to include ANY working. The difficulty with engineering workings is that they run under the direction of the Infrastructure Engineering group, so dates and times will be varied to suit the circumstances on the day. The webcams provide the answer – we include webcam links in the Dieselgen bulletins where possible, so you can watch the live action !

To view the Williton webcam, click on this link. Many thanks to Railcam UK and the WSR for providing these webcam services.

Although it is great to see these locos and their crews at work on the WSR, we must all remember that the railway and the stations are still closed to the public. Safety is the number one priority.

Last week, we featured the ex-BR ‘DOGFISH’ wagons that are being used for these ballast workings, and we can now provide more background to these wagons because DEPG member and regular contributor Jon Tooke has sent us the following information and photos:

Jon Tooke writes:

“Just to fill in the back story of the Catfish and Dogfish wagons that may be of interest to readers. As you correctly stated in the recent piece about wagons, it was the GWR who invented using all manner of coded names for wagons to avoid confusion such as Conflat, Mica, Mogo and Tadpole to name a few but the terms Catfish and Dogfish were later additions, possibly when BR came into being.  Many more can be found here Code Names for Great Western Carriage Stock and Vans or here Great Western Railway telegraphic codes – Wikipedia.

Way back in September 2004, a DEPG team led by Graham consisting of Darren, Roy and myself undertook the repainting on a contract basis of the WSR’s fleet of Cats and Dogs and we must have done a good job because the wagons still look good today, considering all the work they are involved with on the railway, and I notice the paintwork is weathering nicely after all this time!

When the wagons arrived at Williton, they were in all sorts of varying shades of colours, with the paintwork in even more varying states of peeling and paint loss. First, we set about steam cleaning them all over thoroughly to remove years of dirt and detritus from all the nooks and crannies, then the old paintwork was either needle gunned or angle-ground back to a decent surface to apply a base undercoat.

The top coat of black on the frames and below the solebar was sprayed on by Graham, likewise the hopper front, back and sides but in olive green colour. The important bits of hand painting were done by myself, Roy and Darren on the chequer-plated platform on one end of the vehicle, the brake reservoirs, buffer-beams and so on, all in gloss black. The door operating hand wheels were painted white as were the hand brake wheels. To ensure that the doors on the hoppers were in the correct positions for loading and discharging, I made up a stencil from thick card with the words DOOR, OPEN, CLOSED and an arrow pointing in the appropriate direction. These were stippled with white paint to give a clear indication of operation. Likewise, another stencil was made and used for the wording on the solebars to state the wheelbase and weight, again picked out in white as was the old cast BR wagon works plate alongside.

The guard rails and foot step supports were also picked out in white, and in true BR workshop fashion, the hoppers had overhead hazard warning flashes added to them, the wheel sets were given white tyres with yellow axle bearing covers with roller bearing red bands through the middle and my goodness, they looked just like something out of the Hornby box when we had finished them!

The wagon information details were sourced and applied to the hopper sides by Colin and Graham.

As this was a rather unusual task for the DEPG to undertake, and so that everyone who saw these vehicles knew who had done such an excellent job on them, on the bufferbeams on each vehicle I painted the date and that it was A WILLITON WRD REPAINT !”

Many thanks to Jon for sharing this information with us all.

LOCO NEWS: Other than that reported above, the status of our locos remains unchanged this week, due to lockdown.

DEPG NEWS: Last week, we learned that ex-BR, ex-WSR driver and former DEPG member Lennie Renwick had passed away. Lennie was one of life’s real characters, having started work on BR in the late days of steam and subsequently amassing a huge wealth of mainline driving experience that he was keen to pass on to our own volunteer crew members. Our website carries a very appropriate obituary, penned by our chairman, Martin Howard. Lennie will certainly be missed.

DEPG WEBSITE: Our ONLINE SHOP IS NOW LIVE so go ahead and visit our store!

This week, we have already mentioned the wheel lathe at Bristol St. Philips Marsh depot, so it is quite topical that we have just received a donation of some GENUINE ex-BR vinyl stickers featuring that very depot – see below:

We are going to be placing these on sale via our website but we only have a small quantity, so it will be first come, first served!

WSR NEWS: The WSR are delighted to announce that ‘excursion style‘ public services will resume on Saturday 22nd May 2021, subject to the reduction of Government restrictions in force at that time. The commercial success of these services will depend on public patronage, so please visit the WSR website and consider buying a ticket to ride.

To support this milestone date, the WSR have announced that training and competence assessment of traincrews is restarting on Saturday 17th April and runs for 5 consecutive weekends prior to reopening on 22nd May. 

The WSR will be running another of their Zoom sessions for volunteers on Wednesday 31st March at 1800 and we encourage all of our volunteers to join these sessions. The next session will be hosted by Steve Williams and will cover Business Development on the WSR.

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