Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7018 was basking in the sunshine at Williton on Sunday 30th March 2025 after her successful ‘yard exercise’ session that took place the previous day. The headcode reminds us that both of our ‘Hymeks’ have now reached their 50th year in preservation. Photo by Josh Brinsford © CC BY-NC 3.0
A major milestone was reached in the return to service of Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7018 on Saturday 29th March 2025 when she passed her third set of static transmission tests and was then cleared to move under her own power in both directions (under controlled conditions) for the first time in more than two years. The stringent set of tests were necessary to ensure that the control issues that affected her Stone-Maybach ‘Mekydro’ transmission back in 2022 have been resolved, and the ‘clean slate’ result allows us to go ahead and plan the next stage of testing, which will include a test run on the WSR (once the necessary inspections have been completed and permission obtained).
The tests on Saturday 29th March were the culmination of several rounds of testing and we now have a very high level of confidence in the repaired transmission. An outline of the test sequence follows:
| Test Step | Step Description | Status | Date |
| 1 | Static testing of the transmission alone | Completed, no issues | 14-Dec-24 |
| 2 | Static tests with engine running | Minor issues, corrected | 08-Mar-25 |
| 3 | Static tests with engine running – repeat | Completed, no issues | 25-Mar-25 |
| 4 | Shunting exercise in the yard | Completed, no issues | 29-Mar-25 |
| 5 | Vehicle Inspection & Brake Test (VIBT) | Planned | 19-Apr-25 |
| 6 | Underframe inspection | Planned | 23-Apr-25 |
| 7 | Test run on the WSR | To be arranged | XX-May-25 |
Click here or on the image below to see a short video clip of D7018 exercising in the yard at Williton, with Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6566 (33048) attached for risk mitigation (the ‘Hymek’ is providing the motive power):
On Saturday 29th March 2025, Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7018 took her first steps since her transmission repair at Williton, coupled up to Class 33 ‘Crompton’ D6566 (33048). Video clip by Andy Royal © CC BY-NC 3.0
D7018 – Blue lights are what we wanted and blue lights are what we had at Williton on Saturday 29th March 2025. Image taken from a video clip by Andy Royal © CC BY-NC 3.0
We now need to focus on getting the loco ready for her Vehicle Inspection & Brake Test (VIBT) which will then allow her to leave the confines of the yard when she is ready to ‘stretch her legs’. We also need to give the loco a wash and polish because several years as a ‘yard ornament’ have taken their toll on the once-gleaming paintwork. We would welcome some help with this straightforward but time-consuming cosmetic work, so please get in touch using our CONTACT FORM if you would like to help.
Before we move on to other news, we would like to send a MASSIVE THANK YOU message to the Transmission Team and to all the other volunteers who have supported this massive effort with many hours of work, both at home and at the yard.
As mentioned earlier, our two ‘Hymeks’ D7017 and D7018 are celebrating their 50th year in preservation, with both locos being among the last four of the Class to be withdrawn from service by BR in March 1975. The WSR have kindly agreed to allocate the weekend of August 30th and 31st to showcase the ‘Hymeks’ and we hope to have both locos available for service for that mixed traction event. Please keep the date free and make plans to come along. We will announce the timetable as soon as possible, but it will most likely be based on the YELLOW timetable that can be reached by clicking on YELLOW days in the WSR timetable (click here or on the graphic below):
Read more about the history of the DEPG and the long association with the ‘Hymeks’ on our ABOUT US pages.
D7017 UPDATE
Following a flurry of donations received at the end of March, we are delighted to state that our expectations have been shattered because the D7017 bodywork repair fund was aiming for £12,000 but has now topped SIXTEEN THOUSAND POUNDS, all kindly donated by followers of these fine machines.
A BIG THANK YOU goes out to the 86 people who have donated to this project, keeping it moving forward to ensure that the loco will be back in service in time for the WSR’s Summer Diesel Festival (5-7th June).
THANK YOU FOR YOUR FANTASTIC SUPPORT !
The repair work is going to cost around £16,000 so the amount raised will fully cover the work being done on the loco, which is amazing and a big relief for the DEPG’s general fund. The sub-contract route was taken to make sure that the loco gets repaired in time to be able to take pole position in the celebration of 50 years of ‘Hymek’ preservation that will take place on 30th and 31st of August this year.
The fund now stands at £16,338 and will remain open until the work is completed to make sure that we have sufficient funding to cover any unexpected costs, so don’t despair if you haven’t yet donated, because we can still accept your donation !
All funds donated via this appeal will be allocated to returning D7017 to service in time for the forthcoming season. Any excess will be carried over to 2026 but still allocated to D7017.
Would you like to help ? Click here to donate £17 to D7017 !
If you want to make your contribution towards the repair work on D7017, please make a donation via our website (click on the icon above) or by bank app or by sending a cheque to the DEPG at Williton. THANK YOU VERY MUCH !
WSR NEWS
The WSR have been successfully running public services for the last two weeks and are taking a step up to the BLUE TIMETABLE from Saturday 5th April which means that there will be four services each way per day. The WSR’s Class 115 Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) is covering some of the services but as loadings increase, diesel locomotive-hauled services will take over from the DMU as from Saturday 10th May. Our locos have been known to make surprise appearances on services that were booked for other forms of traction, but we tend to have little or no notice about such changes. We have updated our DIESEL RUNNING DATES page including planned loco allocations, some of which are subject to change to align with the availability of the locos and the crews. As the information becomes more refined, we will update our page and send out a DIESELGEN bulletin with the clarification. Click here or on the banner below to view the planned allocations:
Click here or on the image below to visit the WSR’s timetable page:
The WSR’s SUMMER DIESEL FESTIVAL will take place from Thursday 5th through Saturday 7th June with a Mixed Traction Day on Sunday 8th. The first two of the visiting locos have been announced and they are D1015 ‘WESTERN CHAMPION’ and Class 45/1 ‘Peak’ 45108 so MAKE YOUR PLANS TO ATTEND and click on the images below to learn more. It is going to be a GREAT event !
Click here to go to our DIESEL RUNNING DATES page
Click here to go to our ONLINE SHOP
Thank you very much for your support !
MARTIN TOTTLE aka Tidds, RIP
The diesel locomotive preservation world has lost another well-known friend and colleague with the passing of Martin Tottle, known to his friends as ‘Tidds’.
Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7018 carries the headcode ‘7076’ at Williton in memory of Martin Tottle aka Tidds, a 30-year-plus volunteer with the Bury Hydraulic Group at the East Lancs Railway and a friend to many at the DEPG. Photo by Graham Perry © CC BY-NC 3.0
A GoFundMe appeal has been set up by Neil and Hayley McCannon to support Martin’s family, and a massive £8,945 has been raised so far, which is a clear expression of appreciation for the man and his work. Our condolences go out to his family and friends and all affected by this loss.
LOCO NEWS:
Class 52 D1010 ‘WESTERN CAMPAIGNER’ – with the ‘yard exercise’ of D7018 taking place on Saturday 29th March, the bogies were effectively ‘off limits’ to volunteers, so efforts were concentrated underneath the loco to make further progress with the removal of fifty years of dirt and brake dust, which has solidified to an amazing extent and in some cases defies the attempts to remove it ! Our volunteers do not give up easily and will prevail, but we could use some help, so please do come along and join us if you can. Get in touch by using our CONTACT FORM and we will talk you through the steps to becoming a volunteer on Team 1010.
D1010 – team ‘R’ comprises (L-R) Ethan and Jason and they were both hard at work underneath the ‘B’ end of the loco when pictured at Williton on Saturday 29th March 2025. Photo by Andy Royal © CC BY-NC 3.0
Our appeals for MORE VOLUNTEERS are working but WE STILL NEED MORE HELP to get this huge loco back on the rails, so please get in touch by using our CONTACT FORM if you are able to join the team.
As mentioned before, apologies to those D1010 sponsors who have yet to receive the photos and certificates for the patches that they have sponsored. The weather is improving quickly, so so we will soon be able to re-start the engraving work.
Rest assured that every sponsor will receive their certificate and the details of where to find their sponsored patch. We will be making a further push for funds soon, because we have some big ticket items for refurbishment, including the remaining cardan shafts and 32 springs from the suspension system.
MANY THANKS to all who have sponsored and supported the RESTORATION of D1010 !
Class 09 D4107 (09019) – the work on this loco has been completed (at least for the time being) and the loco left Williton for Bishops Lydeard on Saturday 29th March. Although the loco has moved out, the various parts that have been removed from it need to be cleaned up, inspected and repaired to go back into our spares stock, where possible. The worn-out Westinghouse compressor has been receiving attention from the Transmission Team who simply cannot resist a challenge, and had the compressor in bits in no time and are refurbishing the worn piston rings, valves and seals with a view to getting a serviceable spare back on the shelf ASAP !
D4107 – the loco was pictured at Williton on Saturday 29th March 2025 as she waited at the ‘up’ platform for the ‘down’ service to arrive before she could head back to her usual home at Bishops Lydeard. Photo by Jon Tooke © CC BY-NC 3.0
D4107 – the worn-out Westinghouse compressor has been stripped down, repaired and is now being re-assembled by the Transmission Team at Williton. TT member Geoff lowered the crankshaft back into the crankcase on Monday 24th March 2025. Photo by Colin Foxhall © CC BY-NC 3.0
Class 33 D6566 (33 048) – the work on this loco was completed by volunteer loco manager Ian R on Tuesday 25th March. The loco was in use supporting D7018‘s ‘yard exercise on Saturday 29th, after which she took up the role of Duty Loco and was made available to the WSR, should the need arise (which it did soon after – but that will be covered by the next edition of roundup).
THIS LOCO WILL BE HEADING FOR THE SPA VALLEY RAILWAY for the weekend of 13th to the 15th June 2025 to participate in their ‘Cuckoo Line Gala’ event !
Class 33 D6575 (33 057) – this loco returned to Williton from Bishops Lydeard on Saturday 29th March to swap the Duty Loco role with her sister D6566 (33048). The regular swapping allows both locos to balance their useage and helps to keep them both reliable.
Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7017 – covered previously, making good and steady progress in the loco shed at Minehead.
Class 35 ‘Hymek’ D7018 – already covered, some work needs to be done to prepare for her Vehicle Inspection & Brake Test (VIBT) and she needs a good wash and wax !
Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’ D9518 – the need to prepare sister D9526 for her period of occupation of the loco shed has drawn resources away from D9518 temporarily, but work continues on the electrical rewiring and on the body panel restorations. We will include some photos in the next edition of roundup.
Quality work needs to be funded, so we will continue to appeal for funds to support the work, right up to the point where the loco is completed. Any surplus will then be used to ensure her proper care and upkeep. If you like what we are doing, please make a donation via our website (click on the icon below) or by bank app or by sending a cheque to the DEPG at Williton. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT !
Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’ D9526 – this loco is now inside the loco shed and in a state of undress, having had her engine bay bonnet lifted off and some of her body parts removed for corrosion repair work and repainting. The engine will be stripped down to cylinder block level to allow attention to be given to leaking oil seals, and also to allow replacement of some components that are otherwise difficult to access. Some bodywork repairs are needed to prevent further water ingress, and the loco will get a paint refresh in time for her appearance at the WSR’s SUMMER DIESEL FESTIVAL 2025.
Class 14 ‘Teddy Bears’ D9518 and D9526 are side-by-side (L-R) in the loco shed at Williton. This is to allow engine work and bodywork repairs to be carried out in time for the WSR’s SUMMER DIESEL FESTIVAL. Pictured on 30th March 2025 by Josh Brinsford © CC BY-NC 3.0
D9526 – the battery boxes were expected to need some attention to corrosion, but these will need a bit more work than we expected. Pictured at Williton on Saturday 29th March 2025 by Andy Royal © CC BY-NC 3.0
Class 47 47077 ‘NORTH STAR’ – this loco is based at Grosmont on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and was out and about on Monday 31st March, covering for a steam loco that needed a bit of attention. Our loco worked one leg of the steam roster, the 10:55 from Pickering to Grosmont, and provided an entertaining performance for the lucky visitors including DEPG volunteer Ben, who sent us a whole load of photos. Here’s one of many, for which we are very grateful:
47077 (D1661, 47613, 47840) ‘NORTH STAR’ was pictured hauling her train to Grosmont on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway on Monday 31st March 2025, standing-in for a steam loco on a bright and glorious spring day. Photo by Ben Elvey © CC BY-NC 3.0
Andrew Barclay 0-4-0DH 578 – this little loco is fully serviceable again and ready for action when called upon. By chance, an interesting combination arose at Williton when the WSR’s recently restored ‘GPV’ Gunpowder Van was stabled in line with a loco who had spent her working life at an armaments factory. Could these two have met before at the Royal Ordnance Factory in Puriton ?
Barclay 578 (ROF 1) – this loco was stabled on number 2 road at Williton with the WSR’s ex-GWR ‘GPV’ Gunpowder Van on Friday 28th March 2025. Could these two have met during their working lives ? Photo by Jon Tooke © CC BY-NC 3.0
If you can help by donating your time to any of these projects, then please JOIN US and come along to the depot for an introduction to what we do and how we do it. We currently have people on site from Saturday through to Tuesday and we can open on other days if we can be sure of getting at least two volunteers on site at all times, so there is plenty of scope. We have tasks of all types to suit most capabilities, both skilled and unskilled.
Many thanks to all of our volunteers who give up so much of their time to work on the cleaning, painting, maintaining, restoring, managing and fund raising for our fleet of heritage locomotives !
BOOK REVIEW: The sale of books, both new and pre-owned, is a valuable source on income for the DEPG and is a growth area, especially as the search engines regularly return DEPG results on the first page, greatly increasing the chances of making a sale and boosting DEPG coffers.
We are always on the lookout for donations of pre-owned books featuring any class of diesel or electric traction. We often receive mixed donations that include steam-era books as well, but we make sure that the steam titles get passed to our colleagues in other voluntary groups around the WSR, so MANY THANKS to those who have donated and if you have books to pass on, then PLEASE KEEP DONATING !
This week, we feature ‘DAWN of the DIESELS – The First Volume‘ by John Spencer Gilks as another example of a pre-owned book at the excellent price of £5.00.
There are many other pre-owned book titles on our online store – click here for details.
ON SHED: last week, we featured a photo of Class 31 31200 (D5624) on what we said was a newspaper working – but feedback from DEPG former BR driver Mike Harris has caused us to correct this because it was in fact an express parcels service that had reversed in and terminated at the Riverside bay platform of Cardiff Central Station. This information did not reach our regular contributor NEALE LONG who evidently had been doing some head-scratching and kindly provided us with the following information:
“So to the (Western) Gauntlet thrown down in respect of Mike Evans’s fine image of 31200 shunting newspaper vans at Riverside sidings. Well, at the date of the image the locomotive was London Midland Region based at Bescot having previously based on the ER until 1984. The main newspaper carrying service around that time was the Paddington-Carmarthen and return empties, I don’t think there was a separate service to and from Cardiff, so I suspect such vehicles were removed and detached as appropriate.
So I’m wondering whether 31200 was marshalling / shunting stock in connection with this ? This could probably be discounted as Canton had enough 08’s for such work, so has the locomotive worked in on some inbound parcel working ? Well the only one parcel service I can come up with was the Cardiff-Peterborough and return service which ran for many years. Again, I believe this particular service was a nocturnal working and wouldn’t be seen in daylight hours. I think you may have me stumped. Wish they’d never abandoned headcodes !!!!!”
MANY THANKS to Neale for providing this information. Should we tell him that his theory about the inbound parcels service may well be correct ? Here’s one more on this same subject, then we are moving away to a different part of the country.
On what seems to be the same service as the Class 31 we featured last week, Class 45 ‘Peak’ 45034 (D42) had reversed a rake of parcels vans into the Riverside bay platform of Cardiff Central Station in June of 1985 before detaching and heading off for servicing at the nearby Cardiff Canton depot. Photo by the late Mike Evans © CC BY-NC 3.0
DEPG NEWS – we are preparing for several events this year, the first being the Spring Steam Spectacular where we will have an ‘open shed’ and welcome gala visitors who have an interest in engineering and restoration in addition to steam or diesel locos. We will have a sales stand in operation with new merchandise and many other attractions and facilities such as tea,coffee and hot snacks, but all of this takes organising and we are rushed off our feet making sure that our locos are made available for booked services. CAN YOU HELP ? WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO HELP WITH SALES ! If you can help, please use our CONTACT FORM and let us know. Thanks in advance !
The DEPG is a charity and is run entirely by volunteers, many of whom give both their time and their money to the continuance of work on the locos in the DEPG fleet. If you have been enjoying the roundup for free, have you considered joining us for just £1 a month ? You can then add your name to all of those helping out on the above projects and play your part in the future of our locos for a lot less than the price of a cup of coffee!
JOIN US using whichever membership class is appropriate for your situation and means. CLICK HERE or on the image below or use the QR code to get the details.
If you would like to go one step further and come along to help with the work on the locos in our fleet, then please use our CONTACT FORM to let us know that you would like to volunteer and we will respond with more details.
We look forward to hearing from you !
Great work on the 7018 and thanks for letting me ride along! Let’s hope the next outing will be a success, too.