DEPOT REPORT Thursday 10th April.

Just a few people on site today but a fairly busy day. Many thanks to David, Mike, Nigel, Richard, Steve and Trevor.

DEPOT. Work started with working on refurbishing some of the electrical equipment which has been located in the stores for many years. Today's project was to strip, clean and repair an ERR1, Engine Run Relay 1 which was removed from 19 last Saturday and spares from another one were used, this will now be a ERR2 and swapped for the one on 19 so both are refurbished.

ERR1

After and Before. All 3 by Richard Emery.

There are many similar relays to this in a Deltic and the team plan to systematically refurbish all of them and then create a pool of spares.

We had 2 supplier visits today, one was from the company who are sponsoring our new FIXINGS rack with the correct type, size and most importantly new items, all to suit our requirements. This is a work in progress project.

The 2nd visit was from a new to us, recommended contractor who has taken away 2 off each Auxiliary Generators and Traction Motor Blower motors. All are going to be cleaned, washed, baked and then assessed for viability of repairs as they have been with us since the mid/late 80's gathering dust and are an unknown quantity.

You may recall that the steam heat boiler from 55015 which is on display in the depot was being cosmetically restored, unfortunately the volunteer doing this task has moved on to pastures new, we wish him all the best. However one of today's team has offered to pick up on the project and complete it.

Locos.

55009

The new rubber seals for the white discs in the new head code panels was located in a corner in the stores and cut to size ready for fitting once the paintwork is finished. Both of the silencer drain pipes were removed, cleaned and checked that they were not blocked as this frequently happens with the carbon from the silencer. One was a slightly blocked but this was not a surprise as it has a right angled bend at the bottom, a new 'flexi hose' was found and fitted, so both silencer drains are devoid of tight corners.

New Flexi Hose. By Steve Clark

The batteries were topped up before being put on charge for 4 hours.

55015

Work continued on Unit 417 to resolve the last potential part of the system for air ingress into the fuel system. A Fuel Filter unit was borrowed from 430 but again it had the same issue with the inlet side bleed nipple of the filter housing, the thread was slightly stripped. These will all go away for reworking. Eventually we found one in the stores and this was OK and fitted it to 417, fuel priming system was energised and all seemed to be OK with no sounds of any air ingress, fingers crossed.

55019

Whilst at the Depot today we had notification that the loco has been rostered to cover for a poorly DMU next Thursday 17th April at the Great Central Railway, Loughborough. Timings from Loughborough on the return trips to Leicester are :- 10:50. 12:45. 14:30, normal ticket prices, buffets and shops will be open.

Apologies for not many pictures from the Depot today but we just didn't seem to get around to it.

Mike Hallam-Rudd.