The
South Devon Railway
'South Devon Diesel Traction'
NewsLetter 4



 
D8110 [20110]
A start on the oil change was made on Sunday 14th October. She was drained down with the old oil going into 20118 (see below), a start on the leak was made. By the end of Sunday one leak was found, it was a holed pipe, made by rubbing against the floor where the pipe goes through to the outside. The second leak was on the first joint after the filling valve. This one was repacked with PTFE tape. All went well over the 21st/22nd Oct. with the loco and it's new oil. In addition the loco now carries two dummy token catchers. After 20118's wheel slip relay failed, it was found that D8110's relay was stuck. This has now been cleaned up and is now free moving. All went well with the loco on all the shunt releases for santa trains in Nov. & Dec. plus the last two days of the Santa trains (22nd & 23rd) were top and tail, due to the heavy bookings. Eight coaches was required for the train. A strange vacuum fault occurred on the second trip of the first day (Friday), but after a late start all went well. The compressor oil needs changing again, a nice creamy mess came from the compressor sump on the 31st Dec. It also looks as if we have a water leak from the horn box over the cab, as the paint work in the cab between the two cab windows is not looking very good and water is also found in the cupboard under the cooker. With the end of year mileage for the loco at 578, plus a mile or two more for shunting around the station.
[D8118] 20118

By the end of Saturday 7th Oct. the only outstanding bit of painting was the Lub Oil fillers and drain points (which should be Salmon Pink), Also on this date the cab floor was taken up only to find some more welding to be done on a floor support by the cab doors and also a hole in the base of the floor, all this put the coming out back by a week. A new rubber seal was also put in place around the loco. This runs around by the handrail. She did make it out of the shed in the afternoon of Saturday 14th and a start on the oil swap with 20110 was made the next day. During Sunday she was filled with coolant water only to find that the water pump was still leaking (as before) this was the only leak found, next came the oil swap. All this time the batteries were on charge with the onboard charger, but it was not quite strong enough to bring them up. So it was left on charge over night with a small 24v charger, doing three batteries at a time. By the Wednesday all the batteries were charged, (so we thought) but it would not start. Plan B, was to do a jump start from D8110. With 110 along side and a good set of jump leads (and a thick pair of rubber gloves!) 118 fired up first time, and left to run until it shut down after two and a hours. The cab gauge panels were refitted by this time, and with air pressure up some small leaks were found and put right after the loco had shut down, The cab was full of smoke and all the electric's were dead. A quick look around could not find the fault, so as it was late in the afternoon, it was left to the next morning. On Thursday the battery switch was put in and out quick and a small plume of smoke came from a relay behind the forward driving desk, by the A.W.S switch, it was one of the wheel slip relays. This failing also made the control fuse blow, this was replaced along with the relay, but it would not start because of the batteries were down again. Now came Friday (booked to work it's first train on Saturday !)and yet again a jump start was required, A try for power was made but only one reverser was working, the second had to be hand operated. With this overcome, she moved off slowly under power at 12.18 pm to the yard signal and back. A bit later 110 was hooked up as a dead weight for a test trip as far as Nursery Pool bridge, the power output was very poor. It pushed 110 back up to the yard at less than walking pace on full power. More jobs to do! Back in the yard she shut down no water in the header tank, this was topped up but only about 15 mins. had passed but she would not start. The batteries (ex 110's) have passed there use by date, not holding on to the amps. So a start was made on the load regulator, as this was stuck and on the reverser. The load reg. was freed up, but some oil was lost in doing so. This will be replaced at a later date. On removing the reverser it was found to be piston less. It was replaced with a spare, with a piston in ! The axle box oil was topped up along with the traction motor gears. This is like a black treacle which has to be heated up to make it pour, not the best job to do. With all this done test trip No.2 with 110 now on the Totnes end. It's first run along the line but only as far as Staverton, with full power restored and it changed to second field divert as well. And yes, we went over Nursery Pool bridge one at a time. All went well until the second crossing, she shut down again on the Buckfastleigh side of the bridge and once more the header tank was empty. So 110 pushed 118 back to shed. Each time she has shut down theirs been no sign of water around any part of the loco. Now comes the weekend "Everything Goes", and yes it made it to Totnes with it's first train for over five years. With 110 on the back as far as Staverton, then top & tail Totnes to Staverton and back, then it lost it's water again. But thanks to the eagle eyed G.M. for seeing that the water was coming out of the overflow pipe from the header tank. After it was towed back to shed the water by-pass valve was found to be stuck, this was replaced with a working one and so on the Sunday off to Totnes same as Saturday. On arriving st Totnes that was it, it shut down again. This now leaves the radiators being blocked, or the water pump not working, Apart from the coolant water and the batteries all seams to work well on the loco, A look into the coolant fault on Saturday 11th Nov. found the reason why. First both radiators were flushed through, then the engine block. The water flowed through both, so no blockages here. This only left the engine driven water pump. This was then removed from the engine block and the trouble was found, the shaft had sheered off next to the impeller. When the bit was knocked out of the impeller it was found that a B.R. bodge job had already been done at some time in the past, as what came out was a lump of brazing! A replacement shaft is being sort. Whilst waiting for the new shaft to arrive a start has been made on repainting inside the equipment room (the nose end). With the season now over we have 24 miles on the clock.
D7612 [25262, 25901]
No change with the loco, still working, it was used to shunt the two 2O's about for there oil change. It worked over the "Everything Goes" weekend with out fault. This should he it's last working for the next year or so, as it will now come out of service for the coolant leak to be seen to and the body side to be done, plus a lot of little jobs as well. With the year over for the loco, we managed to clock up 605 miles this season. The rest of the spares for the loco have now arrived on the railway, being unloaded on Monday 11th Dec. The power unit came from 26032 which was cut up at M.C. Metals of Glasgow (now closed). 26032 was last overhauled in January 1986. Their is a chance that the loco will come back to life at the start of the new season. 

Year 2000-Loco miles.

D8110 - 578 miles.
D7612 - 605 miles. 
20118 - 24 miles.
 

Class 09
No change from last time
Class 127
The unit was put back as a three car set at the start of October It ran for the owner on
Thursday 12th Oct., but the owners had left the battery switches in on their last visit, so the back power car was flat. The front power car just started, so the unit ran on two engines for the rest of the day. The owners were down again on Sunday 22nd October. This time all three engines were working along with most of the heaters, which see little use. The unit has now been drained down for the winter.
Class 122 - 55000
Work continues in the small saloon, with the luggage rack being cleaned and the seat frames getting a new coat of paint. The floor panels have been renewed ready for the new lino to be laid some time this winter.
Yorkshire
Back to work on the line, other wise no change.
Fowler
No change from last time.
Hunslet
No change from last time.
Drewry
Should arrive sometime in January, all being well
Stock
MINK - No change.
CCT - No change. 
SHOCK - No change
MINK (No.2) - Still awaiting it's rebuild.
BG - Up for sale. Say no more !
Other
Keep the aluminium drink cans coming in. You may have read in the AGM minutes that the class 25 is the next to get a new set of batteries. As this loco will be out of service for quite some time and the batteries now on 20118 are in such a bad state, it has been decided that 118 will now get these batteries ready for next years workings. At the moment we are close to half way in raising funds for the batteries
Dates for Diary (Diesels running)
To be announced
Working Weekends
Saturdays & Sundays.
Mostly Sundays at the moment. If you turn up about between 09.30 and 10.00 someone will be around. But no guarantees on this.
Running Days
 2001 Not yet finalised

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© South Devon Railway Trust 2001