More recently, the locomotive has taken on a loaded test run of 8 empty WHR saloons, where the locomotive proved the master of the winter railway, with no sanding required on the 1-in-40 grades.
The loaded test run was also proving that the locomotive’s newly completed spark arrestor worked fine.
Higher loads and more gauging runs will be completed during the spring when operational restrictions allow.
DB Cargo UK moves from road/rail to road vehicles to improve breakdown response
DB Cargo UK's new fleet of road recovery vehicles
DB Cargo UK has improved its ability to respond to breakdown and recovery operations with a fleet of ten new Iveco 7-tonne vans that will carry heavy-lifting and other recovery equipment.
The new Iveco vans will replace the company’s ageing fleet of Bruff road/rail vehicles that have been out of service since 2023 when ten other Iveco vans were obtained.
They will be deployed throughout the UK and have been specially adapted so that DB Cargo’s recovery teams will be able to access the remotest parts of the UK rail network.
As the leading provider of breakdown and recovery services to the UK rail industry, every year DB Cargo UK responds to more than 140 incidents.
These range from minor derailments to major accidents, and provide a rapid and effective recovery service to ensure the UK s railway network is kept moving.
Emergency teams are based at DB Cargo UK depots in Toton in the East Midlands, Wigan in Lancashire, Millerhill in Scotland, Newport in South Wales and Hoo Junction in London, and operate 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year.
The new vans will provide DB Cargo UK breakdown and recovery operation with a greater agility and ensure a speedier response to incidents.
Bruff road/rail vehicles were custom built for the company in 1999, but they needed be be placed on railway lines to respond to incidents, which greatly reduced their usefulness and they will now be disposed of.
Also, equipment used to recover locomotives and wagons is now more compact and mobile, making it easier to transport and well within the capability of what the new vans can deliver on a day-to-day basis.
Several years ago, DB Cargo UK donated a Breakdown and Recovery truck that can run on road and rail to the National College for High-Speed Rail for use in engineering courses at the college.
This is a significant investment we re making in our breakdown and recovery service which plays a pivotal role when things go wrong on the rail network. As well as recently expanding the number of depots we operate out of, over the past two years we have also invested more than 2 million in new welfare vans and lifting equipment to improve our overall response to incidents. Our teams work is both physically and mentally demanding and is often undertaken in challenging environments and harsh weather conditions. We've worked hard to ensure they have everything they need when out on site, which can sometimes be for weeks at a time, he added.
Sean Coulby, DB Cargo UK Breakdown and Recovery Manager
Class 108 DMU set for The Greatest Gathering appearance
Class 108 DMCL (Driving Motor Composite Lavatory) No. E 52064, with E 59250 and M 51941, in BR green livery, at Kidderminster station during Severn Valley Railway’s Spring Gala on 20th April 2024
In another announcement ahead of The Greatest Gathering, a Class 108 DMU is set to appear at the event for all three days.
The Class 108 DMU is visiting thanks to the Severn Valley Railway and is subject to operational requirements.
NOTE: Friday and Saturday tickets have now fully SOLD OUT – only Sunday tickets remain available.
The Greatest Gathering is set to take place this August to celebrate 200 years of passenger railways.
The event will take place at Alstom‘s Derby Litchurch Lane Works between the 1st and 3rd August.
The locomotives confirmed to attend are (Alstom have also noted that examples from the same class may substitute):
Steam
LNER A4 No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley – courtesy of the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust and Locomotive Services Group
SR Merchant Navy No. 35018 British India Line – courtesy of West Coast Railways Co
LMS 6P No. 46115 Scots Guardsman – courtesy of West Coast Railways Co.
LMS Jubilee No. 45596 Bahamas – courtesy of the Bahamas Locomotive Society
Diesel
BR Class 37 – courtesy of Rail Operations Group
Class 50 No. 50049 Defiance – courtesy of the Class 50 Alliance
Class 57 – courtesy of Direct Rail Services
Class 66 – courtesy of GB Railfreight
Class 69 – courtesy of GB Railfreight
Class 60 and JNA-T Wagon – courtesy of DCRail and Cappagh Group
Class 108 DMU – courtesy of the Severn Valley Railway
Electric
Class 507001 – courtesy of the Class 507 Preservation Society
Class 390 Pendolino – courtesy of Avanti West Coast
Class 91 No. 91110 Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – courtesy of London North Eastern Railway
Boiler of 76077 inverted and ready to be lowered to the ground
The boiler is being overhauled by Leaky Finders Ltd. in Devon.
After arrival, work started on removal of the front tube plate, which is to be replaced, with the front parallel ring of the barrel also due to be replaced.
To enable the ring to be removed, the boiler need to be inverted.
Most of the foundation ring rivets were removed, and part of the corroded firebox throat plate cut out.
A Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) examination of the boiler revealed that there were laminations present that could cause problems in places that need welding, such as when carrying out patch repairs.
Laminations occur when impurities such as small deposits of slag can end up as linear pockets within the steel when it is being rolled.
Cross-section of a piece of firebox steel showing one of the laminations
Also identified during the Non-Destructive Testing were many of the original Monel metal stays in the upper part of the firebox were broken or flawed and needed replacing, as well as a few rows of crown stays due to excessive wastage of their heads in the firebox.
In January, Toddington Standard Locomotive Limited chairman Chris Irving, and its engineering director Andrew Meredith met the NDT specialists and the boiler inspector at Leaky Finders to agree a way forward.
They agreed that while the lamination issues are not by themselves a show-stopper, work needed to return the boiler to working order will be much more extensive than Toddington Standard Locomotive Limited Leaky Finders originally thought.
Although the laminations by themselves are not a major issue, since the boiler performed perfectly well throughout its BR career, they become a significant problem when patches need to be welded in to replace corroded material.
76077 being overhauled at Locomotive Maintenance Services
Cracks can form when welding is carried out near a lamination, which results in weakening of the metal.
Unfortunately, when the boiler was built at Darlington in 1952, the quality of the steel was sometimes poor, and at that time, the technology needed to identify any laminations was not available.
Discovery of the laminations means that much more of the firebox steelwork will have to be removed than originally planned, which also means that over 400 perfectly serviceable copper stays will need to be sacrificed.
Once the overhaul of 76077 has been completed, it will be coupled to a new BR2A tender which is the type that it was coupled to before withdrawal by British Railways.
