The Railcar Association News Bulletin ISSUE 163 January 2021 EDITORIAL — Chris Walker UPDATE 2nd GEN As 2020 comes to a close, I never TRA Scheme to assist owners of ‘Pacer’ vehicles: cease to be amazed at the high stand- A TRA initiative, designed to assist the introduction of ‘Pacer’ trains to UK her- ards and dedication of the people who itage railways is making good progress. restore, maintain and operate these 60 Representatives of all the railways and groups which have ‘Pacers’ have been ish year old vehicles. The pictures that contacted and all have joined the initiative, and the io group that has been have been bandied around on email or formed to support it. Driver’s and Conductor’s model training manuals have social media show the work that has already been written and made available, along with some technical infor- gone and continues to go on. I wonder mation, such as wiring diagrams. how many of us have better survived A ‘Model’ Vehicle Maintenance Scheme is being produced, which is specially the lock downs because of the distrac- tailored to the requirements of heritage railways, and takes account of non- tions of for example lying on the ballast mainline circumstances such as vehicles which have long periods out of use, under a power car trying to remove an and the lower mileages covered by preserved units. This is currently out to exhauster? consultation with several of the more experienced, or qualified, members of As the number of second generation the scheme. units in preservation grows I wonder The scheme, which is called ‘2nd’Gen, follows the TRA’s established ‘1st- how different it will be compared to the Gen’ Model Maintenance Scheme for older-style DMUs and which has been way the pioneers in the 1st Generation successfully used by heritage railways for almost 20 years and which sets out world did it? It works because people to establish best practice amongst owning groups. are prepared to share information and To participate in the scheme join the group [email protected] . advice. People donate time and money, no doubt for a multitude of reasons why — for me it started on a fateful day when I was admiring a pair of 108’s and 144003 at Ruddington a voice said “I’ll give you a paintbrush if Fields on the GCRN on you like” 3/10/20 Phil Stanway NEWS Llangollen Railway: Since our last update, all remaining dia- Colne Valley Railway: grams for 2020 were cancelled, with the In early November Pressed Steel Herit- Welsh firebreak and then the English age based at the Colne Valley Railway lockdown. purchased class 117 vehicles 51382 2021's running has now been pushed and 51339 that had been based at the back to Easter (so far); the current plan East Lancs Railway. for the 2021 timetable still has a decent The vehicles were purchased to sup- amount of railcar work, though what will port social distancing of train services actually turn out remains to be seen. on the Colne Valley and also to allow Only 46 unit turns were covered, mainly work to be carried out on the bubble car by the 104 and Wickham, compared 55033 over the coming year. The vehi- cles had a wash and a brush up and with 150 the year before. (counting a 6- were put into service on Santa trains on car formation as 3 'unit turns') the weekend of the 12th and 13th of 51382/55033 above, December. We were lucky enough to 55033/51339 below. Martin Smith North Norfolk Railway News: run the two car and bubble car on the The railway made limited use of its Sunday with the railway running a two Class 101 set for the February and Oc- train DMU service that it has not seen tober half term weeks but compared for many years. Unfortunately the area with 2019 levels the pandemic has dec- was placed into Tier 4 restrictions and imated diesel running on the railway in the railway had to cancel further Santa train services on advice from the local general. It has been clear that pre- authority. Whilst it is not planned to do booked steam-hauled compartments any significant work to the 117’s over have been what is needed for the rail- the coming year we will look to ensure way to survive. With a mainly all-steam that all roof leaks are attended to and timetable and many staff also on fur- will reinstate the 4 character headcode lough there has been little maintenance boxes to at least one of the vehicles. or improvements made on the Class Work will hopefully then turn to a re- paint of the bubble car from the spring 101 vehicles. For 2021, nobody has a of 2021. crystal ball, but likely similar to 2020 Dean Forest Railway: DMU Group West Midlands: 2-car set M51914 and M56492 operat- 9/12/20 sees 51914 and 56492 A two-car power twinset; 52064/50933 ed the last services of the delayed main approaching Norchard has been used on staff train services season, on Wednesday 4th November. Chris Walker for the days in December 2020. When In addition, this unit worked the first Santa steam hauled trains have run to ever DMU ‘Santa Special’ service at the Arley via Bewdley and back to Kidder- DFR on Wednesday 9th December. minster. Then the twinset stabled at Kidderminster carriage sidings until re- The group continued to be busy main- quired for collecting staff from Arley and taining our vehicles in addition to pre- Bewdley and return to Kidderminster paring a replacement engine and final later in the day. drive for fitting on M51566. Unfortunate- ly, some of our spare drives have been found to be in a poor condition, but one was eventually identified and inspected With spares availability important to keep our 60-year-old DMU vehicles running, we purchased Class 108 DMCL vehicles W50632 and W52044 from the Gwent DMU Group. The vehicles were located at Furnace Sidings at Blaenavon and as part of the transport move both vehicles went via the Wheel Lathe at Great Western 52064 at Bewdley on 12/12/20 Trains depot in St Philips, Bristol for Mark Miller tyre turning. On 23 December both ve- hicles were tripped from DFR Lydney Junction to Norchard using 08769. It is planned that 52044 will be stripped for component recovery and then 56492 at Norchard on 9/12/20 scrapped. 50632 will initially be used for Chris Walker storage whilst its’ future is decided. Keith and Dufftown Railway: 144022 new to Neville Hill Leeds in 1987. WYPTE owned and sold to Por- terbrook Leasing in the privatisation era. In June 2019 a request was made to Porterbrook Leasing regarding acquir- ing 144022 for preservation upon re- lease from mainline use. With Covid 19 taking affect and Northern having no W55003, W51339 and W51382 during further use it was stored at the Keighley a “pressed steel” shunt at the Colne and Worth Valley Railway until Septem- Valley Railway on 21/11/20 Neil Bunt ber 2020 when it was moved under its own power to Worksop for onward 144022 Stephen Batty transport to Dufftown. Many other groups announced their acquisitions this year and had some delivered before 144022,but technically this unit was the first to be secured but not delivered first. Congratulations to all the new owners. Overall 144022 was in excellent condition apart from needing It will be a day that after such a long a good scrub and sterilisation by the wait for it to finally take place will ben- Keith and Dufftown Railway staff after efit in the long term. they had a test run over the full line. As 2020 is now coming to the end of Everyone behind the Dufftown line was an awful year, all we can do is hope very impressed and happy on how 2021 will be a much better one for smooth the ride was for them and those who keep these railways run- grateful for something that is a valuable ning, will be vandal free and be an ex- asset as a railway but, the same as perience for us the public to enjoy and many railways, have not been able to for the next generation to eventually greet their visitors due to the pandemic. maintain and look after. RESTORATION NEWS and is now 95% complete with the desk Weardale Railway DMU Group West Midlands: populated with the controls and instru- The line’s Class 108 set is currently in Maintenance work planned for early ments. Elsewhere on the interior the the Wolsingham workshops. DMBS 2021 will be tracking down why an en- middle saloon floor was found to be 50980 has had one of its gearboxes reconditioned and has had repairs to gine on 50933 will not stop, when the rotten so has been removed and fully one final drive where the piston sleeve stop button is pressed from the cab replaced. Underneath the vehicle, the had split. A new one has been ma- panel. It stops immediately from the original plan to re-wire the vehicle in chined and fitted. Both this car and local stop. Group member Pete Finch stages starting with the cab was dis- DMCL 52054 have had updated air/axle has repaired an air dirt trap that was carded, the unexpected shed space panels fitted and both have had their leaking at the lid. He obtained a new being used instead to tackle the rewire roofs sanded down to bare metal, with rivets replaced prior to repainting.