First of all I believe a the latest edition of Railways Illustrated may give C56G Members the impression that 56301 is on its way to Hungary working for Floyd. ]
This is not the case.
I have not seen the mag yet but I believe an article on the 3 Europheonix/Floyd locos (56101/115/117 ) uses a picture of 56301 which has been photoshopped to represent a 56 in Floyd livery.
The locos going to Hungary are expected to be 56101 , 115 & 117.
56301 will be staying firmly this side of the English channel.
The group would like to announce this morning that 56101 has been sold to Europhoenix for work abroad. While the group did not own 56101 we feel it important to bring you this news as I know many members have put in a lot of time on her over the last couple of years.
As custodians of this locomotive we were aware of the sale to Europhoenix however until the deal was agreed we held back on any announcement due to the obvious delicate nature of such deals.
We understand 56101 will join two of the three other 56’s purchased from the recent DBS tender list and will go to Hungary for freight duties, doing what they were intended for once again.
It is not all doom and gloom for the ranks of preserved 56’s as it is also understood that 56018 has been traded for 56101.
56302 is scheduled to join the line up at the MNR Autumn Diesel Gala. See the MNR Website for more details .
Date and times for the movement from Burton to Dereham will appear on this site once known.
Meanwhile over at Barrow Hill repairs to 56101 have been started and are progressing steadily. 56101 will be on display alongside 56006 at the ModelRail 2011 event this coming weekend. I should be there on the Saturday, I’ll be wearing the trusty C56G baseball cap, so please say hello if you see me.
Well, what a day. After several weeks of planning, yesterday saw us finally set out on our mission to liberate 56301 and 56302 from the On Track Machine depot on the down side at Hitchin. We set out with 47580 and 56101 (also headed for Barrow Hill for repairs) as 0Z56, the 10:00 from Dereham – 47580 carrying the Arnold Lane MPD headboard with pride! Running via Wymondham, Ely, Cambridge goods for a brief stop, and Royston, our first destination was Welwyn Garden City up yard to run round. After Welwyn, we carried on back down the East Coast mainline to Hitchin where we reversed from the down slow line into Hitchin OTM depot where Grids 301 and 302 where waiting for us (thanks to Dave and Ian for getting 302 out of the shed).
Somewhere around then it was commented on how smoothly the day had gone so far – and sure enough it all went down hill from there. We were put in a difficult situation having the 56s at Hitchin, with no means to carry out a functional brake test (one of the requirements of a fitness to run examination) prior to the day of the move, meaning we had to leave it to pre-departure using the train loco. This isn’t ideal for obvious reasons. Problems gaining any form of brake reservoir pressure on 56301 saw us miss our slot back out on the the ECML. A systematic check of all the brake gear and control gear found nothing awry. After several calls to Budgie Control (cheers Gareth and Mick) and some joined up thinking from our FTR examiner Geoff Armstrong (to whom we are eternally grateful), we finally gained satisfactory brake pressure on all 3 dead 56s around 18:50. Several phone calls to Kings Cross PSB and we were finally on our way at 19:27, over three ours late.
Our route from Hitchin saw us take the down slow line all the way to Peterborough where we were checked down and put inside on the “fly ash” (goods line A, adjacent to Platform 5 – did anyone get a photo?) for crew change. Departure from Peterborough shortly after 20:30 saw the final non-stop leg of our journey take us via Melton Mowbray, Loughborough, Trent Junction, Toton, and Tapton Junction before finally arriving at Barrow Hill just over 90 minutes late, having made up a bit of time.
Now, work can start full swing to re-activate 56301 for the Swanage diesel gala in a few weeks time.
Our thanks must go to Steve F, Mel D and John D at West Coast, Geoff A for his help at Hitchin, Dave B, Ian S and Nick J at Fastline, Tony B and everyone at the Stratford 47 Group, Alan F for his help over the last few weeks and course yesterday, and anyone else who I’ve forgotten (please shout up!). Here’s a few photos from the day, and a short video produced for us by Marcus Dawson at Rail Net to give you an idea of the mood at Hitchin last night
See you at Swanage?
Cheers,
Oli Smith
47580 and 56101 sit in the Up Yard Line at Hitchin working 0Z56, having been put inside. We were quickly on our way again once Kings Cross had ascertained we were for Welwyn Yard!
Hitchin – to the left is the yard where the stone and scrap trains discharge, to the right is the ECML.
56101 in Welwyn Garden City Up Yard, stabled while 47580 runs round via the adjacent road.
Arnold Lane MPD headboard taking pride of place, 47580 and friends sit in the OTM yard at Hitchin just before drawing up the the outlet signal.
Finally after many weeks of hard work by several members, we are happy to report that 56101, 56301 and 56302 should be headed for Barrow Hill depot this Wednesday. The Stratford 47 Group’s Class 47 No. 47580 (County of Essex) will be hauling the train and we are very grateful to them for agreeing to it’s use. Provisionally, we will depart from Dereham Yard at 10:00 with 56101 heading to Wymondham to run round, and then to Ely, Royston, Welwyn Garden City Up Yard to run round again before travelling down the ECML again to Hitchin Depot to collect 56301 and 56302. From Hitchin the convoy will travel direct to Barrow Hill. As soon as more detailed timings are available, we will publish them here so that members can be in with a chance of photoing the move.
For now, here’s a photo of 56301 last week. (Thanks to Alan Vacani for this).
Friday we were blessed with good weather and for the weekend ahead this meant that we could progress a little closer towards the removal of the cooler group. Oli and myself set to and made a start on removal of pipework, access panels etc. What we didn’t expect was how hot it got during the afternoon 29 degrees outside, 34 degrees inside! It wasn’t long before trips to the tap ensued and all to quench our thirst and replenish the fluids which we sweated out. I managed to remove all the bolts that secure the intake duct to the No1 end turbo and move it out the way for access, that was enough for the day.
Saturday was pretty much the same this time, working alone I set to and made a move to remove the main water pipe that connects to the top water rail, this was the more awkward of the pipes to move clear. This also took most of the day to do purely down to the shear heat of the day as Saturday was a scorcher too!
To cap it all off I think that we are nearly in a position to remove the remains of the cooler group and crack on with the repair. As always, any extra man power at this stage will be greatly received, even if you can only spare a few hours. Please get in contact with the group using the button on the right.
It all started on Friday afternoon shunting the stock out of the way in order to release 56101 that was stuck right down number 1 road at Dereham. Myself, Oli, and Josh managed to complete the shunt in two moves and leave the 56 on number 2 road ready for Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning Myself and Josh set to on the removal of the remaining grill and roof panel, as to be expected we did shear more bolts in order to get them off but never the less they were removed without any incident. Armed with a tin of “Gas Oil” I sprayed all of the studs and let them soak, Josh was removing the three access panels that located inside the cooler group tunnel and I made a start on the removal of the first batch of elements. With only 7 out of the 10 elements remaining I managed to shear more of the studs, bearing in mind that the elements are made primarily of copper and the main objective of the exercise was to remove the risk of theft, either way they had to come out and be stored.
Because the loco was positioned in the MoD platform we were in the way, and stock stored in the main platform meant that we had to shunt release the service train when it returned. I was using the ONLY serviceable loco at the time at Dereham, 50 019 “Ramillies”, to shunt the 56 out of the way and perform the shunt release and pick the 56 back up to continue the work, so as you may gather we were a little bit busy during the day. Never the less we managed to complete the task and remove, store and clean out the cooler bay with 5 shunt releases thrown in.
Please do not be fooled into thinking that there can’t be much work for us to do, on the contrary! It is a big job and we need all the hands we get so we can overhaul the cooler groups in turn. If you can spare a day or two, please get in touch with the group via the group email address – class56group@hotmail.com
Mick Doyle
Empty radiator bays on 56101 – note the rear cooler group tunnel covers removed.
Nearly there – 2 of the 3 radiator bays have been emptied of their copper radiator elements.
30 years of hauling MGR trains has taken it’s toll!!
Firstly, a huge apology to those who turned out on Sunday expecting 56101. While we managed to get word out on some of the forums that 101 would not be out, this website was not updated in time with the bad news. The following report is from Mick Doyle.
For all those out there that had the wasted journey I am sorry. There is an issue with 56101 being water tight and this has worsened since the Thunder-bird run to rescue 20069 after she failed at Wymondham 2 weeks ago. Gareth Broughton was duly informed on the severity of the leak and that it would need to be rectified at the earliest opportunity – this meant that the loco was still under repair and wasn’t officially declared SERVICEABLE.
Gareth started the strip down but with no surprise sheared one of the lower studs that secure the radiator element to the lower water rail, because of the lack of time the job was left to me to see if I could do anything to try to rectify the situation. The answer to that would be NO! I managed to shear another two studs – oh hell! So this means that after a lengthy conversation yesterday with Gareth we agreed that the cooler groups will come out for repair and the voids will be cleaned and painted. To this end 56 101 will be out of service for the foreseeable future.
Once again appologies to those who made a waste journey.
The sheared studs on the bottom water rail of one of 56101’s cooler groups. Photo: Mick Doyle.
47580 and 56101 sit in the Up Yard Line at Hitchin working 0Z56, having been put inside. We were quickly on our way again once Kings Cross had ascertained we were for Welwyn Yard!
Hitchin – to the left is the yard where the stone and scrap trains discharge, to the right is the ECML.
56101 in Welwyn Garden City Up Yard, stabled while 47580 runs round via the adjacent road.
Arnold Lane MPD headboard taking pride of place, 47580 and friends sit in the OTM yard at Hitchin just before drawing up the the outlet signal.
3… 2… 1… We’re outta here!
Empty radiator bays on 56101 – note the rear cooler group tunnel covers removed.
Nearly there – 2 of the 3 radiator bays have been emptied of their copper radiator elements.
30 years of hauling MGR trains has taken it’s toll!!
The sheared studs on the bottom water rail of one of 56101’s cooler groups. Photo: Mick Doyle.
