With 56006 running more frequently a number of jobs have arisen. Some can go on the list , while others need doing before the loco goes out again on thd 9th August.
One such job was a fault on the secondmans windscreen wiper at no 2 end.Theze are operated by air via an air valve on the desk.
This was reported as operating initially but then stopping after a few sweeps of the screen.
Unlike earlier locos, 56s don’t seem to have the small handle which allows the crew to operate the wiper manually.

So after finishing work this afternoon I drove over to Baron Street to try and fix the problem.
We had a spare wiper motor ( air operated) and sone spare operating control valves.

As the wiper was moving it wasn’t likely to be faulty, so the operating control valve was replaced.
The small panel which conceals the terminal rails for the cab wiring was opened up and the terminal rails are hinged so they can swing out to make working on them a little easier. This gave access to the underside of the desk and the valve itself.
The 4 air pipes were carefully marked up with tape to ensure they were refitted correctly to the replacement valve.
The underside of the valve is marked with ports 1, 2, 3 & 4 but as you can see they are quite hard to see , so tape was used to make things idiot proof ( !).
Of course , this is a 56 so nothing is ever straightforward. I had two valves.( both removed from scrap 56s many years ago) One seemed to operate with a nice motion and positive clicking sound. The other was pretty much siezed solid.
One had the operating knob siezed, while one came off very easily.

Do you think it was the siezed valve which had the siezed knob. Of course not…..
Anyway a while later some WD40 and some brute force persuaded the siezed knob to surrender.
I now had a complete ( and hopefully working) valve.
The pipes were disconnected from the defective valve one at a time and fitted to the replacement valve one at a time.
Once connected, the valve was left hanging by the pipes and the loco was started up ( to build air presdure so the wiper could be tested).
No good putting it all back together then finding it doesn’t work.
As soon as the air pressure in the main reservoir got to around 3 bar ( 45psi) the wiper operated. I
turned the valve to PARK position and the wiper parked itself to one side as it should.
The valve body was leaking very slightly so I nipped up the screws holding the two valves together and that stopped the leak. There was still a hissing of air , but that was coming from the valve exhaust ports and is expected.

I removed thd knob from the valve so I could offer it back through the mounting hole and secure it in position then reattach the operating knob.

The loco was then shut down after checking the battery charge Ammeter was showing the batteries were in a healthy state of charge.( ready for next time it’s started up)