With
the engine failure after the Old Oak Common Open Day in 1985 it hit home that
the only solution was to completely rebuild the locomotive from the wheels up!
This
involved removing components, one at a time, and taking them to our Birmingham
workshop for attention. Without lifting facilities, as the works had now closed,
we had to wait for help from the Territorial Army who took heavy items out for
us as exercises!
In
order to carry out the rewiring it was decided to find the locomotive a better
home and this was Old Oak Common. On 1st December 1990, at 03.45,
D1015 left Swindon, the first time since 1961 that Swindon was without a Wizzo.
It wasn't the last hydraulic to leave. That honour fell to class 14 no. D9555
which was in No. 19 (DMU) shop, ironically the last diesel locomotive built at
Swindon for B.R. way back in October 1965. At Old Oak Common, positioned on
Number one road in the carriage shed we had undercover accommodation and now
Western Champion was closer to the working members work moved forward in leaps
and bounds.
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Once
under cover external repaints could be carried out with relative ease.
Even then the environment we had to work in was somewhat hostile with
diesel fumes from HST power cars, cold winds shooting through the shed and
the customary leaking roof! Here on No. 1 road carriage shed at Old Oak
Common D1015 slowly turns to Golden Ochre again. |
Externally
'Champion became complete and as interest grew in our project we found ourselves
being invited to more open days. Laira Open Day in 1991 saw no less than 5 class
52's on the depot, along with our Warship D821 Greyhound, and we even ended up
at Brighton and Colchester!
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A
sight not seen for 15 years! Five Westerns at Laira. Left to right are
D1010, D1013, D1015, D1023 and D1062. Unfortunately D1041 and D1048 were
not available at the time. Also
present were Warship D821 and Hymeks D7017 and D7018.
One
day all seven will stand together. Lets hope its not too long in coming. |
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Once
we had secured a place in the Factory at Old Oak Common, which had been
mothballed, we were able to carry out the engine and bogie changes, replacing
those from the locomotive with improved condition components, all done with full
approval and prior permission from EWS and the depot staff. We also had to bring
Western Champion up to modern standards by fitting new safety systems such as
Drivers Vigilance, Speed Sensing equipment and radio telephones.
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Two
views of the same cab! Above left is the B end cab at Laira in December
1976 after withdrawal and Above right is the same cab being reassembled
after a complete rewire. The gauges on the desk have been removed to be
recalibrated and checked and the panel below the controllers have been
left off for testing purposes. With the cab seat removed the A W S
equipment is clearly visible. Below
is what's under the cab floor at B end! On the left is how it looked after
1000's of miles of main line running under her previous owner! Holes in
the bedplate to allow pipe work and cables out also let grime in. The dirt
is made up mostly of brake dust, grease and leaf mulch mixed in rain
water, left to cure and then baked hard during the Summer of 1976! The
whole of the locomotive from end to end was in this condition. All the
floors were lifted to allow cleaning to be carried out. In the boiler
compartment the area around the boiler water tank was in the worst
condition as it was obviously easier for train staff to 'do' what they
needed to 'do' rather than squeeze in between the body and boiler to use
the urinal! In fact not long after we had bought D1015 we discovered a
fuel leak in the boiler compartment. On lifting the floor section we found
the fuel pipe had completely corroded away and the fuel was running
through the greasy dirt in a channel where the fuel pipe once was! |
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Above
right is how it, and the rest of the locomotive floor looks now. The 'floor'
seen here is actually the bedplate, the steel platform that sits on top of the
main tubes and frames. The cab floor where the crew sit is on a raised platform
about 12 inches above this plate. Then positioned under the cab floor is more A
W S equipment, isolation cocks for sanders and D S D and the A F T cock. This
later additional cock was fitted to enable D1015 to Assist a Failed
Train from the rear and most modern locomotives now have this feature.
With Paul Koch and Steve Vial in attendance at an unbeliveably early hour in the
morning, D1015
Western Champion finally burst into life on both engines in early 2000 and we
then set about testing and checking all the systems. In order to satisfy the
requirements of the main line running procedures we had to complete 1000 miles
of running in and this was achieved on the Severn Valley Railway, usually
performing two round trips a day. After the early trial runs on the Severn
Valley Railway it became clear that the injectors fitted to the engines to
deliver fuel were not the best and so new injector nozels were purchased from MTU (the
former Maybach) at a cost of £180.00 each (and we need 24!).
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Just
how good looking is a thousand! D1015 Western Champion pauses at a signal
on test on the Severn Valley Railway. If you get the chance to, check out
just how tall a Western is against other locomotives and rolling stock, it
truly is a giant. |
