Sold from Polmadie depot during the late
Summer of 1972 D8568 went to Hemelite of Harpenden, a cement company on the
former branch line between Harpenden and Hemel Hempstead. It was purchased
because the companies shunting locomotives were limited in haulage capacity. A
visit to Polmadie secured the locomotive and with a small fitted van loaded with
spare brake equipment, electrical equipment and a 450 hp Paxman power unit,
arrangements were made to work D8568 south. It arrived under its own power on
the 11th September 1972 and in doing so became the first ‘privately
owned’ ex-main line diesel loco to break the ‘no private diesels BR ban’.
This 'claim to fame' is often quoted as going to Warship D821 Greyhound but the
difference between the two was D8568 was going for industrial use where as D821
was going for preservation.
On the 12th D8568 was trialed
using six mineral wagons as a train and worked up and down the branch to the
Hemel Hempstead factory. The loco was affectionately known as ‘Gavin’ after
the owners son, and the locomotive enabled more wagons to be carried –
resulting in less rail journeys and more savings for the company. D8568 remained
in use at Hemel Hempstead until the higher costs of using rail traction forced
the company to turn to the roads. So D8568 and its two smaller shunters were put
up for sale with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway taking the two shunters.
Ironically, D8568 would end up here in preservation later too!
The Clayton was
sold to Ribble Cement (now Castle Cement) and proved ideal for shunting its
heavy trains at Clitheroe. On 16th June 1977 it left Harpenden for
Cricklewood where minor attention was given to enable it to make the long
journey north. On the 20th it departed Cricklewood making its way to
Clitheroe in various freights until on the 24th June she arrived.
Here D8568 was repainted into the new owning company colours of light grey upper
body with the running plate, bogies and underframe in dark green. The company
logo of a castle was applied to the cab sides and nose ends and to warn staff of
its presence, small lights, displaying red and white were fixed along the sides
to the frame. Another decline in traffic again, this time for Ribble Cement, saw
the loco put up for sale again.
The DTG made an
offer of £1000 and it was accepted provided they took all of the spares with
the. It left Clitheroe on the 9th February 1983 and was taken by road
to Pickering and a new life on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. Its first run
in preservation was on the 1st April 1983 to Goathland and back
followed by its first passenger run on the 16th April hauling the
11.55 Goathland to Pickering.
On the 26th
June 1985 D8568 was taken out of traffic for a long overdue overhaul. Engine
work was started and we found one engine to be low on compression and it was
discovered that two sets of gaskets had at some time been fitted under the
cylinder heads by mistake. One set was removed and the engine compression was
returned to normal. We also fitted
two new stronger fuel pumps, salvaged from Hymeks as spares for D7029, to
alleviate the age old Clayton problem of fuel starvation. In order to prove that
fuel starvation was caused by inadequate original pumps we fitted one end of the
loco with a temporary fuel tank from a 45 gallon drum mounted on the locos long
bonnet!
Work on painting the loco in green livery began in December 1988 and was
completed by April 1989 and return to traffic again on the 22nd of
that month. The locos last day in
traffic on the N Y M R was on the 27th April 1991, having accumulated
657 miles.
An offer was received to have the loco based in the south – closer to its owners which saw D8568 depart from Grosmont in the company of D821 on the 2nd August behind 47401 to Gloucester and the Horton Road depot open day. From here it went to Old Oak Common, via Westbury and was an exhibit at the Old Oak Common Open Day on the 17th/18th August. D8568 had to travel to London in vacuum braked trains from Gloucester and she was tripped in engineers trains which travelled around the Country. A break at Old Oak Common enabled us to catch up on outstanding work and a trip over to Willesden for tyre turning was undertaken before finally, on the 25th April 1992, D8568 was hauled to its present home on the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway.
At Chinnor the locomotive has undergone mechanical
repairs to the No. 1 engine with reconditioned liners fitted. The original ones
had suffered from erosion cause by the water as it circulates around the engine,
its force on the outside of the liner literally bombards it and eventually wears
the liner away. The No. 2 engine and main generator have been removed to allow
repair work to the generator to take place. Preventative maintenance has ensured
constant reliability from the loco, a policy which, had B.R. adopted, would have
seen the class far less troublesome.
A brief visit to the S.V.R. for a diesel gala event in
October 1998 is the only time D8568 has left Chinnor. Although currently
operating on one engine the operational 450 hp engine is more than enough to
haul the railways passenger and engineers trains.
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The unique Clayton D8568 is seen here standing
adjacent to Grosmont shed on the N Y M R. The livery shown is that of the
previous owner Ribble Cement (Later Castle Cement) which was a concrete
grey body with olive green underframe and bogies. Along the side were orange/white warning lights
made from what seemed like old car indicators! One of the most tedious
jobs to carry out first was the removal of years of hard concrete dust. It
was everywhere! |
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Two photos of D8568 at work on the N Y M R, above
at Pickering, below at Grosmont. |
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This is how Gavin looks now! Whilst travelling
from the N Y M R to the Chinnor Railway D8568 visited Gloucester, Westbury
and, of course, Old Oak Common. Behind is our Warship D821 Greyhound and
Western D1015 Western Champion. Once the open
day was over D8568 was taken to Princes Risborough where it remains today. |
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One end of D8568 has had a considerable
amount of engine work carried out. All the pistons and liners have been
removed and repaired as necessary. Above Left is the hole that remains in
the engine block once the head, piston and liner, Above Right, have been
removed. The fact that the engine is lying on its side makes jobs such as
these a pleasure….. except of course when its raining!! |
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