Heritage Traction on the Llangollen Railway

D5310 made a successful debut at the Great Central Railway Diesel Gala on 18th and 19th May, joining Class 25 D7612 visting from the South Devon Railway and resident Class 27 D5401 to provide a superb trio of Sulzer Type 2s as part of an impressive and varied 8 locomotive line up. The highlight was being able to sample all 3 Type 2s on the Saturday evening Beerex, with D5310 double heading with both D7612 and D5401. Unfortunately D7612 was suffering from electrical problems which resulted in her failure on Sunday morning – an awful piece of luck for the SDR team after they had put in a massive amount of work to get the 25 repainted and ready for the event

D5310 behaved impeccably and was crewed by LDG members all weekend. A minor leak on the instrument pipe to the gauge for the vacuum chamber at No 2 end caused a slight headache on Saturday morning, but was switfly repaired by Group Chairman and CME Mark Smales, with the more time being spent removing the driver’s seat in order to get to it and then finding a replacement washer (amazing what you can find on the floor of the clean air room)! An intermittent speedometer fault, also at Number 2 end, became more frequent on Saturday afternoon, but use of GPS apps on the crew’s phones got round this. We suspect one of the components in the gauge itself has failed, so it will need to be removed for inspection.

Jim Mosley’s superb and timeless photo below shows D5310 cruising towards Quorn and Woodhouse in both an idyllic setting and (unusually!) weather on Sunday 18th May.

We would like to extend a massive thank you to all at the GCR who have been involved in looking after us so far, particularly Steven Chappell, GCR Operations Manager, who has masterminded the visit.

Thanks also go to everyone in the LDG who has helped make the visit happen, with considerable preparations being made in a short timescale. Tom Shilliam and Paul Williams manned our sales stand on Loughborough station on Sunday and took over £150 – an excellent result for the Group’s funds.

D5310 is scheduled to take part in a GCR Sulzer Type 2 running day on June 15th and 16th, but this will be subject to repairs on D7612. Watch this space!

A big thank you to those who supported D5310′s running day last weekend. All went well and the adjustments made to the electric radiator fan thermostat appear to have been successful with the fan cutting in as expected.

D5310 is due to travel to the GCR one day next week. The timetable and loco roster for the event is now confirmed via the links below:

Passenger timetable Diesel Gala May 2013 – Saturday 18th May
Passenger timetable Diesel Gala May 2013 – Sunday 19th May

The 26 will be working the late turns on both days, including the evening working on Saturday, where we will double head with our green Type 2 Cousins Class 27 D5401 and Class 25 D7612. This should be fruity to say the least!

We are delighted to announce that Class 26 D5310 will be joining D7612 and D5401 to give an impressive Sulzer Type 2 trio at the GCR’s Diesel Gala on May 18th/19th. The 26 will work a 4 trip running day at Llangollen on Saturday 4th May and then depart for Loughborough soon afterwards for a month’s visit.

As many will remember, D5310′s superb bodywork overhaul was carried out by John Robinson at the GCR in 2005/6, but the locomotive did not work on the line as there was outstanding mechanical restoration to be done. This visit will set that right!

The locomotive clearly remains very popular with enthusiasts and is already well travelled, having visited the Wensleydale and Severn Valley Railways in 2011 and the Keighley & Worth Valley, East Lancs and WCRC open day at Carnforth before the LDG acquired her in 2009.

The Type 2 will return to North Wales in readiness for the summer gala season, where it is expected to take part in both the Classic Transport and 1960′s Weekends.

With the incredible (and frustrating) March snow now (hopefully) a fading memory and the Llangollen Railway very much back in business, we are looking forward to our first running day of the year after the disappointment of having to cancel our Spring Diesel Day due to the severe weather.

Although the Spring Diesel Day will unfortunately not now rescheduled, a 4 trip diagram will run with Class 26 D5310 next Saturday, 4th May. Class 37 6940 will then work a similar 4 trip diagram on June 15th.

The timetable is available here: http://www.llangollen-railway.co.uk/times.php?year=2013&month=May. Day rover tickets are available at £14.

We look forward to seeing some of our usual faithful next Saturday!

The cancellation of yesterdays Diesel Day was a very bitter pill to swallow but was clearly a very sensible decision as the heaviest snowfall in around 30 years hit the Dee Valley through Friday and Saturday, making many roads impassable and causing power cuts. The snow is even worse higher up the Valley heading towards Carrog.  Group member Iain Ross is still snowed in at Llangollen and sent me this rather other wordly looking photo of 6940 next to unrestored GWR 2-8-0 2859 in the yard at Llangollen yesterday.

The Llangollen Railway unfortunately remains closed until further notice and until such a time as the weather improves.

We are very sorry to announce that the Saturday 23rd March Diesel Day has been cancelled due to the severe adverse weather conditions in Llangollen and the surrounding area. The local roads are largely impassable and, with more snow forecast for today and tomorrow, we do not expect the situation to improve.

We deeply regret having to take this very difficult decision at such short notice and are sorry to disappoint everyone. However the risks involved in trying to run the event and staff the railway in these difficult conditions cannot be justified.

We will discuss whether there is the possibility of rescheduling a two train running day for later in the Spring with the Railway’s Management and provide further updates in due course.

Once again, our sincere apologies for the inconvenience and disappointment. We too are all gutted and have had enough of Winter!

We are all acutely aware of the snow forecast for tomorrow:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2644021

Whilst there are currently no plans to cancel the event, we will have to review how things go. As well as challenges with the locomotives and infrastructure caused by heavy snow, we may also suffer from staff availability, many of whom need to travel signficiant distances to crew locomotives and open signalboxes etc. We hope Saturday should be OK.

You are advised to phone the railway or check either the LR or this website tomorrow for further updates before travelling a long way to visit us.

It is worth reminding everyone that the trains will not be heated, so wrap up very warm please!

The Llangollen railway successfully reopened to Carrog last weekend as planned. The full B timetable and loco roster is now confirmed as follows:

D5310 is on the 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 trains from Llan, working back from Carrog at 11:00, 13:00, 15:00 and 16:45.

6940 is on the 11:00, 13:00 and 15:00 from Llan, working back from Carrog at 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00.

The timetable is also available to download here: Llangollen Railway Diesel Day 23rd March 2013 PUBLIC

We look forward to seeing the Dee Valley top men (and ladies) on Saturday!

‎6940′s leaking air pipe has now been repaired and was refitted yesterday. The location of the pipe in question can be seen in the photo below – under the cab doorway. The linkage you can see with the chain attached connects the handbrake wheel to the bogie brake gear.

The photo below shows a close up on the repair, complete with new white paint. As good as new, if not better thanks to modern welding equipment!

The locomotive was then started. The Arctic weather of the previous few days saw plenty of cold-start smoke until the power unit warmed through. A heater has been placed in the engine room this week to avoid any frost damage after refilling the coolant system earlier this month.

With a fitness to run exam complete, the locomotive then undertook a successful twilight test run to Glyndyfrdwy with D5310 as insurance, with some obligatory ”great, there’s an engine running, can you just move…” shunting to boot.

D5310 and 6940 are now therefore confirmed for the 23rd March Diesel Day. Well done to all those who have worked very hard to make this possible through another pretty challenging Winter.

Many thanks to Peter Edwards for the gen and photos and to all members of the Group who have pitched in to make this happen.

We are very pleased to announce the wonderful news that the Llangollen Railway is planning to be reinstate passenger services through to Carrog commencing Saturday 16th March 2013. As a result, we hope to work trains through to Carrog on our 23rd March Diesel Day, with the current plan being to work to the standard B Timetable of 7 trains each way. It is expected that D5310 will work 4 trips and 6940 will work 3 – roster TBC.

A final confirmation of the line being open to Carrog will be made in due course.