A team made a further visit to the Spa Valley railway to collect the remainder
of the small spares leaving just the items that require a crange to be collected and moved to Blunsdon. Back at Hayes
Knoll work continues on the cab roof domes and ceilings.
January 2009
In the meantime
work continues on the cabs of E6003 with Dave Titcombe completing the job of replacing the panelling in the cab at the No
2 end. The plan is now to use roof sections salvaged from Mk 1 stock as well as the front sections of the roofs from
E6004 to complete the renovation of the cab ceilings.
December 2008
A busy month for
the Group. Not only did we obtain a new set of batteries for E6003 but we also moved our spare wheelsets and cab roofs
from the GCR.
Tee offer of an interest free loan enabled us to acquire a new set of good quality batteries from
PB Batteries. The new set worked straight from the box, starting E6003 on the first 'turn of the key' and removing
the worry that an ailing set of betteries would mean that E6003 would miss a booked turn. THe quality of the batteries
is such that the railway is now buying a new set for the Thumper.
The other major development was
the arrival of our spare wheelsets and roof domes from storage at the GCR. These are the only 4 spare wheelsets
for the JAs ever produced and are obviously a key spare to have if we are to be sure of keeping E6003 in operation. The wheels
and roof domes from E6004 had been stored in a BR Pipe Wagon and it was easier to move the wheels in the wagon rather than
try to move them separately. The wagon is in good condition having been overhauled by Dennis Hoy a few years ago but
in common with many railways, the S&C has to be careful with its storage space and so initially, permission was only obtained
to store the wagon at Swindon for a few months. However, once it was discovered that our pipe wagon was one of only
50 constructed at Swindon the wind shifted and the wagon will now be retained at the S&C for various heavy spares.
The plan is for the wheelsets themselves to be stored in the Hayes Knoll shed with the move planned for January.
