Restoration diary

Dave Rolfe, Mark Burrows, Jay Hirst, Richard Dale and I were on site today. Mark finished fitting rubber strips inside the last of the air filter frame housings, barred round the power unit and oiled the turbos. Dave carried out various jobs around the locomotive. Jay helped Richard doing an endurance test on the internal and extern...

Richard, Dave, and I were on site yesterday. Dave is continuing testing pipework and various valves in the air system of Repulse. He has also mounted the extractor fan above where the ETH generator sits. I fitted and wired the AWS sunflower & reset button in No.2 cab, while Richard finished connecting the two-core cable from the sunflower ...

Dave Rolfe has been putting air into the air system of 50030 at various points, looking for leaks, and inevitably, is finding a lot. He plans to work through the locomotive. This will reveal any more fractured, missing or broken airpipes. I added a new link wire between two terminal bars in No.1 cab as part of completing the unfinished DSD sys...

​Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst, Mark Burrows, Richard Dale, Carl Looker and his daughter Sofy and I were on site today. Mark and Dave were working on the power unit, Carl was de-rusting in the filter compartment of 50030, Sofy was hoovering more debris from under No.1 cab floor. Richard and Jay continued investigating the DSD wirin...

​Richard and I managed to attend for two weekends in a row and together we achieved quite a bit. The new headcode box lamp frame was fitted in No.1 cab, all the internal bulkhead lights had new lamps fitted and the instrument lights in No.1 cab. We were happy with the tests of the lighting circuits at 24v to put the full 110v into them through...

​Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst, Mark Burrows, Richard Dale and I were on site today. Jay and Mark were gluing rubber strips behind where the air filters will sit around 50030 to prevent them rattling. Dave continued cleaning and test-fitting various sections of air pipes on and around the brake frame. He has also refitted the four brake valves to the brake...

An extra day today with just Richard and myself on site. Richard brought some angle-iron and flat plates he had made, so we could create a bar for new lampholders to go behind the headcode box lenses, as both headcode boxes are missing the original lampholders and whatever framework they were attached to. We checked his original measurements, then ...

Dave Rolfe, Richard Wade, Jay Hirst, Mark Burrows and I were on site today. Richard carried on checking the battery isolation switch and shore supply and battery charge wiring. Jay and I attempted to fit the upper internal panel that goes above the change end switch in No.1 cab, but most of the mounting holes didn't line up, so we looked ...

Carl and Sofy Looker, Jay Hirst, Dave Rolfe and I on were site on Sunday 15th April, while Mark and Robert Burrows had the sales stand on the station at Rowlsey South for the Peak Rail/Ecclesbourne Valley Railway Twin Peaks diesel gala. Jay and I were mostly showing people round Repulse, while Carl & Sofy did cleaning up of debri...

Dave Rolfe, Mark Burrows, Jay Hirst and I on site today, plus returning member Wayne Boyle. With photos I'd got of a complete 50, Dave continued to find, clean and paint parts for the brake frame. Mark investigated the smaller airpipes on the brake frame in Renown, which is more complete than what's in Repulse, to help identify what we ne...

​Mark and Robert Burrows, Jay Hirst and I were on site yesterday. Mark and Robert barred the power unit round, rotated and oiled the four turbos, then did some more cleaning and scraping off loose paint around the electrical cubicle. Jay and I searched for the brake frame electrical conduits in our storage, finding mos...

Jay, Dave and I were on site today. Dave has been busy refitting various water pipes from the radiators that go through the filter compartment to the power unit. Jay helped me reconnecting the cables to the cab switch panel above the driver's position at no 1 end, but we lost the light before we could fix the panel in place.

​Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. Dave was refitting fuel and water filler valves he'd perviously removed, cleaned & painted. Jay and I reconnected the cables to the fuel lift pump and alternator. The cables had all been cut off long ago, so each one was extended with a through-crimp and new ring crimp. The through-crimps we...

​Dave Rolfe, Jay Hirst and I were on site today. Dave is continuing to paint pipework in the engine compartment, and has started to refit various filters. The first pic shows painted fuel pipework. Jay helped me finish rewiring the centre desk panel in No.1 cab. We then moved into No.2 cab to bell out the same bunch of cables. Fortunately, the...

Mark Burrows and I were on site today. Jay Hirst was "unavoidably detained" when his car unfortunately broke down on the way to site.I disconnected seven wires from the base of the CU4 radiator fan control unit, as Mark had found the conduit containing the cables leading to it was badly corroded. Mark was able to disconnect the conduit without...

Mark Burrows, Jay Hirst and I were on site today working on 50030. Mark cut out the last of the rotten floor treads in the engine compartment ready for Ian the welder to fit new treads, while Jay and I belled out and marked the wiring that goes to the switch panels above the driver in both cabs. Photos in this report courtesy Jay Hirst.

I have been offline with PC problems for the last few weeks so work party reports haven't been added! So here's a bumper update rolling up all the work on site during the last month or so since the last report in mid July.The last three workparties saw myself, Dave Rolfe, Deborah Stokes, Wes Needle, Carl and Sofy Looker and Mark a...

​Carl Looker and his daughter Sofia put a third coat of black on the radiator room floor, than cleaned four of the rear mounting plates for the rad fan resistors which go above the walkways alongside the rads. There are three each side. The plates were only very lightly corroded as they get covered in dust and debris drawn in through the rad grille...