This picture taken on March 10th 2010, shows progress on the traction motor blower from 50030. At this stage work had been almost been completed on the motor itself, which had been stripped, cleaned, backed, dipped, fitted with new brush gear and bearing. The fan mounting plate (to the left of the motor) has had a new centre fitted and new key way machined.

Close up of the fan mounting plate illustrating the new centre and key way. 10th March 2010.

Close up of the brush gear in the traction motor blower which has all been completely overhauled and fitted with new brushes. 10th March 2010.

The traction motor blower fan housing (snail) has been shot blasted and painted and is ready to be reassembled. 10th March 2010.

At this stage the fan was in the process of being cleaned up, and still required final cleaning and painting. 10th March 2010.

The end cowling and mesh had been thoroughly cleaned, prepared and painted and were awaiting reassembly once the fan was finished. 10th March 2010.

Two days before 50008's re-launch in Laira Blue at the East Lancs it is discovered Jack Frost has damaged its heat exchanger. RRRG was contacted to see if we could assist and the following morning part of 50030 was on its way North to help repair 50008. Buying shares in RRRG paid dividends for the ELR General Manager! Thunderer is seen at Rawtenstall on the 13th March 2010. Notice the lack of vacuum train brakes as the vac system was removed during the aborted overhaul of the locomotive by Sea Containers.

On 15th March 2010 three RRRG volunteers attended Booths again, this time to recover the auxiliary gen armature ex 37077 or 37377. Having previously undertaken this on 37293 we were well prepared and confident of success. Unfortunately those little scrapyard knocks and whacks had damaged the fixing bolts and getting the end plate off was rather troublesome. Once off the special puller borrowed from our electrical contractors made light work extracting the armature. The winding case was saved too, being good internally. For those unaware the auxiliary generators in 37s were chosen for the 50 build too. The remainder of the day was spent recovering various common parts from the bodyshells of three ex-WCRC 47s.

The Auxiliary generator end plate is seen above, illustrating the minor scrapyard knock referred to that caused the difficulty. It should however be repairable.