The radiator compartment in 50030 following reinstallation of the overhauled radiators.

Deborah Stokes testing the voltage on the batteries still inside 50030.

The first two radiator fan resistor backplates were refitted on a test basis.

Deborah Stokes removed the batteries from 50030 to top up distilled water levels and attempt to charge them up.

The heat exchanger for the overhauled power unit intended for 50030 was overhauled last year and has now been fully installed complete with all pipework.

After four hours connected to a car battery charger, the voltage on the batteries doubled, although they won't be good enough to actually fire 50030 up.

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 and Robert Burrows on site, working on repairing holes in the cabsides, continuing to rebuild the inside of no.1 cab, cleaning, and painting and fitting the radiator fan resistor backplates in preparation for refitting the resistors themselves, and testing of the first of the batteries to ascertain their condition. Dave Rolfe has also cut some metal plating out ready to weld into the flat cab side areas that Mark and Robert had recently touched up, as a more permanent repair.

Deborah Stokes writes about the battery testing: "My little test was to remove two batteries from the battery box to see how much deionised water they needed, quite expecting them to be bone dry after not having seen any attention since 1992. To everyone's surprise, they actually needed less than two litres for the five cells! Each cell was showing 0.9 volts when tested at the start. A car charger was used on the five cells and left running for four hours, after which each cell was showing 1.8 volts.

I'm only looking to bring the batteries back to life for testing the electrical systems on 50030, because the batteries are over 25 years old I doubt they'll be able to start the engine."