January 2025 Newsletter

• Volunteers Needed
• The Mills Wood Loop
• More on 5713
• Steam Department Updates
• Bluey
• 8981
• Clutch Woes
• Back in Time

Volunteers Needed

The railway is always looking for new volunteers to help with the maintenance and operation of the railway. If you are interested in getting involved, check out the volunteering page on our website.

We would be happy to open our doors to anyone who would be interested in helping out, whether you have experience in the railway industry or not. We have a wide range of roles available, from driving the trains to maintaining the track and buildings.

The Mills Wood Loop

Mills Wood loop extension has begun and progressed well with the bulk of the works to the main line being completed before the annual Santa Specials in December. This was a big push to get done but got completed just in time - making use of the better weather. Works included digging out the work area of ballast, cutting the 60lb and 50lb mainline rails, physically moving the point and rails to their new positions, re-treating the sleepers while they were exposed, replacing sleepers where required, making new joggle fishplates and a pack of ballast.

We are now moving onto the loop side point and associated rails in a similar fashion. The next phase will be slightly different as we will be needing to create a point out of the spares pile and fit this in to create a new link to the wood yard branch. This will allow a more gradual gradient for the wood yard.

Works have already started on this next phase, but they began in earnest after the Santa Specials and will run until it is all back together, hopefully before the main running season.

This loop extension will allow the passenger train to use the full length of the platform whilst running around, as well as allowing further operational benefits of being able to run longer demonstrational freight trains and allow for more wood yard demonstration trains to run.

More on 5713

After running for some Railway Wednesdays in the summer, 5713 experienced further engine problems and has been withdrawn for overhaul.

The locomotive then sat for a few months while the owners discussed the works required. It had been decided that the engine works would be outsourced and the rest of the locomotive to be overhauled in-house.

In early November works began to remove the engine and construct a cradle to transport it in.

In early December the engine was removed from the frames and taken away for overhaul. Shortly after, the gearbox was removed and placed in store in the Simplex cradle wagon which has seen many sister components including 8887 (Phoebe) engine and gearbox, as well as 9655 Bluey gear box more recently.

Works will slowly progress on 5713 as other jobs take precedence over winter. When the weather and daylight hours become more favourable, works will progress further with a target completion for a return to traffic for her 90th year in 2026.

Steam Department Updates

As the festive season approached and the Steam Railway wound down for the year, the team was gearing up for essential winter maintenance.

Two of the railway's beloved steam locomotives, Elouise and Emmet, are scheduled for annual boiler inspections. These inspections are crucial to ensure the safety and reliability of the locomotives.

The railway's skilled engineering team, led by John Newman, will conduct the inspections in-house. To minimize disruption to service, Emmet will be inspected first as it requires less dismantling. The goal is to have Emmet ready for the February half-term, while Elouise's inspection will be scheduled as soon as the team can prepare her.

With ample coal supplies secured for the 2025 season, the railway is confident in delivering a thrilling steam experience for passengers in the coming year.

Bluey

At the end of the last update MR.9655 ‘Bluey’ had just had its engine removed from the frames for rebuild. Shortly after the engine was removed from the locomotive it was discovered that the input bearings on the gearbox were very worn. Access to the input bearings required the removal of the gearbox from the frames and the gearbox to be completely disassembled. Because of this the decision was made to replace all the bearings throughout the box whilst it was apart, to save having to do it again at a later date.

The gearbox was removed from the chassis in August 2024, and shortly after Bluey went into the workshops to complete the repaint into the Fordson Empire Blue livery it wore in industry at Henry Oakland & Sons’ Escrick Tile Works during the mid-late 1970s. Escrick Tile Works had 3 locomotives during this period of time, all of which were 20/28 Motor Rails. MR.9655 ‘Bluey’ was the only one which got repainted into the blue livery, whilst the other two remained in a green livery. Locomotives were numbered with hand painted white numbers at each end, MR.9655 ‘Bluey’ was No.1 in the Escrick fleet.

Once the repaint was completed, disassembly of the gearbox was started in September 2024. During disassembly of the gearbox more issues were discovered than initially expected. The output shaft had considerable wear where bearings had been spinning on the shaft for quite some time.

After the damaged shaft had been repaired work on replacing the bearings was started in early November 2024. This was a fairly simple task of removing the old bearings and pressing new ones on. By mid-late November 2024 the three shafts were reassembled ready to go back in the gearbox.

Work on the engine has been put on hold whilst the gearbox rebuild is undertaken. Although a number of replacement engine parts have been sourced during this downtime, this should allow for a quicker reassembly of the engine once the gearbox rebuild is complete.

The current aim is to try to get MR.9655 ‘Bluey’ back in service for September 2025, as that will be 40 years since the locomotive was first at the Old Kiln Light Railway in 1985.

8981

Clutch Woes

8981 is currently undergoing work to try and fix the clutch, which tends to grab and drive the locomotive even when the pedal is being pressed, this is not ideal as both coaches and couplings have at one point suffered, as has the odd wheelbarrow left in its path. The engine has been out several times, and the gearbox also has vacated the frames to combat some corrosion in the past.

Without access to the proper tools in the past, these have gone back together with no lining up, the alignment on an engine which is directly coupled to a gearbox must be exact or problems occur. It is possible that because of this misalignment, the clutch is being pushed at an angle and binding up, causing it to spin with the engine and create the unwanted drive. We have been loaned the tool, used in the Simplex factory, for lining the engine up to the gearbox, with the manual claiming it needs to be accurate to within 3 thousandth of an inch.

As this is a tight tolerance, we were given permission to bring 8887 “Phoebe” into the workshop and practice lining her engine up first, both gaining experience and advancing her own restoration one step further. This required the machining of bespoke spacing blocks, which entailed getting to grips with the museum's milling machine, as ours is out of action. After this practice we brought 8981 into the workshop to begin the alignment, stripping the locomotive down and removing the engine.

This is a necessary step, as the clutch cover must be removed first, and the engine placed back in, minus the cover, to line it up. Then do the reverse for the final fitting, meaning you must remove the engine twice to line it up once! The engine mount on one side is cracked, it has been unsuccessfully welded or brazed before, so we have been arranging for it to be sent to the same firm who repaired the Hudson frames.

In the meantime, with the engine out of the way we were able to spot that the gearbox sprocket was loose, and teeth were very worn out, meaning the keyway now needs repair and the sprocket replaced. We sourced some key steel and made a new key. Phoebe once again came to our aid, with a member's donation of her surplus gearbox sprocket, which is in better condition, leaving only the keyway to fettle and a new set of chains to source, while waiting for the engine mount to be repaired.

Once the part is repaired and returned, attention will resume on the engine alignment and an inspection of the clutch for any debris or broken springs while the cover is off. Hopefully the railway will have a running, drivable Simplex, or two, during 2025. New builders' plates have been bought from a member, to replace the missing originals, but 8981 gets no gifts until it behaves!

Back in Time

A delve into the parts store after a tidy up has resulted in finding many of the parts that were removed from 8981 when it first arrived from Midhurst Whites Brickworks. For those unaware, 8981’s control setup used to face completely the other direction, it was painted grey, and it was also fitted with a low-height wooden cab. Digging in the Motor Rails shelf, we have manged to recover the original shorter brake column, both shortened gear levers, and the lengthened sanding lever.

This leaves only the throttle and clutch linkages to find, neither of which are complex items to make from scratch if the desire takes hold. The gear levers are of interest as the linkage appears to take one of them to the opposite side, this would result in having a lever each side of the operator. An article on the Midhurst Brickworks in the Surrey Narrow Gauge book also appears to show an image of 8981 fitted with a front headlight on the radiator and a toolbox mounted on the front instead of under the seat. It is proving an interesting exercise, to compare how 8981 was in industry, to the generic design it has been converted to since then.