All the DEPG effort at Williton during May has been to prepare our locomotive and the Depot for the June Mixed Traffic Gala. Class 42 “Warship” no. D832 “Onslaught” received attention to one of her Maybach MD650 engines at the start of the month and then was despatched to Bishops Lydeard on Spring Bank Holiday Saturday with Class 14 “Teddy Bear” no. D9526 so that both locomotives could be put over the pit in turn for an underframe inspection. The “Warship” was progressed first so that some light engine test running on the Norton section could be undertaken to prove the engine repairs. Then, with the inspection of the “The Teddy Bear” completed, it was time to go home to Williton for tea at the end of a successful day.
Back at the Depot Class 33 no. D6566 was moved to the berth in the Miantenance Shed recently vacated by D832 so we can progress the relivery of the Class 33 in time for the Gala. Currently she wears the former British Rail corporate blue livery and following some necessary body repairs she should reapper in the earlier former British Railways green livery of the late 1960’s era. Because the bodywork repairs generate a lot of dust when the grinders are in use this work has to be done outside the Maintenance Shed and thankfully Bank Holiday Saturday was dry so allowing progress to be made. With number 2 road berth in the Shed vacant a start was made on the great clean-up with the concrete floor cleaned and then given a fresh coat of slate grey floor paint. At the same time some of the Team continued to progress the overhaul of the Maybach MD870 engine to be fitted to Class 35 “Hymek” no. D7017 that currently remains on display in the Heritage Diesel Vistor Centre, even though she will not be finished in time for the 2008 Mixed Traffic Gala.
Sister “Hymek” no. D7018 has also been prepared for a move out of her long-time berth in number 3 road as that is required for displays during the Gala. Currently all her roof panels have been removed to provide a better working environment inside the engine room but these will be refitted at the weekend so that she can stand outside for a couple of weeks. The spare transmission for D7018 has also been dismantled during the month and damage to a large gear wheel has been found. At this stage we are not sure how to extract the gear wheel and whether it can be repaired, a job for someone post- the Gala.
The tidy-up of the contents of the Depot has also got underway with numerous pieces of miscellaneous rubbish consigned to the scrap skip. Without doubt this latter task is never-ending as many of my fellow preservationists appear to be “magpies” at heart, always seeing some hidden value in what I judge to be scrap. Result is, out it comes from the scrap skip again to be squirreled away for use on another day and we are back to square one again.
During the month the DEPG received an invitation from Mendip Rail to display our Class 14 “Teddy Bear” no D9526 at the East Cranmore Quarry Weekend to be held on the 21st and 22nd June that has been accepted and the locomotive will leave by road from Bishops Lydeard, courtesy of John Antell, after she has appeared at our Mixed Traffic Gala. She will be on static display at East Cranmore and will provide a focal point to advertise and market visits to the West Somerset Railway. At the time of writing D9526 is programmed to return to the WSR immediately after the weekend but there is a faint possibility she may move just down the road to the East Somerset Railway at Cranmore for a short visit, we will have to see if this move develops.
For the Spring Bank Holiday we opened the Heritage Diesel Visitor Centre and welcomed a party of young people on the Saturday from the Avon Valley Railway. Sunday and Monday proved to be cold and very wet and we saw just a handful of people brave enough to get off the train at Williton to look around the Depot. For this year we have started to update some of the older displays in the Heritage Diesel Visitor Centre and I hope to have our “N” gauge model of Williton working again in time for the Gala so we can display the visiting diesel locomotives in miniature.
Finally I hope all our work is not in vain and that you and many others will find time during a busy Gala weekend to come down Williton way and drop-in to see the team at the Depot.
(John Cronin)