On the last day of February it finally happened. Yes, the Maybach MD870 engine recently fitted into Class 35 “Hymek” D7017 burst into life at 15.15 hrs. after several hours of checks to ensure as far as possible that all was well before the “Start” button was depressed for the first time in earnest in nearly four years. For those present the sound of a Maybach coming to life brought back great memories of days past and hopefully heralded many more to come later this year. At this point I feel I must offer congratulations to Andy Purse on behalf of the Williton Team because he has dedicated hundreds of hours to the rebuild of this engine. As Andy will quietly tell you, it is the largest diesel engine he has rebuilt to date and a great load was lifted off his shoulders on the day when she burst into life and quickly settled down to run very smoothly. At the end of the afternoon she was ready to take power and Neil McCannon had the honour of moving D7017 under her own power back into her berth in the shed so we can complete the many minor tasks and refit the roof panels ready to commence test running on the weekend of March 7th and 8th if all goes to plan. The test of our success will be if the “Mekydro” transmission performs to specification because back in August 2005 it was a transmission failure that originally sidelined the locomotive and so for now D7017 remains as work in progress but we are ever hopeful she will be ready to return to service at the beginning of June 2009.
Assuming we are successful with D7017 her place in the shed will be taken by Class 42 “Warship” D832 “Onslaught” that requires minor attention to one of her two Maybach MD 650 engines, She should be resident in the Shed for both weekends of the Spring Steam Gala and then she will join D7017 on running-in trials. Her place in the shed will then be taken by Class 52 “Western” D1010 “Western Campaigner” once this locomotive has been to Bishops Lydeard for underframe attention during our DEPG Work Week at the beginning of April. Currently the “Western” stands in the Depot South Yard where the Team are progressing many tasks identified by Western Chief Engineer, Robert Tiller whilst he personally continues to progress the rebuild of the Maybach MD 655 engine in the shed.
Away from the diesel hydraulics both Class 08 D3462 and Class 33 D6566 have returned to traffic after their respective exams were completed with the underframe exams over the pit at Bishops Lydeard on the last day of the month. The Company Service locomotive for the month has been Class 25 D7523 that was employed for 12 days on engineering trains. She was also used on the last day of February to haul the log recovery train that this year started from Blue Anchor and ran through to Norton Fitzwarren to unload before returning to Bishops Lydeard to stable overnight.
Looking ahead the DEPG Diesel Depot and Heritage Diesel Visitor Centre will be open on Sunday 8thth March for “Members Day” when some of the Team will be on duty to welcome WSR/WSRA Shareholders and Members. Then at the end of March our DEPG facilities will be open again to visitors for all 6 days of the Spring Steam Gala. Please feel free to call in and meet our DEPG Williton Team if you are down Williton way on those days.
(John Cronin)