DMU NEWS

Richard Hayward was our man on site for the late January work weekend with our good friends from the Mid-Norfolk Railway, Paul, Michael & Jonny, who came back up from the MNR for 3 days to finish and complete some minor metal work to the cab of 51402, also cleaned some of the gutters; these are aluminium and are riveted to the metal side of the roof panels, not a good design. The leaks in the guttering appear to have stopped now.

Michael and Paul brought equipment to check wheel profiles, which were found to be good. Though 51367's are at their final turn size, this means that when the profiles become unacceptable, new wheelsets will be required. However, we have now taken over the ex-Sandite unit 51990, with which we could exchange wheel sets as they are not badly worn.

We had a work weekend on March 8th—10th, when our good friends from the Keith & Dufftown Railway came over to test the engine on the stand, as it had the fuel pump overhauled. The good news is that the engine fired up and responded to control commands.

Unit 51402 still needs an electrical fault fixed. Thanks to Richard Hayward, some internal panels have been replaced.

The next working weekend was at the end of April, but work started during the week thanks to our friends from Keith and Dufftown (Mike Lanford, Bruce, and John). They brought with them their kit to put the engine back under 51367 at Morley's shed.

We then finished all the connecting up, bolted up the Cardan shaft, air intake and throttle linkage, put spit pins in castle nuts, refitted the strap on the copper coolant pipe, checked radiator hoses in general, adjusted belts on the vacuum exhauster, topped up the gearbox and checked the right angle drive. All batteries were topped up, a step board repaired, and the radiator refilled with anti-freeze. Some gutters were cleaned and sealed, then re-painted, and roof vents were cleaned, re-sealed, and re-painted. A busy day!

At the end of the day, we fired up the number 2 engine; all went well, so number 1 was next, which also fired up well. It is good to see this, as it has been a long time since both were started up.

Then, on Sunday, as it was to be a shorter day, it was 51402's turn for some attention. We finished any guttering that needed cleaning and sealing, including roof vents, and then re-painted the roof sides. We checked the batteries and topped them up as required before running both engines.

We would like to thank all who have assisted with the DMU so far this year. Your help has been much appreciated.