Epping Ongar Railway

When Bert Hitchen owned 34027 she also visited the NYMR & East Somerset Railway. After being painted in Harry Potter maroon livery she visited the WSR and I think Bert sold her around that time and then bought 45231. Since Phil Swallow acquired her she has visited the MHR while in disguise as 34045.

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When I was writing a newsletter article Phil Swallow was keen it should say that he bought it with colleagues Nigel Barnes and Mark Younger. Messrs Younger and Swallow each have the 45.83% of shares in Taw Valley Limited.

The purchase was circa 2001. The SVR Wiki has only the WSR jaunt. If someone knows the dates for the MHR trip (and anything else) I’ll update it. Thanks
https://www.svrwiki.com/SVR-based_l...r_events#Steam_locomotives_timeline_2000-2009

Patrick

 

Great it's Swindon.
Greater it's NOT Great Western.

 

Where has it been confirmed?

 

Thanks Pete, haven't yet got my issue hence why I asked.

 

I think it was meant to be kept quiet for a little longer, but as it's in the public domain now - yes, 75069 was agreed as part of the last minute arangement for 4953.

 

New Years Trains are L92 & L150 toping and tailing. Full info https://www.eorailway.co.uk/events/new-years-steam-days/

 

The Santas and Lights trains are both proving very popular. 4953 is out this weekend on duty, which is nice to see.

 

The New Year Steam Up has had to be cancelled due to uncertainty over crew availability. A DMU service will operate in its place. Currently, the Train of Light services remain unaffected.

https://www.eorailway.co.uk/news/cancellation-of-new-years-steam-event/

 

You just have to keep your fingers crossed that the 10th Anniversary event is still on track.
Sadly I won't be attending, basically I can't trust our rail network nor underground network.

 

I certainly hope it is - I've spent the last few weeks playing about with timetables!

 

February half term services will be DMU operated, with exception of Sunday 20 which will be steam and diesel top-and-tail (if I've read the webpage right) to tie in with the bus rally taking place.

https://www.eorailway.co.uk/events/half-term-scenic-railcar-service/
https://www.eorailway.co.uk/visit/date/20-02-2022/

The rest of the year's events calendar is starting to appear on the website now.
https://www.eorailway.co.uk/events/

Two weeks back, 4953 was being prepared for a washout and boiler inspection.
L150 is having some attention to the pistons, and L92 has also left the Railway.
Class 20 D8001 was out on test at the weekend after it's recent overhaul.
The Thumper was started up earlier this week too. Whilst mechanically operational now, the bodywork is still waiting attention. As such it is still awaiting space in the shed before this can start.

Down at Ongar, the remnants of the old point to the high-street end siding off the loop have been removed, and the track is being plain-lined and slightly adjusted as a result. The removed rails are being distributed to other sites on the Railway for future use.

 

I forgot to add to the last post that during it's testing last Saturday, D8001 failed when the crankcase 'exploded' (as reported on their FB page.) A full investigation into the cause will be undertaken, but the owning group suspect it is the big end bearing that is the culprit.

Also this week, a start was made on some roof repairs to the Wickham trolley. The roof ran into a 'reverse-L' angle iron, trapping water in the angle (or any that got by ran off inside the unit and onto the seats.) As can be seen, the corrosion is quite bad. An inverse L piece is being welded on, so rainwater runs straight off over the edge instead. It also offers a better surface to attach the new tarpaulin curtains to. Of particular note, the welder doing this job actually started as an apprentice with Wickham back in the early seventies - when this particular example was built. He even made the clamps we held things in place with in the workshops there!



Yesterday (Saturday) saw a working party by the steam department take place. L150 and 4953 both had the inside of their frames cleaned out, with the outside of L150's also getting done. A bent ashpan door was also removed from 4953 and taken to be straightened up in the press. Some welding work was being done to the cab floor area of 4141's frames too, along with a number of other smaller tasks being carried out in the workshops (cleaning up plugs, making new gaskets etc.) Hopefully, we'll have some regular working parties this year to help progress things such as the large prairie's overhaul.

 

Today saw the final bits of welding completed for the Wickham trolley's roof repairs. Some tidying up to be done, but the difficult bit has at least been done; the tarpaulins will be lined up and fitted in due course. Inside the shed, the top part of the cab assembly was being needle-gunned and having red-oxide applied.



The Thumper has come up to North Weald and was refueled today to allow some testing to take place; some of the engineering team took a good look at it, and there is quite a bit of bodywork to attend to before it can return to service. A start has been made on the bodywork repairs of 03119, with new metalwork welded in around the rear cab windows.



Two items of rolling stock have been put up for disposal; more details on the 'Stock For Sale' thread.