East Lancs Railway

Don't know, but reported elsewhere an ELR volunteer called Phil Gleaves has recently died so could be for him.

 

Them carriages behind 2999 look a bit ropey. ELR have invested a lot in repainting of carriages over the past year or so, why choose to use these 5?

 

The more recently repainted ones are behind Scotsman

 

This video on You Tube seems to confirm its a loco with problems.

 

It's not clear from that video what changed to allow the train to move slowly after apparently being stuck. There seemed to be a lot of steam coming out of the chimney, which suggests that it was getting straight past one of the valves from the admission side to the exhaust side, and yet when the loco did manage to move there were four exhaust beats per revolution.

 

Stopped on top dead centre?

 

Mentioned in the video comments that the brake ejector can be very sensitive to operate and struggles below 160psi.

So if the crew were low on steam, and the ejector was being tricky to operate- they may have been struggling to release the brakes.

Chris

 

My observations as well. As you say, the blow at the chimney seemed to have largely but not totally disappeared once it did start to move.

I did wonder if the loco was low on pressure. When it did get going it seemed to be a struggle; I’m sure the driver wasn’t simply taking it easy. Against this idea is the fact the steam heating was still on and that’s the first thing to turn off if you’re short of steam.
Just need someone in the know to tell us what happened.

 

Various steam leaks ,lubrication and injector fault (?) ,described to me as work in progress by someone with decades of experience including several halls .

 

I haven’t heard many polite words about it since it entered traffic tbh.

 

The last comments I had about 2999 were some months ago and came from drivers. I was told that there is no jumper on the blast pipe so it is pulling its fire all the time.
The smokebox char on removal was in fact coal particles.
Therefore unless you keep an eye on it, the fire may well not be what you put in! The result is low steam pressure.
The loco when in mid gear is actually 20% back gear, so the reach rod or reverser quadrant are likely to require altering.
Obviously given the enormity of the work done to restore what came from Barry and do a conversion there are bound to be issues/snagging to sort out.
The positives are that the valve events are spot on and the loco is very strong. It has potential!

 

Does that mean in full forward gear its at 55% then? Could explain why it struggles to get going in the forwards direction!

That said, it can't be that bad of a loco, it pulled 7 coaches at the NYMR?

 

Had a couple of runs behind it on the SVR and it was very strong, very good acceleration (on 8) and it sounded nicely balanced - but clearly it has some niggles. The trouble Didcot have is that they don't have any opportunity to run their locos in - 2 carriages on the demo line is hardly any test. This isn't anyone's fault, just a reality. I hope 4079 arrives at the SVR a little earlier to allow some time for snagging and I am sure the ELR can offer their support and expertise now.
She's off to the West Somerset next, it will need to be fit there!

 

2999 has failed and is being replaced by 33109 tomorrow

 

Smerrick to the rescue!

 

Broken top leaf on spring.

 

Flexed a members ticket to get a ride behind 2999 before she goes, not a good day with the Waterman Saloon developing braking faults (as we were informed) delayed things somewhat. 47298 was out on a test train and evetually became the Thunderbird to rescue the removed saloon from bay at Rawtenstall. Final arrival back at Bury was over an hour late.
Just a few shots:

 

Nice to see the Jinty out and about again

 

2999 'Lady of Legend' at Heywood, ELR this afternoon.

 

Me either, but say that around certain people and they blow a fusible plug!