BR Class 28 "Metrovick"

Not forgetting the clamps that hold the groups of HP pipes together.

 

Not my video, but this gives us a good look around D5705 and the progress being made.

 

I'm a steam man and not a modern (!) traction enthusiast but here are a couple of diesel shots I took at Carlisle 1965 and 1966.
I can recall the Metrovicks double-heading the Condor express Glasgow-London goods in the 1960s, and IIRC sparks & smoke from their running gear used to accompany them quite often.

 

Can't help but think being able to drag it out for the ELR diesel gala did the restoration group a massive favour in raising it's profile massively! Looking forward to the day it, and it's shed mate the class 15 get to run under their own power.

 

From the Class 15 Preservation Society | News website:

D5705 Update:
At the end of 2021 the Crossley V8 was sent off to Gen Elec located in Louth, Lincolnshire for restoration and following a period of inactivity due to a backlog of other projects, work has begun on the restoration and they have now provided an update on the progress of the work as well as providing a list of what remains to be completed including a quoted cost of £16,680.00 + VAT.

To this end a fundraiser has been set up and you can donate either by bank transfer;

Sort Code 09-06-66
Acc Number 42342109
Class 15 Preservation Society
Ref: COBO ENGINE

or via this paypal link

More info is available on the C15PS facebook page

 

lets hope people can support this it would be great to see the Metrovick returned to service

 

100% – it remains a mystery to me that so much progress has been made mocking up other, actually extinct, diesels whilst this mad original seems to progress so slowly… also a bit sad that it didn't (presumably for exceptionally good reasons) make it to the Greatest Gathering inlight of the multiple Derby connections… which could have provided a massive shot in the arm to the project.

Fingers-crossed they get it over the line in the next few years.

Simon

 

Were class 15s bad or just not very good?

I can see them falling between the camps that want something available now for reliable operation, and those willing to spend their time rebuilding from original rust but are more interested in steam/popular diesels.

 

Well… if you were interested in reliability you probably wouldn't start with a 15 or a 28, but then a baby deltic wouldn't have been high up the queue either…

My hunch is that both the 15 and the 28 fell between enthusiasts' cracks a little… they were unfashionable, niche and unsuccessful diesels that survived by good fortune of falling into departmental use. They made it into preservation at a time when securing scrap locos and some space to store them was comparatively easy, but have been overtaken by some of the more radical newbuilds and sexier projects.

The co-bo is such an oddity I'd love to see it run again, less interested in the 15 if I'm honest.

Simon

 

Soon as payday comes I'll be donating.

 

They weren't very good, but the Class 16 was even worse - once again, the dead hand of NBL.

 

Well, anything that isn't better than a class 16 or a class 17 has real problems...

 

The D-word, automatically gives it sexy status. Also EE engines make GW 4-6-0s seem eclectic. You can pretty make anything up to DP2 by mix and match, so there's less newbuild to, errr, build.

I'd like to see Bo-Co, if only for the railway stories cachet. (And TBH, why shouldn't an engine have a different number of wheels at each end?)

 

I'm trying to remember which class of diesel lined up OOS at Peterborough got noticed by a journalist and consequently kicked up a stink in the Commons, I understand. Can't remember if it was the "Baby Deltics" or yet another NBL abomination, the Class 21.

 

Many Steam locos have that sort of layout.

 

Donation made. I'd like to have learned more but I refuse to have anything to do with Facebook, so...

 

I heard somewhere that NBL got the translation from metric on the German engines they were building under licence from MAN wrong which is why they have trouble. I think the locos parked up were Baby Deltics

 

@Cartman could be right about the Baby Deltics at Peterborough although it's worth adding that the NBL Class 21s that ran suburban services from KX when first introduced, were parked at New England in spring 1960 prior to their transfer to Scotland.

 

Sorry, it was the NBL class 21s which were taken from Hornsey to New England for storage

 

I was once surprised by a Class 21 at Chalkwell on the LTSR. It was hauling a summer weekend excursion from, I think, Hertford North.