4953 Pitchford Hall

Has 4953 got any more trips coming up soon?

 

Not for the winter, we will be doing maintenance during the winter, now we will be draining both the boiler and the tender of water and doing various other maintenance jobs and general including cleaning the frames under the boiler etc.

 

4953 does not have any trips planned at the moment. The support crew has a list of winter jobs on the loco to deal with the usual collection of issues that seem to arise with use and one or two due to lack of use. Steam locos seem hell bent on shaking themselves apart or consuming themselves.

Overall following the return to the mainline in August, the loco has performed very well and all the support crew have learned a huge amount about running and managing the loco. I am sure that at some point something will happen to keep us on our toes though.

Thanks to the team at TYS who have mentored the support crew over the past few months.

 

so WHO at tyseley will put their name to that!

 

Billyballs,

Why?

 

Does seem a bit harsh there Billy. I know the guys at Tyseley are always willing to give help and advice to those who want to learn.

 

Thanks Roobarb,
Agreed I have had a lot of help and support with respect to getting 4953 back in steam after almost 2 years off the mainline. There s a lot of expertise at TYS.

 

You say that you put 4953 back in steam and on the mainline, Presumably there is a bit more to doing this than splashing a bit oil around and cleaning?
Was there any special exams necessary, what RGS requirements are there?
It seems a long time for a mainline loco to be standing around?

 

Bongo Jim,
There was a little more involved than merely splashing a bit of oil around. However, 4953 had the required inspections earlier in the year to maintain the continuity of its ticket.

There was a Light engine test run due to the concerns related to lack of mainline use.

 

will 4953 stay on the mainline or has it done it`s quoter for the next 2yrs,

 

Are the sarcastic comments really nessessary?

 

No the sarcastic comments are not necessary however on this forum in particular recently the standards have dropped and sarcasm has become a staple diet along with so much dross its hard to find posts with much credence because The dross hides them all its a sad sad fact if I'm honest

 

It's such a shame, don't you agree? Afterall, we are all in this forum for the same reason: we share a passion for railways/steam.

 

Twaddle, 4953 will stay on the mainline, and there is no quota on how many trips it does

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG6PRDW-Zbk

A friend of mine has made a video of a few shots of 4953 Pitchford Hall at the WSR gala. Once winter maintenance has been completed, we cant wait for her to be on the mainline in preparation of the GWR 175 celebrations next year.

 

Just a thought: currently on site at Tyseley are seven mainline-ready locomotives (4936, 4953, 4965, 5029, 5043, 9466 & 9600), which is very impressive.

Has anywhere else ever had such a number of mainline-ready locos stabled there before, without it being a gala or open-day?

Just wondering.

 

10 if you count the modern traction including 47773, 47580 and 86259. Which makes Tyseley/Vintage Trains the only organisation since BR in the 60s to be able to put out both Steam, Diesel and Electric traction onto the national network.