5643 to SVR

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The SVR has announced that Great Western 5643 will arrive on the railway in late May and stay until January next year.


The locomotive's 10 year overhaul has just been completed and its first runs will take place this weekend.

 

Excellent, I have a fondness for the 56XX, they are mostly associated with South Wales, but a fair few were allocated to the like of Stourbridge and Tyseley, so not a million miles out of area.

 

It is a pity the overhaul of the "Waterman" one ( 6634) appears to have stalled. The SVR have apparently done as much as they can to the rolling frames etc, but need an overhauled boiler from LNWR Crewe, where the work is proceeding only slowly. I wonder if the SVR boilershop has offered to take it on to completion to speed things up a bit?

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Judging by the pics on SVR engineering there isn't a lot of room left in the boiler shop at the moment!

 

I think there's plenty of "SVR locos" waiting for that to go down well. Personally I'd rather see 6634 sent back to Crewe. The yard space would be more use to us than it currently is.

 

Not sure what your point is Andy, but as a general comment, we have to hope that all the contract boiler work does not impede/slow down work on "SVR Locos" as such.

I know we get reassurances that it doesn't.....

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I think Andy's hinting at 6634 taking up valuable space at Bridgnorth with no prospect of being available for traffic anytime soon without a boiler.

 

Bringing the discussion back a little bit

I suppose as the loco shortage isn’t going to go away anytime soon this makes a fair bit of sense. I seem to remember 6695 was found to be quite useful a couple of years ago.

 

Thought that issues had been found with 6634 boiler, and so they were looking into using the boiler from 4115 now that has been broken up. Or have things changed again?

 

I seem recall when Crewe had their copper theft 6634 suffered because of it. Also Crewe then came out saying the boiler for 6634 wasnt in good enough condition to restore and 4115s had become available to replace the boiler. IF or When 6634 does come into traffic. She will be a useful addition.

The "shortage" is hopefully albeit slowly coming to an end. 7802, 34027, 7714, and 42968 being a quickie and with 75069 having work restarted and 2 - 3 year prediction.

 

Yep, pretty much exactly that. It's not that the loco takes up any time in terms of man hours, there's not much work being done on it at the moment because there's no indication of when it will have a boiler, and whats the use of completed frames, valve gear and platework if it's just going to sit out in the open for another X number of years deteriorating?
I seem to remember the work on the boiler was pulled because of the theft of copper intended for it's use, and since then the decision was made to use the prairie boiler. I have no idea whether there has been any progress with this. I suppose the loco is no worse off in our yard than it would be in LNWR's, but I'm not sure that we're any better off for having it here.

Back to the topic though, congratulations to Duncan for getting in not only a suitable loco for our needs, but one fresh from an overhaul too.

 

42968 was at first said to be going into store "for a short period", but that appears to have gone out to a 2014 entry into the shops. Suprising when the supporting group have raised substantial funds for the overhaul, but I understand that they would--for good reasons--rather wait for a slot at Bridgnorth than take the loco elsewhere for a quicker start.
Looking say a year ahead the motive power situation could be healthier if things go to plan, but the very fact another long-term hire loco is required demonstrates that the problem of active fleet size in the immediate future has not been solved, and what posters here tend to ignore is the "what if" situation, ie unexpected breakdowns. It has happened before!

Can Andy say if any steps are being taken to manufacture that difficult steam pipe for 2857 from new, so that if the repaired one fails, another is readily available without a long delay? Isn't this a component that other loco's may need as well in the future?

I also wonder why the SVR has not offered to push the boiler off 4150 at Bewdley through the shops so that loco could be available sooner? or maybe they have, and the lads working on the engine dont want it done just yet.

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The start of the overhaul of 7325/9303 has been imminent for several years and the owning group has raised funds to contribute to it's overhaul - but there's no sign of anything happening.

 

Which begs the question as to the "capacity" issue in Bridgnorth works, including the amount of contract work they undertake, and I wonder if we are now in effect seeing a new "model" for locomotives operating on the SVR, 34045 being the first, and now maybe 5643.

I wonder if TYS could see other SVR "queue" engines going there, alongside the EMF with 7802. That big new building at TYS presumably increases their capacity?

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Taking the Loco's elsewhere like TYS to get them done quicker is an option, but that incurs transport costs too before what the relevant works quotes for the works, though TYS/Riley/Crewe etc have other work of their own so an immediate start at any site is far from certain.

Seems workshop capacity nationally is struggling to keep up with demand currently in my opinion.

 

I can see the logic of putting contract work ahead of in-house work, up to a point, when times are hard but when the in-house work also comes with a supporting pot of money and the in-house fleet is thinned to the point where the railway is having to hire in engines, then the logic begins to elude me!

 

A mere problem to be overcome. The heritage railway movement knows no boundaries!

 

No problem we've got a boxful of spare holes for Boxpok wheels found in a dusty corner of Eastleigh works. As these are unused they should give many years service. The rest? - will probably come upon e-bay sometime.