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D123
Updated 2/4/11
Repairs to the frost damaged heat exchanger in D123 continued through January and in the event only one tube was found to require blanking off with a brass 0BA screw. Many hours were spent cleaning out the individual tubes of the heat exchanger with a long metal rod to remove deposits of emulsified oil. On 12th February the batteries on D123 were topped up with distilled water, several brake blocks were changed and a thorough examination undertaken in readiness for some contract work. The loco made a successful test run from Loughborough to Rothley Brook that afternoon.
On Tuesday 15th, Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th February, the loco was used to train staff from the Army’s transport regiment driving at speeds of up to 60mph. While the army personnel have driven locos before they come to the Great Central Railway, most have only driven shunters around the army railway depots at Bicester and Marchwood (Southampton). The idea behind army staff getting familiar with driving at speed is that part of their role involves being sent abroad to areas of conflict where they may need to relay track and rebuild railway infrastructure and then potentially drive trains. During this first week of training, the trips ran from Loughborough to Rothley Brook and were light engine.
The loco had a break from high speed running on Saturday 19th February when it hauled the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North passenger service, returning from Leicester North at 13:00. Monday 21st February saw D123 return to army high speed training, but this time D123 hauled 5 vacuum braked passenger coaches to give the army personnel the experience of braking trains from speed using vacuum brakes. Two trips in the morning and two trips in the afternoon were undertaken to Rothley Brook where the coaches were shunt released. The training also included 2 trips from Loughborough to Leicester North in the evening to give experience of driving in the dark.
On Tuesday 22nd, the pattern of trips was repeated but while running round the coaches at Loughborough after hauling the first afternoon trip, one of the brake valves (the bogie number 2 proportional valve) on the locos brake frame developed a serious air leak and the loco was failed and hauled back to the shed by D4067. A replacement brake valve was located and fitted and the loco then continued its booked trips for the day.
Wednesday 23rd February was the last day of booked driving for the army but when D123 was started it was found that the replacement brake valve fitted the previous day had an air leak. The air leak was not as bad as the previous day and the locos compressors were able to keep up the air pressure sufficiently to allow the loco to be used. Due to the concern insufficient air pressure may be maintained while running in vacuum (as only one compressor is used in vacuum) the days trips were all amended to be light engine. D123 was used to haul the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return diesel service on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th March.
The loco was drained of coolant on the afternoon for Friday 18th March and moved on to the number 2 road pit in front of Loughborough shed. This was to enable the frost damaged water filler/shut off tap on the Loughborough platform 2 side of the loco to be removed and a replacement to be fitted. Saturday 19th March was also spent replacing more worn out brake blocks (all of the high speed running that the loco undertakes results in the changing of brake blocks being a very regular job). A missing pipe from the fuel return rail that leads to the bed plate drain tank was disconnected from the group’s spare power unit and fitted to D123.
Fuel leaks had been noted on one side of the power unit and these were cured by fitting replacement ‘O’ rings to the fuel pipe work where it connects to each fuel pump. The likelihood is that the very cold weather had hardened the O rings that were fitted allowing fuel to leak past them.
The loco took part in the 1960’s event held over the weekend of 26th/27th March alongside 5 steam locos and 2 other diesel locos and worked a variety of passenger, Travelling Post Office, Empty Coaching Stock and freight trains over the two days. The change of the GCR timetable to high season at the beginning of April amends the diesel hauled services to 3 per day on Saturday’s and Sunday’s. The diesel turn consists of hauling the 11:15, 13:00 and 15:15 departures from Loughborough, returning from Leicester North at 12:00, 13:45 and 16:00. D123 has been booked to haul the diesel services on the weekends of 2nd/3rd April and 30th April/1st May. The loco is also expected to take part in the GCR diesel gala which is being held on May 14th/15th.
Updated 3/3/11
The Great Central Railway was approached by the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) to run a two week course for graduate engineers employed by various train Operating Companies to give them experience of railway practices. The course was designed to allow the graduates to get to grips with driving at 60mph with a light engine, driving at 60mph using the vacuum and the air brake, shunting, hand signals, performing second man duties, shadowing guards and signalmen to understand their duties as well as several classroom sessions to understand the basics of diesels and braking systems. The course was scheduled to run from Monday 18th October – Thursday 21st October and then Monday 1st November – Thursday 4th November.
Before the course started an ATOC representative visited the railway on Friday 1st October to experience driving at 60mph in order to fine tune the driving exam that the graduates were to take on the very last day of their course. D123 ran light engine from Loughborough in the late afternoon in appalling weather conditions, working two trips to Rothley Brook and one trip to Leicester North.
A working day was spent on the loco on Saturday 16th October to ensure that the loco was ready for a few days of high speed running. The loco was placed over an examination pit and a thorough fitness to run exam was undertaken, various brake blocks were changed and the driver’s horn was repaired amongst other jobs. No problems were found and the loco was declared as fit to undertake the high speed running for the ATOC course.
On Monday 18th August D123 worked an afternoon trip from Loughborough to Leicester North and return with the observation coach for the ATOC graduates to experience the line first hand as their exam also included route knowledge. Once the trip was completed D123 headed to Quorn to collect J72 steam loco 69023 and haul it back to Loughborough.
Tuesday 19th saw the graduates driving light engine trips from Loughborough to Leicester North at speeds up to 60mph between Loughborough and Rothley. The following day the graduates drove trips from Loughborough to Leicester North with 5 vacuum braked coaches in tow. All peaks have one large vacuum exhauster, unlike most other former British Rail mainline diesels that were fitted with two smaller vacuum exhausters. Only having one vacuum exhauster makes braking vacuum braked trains quite awkward to get to grips with, especially for people who have never driven before as was the case with the ATOC graduates.
D123 had a rest from high speed running on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st October, hauling the 12:15 service to Leicester North and return. On Saturday D123 headed to Quorn following arrival back at Loughborough of the passenger service to collect the railways steam crane.
Monday 1st November saw the ATOC graduates driving D123 at speeds up to 60mph between Loughborough and Rothley Brook using the TPO mail set of 3 air braked coaches. The following day was to follow the same pattern, but a problem with the TPO coaches on the first trip resulted in light engine trips to Rothley while the issues with the TPO coaching set were investigated. As the problems with the TPO set could not be fixed in time, Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th saw the graduates driving vacuum braked trains up to 60mph between Loughborough and Rothley.
All of the graduates scored highly in their exam and were very complimentary about the course, although they all preferred air braking rather than vacuum braking. D123 completed the period under review by hauling the 12:15 service to Leicester North and 13:00 return to Loughborough on Sunday 7th November. On Thursday 25th November D123 was drained of coolant due to the very low predicted temperatures that were expected countrywide.
D123 does not have anti-freeze added to its coolant, so care has to be taken when temperatures fall. The loco was booked to haul Santa Special services in top and tailed formation with a steam loco on several dates during December.
On Friday 3rd December D123 was filled with coolant and an attempted start was made but unfortunately the locos triple pump was found to be frozen, so the loco would not start. Strategic positioning of heaters in the locos radiator tunnel warmed the loco through and a while later a second successful attempt to start the loco was made. After a couple of hours running the loco was left parked under the bridge by the shed and shutdown. The following morning the loco started without problem and hauled Santa Specials from Loughborough to Leicester North at 11:00, 12:30 and 14:10 with the K4 steam loco 61994 on the rear returning the Santa Specials to Loughborough. The loco was left attached to the coaching stock, under the station bridge overnight, and started without a problem on the Sunday morning, repeating the duties it performed the previous day.
Unfortunately temperatures must have fallen considerably overnight on Sunday 5th as when D123 was attempted to be started on Monday 6th December, although the loco ran up without problems, a water leak was noted through the radiator grill on one side of the loco. On the same side the external water filling tap was found to have suffered minor frost damage and an external air pipe was found to have a hole in it. The following weekend after filling the loco with water to help trace the water leak, the external radiator grill was removed to get at a small hole in the water settling tanks which are located underneath the radiators. The external air pipe was also disconnected and left in the cleaning tank. Monday 13th saw both the air pipe and the hole in the radiator settling tank repaired and the loco was used without problem on Wednesday 15th December hauling 3 Santa Special services top and tailed again with the K4 steam loco 61994.
On Saturday 18th December D123 was called into action due to an earth fault with D5185 which was working Santa Specials top and tailed with 63601 with D123 hauling the last two services of the day. With D5185 booked for 4 Santa Special services the following day, D123 was quickly substituted. Overnight temperatures dropped considerably and although D123 was started without a problem on the Sunday morning, brake pressure could not be created in the South cab, although there was not problem in the North end cab. As the loco was booked to be hauling services from Loughborough to Leicester North, a quick change of locos was undertaken so steam loco 63601 could be on the South end and D123 the North end of the Santa Specials. After the first Santa special trip the South cab had warmed up sufficiently to allow a brake to be created, as moisture that had frozen in the drivers brake had warmed and melted.
The loco worked Santa specials on Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th December working top and tail with Great Western steam loco 5526 visiting the GCR from the South Devon Railway. D123 missed the first departure on 23rd December as even though it started without a problem, it could not create enough air pressure. Investigation found a small hole in one the external air pipes by the battery boxes, so the pipe was removed, repaired and refitted. The loco was also dumping air through the Drivers Safety Device Valve in the brake frame, so a replacement valve was fitted with exactly the same outcome. Standard railway practice of retiring for a cup of tea while, leaving the loco running (and warming through) resulted in no fault being found when a brake test was attempted to be made following refreshments!
D123 was drained of coolant after working services on 24th December as it had no further booked work and temperatures were due to fall considerably over the Christmas period. Unfortunately the extreme weather resulted in problems with the locos heat exchanger. It is not possible to drain all of the coolant from a loco and with the heat exchanger being horizontal it is always possible that one (or more) of the tubes in the heat exchanger will still contain water, which will freeze if temperatures fall too far. This can result in the tube becoming fractured, which in turn allows oil to enter the coolant. When checking the loco early in the New Year the tell tale signs of oil being present in the coolant were discovered when the end covers of the heat exchanger were removed. Saturday 15th January saw the replacement fuel injector fitted to replace the faulty one.
The loco is booked to be used for some high speed driver training for the Army during February and is scheduled to haul the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return service on Saturday 19th February as well as over the weekend of 12th/13th March.
Updated 7/10/10
D123 had fresh engine oil added on Saturday 31st July using a fork lift truck, a long pipe and gravity and once various checks of the loco were made, a successful test run to Rothley Brook and back was completed. Several brake blocks were changed after the delivery of a replacement set. A Peak has 24 brake blocks and because the loco is involved in high speed running, changing brake blocks has become a regular task. The return of the loco to traffic was just in time because more testing was booked to start on Friday 6th August with mileage accumulation on two different types of wagon built by WH Davis. A re-bogied Lowliner container wagons and hopper wagons designed to carry sludge from the bottom of the sea. There was a very tight timescale to achieve the 622 miles (1000km) required on both types of wagon, especially when one of the wagon types was not delivered to the railway until Saturday 7th August and needed high speed noise testing completed by the following Friday.
Mileage accumulation started on Friday 6th August using D123 running between Loughborough and Rothley with Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th August seeing D123 working in top and tail formation with D8098 between Loughborough and Rothley Brook, working around the normal service trains. Top and tail working was required as it allowed a higher speed than the usual 15mph when propelling as well as giving far better visibility. The design of the Hopper wagons meant that the Driver propelling it could not see where he was going. Mileage accumulation continued on Monday 9th August again with D123 and D8098 but unfortunately D8098 failed at the end of the day when a fractured oil pipe caused the loco to loose its engine oil. This meant that on Tuesday 10th D123 was out on its own doing the mileage accumulation with only the Lowliner container wagons as it was too short notice to find a driver for another diesel.
On Wednesday 11th August it was only possible to venture out after the end of the days services due to a lack of paths as there were service trains and an all day drive a loco course using D9009 on the railway during the day. D123 was used during the afternoon at Loughborough to get everything into position in order to start the mileage accumulation from around 17:00. With everything ready for the evening mileage accumulation runs a telephone call requested D123 to head to Leicester North as soon as possible as the Deltic had failed on its final working of the day due to a fuel leak on its one serviceable engine. Some 20 minutes after receiving the call to head to Leicester, D123 was exploding detonators on the approach to a very quiet D9009 and its train of 6 coaches in the platform at Leicester North.
After hauling D9009 and its train back to Loughborough, mileage accumulation on both types of wagon could begin with D123 on the south end and D5185 on the north end of the wagons. Fortunately, even with the later than planned start, the required 622 miles were achieved on the Lowliner wagons but leaving some 300 miles outstanding on the Hopper wagons. Unfortunately it was noted that D123 was smoking more than usual again and so the decision was taken to stop the loco pending further investigation. These investigations revealed one of the overhauled injectors had failed, so a replacement was sought and the fuel pump connected to the failed injector isolated to allow the loco to continue to be used in the meantime running on 11 cylinders. With the outstanding mileage accumulated on the hopper wagons achieved using other locos, D123 was used on Tuesday 24th August for high speed noise testing of the Lowliner wagons.
Unfortunately after several trips at both 50mph and 75mph, the average wind speed was found to be too high for testing so the tests were cancelled for the remainder of the day. On Thursday 9th September D123 was again used to noise test the Lowliner wagons at both 50mph and 75mph but unfortunately the wagons were found to be too loud, so the testing was postponed at lunchtime for manufacturer W.H.Davis to come up with a solution.
D123 was in use at the Great Central Railway Diesel Gala from Friday 10th until Sunday 12th September. On Friday 10th D123 hauled two return trips from Loughborough to Leicester North at 11:10 and 15:10 and in between these trips the loco ran light engine to Quorn to do some shunting. In addition D123 was used to position the N2 steam loco 1744 which had been off-loaded that morning, in readiness for it being hauled back to Loughborough shed later in the day. Saturday 11th September saw D123 haul a top and tailed trip back from Rothley Brook at 10:35 with D5185 on the rear before hauling two afternoon trips to Leicester North at 15:40 and 17:00. The loco completed its participation in the diesel gala on Sunday 12th September by hauling the first departure of the day back from Leicester North at 09:42 with D9009 dead on the rear. D9009 was detached from the rear of the service at Rothley. D123 also hauled the 11:40 trip from Loughborough to Leicester North, returning at 12:22.
D123 finished off the period under review by hauling the 12:15 service from Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return on Saturday 25th September. D123 was used to haul the 15:15 service from Loughborough and 16:00 return from Leicester North while the steam loco that would have usually hauled this service was used to haul a wedding special. D123 has been booked for use as the high speed loco during training of ATOC graduates over a couple of weeks in October. The graduates will be taught diesel preparation and disposal, shunting, hand signals, guards duties, coupling, signal box duties, braking systems as well as drive light engine and haul coaches in both vacuum and air brake modes at speeds of up to 60mph.
Updated 8/8/10
D123’s precautionary oil sample taken on Sunday 25th April following a change in the locos exhaust colour revealed the loco having fuel in its oil. Further investigation indicated that the locos injectors needed an overhaul and were the likely cause of the fuel in the oil, so a spare set of injectors were sent away for overhaul. At the same time a set of replacement oil filters were ordered. With the loco out of service the planned Cemetery Junction event at which D123 was to feature was postponed.
Replacement oil Filters were fitted on Tuesday 8th June and the overhauled injectors were fitted on Wednesday 14th July. Saturday 17th July saw all of the oil pumped out of the loco and the locos tappets were all reset. It had been hoped that the replacement oil could be pumped back into the loco but it was found that the pump was not powerful enough to achieve this, most probably due to the viscosity of the new oil and the distance the oil needed to be pumped upwards.
As a consequence of D123 being out of service, D9009, which had only arrived at the GCR for a 4 month visit on Monday 12th July was pressed into service for a high speed noise testing day on Thursday 15th July. The contrast between D123 and D9009 was significant. Both locos reach 75mph about the same point but the Deltic is slower away from a standing start, but it noticeably accelerates from 60mph. All round visibility is not as good on the Deltic as on D123 but the main difference is the noise in the cab. A Deltic is quite noisy when idling but is very noisy at high speeds, not ideal when noise testing wagons.
Updated 3/6/10
D123 hauled services at the Great Central Railways 1960’s event on Sunday 28th March working both parcels and passenger services. On Tuesday 13th April D123 was used for high speed running with two new bitumen tankers. All new rolling stock on the national network must pass various tests, one of which is a noise test. Noise testing checks the noise level as a wagon is hauled past a set point at different speeds. Last year the Great Central’s permanent way department welded up the track on some 10 track panels and installed expansion joints at each end giving a section of continuously welded track. The noise site is just south of Quorn and Woodhouse station on the Down running line and the noise site has been used to test several wagon types to date. Two petroleum tankers were also delivered with the bitumen tankers to act as barrier wagons to block out the noise of the diesel loco hauling the test trains. The formation was diesel loco at the north end, barrier wagon, two test wagons, and barrier wagon.
Test runs at different speeds are recorded and if the wagons are below the required noise levels (in decibels) then they are returned to the yard at Quorn and turned using a hauliers lorry so that they can be noise tested again, this time on the other side. This procedure is required at the Great Central as it is not possible to record the noise level of the other side of the wagon as the recording equipment would pick up noise levels from the track of the Up line. The turning of the wagons will be far quicker and easier when the turntable at Quorn has been installed.
The plan on Tuesday 13th was to conduct a minimum of three test runs at 50 and 60mph which if below the prescribed noise level (83 dB at 50mph) would have allowed the wagons to be turned and the procedure repeated. Unfortunately, with an almost perfect day weather-wise for testing (virtually no wind and dry) the bitumen wagons were recorded at 86 dB at 50mph. The difference may seem slight, but a rise of 10 dB in the sound level corresponds roughly to a doubling of loudness. Therefore a sound of 80 dB is twice as loud as a sound of 70 dB which is twice as loud as a sound of 60 dB. Investigation found that the barrier wagons, which were running on new wheelsets were within the stipulated noise limit (although these wagons were not being noise tested), but the bitumen wagons on quite old wheelsets. Following discussions between Network Rail (who were conducting the tests) and Axiom Rail (the manufacturers of the bitumen wagons) it was thought that the reason that the wagons were too noisy could be due to the age of the bitumen tankers wheels.
It was decided that the Bitumen wagons would be returned to Axiom Rail at Stoke and new wheels would be fitted to both of the wagons. Changing the wheels of the wagons further complicates the testing process because the noise test must only be completed when the wheels have completed a minimum of 1000 Km (622 miles) of running in. As a consequence when the bitumen tankers returned to the Great Central many hours of running between Loughborough and Rothley clocking up the required mileage was required before the noise tests could be repeated.
D123 was used to collect 26007, the visitor for the GCR diesel gala (17th/18th April) from Quorn on Wednesday 14th April and hauled services over both days of the event. D123 replaced D1705 on the first service of the diesel gala after D1705 suffered a brake fault when coupled to its train it. On Sunday 18th April D123 worked its booked services in the morning and then replaced D1705 in the afternoon on its services as D1705 would not start. D123 and 37255 were used in top and tail formation from Monday 19th until Wednesday 21st April to clock up the required mileage on the two bitumen wagons. Fortunately 37255 had been passed fit to be used at speeds of up to 60mph so that the mileage accumulation was able to run between Loughborough and Rothley in both directions at 60mph. The mileage accumulation on Monday did not go to plan with 37255 failing at Swithland early on when it lost coolant. D123 hauled the 37 back to Quorn while carrying on with the mileage accumulation using D8098 in place of 37255. Unfortunately D8098 is only passed to run at 25mph so progress building up the required 622 miles was slow.
The problem with 37255 was found to be the locos radiator cooling fan was not working, so once re-filled with coolant the radiator fan was switched so that the fan ran all of the time. 37255 then replaced D8098 and 60mph running continued without further incident. Tuesday 20th went to plan with a few noise tests undertaken in the afternoon to see if the running in of the wagons was working. The results were very good from a noise perspective and Wednesday 21st started with less than 170 miles needing to be covered. Good progress was made on Wednesday until stray sparks from one of D123’s brake blocks ignited an oil deposit on the underside of the loco.
This was quickly put out by the crew but it occurred again on a further run. The brake block causing the stray sparks was manually wound off the wheel so it would not be used when the loco was braking and no further problems were encountered. Thursday 22nd saw D123 working noise testing trains at 50 and 60mph with measurements taken during each of the 4 trips at each speed. The wagons were then taken into Quorn yard to enable them to be turned so that noise testing could be taken on the ‘other’ side of the wagons. 4 more noise testing trips were completed during the afternoon at both 50 and 60mph and while the results were accurately worked out by Network Rail staff back in the office. Over the weekend of 24th/25th April D123 had a more leisurely time hauling the diesel services on both days. D123 covered Saturday 24th as D6535 was unavailable, with Sunday being the locos booked turn. D123 also hauled the diesel turn on Sunday 2nd May as no driver was available to cover the booked locomotive.
An oil sample was taken on D123 on Sunday 25th April and when analysed, the loco was found to have fuel in its oil. The oil sample had been taken as a precaution as the exhaust had been noted to be a more while/grey colour towards the end of the noise testing. Investigation revealed that the locos injectors needed an overhaul and were the likely cause of the fuel in the oil, so these were sent away for refurbishment as well as a set of oil filters being ordered. An oil change on the loco had been planned for the loco during 2010 so this will be completed when the oil filters and injectors arrive at Loughborough. Pending the oil filter change and injector replacement the loco is booked to work the diesel diagram on Sunday’s 6th June and 18th July as well as appearing at a Cemetery Junction event over the weekend of 19th/20th June working two trains top and tailed with D1705 on both days. You may recall that Cemetery Junction film set in the 1970’s filmed predominantly at the Great Central Railway last year and featured D123 and D1705.
Updated 7/4/10
D123 hauled Great Central Railways diesel turn, the 12:15 Loughborough – Leicester North and 13:00 return on both the Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th February, no driver was available for the booked traction (D8098). Two weeks later on Saturday 20th February D123 hauled the diesel turn this time in place of the booked D6535 which was still drained to protect it over the winter. The following day D123 hauled its rostered turn on the diesel service.
D123 is diagrammed to take part in the Great Central railways 1960’s event to be held 25th – 28th March with the loco booked to haul services on Sunday 28th March. The loco is also booked to appear at the railways diesel gala held over the weekend of 17th/18th April and is booked to haul the diesel turn on Sunday 25th April and 6th June. The loco has also been booked for high speed noise tests with two bitumen wagons during April.
Updated 6/2/10
D123 worked in top and tail mode with a steam loco on some of the railways Santa Special dates during December with D123 hauling the 8 coach services from Loughborough to Leicester North. D123 worked Santa Special services on 12th and 13th December top and tailed with the National Railway Museums 63601 and again on Wednesday and Thursday 23rd and 24th December this time top and tailed with 70013 Oliver Cromwell.
D123 took part in the Steam Heat diesel gala, held over the weekend of 9th/10th January when most of the country was covered in snow. Unfortunately on the Saturday of the event, steam loco 1744 failed so the diesels worked their services on their own rather than top and tailed with a steam loco as planned. D123 hauled the 12:15 and 16:30 Loughborough to Leicester North and return. On the Sunday of the event D123 worked the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and was hauled back by Black 5 45231 before working the 16:30 Loughborough to Leicester North and return.
The following weekend D123 hauled the Great Central’s diesel turn the 12:15 Loughborough – Leicester North and 13:00 return on both the Saturday and the Sunday. Saturday was booked to be hauled by D6535, but the loco had not been prepared so D123 was substituted. On Saturday 23rd January D123 stood in for an unavailable D5185 on the diesel turn and was turned around immediately upon its arrival back at Loughborough to haul the 13:15 dining service due to the failure of Black 5 44767 with brake problems. D123 was to stand in for D5401 the following day on the diesel diagram, but in the event the diesel turn was cancelled on Sunday 24th January because there was no steam engine ‘drive a loco’ course booked which meant that there was a spare steam loco available in steam.
D123 has been booked to work the diesel turn on Sunday 21st February as well as taking part in the 1960’s event which is to be held 26th – 28th March.
Updated 5/12/09
D123 has had a busy couple of months; starting by replacing 37314 working the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return on 17th October because the 37 had water and battery problems when an attempt was made to start it. D123 also hauled the diesel turn the following day, Sunday 18th October. Further testing with the Lowliner, Freightliner wagon was undertaken on Monday 19th and Tuesday 20th October. The tests involved D123 hauling the wagon at speeds of up to 75mph and the wagon being released from the loco via a special coupling fitted to D123 along the Quorn straight in the Down direction. The distance that the wagon took to stop was measured, as was the wind speed and wind direction. Multiple slip testing runs were completed at various speeds with the wagon braking in both passenger and freight timings and by the end of the second days testing the wagon had passed the tests. On Wednesday 21st October D123 was used on a two trip drive a loco course, the first trip was light engine and the second was with coaches. This drive a loco course had been booked for 37314 but D123 was substituted due to the problems discovered with the Class 37 during the previous weekend.
D123 again hauled the regular diesel turn both days over the weekend of 31st October and 1st November. D6535 was to have been used on Saturday 31st October but the loco was buried in a siding and would have taken much shunting to retrieve so D123 substituted. D123 was also used to haul the diesel turn on Remembrance Sunday, 8th November as the railway booked locos with regimental names on all services on the day. All locos were also adorned with poppy wreaths.
Monday 9th November saw the return of the army to the Great Central Railway for two weeks of driving at speeds of up to 60mph, diesel theory and faults and failure courses as well as signal box familiarity. On the first morning, the group of army staff were taken on a trip of the line by the railways resident class 101 DMU with the round trip of the line stopping at various places to explain the infrastructure. Driving at up to 60mph begun in the afternoon, using D123 with six coaches and two trips of the line were made. Following running round at Leicester North on the second trip of the day the loco’s stop button had worked loose and shorted out on part of the power controller with the result that the loco shutdown as a circuit breaker tripped. Once the stop button was rescued from within the power controller and the circuit breaker reset the loco was operated successfully again.
The following day D123 worked 6 trips of the line, two in the morning, two in the afternoon and two in the evening (to give army staff experience of driving in the dark). Speeds of up to 60mph are allowed on the railway from just outside Loughborough to Swithland in both directions and stops were made at both Quorn and Rothley stations to allow the army drivers to practice stopping a service train in the right place at a platform using vacuum brakes.
Wednesday 11th November saw D123 used for four trips of the line as well as a trip to Quorn to deposit the Fairburn steam loco in the siding in readiness for its collection and return to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. The following day D123 only completed two trips of the line as all of the army staff had a buffet lunch provided behind a steam loco. Due to the high speed running, several brake blocks were changed during Thursday afternoon and again on Saturday 14th.
Over the weekend of 14th/15th November D123 hauled the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return service. On the Sunday a few staff from East Midlands Trains came for a ride behind D123 as one of their number, a Duty Controller based at Derby had retired the previous Friday having worked on the railway since 22/08/60. He had started as a cleaner at Staveley Central, before moving to Millhouses where he became a fireman, and moving on again to Sheffield when Millhouses closed. During 1975 he started learning diesels and was passed as a driver in 1978. Between 1978 and 1992 he regularly worked Midland Mainline expresses from Sheffield to St. Pancras as well as other services with a variety of traction. In 1992 he moved from the footplate to become a Train Crew Supervisor. He always said that the best traction he worked with was the class 45, so a footplate trip with D123 was arranged for him as a surprise.
The second week of the army training was pretty much as the first, with 4 trips of the railway each day apart from Tuesday 17th November where two additional trips were made in the evening. The opportunity was also taken on the Tuesday to pass an additional class 45 driver for working at 60mph. D123 has been allocated to work in top and tail mode with a steam loco on some of the railways Santa special dates (Saturday 13th, Wednesday 23rd and Thursday 24th December). On these services the diesel usually hauls the 8 coach service from Loughborough to Leicester North, with the steam loco hauling the return. Early in the New Year it is hoped to give the engine room a good steam clean as well as examination of the brake hangers.
Updated 5/10/09
D123 has had a quieter schedule during the period under review. Mid-week passenger services mean that the testing work it has recently been taking part in has not been made because the testing work at speeds above 25mph requires the railway to effectively be closed with no other movements taking place. On Monday 10th August the loco was used for some slip testing at speeds of up to 75mph before the start of passenger services and then again after the passenger services had finished.
On Friday 14th August the loco and Freightliner Lowliner wagon were used to pass additional drivers for driving at 75mph. Saturday 15th August was a tank engine steam loco event at the Great Central Railway so the 12:15 diesel hauled passenger service was hauled by a steam loco.
The class 101 DMU was still allocated to work the 09:45 Loughborough to Leicester North and 10:15 return but due to holidays, no one was available to drive it so D123 stood in for it. D123 hauled the service with just one carriage – an observation coach and on the return from Leicester North it was standing room only. August was rounded off with D123 being used for an afternoon ‘drive a loco’ course, completing two trips of the line with six coaches on Monday 24th August.
D123 hauled services at the GCR Diesel Gala which was held from Friday 11h until Sunday 13th September. The Friday of the event was a type 4 and 5 day with D123 working two trips of the line. Saturday 12th September saw D123 allocated an early morning trip from Loughborough to Leicester North and return followed by a top and tailed trip with D1705 from Loughborough to Rothley Brook. In the event due to problems with both of the locos booked to haul the 17:00 Loughborough to Leicester North and return (D1705 and 47714), D123 had to be substituted at the last minute. Sunday saw D123 complete the same booked services as it hauled on the Saturday of the event, except that D5401 replaced D1705 on the top and tailed trip due to air system problems with D1705.
On Friday 18th September D123 had its exhauster re-brushed; with one of the removed brushes found to be almost new and the other being found to be very short. The loco also had its auto air brake valves re-set. It was also noticed that A3 rocker cover had stripped the threads off a mounting stud and this was replaced.
D123 hauled the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return on Sunday 20th September and was then used for high speed testing work on Tuesday 24th September with the new type of freightliner container carrying wagon that has very small wheels that it has been testing with previously. With a loaded freightliner wagon, D123 hauled various trips at 20, 40, 60 and 75mph with the wagon being slipped from the loco as usual along the Quorn straight on the Down line and the distance the wagon took to stop being measured to ensure that the wagon stopped within the laid down distance at each speed.
D123 was used to haul the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return service on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th September and was planned to be used on further high speed testing of the freightliner Lowliner container wagon on Tuesday 29th September but this was cancelled because of problems with the wagon. The loco has more testing planned for October with the freightliner wagon and some 60mph training days planned for November to give the Army transport personnel the experience of driving and braking trains from 60mph in daylight as well as in the dark.
Updated 3/8/09
D123 continued its busy schedule during the period under review with testing work, some filming work and hauling some of the railways regular passenger services. On Wednesday 3rd June the loco was used to run to the reception siding at Quorn and collect the Network Rail Panel Wagons and the newly arrived 47714 and haul them back to Loughborough.
The following day the loco was used to run backwards and forwards over the 10 track panels that make up the railways newly constructed noise site. The rails of the noise site have been welded up and a track breather installed at each end of the site, so that the track mimics continuously welded rail. The noise site can be found on the Down line just South of Quorn and Woodhouse station. New wagons to run on the network have strict noise limits that they must adhere to and there is nowhere else in the country that this noise testing can be undertaken. Previously wagons have been sent abroad to
Monday 8th June saw D123 hauling the Network Rail Panel Wagons at speeds up to 60mph on a mileage accumulation day. On this date the 1000Km (622 miles) of fault free running carrying track panels was completed on the Great Central Railway which was one element of the testing work completed. On Wednesday 10th June D123 was used for a diesel driver experience course consisting of two return trips of the railway with coaches. The customer had requested to drive D5830 but when this was started, the fire bells rang continuously although no fire was obvious. As a consequence the class 31 was failed and D123 substituted. The following day 47714 and D123 were used to test the newly built Freightliner Lowliner wagon for laden brake testing. Both 47714 and D123 were on the north end of the wagon with 47714 included as it needed a test run to prove it was fit for traffic as well as for passing out drivers of D123 on the Class 47 because it is the reserve engine for any high speed testing on the railway.
The Great Central Railway was used for filming Cemetery Junction, a film directed by Ricky Gervaise and Stephen Merchant based around
D123 hauled the regular diesel hauled service on Sunday 28th June before returning to testing work the following day with measurements of the noise site being undertaken. On Tuesday 30th June D123 hauled the Network Rail Panel wagons with a long bogie ‘Perch’ wagon on either end over the noise site for noise readings to be taken. At lunchtime the wagons were turned in the yard at Quorn by Heanor Haulage so that noise readings could be taken from the wagons ‘other side’. It is not possible to take noise readings from both sides unless the track is in single line use due to the noise picked up by the microphones over the other line when something passes.
Paperwork for the Great Central Railway to be allowed to run test trains at speeds of up to 75mph was received at the end of June following a major infrastructure upgrade around the curve at Kinchley Lane on the Down line. D123 was used on the evening of Wednesday 1st July to pass drivers for driving at 75mph for some of the subsequent testing work that has been booked on the railway. On Thursday 2nd and Monday 6th July D123 was used with the Lowliner wagon in a series of slip tests, where the distance the wagon took to stop was measured at speeds up to 75mph. On Thursday 2nd the wagon was laden and on Monday 6th empty.
The Freightliner Lowliner wagon has been fitted with its own wheelslip detection units on each bogie and these units were tested on 9th July when washing up liquid was sprayed on to the railhead from the wagon behind D123. The wagon brakes were then put on, independent of D123’s brakes to try and make the wagons wheels slip so that the wheel slip detection units could compensate for this. Just before lunchtime a high pressure fuel pipe split on D123 so testing had to be temporarily halted while the loco was retired to Loughborough shed and a new pipe fitted. Two half days of testing on 16th & 17th July were also undertaken with D123 and the wagon when tape was secured to the railhead and then soaked in water to simulate leaves on the line. Again the wagon was independently braked from D123 to try and slide the wheels so the detection units could be tested compensating for the problem.
D123 was also used over the weekend of 11th/12th July to cover the diesel hauled passenger service since a driver was not available to drive D5830 on Saturday and D1705 on the Sunday. In addition, the Sunday morning DMU turn was not staffed so D123 hauled 2 coaches in place of the DMU. The following Sunday D123 again hauled the diesel turn. Due to all of the high speed running the loco had been doing as part of the testing almost every brake block has been changed over the last couple of months due to the amount of wear they get braking from speeds of up to 75mph.
D123 was specifically requested to take part in the Great Central Railways Mail by Rail event which was held over the weekend of 25th/26th July. The highlight to the Mail by Rail event is the Travelling Post Office Mail collections at Quorn where a special viewing area is constructed to allow the public to watch the mail collection. The TPO trains are allowed to run at 35mph through the mail exchange apparatus. This year was the first year that mark 1 TPO vehicles have been used at the event as the vintage TPO vehicles that have been used at past events have been retired. The Vintage Carriage Trust who own and maintain the TPO coaches were very keen to have D123 haul the TPO as many of them remember the TPO train when they were younger watching trains pass through Burton on Trent.
D123 hauled the first TPO of the day on Sunday 26th July, departing Loughborough at 10:25 before hauling a variety of freight and passenger trains through the day. The following day D123 was in use for a drive a loco course during the afternoon hauling two trips from Loughborough to Leicester North and return with 6 coaches. D123 is booked some further testing in August and is then to take part in the Autumn Diesel Gala at the Great Central Railway which is being held from Friday 11th until Sunday 13th September. The loco is also booked to haul the diesel hauled service on Sunday 20th September.
Updated 6/6/09
D123 has had a very busy couple of months once again and the loco has clocked up some 2000 miles in the first 5 months of the year. D123 hauled the diesel service over the weekend of 4th/5th April (vice the class 27 as there was no one available to drive it). With the DMU being unavailable on Saturday 4th April, D123 hauled a 3 coach train in its place. Monday 6th April saw D123 at the start of a testing contract for Network Rail with two track carrying wagons, which run together as a pair.
The modular point carrying wagons which feature a tilting bed have been built by a German firm, Kirow, to carry complete track points to reduce the time taken to install points. Usual practice is for the points to be made up in a permanent way yard before they are dismantled and transported to the site where they are assembled. The wagons have been designed to carry built up track points to the site where they can simply be craned off the wagon and into position. The wagons have a hydraulic bed and when being hauled around the network, run with the bed at 45 degrees. When they reach their destination the wagons are lowered to a horizontal position making them out of gauge but then the bed can be moved to centralize the load on the wagon. As the wagons are innovative, they need to be thoroughly tested before they are accepted for use in this country.
The first requirement was to put a few miles running on the wagons and do some limited brake testing, so on Monday 6th April D123 propelled the two unladen wagons from Loughborough to Leicester North. The wagons were then hauled on the return to Loughborough at speeds of no more than 25 m.p.h. for a total of 8 trips of the line. The wagons were then taken to Serco at Derby for a few weeks testing before they were returned to the Great Central for further testing to take place. On Wednesday 8th April D123 ran to Quorn to collect a couple of steam locos that had been brought in for a gala and returned them to Loughborough and the loco was used to haul the diesel diagram on Sunday 19th April. The following weekend saw D123 take part in the railways diesel gala and on 9th May D123 featured in the railways 1960’s event.
The Network Rail wagons returned to Loughborough on 16th May and the first task was to run them for 1000 Km (620 miles) whilst bedding in the brakes. On Monday 18th May with D123 on the north end of the wagons and 37314 on the south end started, mileage accumulation began running at 60m.p.h. between Loughborough and Rothley in both directions on the Down line. The evening of Monday 18th saw D123 continuing the mileage accumulation, propelling the wagons southbound and hauling it at 60 m.p.h. on the northbound legs. The following day D123 was used on a drive a loco package completing two trips of the line with coaches before Wednesday 20th May and Thursday 21st May saw further testing with one of the wagons involved in slip brake testing.
On Wednesday 20th the wagon was slip brake tested whilst fully loaded with a point and on Thursday 21st the wagon was empty. The slip brake testing involved propelling the wagon to Swithland and then hauling the wagon towards Loughborough where the wagon is released from the loco via a special coupling along Quorn straight. The speed of the loco needed to be 60 m.p.h. and the loco must under power when the slip takes place. The distance that it takes the wagon to stop is measured as is the loco speed, the wind speed and wind direction. Slip brake testing is undertaken to ensure that the wagon will not stop too quickly (as this could cause wheel flats) or take too long to stop.
Monday 25th May until Wednesday 27th May evenings saw D123 undertake mileage accumulation with both wagons before a further day of slip brake testing occurred on Thursday 28th May with a half-load.
D123 then hauled the diesel turn on Sunday 31st May before completing the required 1000 Km mileage accumulation runs on the afternoon of Monday 1st June. The morning of June 1st saw the loco used hauling a set of coaches into and out of platform 2 at Loughborough whilst a film crew were at the railway preparing for the film ‘Cemetery Junction’ which is to be shot at the Great Central Railway later this year. D123 then hauled some more slip testing trials on Tuesday 2nd June and has dates booked for noise tests to ensure that the wagons are not too noisy when running at 60 m.p.h.
D123 has some more testing work scheduled using a Freightliner Lowliner which is a container wagon with smaller wheels allowing it to carry taller containers and is also booked to haul the diesel turn on Sunday 28th June.
Updated 4/4/09
D123 has had a very busy couple of months. The loco was used on Monday 9th February with 6 coaches to assess the GCR’s’ current class 45 drivers for driving at 60mph. The Great Central Railway track and infrastructure has been examined and passed for testing at up to 75mph when the railway is closed to the public. The high speed sections of the railway are from just outside Loughborough to Quorn and from Quorn to just before Rothley in both directions. The single line section between Rothley and Leicester North only allows a maximum speed of 25mph. The test runs needed to run from Rothley to Leicester North and return in order to allow the loco to run around the coaching stock. Years ago when the signalling was put back in on the railway; the signals were placed to allow 60mph running. Several drivers were examined and passed as competent for driving at 60mph in readiness for conducting Army personnel driving at 60mph.
D123 was used to take a steam loco to Quorn where the steam loco was collected by lorry for a visit to another heritage railway on 10th February and it worked the diesel diagram (12:15 ex. Loughborough) on Sunday’s 22nd February and 8th March.
Between Monday 9th and Thursday 12th March D123 was used running at 60mph to familiarise army personnel with driving at and braking from 60mph. It was found that a maximum speed of 54mph could be reached between Loughborough and the braking point for Quorn where a stop was made. 60mph was easily reached when leaving Quorn before reaching Swithland reservoir. In the Down direction, 60mph was reached by Kinchley Lane just before the start of the Quorn straight. A stop was made in the platform at Quorn again to get the trainee drivers familiar with stopping in the right place from a speed of 60mph, before reaching 60mph after Quorn on the return to Loughborough. Experience of night running was included in the course with army personnel driving in the dark on the evening of Tuesday 10th March.
At the end of the day on Thursday 12th March, D123 was used to collect D5401 and a coach from the reception siding at Quorn where D5401 had been a visitor to the Nene Valley diesel gala the previous weekend. D123 hauled the diesel turn on Saturday 14th March before returning to the same pattern of 60mph test running from Monday 16th until Thursday 19th March. The morning trips on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th utilised 37190 rather than D123 for some variety, but it was reported that the 37 struggled to reach 60mph. Evening running occurred again on Tuesday 17th March as well as an extra trip to pass another GCR peak driver for driving at 60mph and thick fog gave the army personnel another driving experience on the morning of Wednesday 18th March.
Over the two weeks, 16 army personnel gained experience of driving in various weather conditions as well as being taught basic diesel principles and the layout of a typical diesel (using class 47 D1705). The army personnel were all qualified army railway drivers but only to drive shunters within the army railway yards at Bicester and Marchwood. Such was the success of the exercise that further training work from the army is a possibility.
D123 was allocated to work at the GCR 1960’s event on Sunday 22nd March alongside 4 steam locos, 2 other diesels and the class 101 DMU. D123 worked light engine to Rothley on the Sunday morning and hauled a parcels train back to Loughborough before hauling two passenger trains to Leicester North and return. The loco finished off the gala by hauling the 16:35 parcels train to Rothley Brook before heading the 17:32 local passenger service from Rothley back to Loughborough.
D123 was used on Tuesday 31st March to test some newly developed equipment mounted on the rail which checks for wheel flats. The loco hauled 5 coaches between Swithland and the test equipment at Quorn at varying speeds of up to 60mph before propelling the set back to Swithland and repeating the move many times throughout the day.
D123 has been allocated to haul the diesel service over the weekend of 4th/5th April in place of D5401 for which there is no driver available as well as Sunday 19th April. The loco is also booked to take part in the Great Central Railway Spring Diesel Gala which is being held over the weekend of 26th/27th April.
Updated 1/2/09
D123 worked its booked Santa Special dates at the Great Central Railway, in top and tail mode with steam loco 63601 on December 13th and 14th. Due to a late delivery of fuel for D123, D6535 hauled the first two Santa Special services on Monday 22nd, with D123 replacing it once it had been fuelled, for the other two services. D123 then hauled the Santa Special services on 23rd and 24th December as booked, again top and tailed with steam loco 63601. On 3rd January D123 was hauled by D5401 twice from Loughborough to Leicester North and propelled back to Loughborough as test runs for D5401 prior to the diesel running event the following weekend. Tuesday 6th January saw D123 haul the brake down crane from Loughborough to Leicester North so that the crane could be used to lift sections of the platform canopy into position.
The Great Central Railway advertised some diesel running over the weekend of 10th/11th January with one of the Irish steam heat coaches being marshalled into one of the train sets to provide heating. Originally the diesels booked to work at the event were D5185, D5401, D6535 and 37314 and the event was billed as a type 2 and 3 event. Unfortunately D5185 had to be withdrawn from the event due to electrical problems and when 37314 was checked over the weekend before the event it was found to be completely frozen up due to the very low temperatures experienced in the first week of January. As a consequence, 37314 had to be dropped from the event and replaced by D123.
Problems with all 3 diesels on the Saturday morning of the event due to the extreme weather temperatures overnight, coupled with a points failure, resulted in the first diesel hauled trip of the weekend departing Loughborough behind D123 some 57 minutes late.
By lunchtime the timetable was back on course and a good turn-out for the event resulted in the railways management deciding to repeat the event next year.
Once the problems with temperature were overcome by the 3 diesels, they ran without problems over the reminder of the two day event, although D5401 was found to be a bit low on power. As a consequence of this, it was stopped by its owners for investigation so the following Saturday (17th January) D123 hauled the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return service rather than the booked D5401. The following day, D6535 was to have stood in for D5401 on the diesel turn, but the cold weather must have got to it again and it had to be replaced by D123 on the 12:15 service. D123 rounded up the period under review by hauling the 12:15 Loughborough to Leicester North and 13:00 return service on Saturday 24th January.
D123 is booked to haul the diesel service on Saturday 21st February and take part in the GCR 1960’s event which is being held over the weekend of 21st/22nd March. D123 is provisionally booked to appear on the Sunday of the 1960’s event alongside D5185 and D5401 as well as 4 steam locos. D123 is also provisionally to be used on some 75mph slip-testing runs as part of the testing a new type of low wagon.
Updated 5/12/08
D123 has not been used much during the period under review. The loco hauled the 12:15 and 14:15 diesel turns ex. Loughborough at the Great Central Railway over the weekend of Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th October. On Sunday 12th October D123 was sent light engine to Rothley at 08:30 to drag the 101 DMU from the Down platform where it had been failed the previous night with a seized wheel bearing. D123 dragged the DMU into Rothley carriage sidings where a temporary repair was completed to allow the DMU to be propelled from Rothley back to Loughborough at 16:00.
D123 was also used in place of shunter D4067 during a shunt at Loughborough when many steam locos were hauled out of Loughborough shed. D4067 was unable to haul the complete load and D123 was therefore used to do all of the shunting. The loco is booked to haul Santa Specials in top and tail mode with a steam loco on December 13th, 14th, 22nd, 23rd and 24th. D123 will haul the Santa Special services on these dates from Loughborough to Leicester North.
The Great Central Railway has also advertised some diesel running over the weekend of 10th/11th January with one of the former Irish Rail steam heating coaches being marshalled in the train to provide heating. Several diesels from the GCR fleet are expected to take part in the event.
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