Aln Valley Railway

Longhoughton Goods Yard - IC, DMS, GS , the recovery (with permission) of track materials from a Network Rail renewal site, and transporting and unloading at Longhoughton. Note: Hi-Viz is essential., Ian, Graham and I jacked up the Ruston 48DS with the aim of repositioning the spring that was dislodged when this loco was “in-the-dirt” just before Christmas. It was discovered that this spring had a few “home made” bits in it anyway, and that one of the other springs was upside down, so it was then decided to jack and pack the whole loco and drop off all the springs, axle boxes, and radius rods for them to be stripped, cleaned, inspected, reassembled and refitted. This fits in with giving this loco a very through overhaul before use. A few parts will require fabrication before all the springs can be refitted. The drive chains have also been removed to be cleaned up and lubricated before refitting. While removing the chains it was noticed there is a crack in one of the gearbox mounting brackets; so it is planned to remove the gearbox so that this bracket can be cleaned up and repaired / welded before refitting – we wouldn’t want this failing in use.