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"Jana" arrives at last
EE 0-6-0DH "Jana" left Wirksworth in late April but owing to a "glitch" had been temporarily stored at a transport yard pending re-arrangement. Finally on May 18th, she arrived at Nantmawr quarry for storage with other locos of Andrew's collection. Views of her arrival can be seen on http://alunsphotos.fotopic.net/c1699631.html.
Class 14 progress
Andrew's class 14 continues to make test runs through to Hemingfield on the Elsecar Heritage Railway in order to test various aspects of engine and transmission performance. Work on the new exhauster drive has started with the relocation of the alternator drive arrangement from the engine bay to the transmission bay. The first of the ex NVR horn cowls has been fitted - the second requires a visit to the fabricators before it too can be fitted to the loco. The Class 14 is planned to play a significant role in the Diesel Gala at Elsecar on the 30th and 31st of August.
Developments on "Beverley"
Some time ago Andrew decided that Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0DH "Beverley" at Scunthorpe should have a new transmission cooler fitted. The 'traditional' approach was to have a shell-type heat exchanger fitted to the engine, transferring waste heat from the torque converter to the engine coolant. For longer distance runs (as opposed to pure shunting) this can result in a trendency to overheat, and as "Beverley" might be called on to perform trips of several miles around the Corus steelworks site, this would be unsatisfactory. A new air-blast cooler, supplied by Alutec, was bought some time ago and this is being mounted between the existing radiator and the casing front. In order to tuck the cooler in to the available space, the radiator had to be lifted 50mm and this was achieved during May. Modified coolant connections now await fitting and the fan assembly must be adusted to line up with the elevated radiator. Although most Twin Disc type shunting locos use engine fuel as the hydraulic medium (EEs such as "Kimberley" and "Jana" are exceptions) the poorer lubricating properties of modern low-sulphur diesels make this less suitable, and Andrew has decided to convert "Beverley" to run the converter and its new cooler from a seperate hydraulic oil tank. A suitable tank was drawn up for fabrication and ordered during May.
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