Restoration diary

Following a recommendation from The Fifty Fund I made contact with a Mr Noel Craigen, a former Technical Engineer with experience at various British Rail Traction Maintenance Depots, to assess and test our KV10s and Control Cards.



For those who are not in the know a KV10 regulates the voltage of either the Main Generator or the ETH Generator and are otherwise known as CU3 & CU6 respectively (each Class 50 locomotive uses two KV10 units). Each KV 10 has a pair of Control Cards that need testing and pairing also.



I met Noel at Rowsley on Saturday and we carried out an initial inspection of the KV10's and associated Control Cards. Noel has confirmed prices to carry out electrical and function tests as necessary. Once I have ensured any visible damage or missing parts have been repaired/replaced the KV10s will be transported to Yorkshire to Noel's premises for the tests and necessary repairs  to be completed.

This is another important stage of the electrical and control work underway.

I found another 10-12 conduit and pipe clamps that I need for in the generator room. I cleaned these up with wet and dry sandpaper and a wire cut brush, then white spirited them and painted them. Also put another coat of paint on the 40-odd clamps that I did last time I was on site.

I also re-secured 50029’s tarpaulin which was loose and flapping around a bit on one corner.

Dave Rolfe was on site as usual and continued with painting a second coat of paint onto the radiator grilles.  I took a few photos and noted how good they were looking; we will share these here soon.

Preliminary discussions have been engaged in with a good contact who can overhaul KV10s.  RRRG has a good number of both KV10s and their control cards in our possession but we have no idea if any or all of them are actually serviceable!  For the uninitiated, a 50 has two KV10s: one controls the main generator field strength and the other the ETH generator field strength - the difference being the control cards in the KV10 which define its function (main or ETH generator).  We understand this same contact can overhaul CU1 control units (the "master brain" of a 50) and we hope to have more news on these electronic component overhauls in a month or so.

A few photos of work taking place on brake rigging equipment.  We have decided to move the bogie overhauls up our schedule as they are mostly cheap to do (we can do much of the work ourselves) and it frees up financial resources to spend on overhauling electrical equipment and preparing for the lifts we will need to do to swap power units between our locomotives.

After a thorough going-over with wire brushes by Mike Backler and myself, Tim further honed the areas of these parts that are too small for the wire brushes to get to.

Parts cleaned with the wire brushes which Tim hasn't yet honed internally but which got done later in the day.