On Friday we hosted our first freight driving course of the year with resident locomotive DL83. Everything went according to plan, the sun was shining, and everyone had a fantastic day. The participants got an opportunity to drive, act as secondman, guard, signal, and have a go with a shunters pole, learning all aspects of operating a small goods train. We are rightly proud of another successful event, with many compliments and positive comments received.

Photos courtesy of Tom Woolley and Steve Parker

On Saturday it was back to our vac fitting project with the focus being the conflat. Alan, Mark, and Tim set about removing the vacuum cylinder for overhaul, but it was hard going! Every pin, bolt, and fitting was ceased, so it took most of the day to get the cylinder out.

Meanwhile, Colin and Chris were fitting ends to new vacuum pipes. We are very grateful to the NVR charity shop who donated to our current project and allowed us to purchase all of the remaining vacuum pipes from the Wheelset and Brake Co to allow us to through pipe the rest of the rake.

To finish the day, Tim and Mark took a walk to the rake and fitted some of the new pipes to the open wagons. There are just the hoppers and MOD opens to tackle in the rake before the whole compliment of vehicles are through piped. In the yard there is just the Conflat to finish and Van B759852 to fit with an overhauled cylinder before the current project is complete….so the end is in sight! We are hoping to launch the express rake for our Tornado Photo Charter.

Don’t forget our next two courses with Thomas and Tornado. To book visit our events page https://nvrwagons.co.uk/courses-and-experiences/