80097 August Update

Tuesday, 9th August, 2022

 80097       August Update

Our loco 80097 was taken out of service in mid May when she blew a small boiler tube. As this was the second tube that had failed since the boiler rebuild in 2018, it was necessary for an insurance inspection to take place. This led to us having to remove and replace all the small tubes.

Our workshop team of Allan, Nigel, Alan, Carl, Dave, Chris, Derek, Aadil, Dave, Toby, Rodney, Callum, John and guided by Matt, have been involved at various stages over the past two months in the major exercise of stripping 80097’s boiler down to remove and then replace the small tubes with new ones. This involved removing all the major steam pipes, the superheater elements and demolishing the firebox brick arch. Our colleague Andy then machine swaged the new tubes in place.

After a hydrostatic test a fire was lit and the boiler slowly raised up to working pressure and the safety valves allowed to blow off. A new concrete brick arch was built, the main steam pipes and superheater elements and other metal work then replaced.

A final boiler inspection was carried out on the 4th August and 80097 passed. She was then rostered for the weekend and at one stage took over the main train after Thomas unfortunately failed.

This was a fabulous effort from our workshop team, who are all volunteers, to turn our loco round in this short time. We would also like to thank our colleague Andy for his work in machine fixing the new tube ends and also to the ELR loco workshop staff who helped us. Our special thanks go to Matt for his continuous help and guidance on this project.

This is a significant setback for us as the replacement tubes have cost us £6500 plus the specialist machining and ELR assistance. 80097 will have been out of revenue earning action for several weeks.

On the positive side we now have a working loco again and she will re-establish her place as a mainstay of the ELR’s loco fleet.

Our ‘Sponsor a Tube’ appeal has been responded to magnificently by our supporters and we have now had more than half of the new tubes paid for. We would like to say a serious ‘thank you’ to all our Supporters and Members who have rallied round to help us pay for this upsetting exercise.  Thank you All.

The Appeal will continue and anyone who would like to Sponsor a Tube can do so on the ‘Donations’ page of this web site or by donating at our Shop Coach at the Bury Bolton Street station.

Photos:

80097 rebuilt and under pressure test.        (Photo by Andy Booth)

80097 back and running on the ELR