The Preservation Years - 2002
2002 was a steady year for 37215 with the locomotive running well throughout the whole season.
A few minor items of maintenance were needed including attention to the vacuum exhausters, cab door locks and the changing of a couple of brake cylinders due to the seals leaking. Much of the year was spent on Civil Engineering tasks as we erected a 'swinging arm crane' for moving spares around, a concrete section garage for housing spare batteries and a 110V DC charger and the biggest effort of all which was constructing an inspection pit. All of these efforts will give us excellent facilities for maintaining all of the diesel fleet at the GWR.
We regularly kept the inside of the engine room as clean as possible and ensured that all of the internal electric motors were clean and operating correctly. 
37215 approaches Dixton Cutting on 19/07/02. Photo by Alan Grigg.
Quite a lot of effort has been put into overhauling spare parts. Much of this work has been on key electrical items such as air compressors, vacuum exhausters and blower motors. We also made a start on overhauling a couple of radiator fan drive boxes. When complete, the electrical units were tested on a new test bed that we have constructed which can be connected up to a spare set of locomotive batteries. This has been most useful.
When the inspection pit had been completed, we made good use of it by inspecting all of the brake rigging and blocks as well as the traction motors. A few minor repairs were made. All grease points were topped up and Motac added to the traction motor gearboxes.
All of the internal air filters were also changed to allow good flow of clean air to the turbochargers.
Towards the end of the season we made the decision to take 215 out of service so that the power unit could be taken out to allow the mounting pads to be changed. We also took the opportunity to adjust the timing and make a few minor repairs to the fuel system. We planned to lift the unit out during the early part of 2003.
37215 at Winchcombe on 16/07/02. Photo by Kev Jarvis