The Restoration Story - the first year 1994
37215 was delivered to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway on Thursday 23rd June 1994 and was unloaded the following day. It had travelled all the way from Inverness in the North of Scotland on the back of a low loader, a journey that had taken three days.
Initially, most of the work carried out at Toddington was removing equipment and fittings that had been discarded throughout the loco when it was being stripped for spares. Next a thorough inventory was carried out to ascertain exactly what was missing and what was in obvious need of repair. The loco was made water tight by sheeting over the missing panes of glass and after the roof hatches had been removed for easy work access, the complete roof was sheeted over with some heavy duty tarpaulins.
Right: 37215 is unloaded onto the GWR at Toddington yard. Photo by Dean Tabor
We knew that a full top end overhaul of the engine would be necessary and so in preparation for this, all of the rocker gear, injectors, fuel pumps and other associated items were removed, sorted and stored away. The interior of the nose ends and cabs were in a shocking state and so a start was made at No.1 end. All loose panels, fixtures and fittings were removed. The cab roof was damaged beyond repair, so what was left was also taken down. The cab floor was pulled up to allow the area to be cleaned and we discovered that some of the hand brake linkage had been removed. We removed the item from under the other cab floor for a replica to be manufactured.
While a dedicated team struggled along with the cabs etc. attention also turned to de-greasing the radiator compartment in preparation for a complete repaint. A pressure washer was obtained and put to good use in the nose ends and radiator compartment. After this had been used, painting began in earnest in these areas. Power unit work was also continuing with the removal of the exhaust and air manifolds.
Saturday 30th July 1994 was an important day. We took delivery of a new purchase. A Mark 1 BG NEA carriage - 92990 which was to become our spares van, workshop and home for the next few years. This gave us space to work in the warm and dry.
Encouraged by the progress inside the loco, some people turned their attention outside and removed the louvre doors from the nose ends. The restoration of these items was to be an ongoing saga over the next four years, as various methods of cleaning and painting were tried. The remaining side skirts were also removed for ease of restoration and also to allow access to the under skirt equipment.
In the November of 1994 we made our first concerted effort to repair the locomotives electrical systems. First a general clean out of the cubicle area was made before a start was made refitting various relays and contactors that had been removed.
By the end of 1994 the cabs were beginning to look functional again with most missing components refitted and lots of new bright paint-work in evidence. Over the Christmas period, all of the power unit heads were removed and transported into the stores van where a start could be made on their overhaul.