The Restoration Story - 2000
During the later part of 1999, we had managed to obtain another main generator which appeared in be in reasonable condition. We took it to the Adtranz works in Crewe and they agreed to make one good unit out of the two items that we owned. This they did and the overhauled unit was replaced on the engine and delivered back to the GWR. The power unit was lowered back into the locomotive on March 11th and over the next two weeks we connected up all of the water, air, fuel, oil and exhaust systems.
We made a first tentative attempt to start the loco on Friday 24th March but due to a combination of poor batteries, degraded fuel and a sticking engine run valve, she would not start but the following day we had success. Within a couple of hours she moved quite merrily around the yard at Toddington under her own power.
This start-up had coincided with the GWR's annual Spring Diesel Gala and this seemed like an opportunity not to be missed, so on the Sunday afternoon at 15:20, 099 worked it's first train in preservation with our other loco, 37215. Everything went quite smoothly. A fault was discovered with the vacuum braking system and the radiator fan clutch would not engage but other than that we were pleased. 099 was deliberately shut down at Winchcombe on the return journey, so that it would not overheat.
Following the successful first run attention was now turned to the bodywork which would keep most of us occupied for all of the Spring and Summer of 2000. A huge amount of time was spent on this. All of the nose end louvre doors were removed and sent off-site for sand blasting and spray painting in a temperature controlled environment, as were the radiator shutters. The nose end connecting doors were opened up for the first time in who knows how many years and everywhere gallons of paint and tons of filler were applied. We made extensive use of air tools such as needle guns and sanders and spray painted a lot more of the loco than we had with '215. A lot of lessons were learnt the first time around and 099 certainly benefited from this.
The loco entered Winchcombe Carriage & Wagon department at the end of August and the top coats were applied, as were all of the numbers, nameplates and other transfers etc, and this was where we sprung a major surprise as the loco was unveiled as 37324 - Clydebridge, an identity it had carried during the later part of the 1980's when it was a Motherwell based loco.
