Caley 828

Thursday 21st January was the day of the big lift....Keith Holyland and Richard Fell had made all their preparations and moved the lifting jacks into position. The Loco Dept completed the preliminary shunting and 828 was brought into the Carriage Maintenance Shed. The plan was to lift her clear of her wheels and then roll out the leading and the driving wheelsets. The trailing wheels would remain where they were. Once the wheels were rolled out, the leading set would be lifted out of the way and the crank axle rolled round to the loco shed. The engine would then be lowered back onto its leading and trailing wheels and moved back to the loco shed. This would give us the access we need to remove the fractured LH Driving Hornblock.

There are a couple of points to make here.

1. The job would have been so much easier if the Railway had retained the wheel drop that Eric Cooper acquired from BR in the early days. Unfortunately, this was disposed of at a time when Eric was working in Saudi Arabia with little contact with the Railway. With a wheeldrop we would only have had to drop out the crank axle without touching the rest of the loco........wishful thinking maybe, but perhaps something for the future...??

2. The Railway successfully funded the Carriage Maintenance Shed back in the early 2000s. Maybe it's time that serious thinking is given to constructing a locomotive overhaul shed at Aviemore. The working conditions in the loco shed are pretty primitive and it is a great credit to the staff (employees and volunteers) that they turn out such high quality work. A properly outfitted overhaul shed could only lead to improvements in work efficiency and workforce morale..

The lift of the loco was a complete success. It was a great example of teamwork and collaboration and all involved can take great pride in this first lift of a locomotive using the Carriage Shed jacking system.

The pictures below were all supplied by Steve Robinson.