As most of you know, Ireland’s last operational A class locomotive, A39R, has been out of service since mid-2016. This was due to a routine oil sample showing some worrying traces of metal, so we did the sensible thing and took the loco out of service pending investigation and possible overhaul.
Due to the other pressures of running a heritage railway (yes, ITG volunteers tied up running steam trains, imagine), A39R was on the back burner for a long time. Finally, as the year 2019 started, we were able to make time to start work on the loco.
The first step was to totally drain the oil from the system - and we mean TOTALLY. A simple drain and replace of the oil was deemed to be unwise, as we need to thoroughly inspect the engine, and you can’t do that when it’s caked in lovely black gloopy stuff. The sump was drained, the filters, the entire system was cleaned out. And when we say clean, we mean clean, every surface and every nook and cranny of the engine, top and bottom, was cleaned until it was shining. Oil filters were replaced as well, and the result was a totally clean engine. Thorough inspection revealed no worrying damage to the bearings or other parts of the engine; the metal fragments were likely to be from oil filters damaged in Irish Rail days, and we even found a couple of bolts in there - goodness knows how long they’d been there for.
Meanwhile, the batteries had been receiving attention, and we gradually worked towards getting the locomotive ready to test. Three barrels of lovely new RX40 oil were pumped into the engine, the various other oils were topped up, brushes cleaned, and a full exam undertaken.
We finally chose Saturday 18th May as the day for the test. Final checking of the engine, and manual lubricating of the various bits and pieces, and we shunted 39 out of the shed using 80 class railcar 69+749. A very stylish shunter. The thumper was then moved out of the way and switched off, so there was no competition on the music front.
With the newly installed oil priming pump working hard, the oil was pumped around the system and brought up to pressure - and then Igor threw the switch. Everything was crossed but, as the video shows, the loco started first time, and was a classic GM ‘clean’ exhaust. Huzzah!
Literally the only problem we encountered was a sticking brake block, but that was soon resolved by hitting it with very heavy things while we also tried to clean three years of kettle soot off the front of the loco. Detergent and then acid cleaning solution only had limited success, we will be trying elbow grease next. The next attempt at moving was much more successful.
All in all, a great day for us with our big trainset, and there was indeed much rejoicing.
Негізгі бет A39R - first start for three years!
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