It’s been a good few months since the last update and 61264 hasn’t had chance to turn a wheel. As you may or may not have read, earlier in the year when removing the rear wheelset, we set about cleaning the wheels for repainting and inspecting as required by our maintenance policy. Upon this inspection we found what looked to be a crack in the trailing driving wheel. After a thorough NDT (non destructive testing) a number of cracks were found.

The B1 trust immediately had an emergency meeting to discuss how to take the repair forward. We decided that the best route was to repair the wheels. A contractor with the appropriate repair procedures was sought and the wheelset dispatched for repair.

Currently the wheels are still under repair under a very delicate welding procedure to minimise distortion in the wheelset.

As part of the repair the tyres will need turning to ensure they are round and true, and for this reason we removed the other driving wheels and had those wheels inspected as well. This inspection found a number of smaller cracks in the wheels but not to the same extent as the rear driving wheels.

To give the wheels the maximum amount of life we have also had these wheels repaired.

As soon as the wheels are returned they will receive a fresh coat of paint then be refitted to 61264 and reassembly of the motion will take place.

As part of the tyre turning process we will remove the bogie to keep the tyre thicknesses in specification. All this work should allow minimum work to the bottom end for the foreseeable future, and provide many more miles of B1 haulage.

Thank you all for your support throughout this time.

Regards

Thompson B1 Locomotive Trust