CLASS 15 Preservation Society photos
2009
 
(Sunday 29th)
Sat 14th Nov 2009 to Sun 29th Nov 2009
Project D8233: November 2009 		(TUESDAY 27th)
Mon 26th Oct 2009 to Fri 30th Oct 2009
PD8233: Impromptu Work Week 		(Saturday 10th)
Sat 10th Oct 2009 to Sun 11th Oct 2009
Project D8233: October 2009
 
(Saturday 26th)
Sun 20th Sep 2009 to Sat 26th Sep 2009
Paxman 16YHXL engine block No. 55901 		(Saturday 12th)
Sat 12th Sep 2009 to Sun 13th Sep 2009
Project D8233: September 2009 		(Saturday 1st) I'm seen drilling out the pilot holes for the handrail mounts using the bench drill in the workshop.
Sat 1st Aug 2009 to Sun 2nd Aug 2009
Project D8233: August 2009
 
(Thursday 2nd) A quick job that was done when I arrived up at Bury to do the sales stand at the ELR Diesel gala was slap on some Orange gloss paint to these long engine room conduits.
Thu 2nd Jul 2009 to Mon 27th Jul 2009
Project D8233: July 2009 		(Saturday 20th)
Sat 20th Jun 2009 to Sun 21st Jun 2009
Project D8233: June 2009 		(Saturday 9th)
Sat 9th May 2009 to Sun 24th May 2009
Project D8233: May 2009
 
(Saturday 11th)
Sat 11th Apr 2009 to Sun 26th Apr 2009
Project D8233: April 2009 		(Monday 30th)
Sat 28th Mar 2009 to Mon 30th Mar 2009
Project D8233: March 2009 		(Saturday 14th)
Sat 14th Feb 2009 to Sat 28th Feb 2009
Project D8233: February 2009
 
(Sunday 18th) The first weekend of 2009 and its a Co-Bo one but that does not nessasarly mean that D8233 gets left out, while others were working on the Object Jim & Lil' Kris Mason decided to work in the nose end on the TMB mounting brackets, so the nose end was uncovered to allows them better access, its been a while since the nose was painted but it still looks good.
Sat 17th Jan 2009 to Sun 1st Feb 2009
Project D8233: January 2009
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2008
 
(Saturday 13th) Jim is pointing to the mount on this TMB, the reason is that the new floor mounting bracket which is a short length of steel channel section, is being squared up with the hammer you can see so that the holes can be maked ready for drilling out.
Sat 13th Dec 2008 to Fri 14th Nov 2008
Project D8233: December 2008 		(Sunday 9th) Simon needs a little room to work under the tarp so by using a few short planks of wood hes able to push out the tarp away from the side frame and give him enough room to do the painting.
Sat 8th Nov 2008 to Sun 9th Nov 2008
Project D8233: November 2008 		(Saturday 4th) Early morning and Rob is busy removing the old sealing strip from around the engine compartment side door frames, these strips acted as seals around the door edges and were meant to keep out dust and dirt, but the seals have deteriorated over time and we hace decided to remove then so as to get better access to drelling the framework behind.
Sat 4th Oct 2008 to Sun 5th Oct 2008
Project D8233: October 2008
 
(Saturday 6th) Saturday morning and photo of the lower section of conduit for the nose end marker lamps, it looks as though most of the work today will be concentraited on trying to find the best way to make the replacement tration motor blower fit into the nose end.
Sat 6th Sep 2008 to Sun 7th Sep 2008
Project D8233: September 2008 		(Saturday 9th) This morning when I arrived it was pouring down with rain, and as you can see the tarp covering the loco was wet all over, the weather didn't improve so I stayed in the coach all day.
Sat 9th Aug 2008 to Sun 10th Aug 2008
Project D8233: August 2008 		(Friday 4th) Chris B was available to do some work on the loco during the mid week of the Diesel gala, he and a few others has a bit of a mini working party and even invited a member of another well known Diesel group to lend a hand, but the jobs to be done were fiarly minor in nature but none less important, now that the job of getting the engine fit to run is complete it seems that sights are being turned to a somewhat neglected area of the loco, the nose end compartment, and the TMB satand is one such item that comes from there, After drelling the frame, Chris slapps on the green primer.
Wed 2nd Jul 2008 to Sat 5th Jul 2008
Project D8233: July 2008
 
(Saturday 21st) And here is the door again after I've give it a quick going over with the angle grinder and sanding disc, its not quite an even finish but it will do to key the surface of the door ready for when its repainted again, but first the door needs to be carries quite a ways down the yard to be put back inot the loco, only when its been reattached can it be painted again.
Sat 7th Jun 2008 to Sun 22nd Jun 2008
Project D8233: June 2008 		(Saturday 10th) Rob starts to pull the sheet bacl on the start of the saturday, given the dissapointment of the previous day we were shure that with a little extra air pressure from an additional compressor would be enough to finally turn the engine over, or so we thought....
Fri 9th May 2008 to Sun 11th May 2008
Project D8233: May 2008 		(Saturday 12th) Now that I've been sent instructions as to what this thing is and how it's supposed to work I hoped that it was going to help me sort out the function of the fuel system, however it has not, this is mainly due to a number of contradictions in the direction of flow in certain pipes? Anyway this Freshly painted unit is officially called a
Sat 12th Apr 2008 to Sun 13th Apr 2008
Project D8233: April 2008
 
(Sunday 30th) The Fan drive clutch & horizontal driveshaft were fitted during one of the midweek working sessions, but now that its in place the fan drive is complete, there are a few mesh guard to be riffitted, like the top half of the guard shown here, whats interesting to note is that the square hole that the shfat passes through should have some metal plate boted over it with a small hole for the haft to pass through, for now it has been decided to leave the plates off in the hope that the extra ventilation will aide engine cooling.
Sun 16th Mar 2008 to Sun 30th Mar 2008
Project D8233: March 2008 		The Class 16's were quite possably the most unsuccessful diesel class ever to come out of the 1955 pilot scheme, only 10 were made and they lasted less than 10 years, they very rarely strayed far from Stratford depot for fear they would fail in service, and this would be the fate that would befall all but two of the class scrapping at Cohens of Kettering, we see D8403 awaiting the cutters torch some time in 1969, this photo was gifted to me by the BHG sales stand staff, I have no idea who took the picture or who owns the copyright but it goes well with the other photo.
Tue 11th Mar 2008
Class 16's the NBL type 1's 		(Sunday 10th Feb) While the main restoration is continuing, there are other less obvious efforts ongoing behind the scenes to restore other parts of the locos, one of which is the acquisition of parts that are still missing or substituting them with compatable componants that will do the same job, this item for instance is what is know as a
Sat 9th Feb 2008 to Sun 10th Feb 2008
Project D8233: February 2008
 
(Friday 11th Jan) More views from the Class 31 cubical that we are in the process of stripping, this is another view of the reverser which we don't need as we plan to go with a Metrovic unit from an Irish C class loco, as MV was AEI sister company to BTH and the fact that we will be using MV traction motors it makes sence to stick with MV gear as its well known to be neigh on bullet proof in term of reliability not that Brush ecetrical gear is too bad either ;)
Fri 11th Jan 2008 to Sun 13th Jan 2008
Project D8233: January 2008
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2007
 
(Sunday 2nd Dec) The Class 31 cubical that we acquired so that it could be stripped of electrical components so that they can be used to make a replacement control cubicle for D8233 is seen here in the process of being stripped out.
Sat 1st Dec 2007 to Sun 2nd Dec 2007
Project D8233: December 2007 		(Sunday 18th Nov) And after much effort the Fan Drive gearbox, vertical drive shaft & main bearing are all bolted into place, and it all looks very smart however things were not as they seemed....
Sat 17th Nov 2007 to Sun 18th Nov 2007
Project D8233: November 2007 		In 1979 Stratford depot had a major open day and as ADB968000 was sat out the back of the depot looking like an eyesore it was decided to smarten it up for the event so it went into the works and was turned out in this rather fetching LNER apple green livery whice it managed to travel around in for a few years. Photo: Chris Guntripp
Fri 26th Oct 2007
The ETH units (ADB968000-3)
 
(Friday 12th Oct) and D8233 is on the move again, the loco is dragged out of the siding that has been its home since 11th February 2006, the track is thick with weeds but slow steady progress is made with 47402 doing the pulling at the other end of the train.
Fri 12th Oct 2007 to Sun 21st Oct 2007
Project D8233: October 2007 		(Saturday 8th Sep) Reference pictures, whilst speaking to one of the other group members during the ELR autumn diesel he asked what had been done about the fuel lift pump for the engine, I said that it was still fitted to the engine and he looked puzzled as he had expected the fuel pump to be separate from the engine and driven by an electric motor like the oil priming pump but in fact the fuel lift pump is a mechanical rotary pump that is driven direct by the engine and is bolted onto the end of the camshaft that operate the injector pumps, and here is a picture of the said pump still in situ on the engine.
Sat 8th Sep 2007 to Sun 23rd Sep 2007
Project D8233: September 2007 		The Fan & Bearing are back and looking sweet, when they arrived there was little space to store them at the time so they have been placed in the sitting room for now.
Tue 28th Aug 2007
Fully Restored Parts: Cooling fan & Bearing assembly.
 
(Saturday 4th Aug) This is the Main thermostat unit for the engine cooling system, it was removed from the loco over a year ago and has been sat in the main parts stores waiting its turn at renovation, as I’m in the process of trying to understand how the cooling system works on the loco, I needed to dig out the thermostat to take these reference photos of it so I could see here the pipe connections go on it, and hopefully that will allow me to understand the layout of the main pipes in the engine room.
Sat 4th Aug 2007 to Sun 5th Aug 2007
Project D8233: August 2007 		(Thursday 26th Jul) On the Thursday I started off with a determined focus on what I wanted to achieve, and the first job I had on my personal itinerary was to re-fit the TED valve to its pipe base and then fit it back into loco and complete the oil pipe work around it, to be honest this is well overdue, waiting for this valve to get sorted out was holding back the progress of pipefitting in the cooler group, anyway I started off by making a new gasket, cleaned off the original bolts of all oil & rust and then fitted the valve onto its pipe mount with the bolts provided, due to the curved shape of the underside of the valve, the bolts were tricky to fit also they were captive threaded into the base without nuts so the thing had to be square as it was tightened down, anyway this is the end result, the colours of the Blue Valve and Pink pipe base are quite a contrast.
Sat 21st Jul 2007 to Fri 27th Jul 2007
Project D8233: July 2007 		D8223 on a track lifting train it is seen approaching the sizewell loading siding from the south east on the Leiston - Aldeburg section During Aug 1967. ©Class 15 Preservation Society
Fri 22nd Jun 2007
The Dr Ian.C.Allen Class 15 Photo collection
 
(Sunday 3rd Jun) As painting the long thin dummy louvers was going to be tricky and time consuming if tackled using the conventional painting procedure, a novel way of hanging them up was devised using so thin cord that we found in the tool store we strung it up between the nose end of the loco and the end of the support coach to form a kinda Washing line, the louvers were the strung up which made them easier to paint and left them out in the open are where they could dry quicker, Chris T & Dave G seen here doing the painting.
Sat 2nd Jun 2007 to Sun 17th Jun 2007
Project D8233: June 2007 		(Saturday 26th May) The weekend started by me unloading these items, now they are not for the loco but our support coach and they are brake blocks, standard coach brake blocks in fact, the support coach has been without brakes since it was passed onto us from Ian Reiley, so if we are to even make it a usable item of coaching stock it must have working brakes and for that brake blocks, now they can’t be fitted until we have the tapered mounting pins to go with them but hopefully some of these will also be sourced soon, it has also been noted that D8233 takes a similar type of brake block so they might be for the loco after all ;)
Sat 26th May 2007 to Sun 27th May 2007
Project D8233: May 2007 		Now here’s a rare one, D8212 is one of a couple of Class 15's that was rarely photographed, another such camera shy Class 15 was D8241, I’m fortunate to have some pics of these two elusive locos but alas this is the only one that I have permission to show you here, the location is Stratford running shed and D8212 is surrounded by Class 16’s, the date is 3rd June 1967, this loco was one of the first to be withdrawn mainly due to the classes staple work on the East Anglian branch line drying up thanks to the Beeching closures, D8212 succumbed on 30/9/68 and was scrapped at Cohens less than a year later - this image is displayed with the kind permission of the (c) S.V Blencowe collection.
Thu 12th Apr 2007
Class 15 gallery
 
(Sunday 1st Apr) Our resident welding guru, Jim Gough is seen applying a layer of “Pigeon Sh1t” to the new metal work that had been cut and clamped in place ready for welding, even though the weather was dry and sunny, there was a brisk teasing wind that made welding outdoors with a MIG welder rather a trying affair :S the wind was blowing away the inert gas which normally shields the welding arc and helps it form a nice neat seam and instead the welding arc was inconsistent and left a lumpy uneven weld behind, Jimmy being the true trooper that he is battled against the elements and made the best he could of the situation.
Sun 1st Apr 2007 to Tue 3rd Apr 2007
Project D8233: April 2007 		(Saturday 17th Mar) I deliberately took this picture to graphically demonstrate the way that our work area next to the loco has been drastically reduced by the extension of the fence line as part of the new car park for Reiley’s loco works, its now going to be very difficult to work outside next to the loco thanks the restrictive nature of the palisade fencing that has been erected, it’s too early to saw how much this is going to effect the way we work on the loco, there is a plus side at least now we can park our cars on this side of the shed next to the loco without having to walk round.
Sat 17th Mar 2007 to Sun 18th Mar 2007
Project D8233: March 2007 		(Saturday 3rd Feb) Work started early-ish on Saturday 3rd Feb in what would be the first real working weekend of the year, quite a few people were on hand and the first order of business was to take of the tarp and lay it on the ground so that we could inspect it and make temporary repairs where necessary, now that the area next to the loco has been cleared it game us plenty of room to spread the tarp out.
Sat 3rd Feb 2007 to Sun 25th Feb 2007
Project D8233: February 2007
 
(Sunday 14th Jan) On the Saturday (Jan 13th) it was the Pudsey train & Bus collectors fair and no work was done on the loco, I had put a couple of hours in the day before but it was not until the Sunday before work resumed, this is the paint room or cab end of the support coach where I was finishing off painting one of the Radiator side frames with the final coat of gloss black.
Sun 14th Jan 2007 to Sat 27th Jan 2007
Project D8233: January 2007
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2006
 
TTP8234 This loco is the closest thing to a Celebrity machine that the class ever had, its D8234 AKA the Liverpool Street Pilot as it was better known, Class 15's were popular as station pilots at the capital stations they served and this loco in particular got preferential treatment by its crews, it was always kept in immaculate condition right up until final withdrawal in March 1971, an abortive attempt was made by it's drivers to preserve it but sadly it went for scrap at Crewe works along with the remainder of the class, but its seen here on duty at Liverpool street in happier times during the late 60's.
Tue 19th Dec 2006
The Transport Topics gallery 		(Saturday 9th Dec) This is a close up of the spare Westinghouse train vacuum brake unit that has been bought in as spare for the one that is missing from the cab, its quite rusty and stiff to operate, but eventually it was be overhauled and come out like new, it still has the electric switch for activating the overspeed on the exhusters.
Sat 9th Dec 2006 to Sun 10th Dec 2006
Project D8233: December (last weekend of 2006) 		(Sunday 12th Nov) Now this represents a solution to one of the major hurdles that we have for the restoration of D8233, the original control cubical was removed long ago and send away for repair, and lost after the company doing the overhaul went bankrupt, we attempted to trace it (along with some slot machines) but it was all in vein as we found that they had been scrapped years ago :( so we have to make a replacement cubical from scratch and this large box contains the parts to do it ;)
Sun 12th Nov 2006
D8233 Substitute restoration spares
 
(Saturday 23rd Sep) On the Saturday morning we had a stranger in our midst… but then again not so much a stranger to the Preserved diesel community at large as one might think ;) yes we were visited by the one and only Chris Guntripp who had dropped down to have a quick look around the 15 but ended up staying on for the better part of the day and assisted us by doing some painting something that he is very particular about ;) anyway here he is slapping a coat of grey primer onto some of the radiator tanks.
Sat 23rd Sep 2006 to Sun 24th Sep 2006
Project D8233 Work Weekend #9 		(18th Mar/23rd Sep) This is a direct comparison between BEFORE (on the left) and AFTER (on the right)
Sat 2nd Sep 2006
Fully Restored parts :Fan Drive Gearbox 		(Saturday 19th Aug) One of the Gloucester four, Andy “Muppet” Mustoe starts to apply the final top coat of light grey paint to the cooler group, its taken us a good few months to get to this point but were finally making some positive progress, the rebuild of the cooler group can start in earnest when the painting in here is complete.
Sat 19th Aug 2006 to Sun 20th Aug 2006
Project D8233 Work Weekend #8B
 
Hidden under these tarpaulins was a big surprise for the Class 15 group members as they turned up at castlecroft yard on the Saturday morning to sign on for working on the loco, the covers would remain on until the following morning when all would be revealed ;)
Sun 6th Aug 2006
Replacement Paxman 16YHXL Engine 		(Saturday 5th Aug) Depending on the number of willing volunteers present largely dictates how ambitious the work on the loco will be, the last couple of work dates has seen only about 4-5 ppl in attendance, but on Saturday 5th August we had between 7-8 willing workers, and with sufficient manpower available we decided to tackle some of the bigger jobs that had been put off before, as such the new tarpaulin was pulled right back to the cab, the first time this has happened for some time.
Sat 5th Aug 2006 to Sun 6th Aug 2006
Project D8233 Work Weekend #8A 		(Sunday 25th Jun) I attended the loco for one day in order to get the trade stand sorted out, Chris Tatton was the only other person with me as he was carrying on with a job that he was doing, I took this picture because it shows a slightly different angle of the loco with its new Heavy Duty tarpaulin on :)
Sun 25th Jun 2006 to Sun 23rd Jul 2006
Project D8233 weekend #7 grouped photos
 
(Saturday 10th Jun) On this work weekend, we were a little short staffed and did not get a great deal done, all these pics in this gallery were taken on the Saturday as I was to busy trying to get the Shot blaster working on the Sunday to take any more photos? Still I did get a few good ones, this being one :) we had bought a new tarpaulin and we pulled the old one off so as to be ready to change them over that gave an excellent opportunity for taking some new pics :)
Sat 10th Jun 2006 to Sun 11th Jun 2006
Project D8233 Work weekend #6 		(Saturday 27th May) Now this is more like it ;) after much expended time, effort and negotiations we finally have in our possession the final 2 spare Slot Machines known in existence, both have been generously lent to us by other groups, these being from Keith Buckley of the North Tyneside Diesel Group (for the LEFT controller) and Roland Hatton of the Bury Type 2 Group (for the RIGHT controller), on the floor you can also see the Oil priming pump and motor assembly from the loco, all these items have been collected together ready for sending away for restoration.
Sat 27th May 2006 to Sun 28th May 2006
Project D8233 May mini-work weekend 		(Sunday 14th May) Chris Tatton and James Bottomley are cleaning up the frame work to the trade stand that we have now acquired, it’s a standard market stall type frame work that comes in many pieces that slot together, however we had no idea how it was supposed to fit together and a certain amount of experimentation was needed before we got the whole frame back together, it will be cleaned up and re-painted and hopefully be used as a trade stand by us during the ELR Diesel week in July.
Sun 14th May 2006
Sales stand pictures.
 
(Saturday 13th May) On arrival early on the Saturday morning, after signing in at the mess room down at Castlecroft yard, Project Leader Chris Bailey offered to show me where the Bury Type 2 group keep their spare BTH Slot Machine controller stored, anyway after picking out way through the many vintage vehicles crammed into the Bury Transport Museum we eventually ended up in a cramped storage space under the wooden walkway and there in this veritable Aladdin’s cave of Class 24 spares was the Slot Machine :)
Sat 13th May 2006 to Sun 14th May 2006
Project D8233 Work weekend #5 		(Saturday 22nd Apr) During this mini-workday I did not get much chance to take many pictures but I did get a few important ones taken like this, it’s the Radiator shutter frame from the LH side of the loco, this unit was unbolted during the last work weekend but we could not remove it as it was trapped into place by the front lip on the outer facia panel and the radiator frame behind, but now that the radiator frame had been dismantled there was enough clearance to get out the shutter frame at long last.
Sat 22nd Apr 2006
Project D8233 April mini-workday 		(Saturday 8th Apr) Work on stripping the loco down is proceeding well, our main objective is to get the loco stripped down as much as we can and effect repairs to the body work, also we are trying to get the power unit ready for lifting out but it will be some time before that task will be achieved.
Sat 8th Apr 2006 to Sun 9th Apr 2006
Project D8233 Work weekend #4
 
(Saturday 18th Mar) Volunteer Liaison Officer Ritchie Davison tackles the fiddly job of removing the indicator discs and lamp lenses from the front of the loco, while work goes in inside the nose end compartment stripping out the remainder of the air piping and electrical conduit.
Sat 18th Mar 2006 to Sun 19th Mar 2006
Project D8233 Work weekend #3 		(Friday 10th Feb) The first thing to greet my eyes on arrival at Crewe on the Friday morning was the sight of D8233 sitting on the end of the loading road in the company of the Crewe heritage pilot loco Class 03 D2073, it was nice to see the loco out from the cramped confines of the storage siding where it had been kept for so long.
Fri 10th Feb 2006 to Sun 12th Feb 2006
Project D8233 Work weekend #2 (THE BIG MOVE) 		(Saturday 14th Jan) Saturday morning on the 14th of January was fresh and bright as we arrived at Crewe nice and early to start the extraction of the Traction motors, as you can see they were all heaped up in a pile against the dividing wall of the Tesco supermarket next door.
Sat 14th Jan 2006 to Sun 15th Jan 2006
Project D8233 Work weekend #1
 
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2005
 
Saturday 3rd Dec 2005 was an auspicious day for Project D8233 for it was the day that we were official inducted into the Class 15 Preservation society and the group was reborn with the aide of the new blood, it was an important meeting where many things were discussed which will have much bearing on the then upcoming resumption of restoration on the Loco, after this Pow-wow we all walked round the other side of the main building to look at the item for which we have pledged to restore.
Sat 3rd Dec 2005 to Sat 14th Jan 2006
D8233 at the Railway Age Crewe
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0
 
This simple Black & White line image is one that I scanned out of an old book, I did have to clean it up quite a bit to make it suitable for use as the new logo for the Project D8233 group, but as it happens it has now been adopted as the official logo for the re-launched Class 15 Preservation Society :)

CLASS 15 Miscellaneous pics 		A view inside the front end compartment looking across from the cooler group access door over to the door on the right hand side of the loco, there are two of the original air tanks in here through they will be way past their last testing date? This compartment was also supposed to house the front traction motor blower but unfortunately that has long since been removed :(

D8233 internal equipment reference pictures
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