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D7629/25279 - Summer 2000

This gallery shows D7629 moving to the GCR from the Northampton and Lamport railway. The loco had originally been owned by Martin Bell at the Llangollen Railway. It spent the last few years of the 1990's in a fairly nomadic manner, spending time at the Gloucestershie and Warwickshire Railway, Chinnor & Princes Risborough and Northampton & Lamport railway.

By the time it had completed some time at the NLR it was looking very sorry for itself. The final views in this gallery are a detailed look inside the locomotive at the key components.

The loco wasn't considered serviceable at purchase. Known faults were the liner topseal and seized turbo. The loco also was fitted with commercial HGV batteries which were patently not up to the load and rating required for traction.

The batteries were therefore never used again, being replaced with a new set of traction batteries of the correct design for this type of locomotive from Deta. The Turbo was scheduled for overhaul, and the cylinder head prepared for removal to address the topseal. However, further inspection revealed serious wear on the exhauster and auxiliary generator brushgear, and a set of main generator brushgear (which had caused flashover damage). The bodywork was suffering from corrosion to the point of holes, but the initial work was to be concentrated on the electrical and mechanical systems. The restoration of the loco to working order would be a significant task.

D7629 is ready to be loaded onto the road trailer at Northampton	D7629 ready to be loaded by Allely's	The loco is secured on the low-loader	D7629 loaded awaiting it's police escort from Northampton	On the move. D7629 is backed-out onto the main road, ready to journey north to Quorn (GCR)
D7629 on the M1 at Jct 20	Arrival at Quorn	The loco is preapred for offloading	The securing chains are slackened	Preparing to unload
Gently the loco is winched off the trailer	The first touch of the wheels on GCR metals.	The loco gently slipped off the trailer onto the siding at Quorn.	D8098 was sent to collect D7629 and move it via Loughborough to Rothley for work to begin.	Classic and evocative shot at Loughborough before D7629 was moved to Rothley for work to begin. The 31 is D5830.
D7629 poses at Loughborough	End of journey. D7629 at Rothley for restoration to working order.	View of D7629 Cab	Water damage caused by a corroded liner topseal. The water leak was significant - almost a waterfall. Unfortunately all that had been done was over-tightening if the cylinder head bolts.	View of the electrical cubicle
View of the main and aux generators. It was subsequently found that D7629 had suffered flashover damage due to severe brush wear left unattended leading to destruction of a brushbox.	View of the Sulzer 6LDA28b diesel engine.	Another view of the 6LDA28B, showing the obvious water damage as a result of the topseal leak.	The defective turbocharger (siezed and collapsed bearings)	D7629 cab.