The Friends of 80150 have released an update on their project to overhaul steam locomotive No.80150, which is currently at the Mid Hants Railway.

When the group took on the task of locomotives overhaul, one of the main objectives was to get the locomotive moveable again. The locomotive’s bogie springs when it was at Woodham Bros. scrapyard crippled the locomotive and caused a lot of problems when moving the locomotive, including a number of derailments over the years.

When the locomotive moved to the Mid Hants Railway, the locomotive was shunted, very carefully, to the end of Alresford Down siding, where it has remained ever since with the weight of the locomotive being carried from the locomotive to the wheels by wooden packing.

The problems mounted with the bogie’s side control mechanism becoming seized due to years of water falling on it. This wasn’t helped by there being any cab roof to prevent the water getting in.

Autumn 2017

Work began in Autumn 2017 to unjam the bogie by removing eroded V strips and getting between the bearings with a hacksaw and other tools to clear the oilways of pieces of debris. Eventually, the group got the oil running again. This then meant it was time to test their work by putting a small jack between the frame and centre casting and giving it a shove. Little effort was applied and the bogie moved as the group would have liked it too.

A miserable winter

As we all know, Winter was a miserable one. This meant the group couldn’t do much work in their location until Spring 2018. In Spring, the group started work descaling the locomotive and painting more of the locomotive. As you can see from the photo above, the locomotive is looking more respectable. This is a real credit to the team working on her!

The bogie area has been cleaned. June 2018 came and the team was ready to fit the springs that were manhandled down to the locomotive the previous year. The springs are not new. They were fitted to 75079’s front bogie in the 1960s. One of them has a few broken leaves, however, this will improve 80150s prospects of steaming once again.

Installing the springs

Martin and Johny from the 75079 team helped the 80150 team to jack up the rear of the locomotive to put the springs into place with the help of wooden blocks. The Mid Hants Railway Preservation Society (MHRPS) had agreed to finance the making of a new set of spring links. The originals went missing in the scrapyard, and the new ones fit perfectly.

Mid Afternoon had come and both springs were in place and made a crippled 80150 look a lot less crippled. Some lubrication is now needed for the axleboxes.

The locomotive now can be moved and exhibited, something that the group is looking forward to doing.

Cab roof appeal

As you may have seen in an article, the group have launched an appeal for a new cab roof (article of which can be found here). The support of the appeal was huge, and the group achieved their target in just 10 weeks, again, an article on this news can be found here.

The most expensive parts to the roof were the top window runner castings. These support the sides of the roof. Patterns for the runners have been located from another restoration group and the castings have been ordered. The Mid Hants Railway are talking to various contractors with regards to rolling the roof plate to profile and the manufacture of other parts. More news will be released on this soon!

How can I help?

If you would like to help the Mid Hants Railway in overhauling 80150, then you can donate towards the work via their MyDonate page here

You can also keep up to date with the news on 80150 by joining the Friends of 80150 Facebook Group. Click here to find out more.

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