I was down at Llangollen Yard as per every Sunday now, but today I was sorting out the brake hanger gear on 37240! So after shunting D1566, 37901 and 37240 with a Class 08 in the Yard, placing 37240 on the “pit” and the rest back on the Diesel Road we clambered down into the “pit” and underneath 37240.

I felt alright having 120 tonnes above me, bit cramped as the pit wasn’t “full height” as it’s mainly used for the steam engines. We started to grease/oil parts of the brake hanger gear making sure they could be loosened and tightened manually. With 6 on each bogie and each loco having two bogies, there’s a total of 12 on each loco. We had to loosen each one, add some grease/oil, then tighten each one. 8 were loose enough to be moved by single man-power, 1 with a few added taps of a hammer and 3 by gas cutting torch and once some heat had been applied they finally moved and we greased/oiled them too. At this point I was absolutely filthy but we got the job done.

After dinner, we moved 37240 down onto the ramp outside the Yard and Mr C started her up………..noise + black fumes + more noise + more fumes = awesome!! I will record it one day!

After some brake tests, to make sure the loco air brakes were fine and working, the train vacuum brake were fine and working, then seeing if it would “take power” and repeated in the second cab…..we took 37240 for a short ride – only down to Pentrefelyn Dock, switched cabs and headed back up into the Yard and put 37240 “to bed”.

In the meantime Mr F and JKW had been working on The Black Pig, swapping batteries mainly, but unfortunately JKW had to call it a day before he got to see The Black Pig taking power and moving!! Which it hasn’t done since 2003/2004 so a really good day overall! So we got that out and moving around before we put everything to bed and calling it a day and popping into the chippy on the way home.