I had a a couple of locos back into the workshop for repair today. The first was a County Donegal railcar that 'needed a loose wire resoldering'. True it did. In fact I think it had been rewired so many times, the wires were too short to make new connections, so I replaced them. As the front pony truck was only held in place by the remaining wire, I repaired that as well. However, when I applied power ..... nothing! A quick investigation revealed that the motor shaft and gear were securely araldited to the chassis! I removed the power bogie and , fortunately, was able to remove the araldite with the tip of a scalpel. The owner of the loco was at a loss to understand how it happened although he did admit to having someone who carries out simple repairs and had, indeed, recently serviced said railcar. The mind boggles.

Next up was Lough Swilly No. 12 which was reported as making a noise but not moving. A quick inspection revealed the final gear rotating freely on the driven axle. I spent a while flushing away all the oil and gunge then drilled a 0.5mm hole through the edge of the gear and into the axle. A short length of brass wire was then soldered into the hole and filed off smooth. Quite a tricky operation with everything in situ including brake pull rods, etc. Any way, problem cured. However, I also noticed that one of the coupling rods had broken on the pinned joint, so, on one side, it was working as a 4-4+4-0 as opposed to a 4-8-0. Amazingly it still ran. As the loco was required for an exhibition next week, it was agreed that a new coupling rod would have to wait! I think the loco has had some rough handling over the last couple of years, as I have already had to repair the valve gear after it had been bent out of all recognition. The coupling rod may well have been initially damaged at that time.

The locos do quite a few shows each year and I think there is a problem getting reliable operators!

Incidentally, this is what it looked like when new