WCR Class 47 on Fire at Northampton

[Nobby (John)]

Photo courtesy of Towcester Fire Station as their water carrier appliance was called to this incident along with 5 other appliances this afternoon.

Unfortunately just can't make out the number.

[Andy7]

Looks like 47854 to me. Poor thing.

[surfsup]

Triple End Pump & Traction Motor Flashover I gather. A Shame, and hopefully not the end for the poor thing. Unfortunately these things can happen, and it's a fair old loco that's served it's time well. I just hope it hasn't also received too much foam in the putting out of the fire as that can do nearly as much damage as well unfortunately.

[Dava]

Another one for the scrap line at Carnforth?

 

Dava

[surfsup]

Hopefully not, But it'll all depend on the extent of the Damage done. Hopefully WCRC have enough spares in stock, it's a fairly usefull 47 being one of their ETH fitted ones.

[ejstubbs]

Looks like 47854 to me.

 

 

Confirmed here.

[rob D2]

Are 47s the least reliable of the heritage stuff ?

 

It wasn't by chance EWS ditched all the railfreight ones ASAP and then the REs ones.

 

Judging by what's still running 37s appear to be a better bet

[Davexoc]

Are 47s the least reliable of the heritage stuff ?

 

It wasn't by chance EWS ditched all the railfreight ones ASAP and then the REs ones.

 

Judging by what's still running 37s appear to be a better bet

I wouldn't say they were that unreliable, but No.1 end where the fire is on 47854, was often liberally coated in oil internally. You have the exhausters, compressors and above the hydrostatic cooling system comprising of the two hydraulic fan motors plus the cylinders to open the radiator shutters. If the ducting from the traction motor blower is not sealed properly, you basically blow that dirty oil into the traction motors, No.3 in particular. If not caught in time the motor will usually trip the power earth fault, but it could cause a flashover.

 

I did once steam clean a motor (because it was a foreigner), as it was the easiest way of removing all that oil. We left it ouside with the engine running so that the blower dried it out. Several days later an insulation (Meggar) test revealed a reasonably good reading, so we had the depot shunter drive it up and down the yard a few times. No power earth fault, so refuelled and released back into traffic, restricted to a duty back towards it's home depot.

 

One of our own locos had a bogie fire (same end), that required pulling twelve new cables in for the traction motors at No.1 end. Not easy, very dirty and very smelly. The insulation swells and binds the cables in the conduits.

 

Dave

[Southernman46]

Didn't 47's also suffer from oil/grease accumulation on the upper areas of the bogie frames (might have been a effect of the same issue above) that would be removed when too bad which is why you occasionally see one in service with this area very clean in comparison with everywhere else ?

[surfsup]

Are 47s the least reliable of the heritage stuff ?

 

It wasn't by chance EWS ditched all the railfreight ones ASAP and then the REs ones.

 

Judging by what's still running 37s appear to be a better bet

I cant explain why EWS were keen to ditch the Railfreight ones, but certainly for the EWS liveried and overhauled ones I've heard some sorry stories about their 'refurbishment' by EWS, including using expanding foam underneath the cab floors - which of course leads to trapped moisture / increased rust etc.