Denise, in the 80s

[dave_long]

Deleted

[Steve-e]

Ok to put it another way plate 56 in John Vaughans China clay trains book shows a rolls Royce 040 sentinel, can any one shed any light on sais loco ie identify it, as JV doesn't state much about it at all!

 

This wee beastie you mean

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nat37670/8417034502/

 

Seems to be a few photos on Flikr

https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=p403D

or

https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=crugwallins

 

 

They all seem later than the 80's though.

 

Regards

Steve

[Rods_of_Revolution]

If I recall correctly, in 1987 "Denise" was sent somewhere (Rolls Royce/Perkins?) to be retrofitted with air brake equipment.

 

On return from the retrofit she had had the nameplate added as well as an extension to the exhaust pipe, a orange light on the roof, the vacuum equipment on the right hand side removed and air brake equipment fitted to the left hand side behind a cowling. The vac pipes on the buffer beam were of course exchanged for air pipes. This change coincided with the withdrawal of the old vac braked hoods and implementation of the air braked CDAs.

 

The livery seems to have been consistent with a red/orange colour for the bodywork, black for the underframe and waspstripes for the buffer beams.

 

I'm sure others will be able to correct/supplement the above.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[Captain Kernow]

Is this 'Denise' featured in a few of the photos in my 'Burngullow in the Mist' thread? - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60155-burngullow-in-the-mist/

[Rods_of_Revolution]

Is this 'Denise' featured in a few of the photos in my 'Burngullow in the Mist' thread? - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60155-burngullow-in-the-mist/

 

It certainly is! These days she's looking a little worse for wear. Shortly after your photographs were taken she received an impromptu livery application courtesy of the local youth and a few tins of Halfords finest!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack 

[Rods_of_Revolution]

Thanks Jack, very helpful. Interesting to hear about the additions. So quite a late change to airbrake. So this cowling was part of the retro fit to house the AB equipment. https://flic.kr/p/iH7DtN You can make out the Vac cylinder on the valance in the J Vaughan photo, she was certainly caked in clay in JV's photo, and there's certainly a standard exhaust and nothing attached to the roof.

 

Yes, that contains the air brake kit. To modify the Hornby one I suspect that you'd removed the plated handrails and replace them with brass wire, then add the vacuum brake tank and pipes to the front. The late change to air braking was purely because the vac-braked clayhoods lasted until 1987 when they were phased out and replaced by air braked CDAs.

 

Am not sure it is a sentinel...my research led me to believe it is some one-off English Electric which is why I was having trouble locating any drawings.

 

Mind you, in those links above, someone has modelled a private shunter and it looks pretty convincing as a model.

 

ECC did have a EE 0-4-0 called Sharon (build no.EE3987 - ECC No. 403D), based at Moorswater for a lot of her life and I have also failed to find drawings of this EE type.

 

The locomotive in Plate 56 is almost certainly Denise prior to being overhauled in 1987. At one end I think the buffer beam still has parts of the lugs that once supported the vac pipes.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[Rods_of_Revolution]

Think Sharon was at Marsh mills and Denise is 403D.

 

You're absolutely right, Sharon is 401D and was based at Marsh Mills as well as Moorswater. That'll teach me to copy John Vaughan's captions without paying attention! In Edition 2 of his West Country Clay Trains book, Plate 221 and 218 are incorrectly captioned with 401 and 403 refering to the incorrect locomotives!

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[Rods_of_Revolution]

Thanks Jack. I didn't know that she was used at Moorswater. I only have edition 1 of Johns book, so I don't have the additional plates.

 

Sharon was moved to Moorswater from Marsh Mills in late 1989, receiving a repaint and an overhaul at this point.

 

With Edition 2 of John's book you get an additonal few sections: ECC Power, The End of the Clay Hoods, CDA Arrivals, The Silver Bullet, Closed Lines (2), ABS and Enterprise Freight, Transrail, Class 60s, China Clay Miscellany (2), EWS Operations and West Country China Clay, EWS and the 21st Century. This gives you additional plates from 218 to 256. You also get a colour sleeve with a couple of extra photographs on the back.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

[TomJ]

I totally misread the thread title as 'demise in the 80s '. I thought it would be about Carbis Wharf, the Wenford branch, Newquay signalling etc!!!

[kernowtim]

Now at bodmin

http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/update/2014-07-02/bodmin-and-wenford-railways-new-train-in-need-of-restoration/

[travelintrev]

I can add a little (probably useless) information.  The air brake equipment IIRC was a Hydrovane compressor driven by a Perkins 4.108 engine. As the Rolls Royce Diesel did not have provision for adequate power take-off to drive the required size air compressor.  I believe they were fitted by Thomas Hill. Never did get involved with the ECC locos, though we did with the quarry compressors generators & some dump trucks with same basic model engine.   Though I  did get involved with a couple of these retro-fits at ARC Whatley. 

Perkins (owners of RR at that time) did not have any in house facilities for doing that sort of work.  

 

Trev.

 

(30+ years as RR /Perkins dealer Service Engineer)

[Stoker]

I realise that it's a little late in the day to be posting on this thread, but Denise had two colour schemes. The original was a bright high-vis orange, and yellow stepwells. She was then repainted in a sort of ochre orange with black stepwells and black headlights. If you look closely in some photographs you can see where the top layer of paint has peeled away revealing the high-vis orange beneath. Here she is in original paint in air braking form with her name plates:

 

And original paint with vac brakes:
 

From what I gather, the driver crews at Rocks and Burngullow Crugwallins were rather fond of her, supposedly being a nice engine to drive. I recall that there was something of a story behind the naming of all the ECC locomotives. I suspect that one of the drivers took the Denise name plates once the Burngullow plant closure was announced as a "souvenir". No doubt we will be seeing it returned to the Bodmin and Wenford now that the restoration is going forward.