Eastleigh Works Blog

Little and often

2012-02-18T17:05:00.003Z

So I had to tempt fate by gloating about how I'd managed to blog more often.
Then we hit a really busy period and my feet haven't touched the ground meaning that the blog has been neglected.

So lets catch up on whats been going on at ZG.

Firstly I'm glad to say that we got to the bottom of the errant clutch on 01508. It turned out to be damaged splines on the ex MOD friction plate that meant that it wouldn't travel quite far enough along the shaft. Replacing the plate with another we had in stock has solved the problem and the loco is back in one piece after some 4 year's stripped down. Now all we need are some new brake rigging parts and control cables and we are back in business. It will be nice to have a second working Ruston on site, although the presence of the KOF means that the 07 has been taking it easy of late.
The Kof is a great piece of kit for moving underground stock, something we do a lot of lately. Not only can you see really well from it, but its also quick and easy to start and ready to move almost straight away.
The brakes are the latest item to receive attention and they now do what they are supposed to, having previously been either all on or all off.
The lads have fitted it with a whistle that sounds suprisingly like an underground train. No prizes for guessing where that came from!

Arlington is pressing on with the tracks out back and Bay 2 is now fully connected, with the start being made on Bay 1 on Thursday. The big cranes are both in place and very nice they look too.

There always seems to be something in the paint shop and recently it has been 66s for GBRf. The standard that Arlington manages to get is very impressive, which is probably why they keep winning work.

The LU owned TC is on the shops now, ready for work on its bogies, whilst the inspection saloon looks like a skeleton as the old skin has been removed.

From nowhere, we seem to spend a lot of time doing work for LU these days and long may it continue.

It was sad to see our MP Chris Huhne in the news this week for all the wrong reasons. Whatever my views on his politics, I am in no doubt that he has been a friend to the Works since we've been there and for that reason I wish him well.

I'm trying my hardest to find a home for off lease units over the coming weeks and will have to leave the Works in the capable hands of other people. I'm sure I won't be missed too much and that everything will carry on as normal.
Toilets will still block up, delivery drivers will get lost on site and Eastleigh Panel will still phone up with trains to come on site that we knew nothing about.

There are a number of visits planned for March including a delegation from Russia, that should be fun. I hope we will get to see 73119 back with us as well, if only for a few days.

Meantime I have a job to do in Edinburgh next week, as well as surveying a new site closer to my home.

Nobody ever said it would be easy, this job..........

Good News

2012-01-22T13:22:00.003Z

KRS is pleased to announce that we have secured a further five year lease on the Works at Eastleigh, up until 31st December 2016.
This gives us a good secure basis to continue our expansion and is in line with the requirements of several of our key customers who have asked to use our facilities until then.
Given that we have only just celebrated our 5th anniversary on site, we can now look forward to celebrating our 10th in 2016.

On a less vital but very pleasing note, our newly acquired micro shunter (the KOf) is bedding in very well and has surprised everybody with its capabilities. Not only can it pull a four car train of 67 tube stock around the yard, but also during the first site tour of 2012 it was seen pulling a 120ton class 57. A very bizarre sight but its a sign of how well the little thing is behaving. We will keep trying it with heavier loads it until we find its useful shunting limit, but we have already found out that it can fly along when needed. We ran out of track to find its top speed but I would expect it to be about 25-30mph.

The other bit of shunter news is that work has resumed on ex MOD 428 ( 01508) which was purchased from the MOD as a source of spares, having been derailed and had its brake rigging cut off and its rods removed. 428 now has a full set of side rods and looks like a proper loco again, whilst the fitters have been making progress in determining why the clutch and torque converter seem not to have sufficient clearance to be assembled correctly. Something silly and obvious will turn out to be the problem and we will find it. After that, its straightforward to bring the loco back into working order, the engine having already been overhauled and the missing brake rigging acquired.

The work Arlington is doing in putting back the tracks at the South end of the site is progressing nicely with a temporary line between bays 3 and 2 already in situ. The first of the two cranes being installed in bay 2 has already seen use with the second due to be installed next week.

The rate of change on site is very evident and people are noticing. Apart from seeing Micheal Portillo on the tv last week being shown around bay 3 and the van shop, one of the visitors on the last tour had already been round once in November and was very surprised how many changes there had been.

Its going to be a good week for Cheltenham up as the boiler comes back for fitting to the frames. The progress with the project has been very impressive and its on line to be back in steam in the late Spring.

Finally the retaining wall for the new inspection pit in the former bosh shop has been installed and its getting closer to time to lay the track into the building. The bosh shop occupies the site of the roads that used to run into the original LSWR paint shops, so its another example of reinstating something that went before.

and so far I have kept to my new year's resolution to blog at least twice each month.
Can't be bad!

Mystic Freg examines her crystal ball

2012-01-03T13:48:00.010Z

So 2012 is already underway by three days, and its come in with another big blow meaning that my poor roof gets another battering from Mother Nature.

Still it is traditional at this time of year to dust of the stargazing charts and make predictions for the new year. This time we have employed the talents of that Diva of the occult, Madame Mystic Freg.

So without further ado, and before she drinks too much of the sherry , lets hear what she has to say about the Works over the coming months........

Cravens will inhabit the Works if a Canadian soldier can ever make good his promises.

An overweight man from far away will have sleepless nights as his gold is boiled by frogs to move platforms in the West.

The short stranger from foreign lands will be taken for a journey to the sea and will bring much happiness

Much red gold will be sold to foreign merchants

Five years of good harvests will be announced to the World

An old friend will appear with a new suit of clothes but his good name restored

Pilgrims will come to the temple to see old ways, bringing gold for the elderly

A school will rise and fly the nest in the spring

What was three, will be four and will grow

Wise men from Russia will pay homage to a Scotsman's palace

An old soldier that was wounded will be returned to health and given work

Men from Wales, Italy and Poland will talk with flamed tongues

Peopletrucks will continue to multiply

A leaping black cat will do or die

All of which may or may not happen, if the mad old bat is to believed.

Still, here's one of my own.

In 2012 the bastard son of the DFT known as IEP will be laid to rest. And about time too.

By the way, the first person to email us with the correct version of what all of that really means, or even the most correct answer, will win a personalised tour of the Works

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T12:18:00.002Z

Hopefully everyone has had an enjoyable Christmas and we're all looking forward to a rewarding New Year in 2012.

2011 finished much as you might expect with surprises right up to the end! Three Class 59s arrived just before Christmas for heavy maintenance by Arlington. With all the 57s about and a 31 on a Test Train it's looking more and more like a diesel depot!

Also arriving before Christmas was Peppercorn A1 'TORNADO' with its support coach. Built in the 21st Century to a 1940s design, it's certainly an impressive machine.

What can we look forward to in 2012? Well, that's the big question and one that few of us really know the answer to but it is fairly certain that there will continue to be interesting and even exciting things to see happening at the Works. Don't blink, you might miss it!

All the best for 2012.

Carl.

The North Wind Doth Blow

2011-12-14T20:53:00.002Z

Well allright, it came from the West but boy did it blow and rain on Monday night.
The problem with an old building is always the roof but ours stood up to the storm force winds pretty well, with only two cracked panes out of the 4000 odd up there.

Its a big roof and keeping it in good order is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge (used to be). Each of the four bays has 800 8 x 3ft panes of glass, whilst the overall roof area is 40,000 square yards.

On the ground, the Works looks more and more like an MPD, with 57s and 73s in every corner. We expect to see more of them as the cold weather starts to bite later in the week.

All we've got to do is last out the storms that are forecast for the weekend

2011-12-11T17:42:00.003Z

Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy Birthday dear Eastleigh Works, Happy Birthday to us.

On the 11th December 2006 the first train to arrive at the newly reopened Eastleigh Works, courtesy of GBRf and Angel Trains.

The train consisted of 4 x 153 , numbers 302, 308, 355 and 374

We will have to celebrate this in 2012 I think

adieu to old friends

2011-12-05T16:03:00.003Z

Last week we said goodbye to the 150s we have had in store. Smart looking units, its a nice way to start the 60th month since I first took the place on. Back then it was 153s and 158s from Wales and Wessex that turned up, shortly before Christmas 2006.

It was a very different site then, with new shiny transit vans infesting the place like parasitic growth, and rusty rails leading into eerily quiet workshops. Contractors were busy ripping out tracks at the back end of the Works and there were still a few Alstom bods holed up in the main office building.

Of course its easy to be wise in hindsight, and I always thought that the Works had a good future. Yet despite all of that, I don't really think I gave much thought to how things would pan out at Eastleigh, other than thinking that it had a good chance of survival, even if it didn't make any money.

The truth is of course that a good idea has its own momentum and its sometimes easy to forget just how green I was back then. I didn't know anybody at Arlington Fleet or Siemens and was just concentrating on storing 442s and 15X units for my friends at Angel.
Now the Works is once again a proper engineering centre and storing units seems to be a little straightforward and run of the mill, compared with the great things that happen in the main shops.
I never thought that I would get underground trains on site and yet last week I was happily driving an ex Victoria Line unit up and down the yard under its own power.
I also didn't anticipate the recession of 2008, or the fact that Eastleigh would have to stand on its own two feet from 2009 onwards, rather than be a satellite of our Shoebury operations.

The transit vans are long gone, the demand for posh vans having never recovered from the Banking crash of 08. Shoebury is now a clear of any commercial activity and staggers on under the dead hand of MOD management. Yet Eastleigh continues to grow from strength to strength.

I'm all toured out, having shown 4 groups around the Works in as many weeks. Its quite enjoyable showing people what we do, although it is getting harder to find the time away from the daily grind to do it.
Apart from the enthusiastic amateurs, I also enjoy showing potential customers around the place and last week we had a particularly satisfying reaction from one of their engineers. He did a perfect demonstration of jaw dropping when he looked into the front of Bay 4 and saw just how huge the place is. When I showed him another three bays like it his reaction was just as marked.
" I didn't think places like this still existed" was his comment.

Sums it all up for me, that

2011-12-05T13:12:00.001Z

We all knew that there was a lot of interest in the work that goes on here at Eastleigh Works, hence this blog and the decision in 2011 to operate guided public tours. However, none of us really expected the interest to be a high as it is. We recently announced our first four tours for 2012 and all were fully booked within just four days!

Unfortunately this means we have a lot of people who have been unsuccessful in applying for tickets and who will be receiving letters shortly explaining this. We have to limit numbers to a manageable level or the visit takes too long and with the Works so busy it's already eating into the working day to provide the tours in the first place.

The up side is that all the people I've spoken to and those who've emailed and written following their visits have enjoyed it and many want to come again....we must be doing something right.

Let's not forget that the reason we've done these tours is to raise money for the Mayor of Eastleigh's charities and we're proud to say that we have raised over £1000 in 2011. Thank you to everyone for your support in this.

Cheers,
Carl.

2011-11-16T17:12:00.001Z

Firstly I should apologise to everybody over how long its been since my last post ( confession?). I'll say three Hail Marys and hope to be forgiven

The reason is (of course) because we are run off our feet down here as the work continues to come in. Looking over the 12 months since we started this blog we have taken on more staff, laid more track and renovated more buildings and yet we never seem to have enough space. As of next week the yard is officially full until something moves out to make space for new arrivals.

Not that anybody is complaining here. The growth in work allows us to invest in the infrastructure in order to create business in the future. Even the impending world financial meltdown doesn't seem as if its going to harm us here (touch wood) as the spend spend spend school of running our railways notices how much cheaper it is to make older but good reliable vehicles work even harder for their money.

And its nice to know that people are starting to sit up and take notice of what we are doing here. I met up with the council's economic development people on site and they were frankly a bit lost for words at the scale of the growth in business on site. The expansion of the area now in use for railway work here is pretty impressive. In the past 12 months it has almost doubled to the extent that there is only one small part of the main building that is not in use.
For those who came to the Eastleigh 100 event, the area where the stalls were is now being refurbished to allow carriage and wagon overhauls, courtesy of new lines being installed out the back of the Works, where the old traversers used to be. The groundwork has been done and the panels are stacked up ready to be laid.

Even the old Bosh shop has a big hole in the outer wall for a line to be laid over a new deep inspection pit that is being built. The rails are on site and the new pit wall is being constructed next week.

Some of my favourite news is the pending arrival of two new 30 ton overhead cranes for installation into Bay 2 by Arlington. What odds could you have got for this back in 2006? I also am proud of the installation of a short length of 4th rail that allows us to power up underground cars at the Works, something else that nobody could have predicted. I've spent a happy afternoon learning how to make the various automated announcements work on 72 tube stock, another first for me.

The appearance of two old standard stock tube cars for dismantling is a bit sad. These two cars are in NSE livery, having been brought back to the mainland from the Isle of Wight some 20 years ago. These ancient vehicles were converted from standard LuL cars at Eastleigh Works in the 1960s so they have a connection with the Works that goes back a long way. Parts from these two cars will be used to create a working train of standard stock for London Underground so its not all bad news.
The tiny KOf shunters are creating a bit of a stir. We're sworn to secrecy but we may even give them a chance to stretch their legs next year. There is just the small matter of getting them running properly first but one of them is very nearly there.

I'm very conscious that the 5th anniversary of the reopening of the Works is looming this December and we will announce some really good news to coincide with that.
In the meantime we have decided that the theme for the 2012 calendar will be the first five years, highlighting some of the vehicles that have played there part in our recent history.
As before we will be selling copies of the calendar via our website so please contact us via www.rail-services.net if you want one.

I've just seen a 66 on load 8 come past under the window so its time to go and do some shunting in the dark. Still at least its not raining.........

Another Busy Week

2011-10-22T10:15:00.001+01:00

As each week comes and goes we just keep getting busier!

We had our second public tour on Thursday 20th which went down well with the 27 participants. All being well, we should be releasing tour dates for early 2012 in early November.

With the recent departure of 73119 we've seen 08933 in use as second shunter as part of its testing following repairs. We've also received, on loan from Northumbria Rail, two ex DB (German Railways) Kof Class 323 shunters. These are a lot different to normal British designs so should attract some attention once up and running.

Big news at the moment is Network Rail's investment in new 'Snow Trains'. Eastleigh's playing it's part in this with modifications and repaints to the three De-Icing GLVs and NR's recently acquired Class 57 locomotives, all of which were (briefly) on site on Thursday 20th.

Another 'first' (at least in this era of the Works) is the expected arrival of a railtour (1Z37 Routes and Branches III) into the Works later today, top 'n' tailed by Class 37s. Expected to be onsite for less than 10 minutes!

As always, you can see the goings on on my photo website www.carlswatson.com/trains.html

Cheers,
Carl.

All change

2011-09-26T13:54:00.000+01:00

Well, the news is out and I'm afraid its true. Our celebrity loco 73119 Borough of Eastleigh is leaving us for pastures new.
However, whilst I will be sad to see it go, its actually very good news for the loco which will be joining the GBRf fleet hauling services trains over the south of England.
Given that we purchased 73119 as a non runner some years ago, the fact that it can enter service with a freight operator at short notice is a sign of how much the condition of the loco has been improved under our care. The engineers from GBRf came to view the loco some days ago and commented that it was better than quite a few of the others in their operational fleet.
So why sell it?
Well the truth is that we don't have the length of line to do justice to a 90mph loco, despite the fact that its been a good performer with us. I've always believed that the best way to "preserve" a machine is to use it for what it was intended and by selling 119 we are ensuring its continued maintenance over the coming years.
So whilst we are all sad to see it leave us, you can be sure we will be seeing it again over the coming years as it does the job it was designed for. It's come a long way from the water logged loco that had spent years in the north of Scotland with its cab windows open to the elements.

We have several plans in the pipeline for a replacement loco, more suited to our activities. Watch this space

I'm also glad to announce that the first of the Charity Works visits was a success, both for the visitors and for us. All parties agreed it was a good day all round and we raised £100+ for charity. The remaining dates for the rest of the year are filling up nicely and our target of £1000 in 3 months is likely to be surpassed.

We also welcomed two new residents to the Works this week. Eastleigh built Merchant Navy class 35005 Canadian Pacific has come home to stay with us, whilst we can add a new class to the list of vehicles that have been to the Works since it re-opened in in 2006, with the arrival of the first of what will be a few class 150 DMUs on Friday. It promises to be a busy time in October with numerous mainline runs for trains based at the Works, as well over 50 more vehicles arriving.

Having spent the summer laying new lines and repairing the roof of the main shops, we can now get on with doing the work that pays our wages. I will try to do more regular posts as there will be a lot happening between now and Christmas (There, I said it)

Meanwhile thanks for the continued interest in our little corner of the railway world.

Want to Visit the Works?

2011-09-02T14:39:00.001+01:00

You asked and we listened! Each month for the rest of 2011 we will hold guided visits around the Works. If these are successful then we'll continue into 2012.

Full details can be found on the KRS Website www.rail-services.net/visiting.html

Much has changed since the Eastleigh 100 celebrations so take the opportunity to come and find out for yourself.

Only 20 places are available on each visit so download your application form and apply now to avoid disappointment.

A charge of £10 per person will be made with all proceeds going to the Mayor of Eastleigh's charities.

We look forward to seeing you.

New Sidings

2011-08-21T16:21:00.003+01:00

The School Holidays normally represent a bit of a quieter time with staff taking much needed Holidays to recharge their batteries and spend time with their families - even the MD has had some time off!

Despite this, work has still been going on completing the new sidings, both inside Bay 5 and outside at the south end of the site. These will shortly be completed and give us an additional 250 metres of under cover siding space and another 200 metres of outside siding space and if the commercial demand is there then more track can and will be laid.

Bay 5 is already host to five sets of underground cars and one of the external sidings already has six bogie tanker wagons on it! We try not to let the grass grow under our feet, or should that be tracks!

It's worth keeping an eye on the KRS website, especially the Latest News section (www.rail-services.net/news.html), as that is updated regularly and will often be the first place you'll see new developments.

End Of An Era ( and start of another )

2011-07-06T19:01:00.003+01:00

It was with a bit of sadness today that we moved the last remaining traverser at Eastleigh Works for its final journey. At one stage there were at least three on site, one at the London end (perversely labelled no 2, although referred to as number 1) and two more at the Southampton end of the site.

These last two were chopped up during Alstom's scorched earth policy when they were retreating from site in 2006, but the last one soldiered on to live under KRS operations. Despite a hiccup when a demolition lorry managed to bring down the catenary stanchions, it remained in working order, albeit little used in recent years.

Why so?

Well, for moving large volumes of single vehicles, a traverser is a jolly useful bit of kit to have around. The problem is that most of our trains are now either in fixed car formations or only need to cross over the traverser to the opposite line. In this case it becomes a hindrance to shunting, somehow always managing to be in the wrong position.
The writing was on the wall when we laid a turnout into Bay 4 to allow longer trains to access a road that previously could only be reached by the traverser. This meant that it now couldn't reach the other two roads so we plain tracked them as well.

The discovery of tin worm in the deck supports in 2008 didn't help. Although the main structure was still sound, the cost of re-decking a piece of kit that we didn't need meant that it just sat in position on the road into Bay 5 ( the former C1 road)

What has finally killed it is the winning of a contract to maintain tube trains on site. The traverser has a series of idler rollers between the rails that are high enough to foul the centre shoe of these trains, and as the new storage sidings for them are on the line served by the traverser, it had to go.

We've seen it off in dignified style though. This morning at 7.30 we connected it up and drove it to the end of the lines to a position where it will be cut up. It worked perfectly, despite not having moved since Eastleigh 100 in May 2009. A small audience of us watched it happen and solemnly agreed that they knew how to build things in England in the past.

It's not all doom and gloom though. Within 12 hours the space where the traverser was sitting has been fitted with new shiny concrete sleepers (with Gucci Pandrol Fastclip fixings for those who know or care about such things).

We have used the down-time created by the civil engineering necessary to install the new sidings, to sort this whole section of track out in one fell swoop.
When its all finished in a couple of weeks we will have two newly built turnouts and over 200 metres of covered road, in what was once a derelict space.
The approach tracks will be smooth and level and quite up to the job of repeated shunting of underground cars

So sadness of the loss of an old bit of Works history, but combined with new installation and growth in our business. If it had to go, that's a pretty good reason.

KRS Website Updates

2011-06-27T11:02:00.000+01:00

After a bit of a lull, so much going on there's not been time to keep the News page updated!

Now bang up to date, the KRS Latest News page gives an insight into what's happening and links to some pictures and videos

With so much more in the pipeline I'll try and keep the News page updated more regularly.

Cheers,
Carl.

All Change please

2011-06-25T16:46:00.002+01:00

June is turning out to be an interesting month in our corner of Hampshire. Not only has Test Cricket arrived at the nearby Rose Bowl (it rained, quelle surprise) but there has also been a game of musical chairs with the rolling stock at the Works.
The Observer Corps contingent on Campbell Road bridge have seen a variety of comings and goings, some by rail and others by road. Apart from the usual swap over of wagons for repair and overhaul, we have also seen some long stored wagons leaving for further use. Freightliner,DBS, DRS and GBRf locos have been on site to collect rolling stock and a number of wagons have been scrapped for component recovery.
Even one of our long stored 508s had a day out to Working recently, in company with the sparkling Arlington liveried translators and a GBRf 66.

But perhaps the most telling sight has been the delivery of ex Victoria Line tube stock by road. Unlike previous deliveries of mainly derelict vehicles, these ones are straight out of service and in good condition.
Without going into commercial details, we are expecting quite a few more of these over the coming weeks and are preparing the site to accept them, including providing new sidings. Although this is not the first time we have laid new tracks, in the past this has been limited to putting back pieces of line removed by Alstom. Now we are investing in some serious new facilities including 250 metres of under cover roads in what used to the the Works machine shop. Two brand new turnouts are being manufactured in Wales for us and these will arrive on site shortly.
To be honest the old machine shop area (or C1 road as it was recently known) has been a bit of a dead space for us since it was stripped of useful equipment in the Alstom closing down sale. Now a 120 x 15 yard space has been prepared for the new roads to be installed, with one hundred years of accumulated dust and rubbish being removed.

Less spectacular but just as useful, we are also reinstating two sidings at the bottom end of site that used to serve no2 traverser (long gone).
The investment by Knights Rail will top £100K for these new works and is a further sign of our confidence in the business at Eastleigh. I've even moved into a new office in the main office block. Of course its a complete coincidence that the room is the one that Mr Drummond had for his own use in 1909 (yeah right). It is very useful to be able to look out of the window and see what is going on in the yard.

So its all go at the Works, with new trains coming in and other long standing residents leaving us. One I will be both sad and happy to see leave this week is the NRM owned 306 unit, which is going back to the heart of the Great Eastern. We've even managed to get it moved by rail which means it will enjoy a scoot on its old stamping grounds through Shenfield on Tuesday evening. My first job on BR was working on these (we called them rattlers) so its good to have been able to help this historic survivor find a good home. I will of course have to visit it at the famed Chappel Beer Festival in September. Only for research purposes, you understand.

There's still a lot to do in the coming weeks. The contractors move in shortly to start digging up the floor to take the new tracks in the C1 road and our forgotten ex MOD Ruston LSSH will be seeing the light of day for Arlington to do their magic on it. Having used an 08 recently I appreciate what a good design the Ruston is and two are always better than one.

So a long post this time as there's been a lot of news to cover. We've got a visit by the great and good from the NRM coming up shortly and maybe even some more steam news in the offing. Meanwhile its back the mundane work of sorting out the latest leaks in the roof (I blame the cricket for the weather) and doing our bit to keep the trains running in the south of England, just as the place has done for 100 years.

2011-06-06T10:46:00.002+01:00

And now for something completely different (cue a large foot descending from Heaven)

Two things happened in May 2001 that were personal milestones for me and that had a direct bearing on the long journey that eventually ended up with me taking on the deserted Works, with its rusty tracks and rows of Ford Transits back in 2006.

Firstly on 11th May I said my last farewells to my Dad at his bedside, after he had been through a long illness. It was Dad who first kindled my interest in railways as a kid. He had grown up a stones throw from Kings Cross in the 1930s and had seen all of the Gresley pacifics, P2s and even no. 10000. I was dragged along to just about every fledgling preservation centre in the 1960s and was just old enough to remember being shown steam at Waterloo in 1968. Little did any of us know then..........
In fact if you look closely at the crowd shot of 4472s non stop run departure from Kings Cross there is a short trousered lad who looks surprisingly like me.

As they say in the King James Bible, in the midst of life we are in death, and I'd like to think that my old Dad will be looking down approvingly at what we are doing at the place that maintained and built the engines I saw on the narrow platform ends at Waterloo all those years ago.

Well played old un

Another happier date was the 10 year anniversary of the founding of Knights Rail Services Ltd which passed on 31st May. Unless you have run your own business you can't really understand how proud you feel when dates like this come along. Lots has changed since we started, not only with Knights Rail but also with the whole rail industry. A colleague of mine suggested that putting my own name on the business was a dangerous move because if it went bust people would associate it with me personally. I disagreed and with hindsight I think I was right. Having my name up there on every letter, invoice, bill and contract made me focus on how important it was to make the thing successful. I still marvel at how often other companies change their name. Perhaps if the directors had their own names in the company they might be in it for the longer term.

So a different sort of post this time; a bit more reflective than usual.

Normal service will be resumed shortly as we come to terms with what looks like being a crazy time for us as business takes off. Too much to write about here (always leave em wanting more Darling) but you know its a good sign when we are laying new lines both inside and outside. Oh and for a clue, watch the number (not the length) of conductor rails on site

Getting Back To Work

2011-05-07T12:48:00.002+01:00

The bumper period of bank holidays has almost passed and we can now get back to the mundane job of earning an honest crust at the Works.

The biggest recent news is the christening of the new extended Arlington area in bay 3 by the arrival of the Speno grinder for its annual overhaul. For those of you who remember the Works under it previous owners, or who saw it during the E100 celebrations, this is the former wheelshop area which was left as a large derelict area full of deep holes in the floor after Alstom had sold all of the equipment.
Arlington has spent large amounts of money relaying the tracks and filling the holes and consequently now has a workshop that is over 250 yards long.

The Speno grinder has been a regular sight on the network over the past few years and has previously used Effingham Junction's former carriage washing shed for maintenance. However its a complicated bit of kit and working under a low roof with no cranes had made this a difficult operation. Originally we planned to let Speno use a track in bay 4 near where Siemens carry out their unit overhauls but once they saw what was possible at the Works, the job just snowballed and it made sense to put it into the Arlington area. A joint team from Arlington and Speno has been working on the grinder which has been split into its constituent vehicles (try doing that with jacks !) and is undergoing extensive overhaul.

I showed a BBC filmcrew what was happening in the shop from one of the overhead cranes and they were completely dumbfounded at the amount of work that was going on.

"I didn't think that this sort of thing was still done in Britain any more" one of them told me.

Wrong!

The other development on site is the growing presence of class 66 locomotives. On one day last week we had 8 of them on Works, 6 for warm storage, one for fuelling and the last for wheelset and bogie overhaul.

Finally we said farewell to 33012 this week, when it left on its mainline test run to Swanage in convoy with 73136 (an old friend as first loco at the re-opened Works and the newly painted 73205. When I first agreed to let 33012 be overhauled at the Works I had little idea of how good a job would end up being done on it, with help and input from its owning group and many of the companies on site. It looked breathaking in the sun as it purred out on what was to be a troublefree run to Wareham at speeds of up to 75mph.

I'll miss having a Crompton on the Works.

Meanwhile it promises to be an interesting few weeks coming up with deliveries from London Underground expected to feature strongly. Must get round to laying down the 4th Rail

Sunny Days on the Southern

2011-04-20T12:01:00.002+01:00

I have clearly gone into a parallel universe. Not only is the sun shining at the Works in April but also the place seems full of diesel locos

Not only are there people swarming over an 08 in the main shop,but also a shiny Crompton behind it and a slghtly oily 50 behind that. In the yard was a test train with a 31 and 73 top and tailing. Don't they all know its the 21st century?

Outside the DRS 47s have been running up after bringing the boat train down from Jocklandshire. By all accounts it went very well and was fully loaded with punters. Double heading was the order of the day at Eastleigh with double headed DRS 47s, Freightliner 66s and DBS 66/67 combos all running past the gate within a short period.

Excess power units on trains? Don't tell the IEP gurus at the DFT or they'll make it compulsory.

Oh and today is Hitler's birthday. He was another one of those foreign types who wanted to shut the Works ( Well allright, not him personally but his Heinkels had a pretty good go in 1942). Well yah boo sucks to you matey, coz we're still here and you're not.

Excuse me whilst I just play out of this bunker

Fotopic Replacement

2011-03-22T11:04:00.000Z

Most people will now be aware that Fotopic, the popular photo hosting service, has ceased to be. No-one seems to know why but the service has been down now for almost two weeks and most railway photographers are opting to setup replacement sites.

My own Fotopic site which chronicled the day to day activities going on at Eastleigh Works has now been replaced by my own photo website which I am slowly building up http://www.carlswatson.com/.

It will take quite some time to get the historical collections reloaded to this new site but very shortly I should have all the collections since the start of March 2011 loaded and visible to all. The next task will be to upload all the photos since the start of 2011 and then previous years. It will take a long time but there should be a regular record again once I've loaded the first stage from beginning of March 2011.

Thanks for your patience,

Carl.

2011-03-07T19:04:00.000Z

A busy couple of weeks with a Crompton (D6515/33012) overhauled to mainline standards and unveiled to the waiting cameras on 16th February.

Followed on 3rd March by another 'first' for the rejuvenated Works with 'CHELTENHAM' being lifted off its wheels and becoming the first loco to have this done inside the Works since the 1960s

2011-02-23T09:00:00.003Z

Its another dull and damp day at the Works and the forecasters tell us this is in for the rest of the week. However there is a noticeable air of optimism on the site as the evenings draw out and Christmas seems a respectable distance behind us.

I've never understood why we put the clock back in Winter. Apart from the real sense of depression that it creates in me, it costs money when at the drop of a hat we need an extra hour of lighting at the Works. If you ever saw the number of light fittings at the Works you would know that this is no small thing. I challenge anybody not to say that they don't shrink a little inside on that night when the drive home in the evening is in the pitch black for the first time. Spring seems a very long way off then and I still don't understand why we do it every year. It can't be the farmers, as they have more lights than enough on their modern plant and even deliberately harvest some crops at night. Scottish school children are also cited as a reason but how many walk to school in 2011 anyway? I'm sure the Scottish Assembly would be happy to do their own thing if it suited them. Where's that blue painted Mel Gibson when you need him?

So please Mr Cameron, can we stick to BST this year? It'll save money, reduce our carbon footprint and make me and all us southern softies much happier. What more reason do you need?

Meanwhile, back in the present, there is a palpable spring (groan) in our steps down here. After years of being derelict there are moves afoot to reopen the former wheelshop area as a general repair workshop. There are some big holes in the floor to fill in but Arlington are biting on the bullet and that can only be good news.
The yard is as full as I've ever seen it and we are having to turn away storage work. The obvious answer to that is to lay more track and we are planning to do just that in the summer. Small piles of sleepers are appearing on site at strategic locations. That will make the Google Earth satellite views even more out of date.

The prospects for 2011 seem brighter than ever before as the word gets around that the Works is a good place to do business. We have almost come to the end of the 444 programme and everybody seems happy with how its gone and are looking forward to the next batch of units to come in. More shunting turns for the ED and 07

The 71A Crompton is due to be unveiled shortly and it looks simply fantastic. I can't believe just how good it looks even though I know how much hard work has gone into it.
We will be even recreating the famous "school photo" taken of what was thought then would be the last Crompton to be overhauled here by BR. I bet the people in that photo never thought we'd be doing another one in 2011.

Yet another reason to feel cheerful

So to quote Spike Milligan

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris
(I wonder where the birdies is ?)

Now back to checking traction motor cases for serial numbers................

2011-02-06T19:31:00.002Z

In a move that kept below the radar of the enthusiast grapevine, KRS was able to purchase and take delivery of a Mk2 coach from Serco Railtest at Derby on the 3rd of February.

So given that Mk2s are sat mouldering away on many storage sites (including ours), what is so special about this one?

Well ADB 975290 was known most recently as Serco Railtest's Test Car 6 and was fitted with a large generator set and numerous fittings to make it compatible with such things as HSTs. It was also passed for 125mph running so it far from a run of the mill Mk2.

It started life at Derby Works in 1964 as 13396, one of a batch of 18 Mk2 FKs (corridor first) that were delivered to a Southern region that still used steam locos extensively. As such it was fitted with dual brakes and heating allowing it to be either steam or diesel hauled. Fittingly it was delivered in Southern Region green livery.

These coaches were the most modern on the region and were used on long distance express trains including the boat trains to Southampton. A clue to this can be seen in the brackets still in situ that used to hold wooden boards with the train names painted on them.

Blue asbestos and a reduction in the express trains in the 1970s lead to withdrawal after less than ten years of front line service, but 13396 was fortunate in that it was sent to Derby for conversion into a test train vehicle. This work was completed in 1973 and although the interior was reorganised, much of the orginal polished wood panelling remains.

BR Railtest and Serco continued to maintain the coach to very high standards until early in the 21st century and it remains in good order to this day. As and when time permits we will clean the interior of any remaining asbestos and repaint the coach into its orginal green livery, in keeping with its status as a true Southern vehicle.

In the short term we will use it as a meeting room, whilst keeping it in good order so that it can be put back into mainline use at short notice. A tidy pressure ventilated Mk2 with an onboard generator is a very useful vehicle and we are hopeful that its mainline days are not over.

In the meantime, a little bit of our southern railway heritage has been saved.

2011-01-31T12:08:00.003Z

A Blast From The Past

Whilst tidying the office today I found a March 2003 copy of Railway Magazine lying around. We'd kept it because it had an article about our first train decontamination operation at MOD Shoeburyness, so I took a time to browse through it and see what a different place the railways were 8 years ago.

Apart from our article illustrated by pictures of 302s, there was a full page spread on Fragonset's facility at Derby outlining their plans for expansion and domination of the spot hire market. As we all know, the future turned out to be very different.

Eastleigh was still run by Alstom and was storing 375s (for Bombardier? I didn't know that) as well as carrying out crash repairs to 423 units 428 and 452.
Next door in the depot Fragonset (them again) collected 73104, 73139 and 33046 for movement to Carnforth.

4CEPs were operating to London Bridge and Virgin 47s were still in service, whilst GNER had a Eurostar set in traffic. Freightliner took delivery of 66564-6 at Newport where the latest class 70 was bent last week.
The last 303s or Blue Trains were sent out of service by a lone piper on December 30th whilst Siemens were using our MOD base for testing 450012 with a 47 derived shore supply.

So on a cold January in 2011 I wonder what the industry watcher of 2003 would
have made of our position now ?

Freightliner ordered more 66s but who would have predicted that we would be storing 4 of them off lease only 8 years later ?

Siemens now overhaul the 450s at Eastleigh Works so I will get a chance to meet unit 12 again soon. CEPs, VEPs and CIGs are long gone and would be completely alien to modern commuters, whilst Fragonset found out that truth and publicity are not the same thing and went down owing money to just about everybody.

Oh and Alstom baled out of Eastleigh Works leaving it to that bloke from Shoebury to pick up the pieces.

My waistline was less than it is now but I have had some fun since 2003

Here's to the next 8 years. Anybody care to make any predictions ?

Two Major Lifts in Two Days!!

2011-01-27T00:42:00.000Z

On Tuesday 25th January, 50026 was lifted for a replacement traction motor to be fitted. The following day, Wednesday 26th January, the boiler was successfully lifted off 'CHELTENHAM', marking a milestone in the overhaul of the loco.

Check out the KRS website 'Latest News' section http://www.rail-services.net/news.html or my Fotopic website http://carl-watson.fotopic.net/c1936839.html (the password will be removed from the latter as soon as approval has been given)

2011-01-20T23:04:00.002Z

A busy day today saw 2 trains arrive with wagons for store and repair. The first was hauled by a Freightliner 66 (no I don't know the number) with 21 coil carriers and arrived just after midday. The second followed on a couple of hours later with 14 bogie vans and a potash carrier behind yet another 66, this time from DBS.

This latest influx means that we have run out of siding space for the present, at least until some more stock goes out. We also have 10 or so container flats in each week for routine maintenance and whilst these spend most of their time in the workshops, they do take up room in the yard when they are swapped over.

Although wagon storage and maintenance is neither glamorous or particularly lucrative, it does make up bread and butter work and keeps people in jobs. It also generates lots of shunting for the 07, without which we would be in real trouble.

The 306 unit is safely tucked up inside, sharing its berthing with a 66 undergoing heavy maintenance and the Schools class Cheltenham. As someone who spent his early railway years working on these venerable trains its a sight I never thought I witness again. Nice simple engineering and well thought out interiors that put modern trains to shame. In this 1930s designed commuter train all of the seats line up with the windows and there is plenty of circulating room around the doors, as well as good draft large screens and a heater under every seat.

Compare that with your Voyager or Pendolino

NRM Class 306 no.017 arrives at Eastleigh Works

2011-01-14T23:35:00.000Z

Class 306 electric multiple unit no 017 arrived at Eastleigh Works on Thursday this week. It is here for asbestos removal by Knights Rail Services. Built in the late 1940s and part of the National Railway Museum collection, this unit has been in secure storage at MOD Kineton for the last few years.

As an Essex boy myself and having lived alongside the line that this unit would have run on in the mid to late 1960s it was quite fascinating watching this being unloaded and shunted through the yard and into the Works.

I also remember seeing this unit in the late 1980s when it was the last survivor of the class and was used on specials and at open days. It must be almost 25 years since I last saw it so it was quite nostalgic watching it once again.

2010-12-31T20:28:00.002Z

And so 2010 shuffles away to make way for 2011.

The last day of 2010 gave a good illustration of what the Eastleigh is all about now with 5 x GM locos on site.

Three class 59s ( 005,102 and 103) were on the Works for maintenance and upgrades to their fuel system. At the same time 66845 has been repainted into COLAS house livery in the new paint shop, whilst finally 66709 is the latest 66 into the Van shop for bogie overhaul.

Five modern locos, with three different operators being worked on by several companies.

So what can we look forward to in 2011?

Well more EMU overhauls as the Desiro programme continues and grows.
We can also expect 66s to continue to operate from the Works, for repairs, overhaul and stabling.
Wagon overhaul is now a significant activity for us and we have a full programme for 2011.
Finally we hope that the year will see significant progress with the recycling of old trains, something that has been in the offing for a while now but may at long last be due to gear up to commercial levels

Perhaps the best part of all is that over the next 12 months there will be unplanned jobs that we can't even begin to imagine and that is what makes life at Eastleigh so interesting. I'd like to see a Bulleid back on the Works but there are a few plans for other historic traction to "come home"
Finally we all look forward to seeing D6515 ( 33012 ) running on the Network again.

So I will finish off by wishing all of our supporters and friends a Happy New Year and the best of fortune in 2011

2010-12-12T19:48:00.003Z

So as we pass the 4th anniversary of the rebirth of Eastleigh Works its worth a few moments to consider just how much has been achieved and what a change has been wrought in those years.

Back in late 2006 the Works was a strange place to be. Alstom still held the lease and seemed intent on razing the site to the ground. All of the track to the south end of the site had been ripped up in the preceeding months and wherever you looked there were contractors removing equipment and scrapping vital machinery. Even the 3rd rail system was within days of being ripped out for the scrap value of the conductor rails.
Yet at the same time there were many tangible signs of the fact that the place had been in full use only a few months before.
At first we were only able to use the tracks for storage although we took very little time to fill them with DMUs and 442 Wessex Electrics. We had no shunting engine and hired 73136 to move the stock around until we were able to buy D2991 / 07007 from ERPS. Even that was surreal for the little loco was covered in a film of rust and grime and looked as if it would never run again.

Moving the clock forward a few months, what really started the change was when we agreed to rent part of the Lift shop from Alstom, intially to store rolling stock but then to allow us to maintain trains. It was at that time that we started our relationship with Arlington Fleet who had 2 x 47s that had been purchased from a scrap yard and that needed to be fully overhauled for COLAS. Within a few months they had the locos in sparkling condition and we hosted a naming ceremony/ press day to launch the locos into COLAS service. The significance of overhauled locos leaving a Works that was supposed to be shut caught the imagination of the industry and was the catalyst for many of the projects that were to become so critical to the future of the Works.
Hot on the heels of Arlington came Wabtec who set up a full production line to overhaul 153s and 158s in Bay 4. Although Wabtec have since vacated Eastleigh, their role in re-establishing the Works as a place where rail vehicles were overhauled once again can't be overstated. At their peak they had 40 or so people working on their projects, many of them former Eastleigh staff who were happy to come back to the Works.
Alongside all of this we had Network Rail's MPVs operating out of Bay 3 and then taking a much larger area in Bay 2 on a long agreement. It was through their experience of operating MPVs from the Works that they brought the overhaul programme for the rail grinders into Bay 3, making this the third area within the main building where overhauls were taking place.

A programme of test runs for the 442s was another demonstration of the value of the Works and kept the fleet in good order.

No review of the past 4 years can be complete without mention of Eastleigh 100. In many ways this was a microcosm for the story of the four years. It started in a small way through our desire to tell the world that we were still here, as well our understanding of the historical significance of the place where we worked. Left to our own devices we would probably just had a small celebration, but Chris Milner from the Railway Magazine had different ideas and offered the support of his team to make it a much bigger event. It was also interesting to talk to the local council when we planned the event. They didn't even realise that the Works was open again and the look of delight on their faces when they found out was priceless. Like the RM they were to give us invaluable help with what was becoming something completely unrecognisable from the small celebration we had originally planned.

It is history now that the E100 weekend was an astonishing success, bringing both enthusiasts and the local people onto site to show their support for the Works that refused to die. Nineteen thousand visitors came to the Works and we had peak time live broadcasts on both the BBC and ITV news programmes that weekend.

My own memories of that crazy weekend are of being overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the 40 locomotives that came home, in particular the steam engines that were such an integral part of the history of the place. One warm evening when the public had gone home I found myself alone with 3 Bulleid engines in light steam standing outside the shed where they were built and maintained throughout their life. It was one of those rare moments in life when everything is just perfect and can't be improved. I still get shivers up my spine when I recall the emotion of the weekend and all that we were able to achieve.

Since 2009 the big development has been arrival of Siemens for the overhaul of their EMUs. Since it was the winning of the South West Trains order for new trains by Siemens that was the final coffin in Alstoms tenure of the Works, it is completely fitting that the major work in Bay 4 is once again the overhaul of EMUs for the Waterloo services. Siemens are excellent people to work with and we all hope that they will be with us for many years to come.

And so to the present.

Looking around the Works last week I counted the number of synchronised (Mechan) jacks on site and was surprised to find it that there are 40 0f them in use. If you had told me that this would be the case on a cold December day in 2006, when I was shutting down the first 153s to come on site, I would have laughed in your face.

Now we have a Works where you can find skilled staff employed on the overhaul and repair of modern EMUs and class 66 diesels, alongside wagons and track mainteinace machines. There is even an Eastleigh built steam engine under overhaul in the Van Shop and apprentices halfway through their training at the Works.

I can't possibly guess where the Works goes from here. At some stage in the future we will have to spend large amounts of money undoing the neglect and under-investment of the Alstom years and to do that we will need continued success in winning big contracts. Whether or not the rail industry needs Eastleigh Works will depend on factors outside our our control and decisions made by politicians who know nothing about the railways.

Whatever else happens we have the satisfaction of knowing that in small corner of Hampshire we have proved that those people who say that we can't or shouldn't do heavy engineering in Britain in the 21st century are wrong.

Here's to the next 4 years

4th Anniversary of Re-Opening - 11th December 2011

2010-12-10T16:36:00.000Z

During a conversation last week I became aware that it was approaching the 4th Anniversary of the Works re-opening. It was 11th December 2006 when four Class 153s (302, 308, 355 and 374) arrived under their own power for storage at the re-opened site. The driver was Chris Smetham of GBRf.

How much the place has changed in those four years with established overhauls and maintenance now being undertaken by several companies on all kinds of stock from wagons to EMUs, Locos and MPVs. Whilst the yard is once again full of stored stock mainly comprising various wagon types and Mk2 coaches, there is plenty of other activity going on too.

Here's looking forward to the next year!

2010-12-02T12:59:00.002Z

Well I had to moan, didn't I. After much freezing last night fuelling the 66, this morning South Hampshire was blessed by 6 inches of the white stuff. After a 30 minute journey in through Christmas card scenes, I was rewarded with a nice exhaust plume in the yard as I inched my way up the ( ungritted) bridge approach in Campbell Road.
Richard, our Railway Manager had lain awake last night wondering if he had left the traction key in 73119 and come in early to make sure it was OK. Fortunately, all was well, with the ED humming away nicely on the 3rd rail. A small number of trains were venturing out on the network around Eastleigh Station but ours was the only diesel I could see working.

We fuelled the two GBRf 73s which needed a bit of TLC from Arlington Fleet's John to coax back into life after standing on a cold siding for too long (The EDs not John).

I can't recall seeing this much snow around here before and I'm told that it is pretty unusual.
The Works is open for business although one of the Siemens lads came in on Ski's from West End. I took the opportunity to shoot some handheld video of the site in the snow. Look up" 73119 in the snow" on youtube if you want to see it

2010-12-01T17:46:00.003Z

Its minus two out there and I'm sat waiting for a 66 and 73s to come in for fuelling at 6 o'clock.
Fuelling is something that we only started to support NR's test trains but is gradually growing to become an important part of our business. I have noticed however that the loco's never seem to come on shed during daylight hours or on nice sunny days. Still we'll take our business from wherever it comes, or at any hour.

The driver of tonight's loco is an old friend, being one of the first people to deliver off lease DMU's to us almost four years ago this month. Funny how much has happened in those four years. It was cold then too I seem to recall

Welcome to the Eastleigh Works Blog

2010-12-01T15:18:00.000Z

The aim of this blog is to provide information and promote positive discussion about what's happening at Eastleigh Works