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

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

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

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.

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

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................

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.