Traction News
Great Western Railway is beginning a programme of heavy overhauls on the four Class 57/6s used to haul the Night Riviera sleeper services between London Paddington and Penzance.
57602-57605 are all due to undergo extensive G-exams, with GWR understood to be the first operator to carry out such heavy level maintenance on the locomotives, which were converted from Class 47s by Brush Traction at Loughborough just under 20 years ago.
GWR HST and locomotive fleet engineer Karl Atkinson told Railways Illustrated that although they are mainly used for working the sleeper services, the requirement for three of the four locomotives to be in use six nights a week means that they are quite intensively worked and are now reaching the stage where heavy overhauls are due.
First to receive a G-exam at Laira is GWR Brunswick green 57604 Pendennis Castle, which currently holds the highest mileage of the GWR Class 57 fleet. Although it was still complete during a visit to the Plymouth depot by Railways Illustrated on October 2, work on its preparation for stripping had started.
As part of the G-exam, the locomotive will be completely stripped of all its internal equipment, leaving the empty bodyshell, which will then be repaired, where necessary, wiring checked, and repainted both internally and externally.
Most of the removed components will be sent away for overhaul, and some will be replaced by overhauled spare float components already in store at Laira to minimise the amount of time the locomotives are out of traffic. The bogies will also be sent away for overhaul by specialist contractors, although the engines will be overhauled internally by staff at Laira, the first time in a number of years that this has occurred. Work on 57604 is expected to take about five months to complete, according to M
