Following an absence of nearly two years, having been withdrawn from service in the late summer of 2019, D1062 ‘Western Courier’ made a triumphant return to traffic, hauling the Severn Valley Railway’s Pioneer Service on Sunday 11th July.
The day featured double ‘Western’ haulage, with duties shared between D1062 ‘Western Courier’ and D1015 ‘Western Champion’. ‘Champion’ started the day with the 09:35 departure from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth. Returning to Bewdley, the crowds gathered as ‘Courier’ appeared for the first time in nearly two years and took over the service, departing with a roar from both Maybach engines with the midday service back to Bridgnorth and return to Kidderminster. Both ‘Champion’ and ‘Courier’ then topped and tailed for the final round trip to Bridgnorth, ‘Champion’ leading to Bridgnorth departing Kidderminster at 15:10 and ‘Courier’ leading from Bridgnorth and returning to Kidderminster at 18:00 (so that everyone could quickly return home in time to watch the Euros football final between England and Italy).
The coaches were full on all three return trips and ‘Courier’ performed faultlessly on both of her return trips and sounded superb as ‘Maybach Power’ was applied to both engines at all of the expected locations along the Severn Valley Railway.
‘Courier’s’ return to traffic has not been without challenges and was certainly delayed as a result of the numerous COVID lock downs through 2020 and in the early parts of 2021. However the Western Locomotive Association was not going to give up on its commitment to the Severn Valley Railway to have ‘Courier’ available again to haul revenue earning services by the end of June 2021.
During her time out of service, work was initially focussed on ‘Courier’s’ bogies following reports that B end had tilted. It was quickly identified that the pivot on the driver’s side equalising beam has worn to a point where the bush had almost disintegrated, thus taking the centre spring out of alignment and pulling over the axle box. The beam was successfully removed and replaced in March 2020. At the same time, one cardan shaft was removed and sent away for rectification, ahead of all work coming to a grinding halt.
A resumption of work through the summer of 2020, following the initial lock downs from March through to June, focused on the refitting of the modified cardan shaft and culminated in a loaded test run on Sunday 11th October 2020. The bogie rectification
