RN 256 - Update on the Bagnall's restoration

3rd October 2006

The badly rusted and by most accounts totally derelict and irrepairable Bagnall locomotives Nos. 9, 10 & 11, are still receiving the sort of meticulous attention that is needed to bring them; one-by-one back to full working order.
Zach van Straden has sent us the following comments:

"The pistons have been fitted as have the cylinder heads - one will have to be removed again tomorrow to fix a misalignment on the manifold. The current problem is the injector pump - pictures herewith - which as you can see - like its mates from Port Shepstone is very badly rusted. Sadly however it has been informed that this condition is no passport to an early retirement to the nearest scrap yard (I am much older and still working!) and I have , and will be for quite a while yet, talking nicely to it freeing its rusted innards and preparing it phsycologically and physically (albeit with a whole bunch of space age crutches and aids) for its next long service life. The moment of truth should happen sometime in next week - including yours, I have promised a video of the event to a lot of other interested parties especially those whom I suspect find it hard to believe that this rusted pile of scrap could ever run again."