The History of
D212 - 40012 - 97407
This locomotive was the third of the production English Electric Type
4's to enter service on British Railways (D200-D209 being prototypes).
D212 was built by the English Electric Company at their Vulcan Foundry
Works, Newton-Le-Willows, Lancashire and entered service on BR allocated to
Willesden in May 1959. From the 1st June, she moved to Crewe North, firstly on
loan and then permanently before moving to Carlisle Upperby in September 1959.
Her next depot was Camden and she was allocated there from December 1960 until
December 1965, when she moved to Bescot depot, remaining there until April 1966
when a transfer to western lines was made. August 1967 saw her transferred to
Longsight depot, where she remained until June 1968, when she was allocated to
D09 Manchester Division. She remained at D09 until June 1972 after which she
moved to D10 Preston Division. May 1973 saw her move to Carlisle Kingmoor where
she stayed until August of that year before moving back South to Longsight.
December 1978 saw her back at Carlisle Kingmoor where she remained until being
withdrawn from active service in February 1985.
Out of the 25 Class 40's that were named, only three were named at an
official naming ceremony, these being D210 Empress of Britain, D211 Mauretania
and D212 Aureol. The remaining 22 loco's all had their nameplates fitted at BR
workshops, either Crewe or Derby Works. The naming of D212 Aureol was carried
out by Mr.M.Glaister, Director of the Elder Dempster shipping line at Liverpool
Riverside Station on the 20th September 1960.
February 1974 saw her renumbered to 40012 at Longsight depot but
unfortunately by then the nameplates had been removed, so she never actually
carried the ' Aureol' nameplates with the new 'Tops' number system. The locos
last classified overhaul was at Crewe Works in June 1980 and by this time the
name 'Aureol' had once again reappeared on the loco's body sides; only this
time around it was hand painted on using stencils in red and white paint. The
loco was finally withdrawn from traffic at Crewe TMD on the 8th February 1985,
due to derailment damage, and dragged to Crewe Gresty Lane sidings for scrap.
However, due to the Crew Station remodeling scheme, she was reinstated to
traffic on 20th May 1985 at Crewe TMD and given the departmental running number
of 97407 and restricted to a maximum speed of 35 mph for use on engineering
trains only.
Withdrawal for the second time around finally took place at Crewe TMD on
the 4th April 1986 at 14:00 hours, the reason being cracked bogie frames. She
was later moved to Crewe Basford Hall Yard for scrap. On the 1st September
1986, 97407 along with sister loco 97408 (ex-40118) moved from Crewe to
Carlisle for the sole purpose of providing spares to keep the flagship of the
class D200 running to for fill her railtour commitments.
97407 remained at Carlisle until 7th September 1988 when she travelled
via Workington, Crewe and Nuneaton to Vic Berry's Yard at Leicester for
Asbestos removal to be carried out, before moving on to her new home at the
Midland Railway Centre.
The loco arrived at the Midland Railway Centre on the 3rd March 1989,
with the first working party taking place on Sunday 5th March. One of the first
job's was to replace all the missing windows, to protect the loco from the
elements of the weather and to make her secure. This done we decided to smarten
up the appearance of the loco in view that she had been requested to appear at
the last ever Coalville open day which was held on Sunday 11th June 1989. After
the loco returned from this event we set about the enormous task of restoring
her back to full running order. Off came the old paint work, numbers arrows
etc. leaving a smooth area of shining new metal beneath. Then all the rotten body
panels were replaced with new steel and undercoated in red oxide paint.
However, while working on the power unit, we discovered a massive 73
inch fracture right across the free end of the engine block. The cause was down
to not draining the coolant out of the power unit once the loco was finally
withdrawn. Once we had all got over the shock, we made several enquires with
regards to repairing the fractured block and eventually made contact with a
firm in Sheffield who specialized in stitch welding repairs on cast iron. While
this repair work was taking place, we completely repainted the whole engine
room compartment, which transformed the whole appearance of the locos interior.
Work was also well advanced on restoring both cabs with all the missing parts now
back in place and undercoating now in progress. The full restoration of the
loco took just over four years to complete but well worth every hour that was
spent on her.
212 ' AUREOL' STOLE THE SHOW.
On Wednesday afternoon 22nd April, the loco departed from the Midland
Railway Centre and headed back home to Longsight depot, arriving there at
around 19:00 hours that same evening. As the convoy approached the depot the
staff could not believe their eyes, only a few weeks ago the loco was still in
undercoat when they visited the MRC to help refit the locos air tanks. On the
Saturday morning 25th, Longsight staff fitted the two nameplates back onto the
loco which had been kindly donated to the group by Dave Belshaw along with the
four works plates. During mid afternoon on the Saturday the loco was
rededicated with the name 'Aureol' in a short naming ceremony carried out by
Mr. Pete Waterman. Diesel wise, the loco stole the show, an immaculate named
Class 40 back at Longsight depot in 1992 was more than most people had ever
imagined .
AUREOL BURST BACK INTO LIFE.
After the glory of Longsight open day, it was back to work again and
during the summer of 1992, the power unit was gradually rebuilt. A date was
eventually set for firing the loco up for the first time in preservation, which
was to be during the MRC's autumn diesel gala. On the Sunday afternoon around
15:00 hours, with a massive crowd of supports who had turned out to witness the
event, we made what was to be the first attempt at firing the loco up. However
due to low battery power this first attempt was unsuccessful so we decided to
charge the batteries for another hour and have another attempt. Meanwhile we
went to the nearest garage and purchased four cans of 'Easy Start' one for each
turbocharger. An hour later with the light starting to fade, we decided to try
again, this time the power unit started to turn over a lot faster and you could
hear the popping and banging has each cylinder started to fire. Then to the
cheers and shouting from the crowds Aureol burst into life for the first time
in preservation.
FIRST PUBLIC RUN.
On 17th July 1993, Aureol made its first public run in preservation. As
the loco approached Butterley Station with air horns blasting away, she smashed
through a special banner welcoming her back into traffic. She then departed on
her inaugural run, the 11:00 service from Butterley to Riddings. Over that
weekend, the loco made several return trips, all without any problems what so
ever.
OPEN DAYS.
Once the loco was fully restored and in full working order the demand
for her at BR open days and other preserved lines was hard to believe and at
one stage it seemed that 212 was taking over where D200 had left off. During
1992, the loco visited Longsight, Doncaster Works, Bescot and Leicester. 1993
was no different with Aureol visiting Worcester and Worksop open days, but 1994
was to become the best year so far, when she visited Exeter rail event,
Worcester open day for the second time and Doncaster Works again for the second
time along with Crewe Basford Hall Yard. The last open day the loco visited was
Crewe Basford Hall Yard in 1995 since then the loco has been restricted to the
MRC lines only.
SPECIAL EVENTS.
The first preserved railway Aureol visited was the Severn Valley Railway
in May 1994 for their diesel gala event which was spread over three days. The
group had already been invited to both the Exeter rail event and the Worcester
open day, which fitted in nicely with the Severn Valley gala. The following
year saw us visit the Mid-Hants Railway for a two day diesel gala over 4th
& 5th March. Over the two days the loco behaved faultlessly and gave a
sound performance of herself over the step banks which are nicknamed 'the
Alps'.
MIDLAND RAILWAY-BUTTERLEY.
Today Aureol can be found hauling a wide variety of services at the
Midland Railway-Butterley; these include passenger services, demonstration
freights and appearances at various diesel galas. The loco is also a firm
favorite for Driver Experience courses which are held at the centre normally
twice a year.
In August 2001, a decision was made to take the loco out of traffic for
what was thought to be just normal routine maintenance and body work repairs.
However as we were to find out later, the was far more work involved than we
had first anticipated which took us nearly four years to complete. By May 2005
the loco was in all over light green undercoat with a light grey roof and
was ready for top coating in 1960's style dark Brunswick Green, light grey
roof and a small yellow warning panel in time to take part in our own weekend
during mid-June. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, no
inside shed space was available, which basically meant the loco would now have
to make an appearance at our own event in undercoat. A decision which was not
taken lightly at the time and will not be repeated in the future.
It was almost a year later before Aureol managed to get inside the shed
for her much needed repaint and emerged some two weeks later in 1960's
Brunswick Green with small yellow warning panel and light grey roof. Numbered
D212 and carrying the name Aureol the loco looked immaculate and was a credit
to all those who spent so many hours working on the loco to make it
happen. Since then the loco has become very popular amongst enthusiasts
and the general public and as work a variety of train on the Midland
Railway-Butterley and even took part in several photo charters organized by the
EMRPS.
NEW SET OF BATTERIES
Ever since we purchased the loco off British Railways back in 1988, we
have suffered battery problems which as caused us some major problems and
headache over the years and on more than one occasion let us down really badly.
To try and rectify the problem we have fitted several second hand sets of
batteries to the locomotive, from scrap class 47's and 56's. To start with the
batteries were fine but soon started to deteriorate after only a couple of
years usage, which would then put us back to square one once again.
We finally overcome this problem in June 2007, when we fitted a brand
new set of batteries to the loco, made possible thanks to our member’s kind
generosity and financial support. The locomotive now starts first time without
any problems and is at long last 100% reliable.
1959 - 2009
On May 25th, 1959, a brand new shining D212 rolled out of Vulcan Foundry
Works, Newton-Le-Willows and headed towards Doncaster Works for acceptance
trials. Five days later the loco was accepted into traffic by BR and allocated
to Willesden Shed (1A).
Fifty years later, D212 back in its original green livery, is still
going strong and can be seen operating trains over the MR-Butterley line on
special occasions.
Fractured Bogies
Ever since the early 1980’s, the loco has been inundated with fractured
bogie problems and despite the locomotive having several bogie swaps during the
later years on BR the problem never went away and in fact became the main
reason for its withdrawal from service
in 1985. Aureol was one of the class 40’s reinstated to traffic has a
departmental class 97 (97407) for a short period of time working mainly around
the Crewe area but again in the end the loco was withdrawn for fractured
bogies.
When the group purchased Aureol off BR in 1988 it was well aware of the
fractured bogie problems and did in fact purchase two spare bogies from Crewe
Locomotive Works as some sort of insurance against later times in
preservation.
Aureol was
finally withdrawn from operating service as a departmental locomotive numbered
97407 on 4th April 1986, due to fractured bogies and dumped in the siding at
Crewe Basford Hall Yard. She was eventually moved to Carlisle Kingmoor depot as
a Christmas tree of spares for D200.
The locomotive
was Purchased by the Class 40 Appeal in May 1988 and arrived at the Midland
Railway Centre on 3rd March 1989. Within a few days of the loco arriving on
site restoration work commenced and one of the first jobs undertaken was
to measure and record the various fractures in both bogies for future
reference. From that day till now, there has been no additional movement from
any of the fractures and measurements taken recently still measured the
same length now as they did when originally taken back in 1989.
In the early
days, the loco was inspected quite frequently and on no occasion was there ever
any mention of bogie fractures or stopping the locos movements because of this.
In fact the loco was that popular at one time she seemed to be requested for
all the major open days and was just starting to become a sort after machine at
preserved railways when disaster hit. The loco past its
movement examination to attend the Mid-Hants diesel gala in March 1995 but
failed on the return examination because of the fractured bogies. Eventually a
one journey only movement was allowed to the Midland Railway-Butterley via
Crewe Basford Hall Yard open day in August 1995 and the loco has not been
anywhere since.
To date
through our own membership, we have already made a start on trying to raise
sufficient money to repair the bogies on Aureol. On top of this, we
authorized AEA Technology Rail to carry out a Class 40 bogie
repair feasibility study and a welding specification procedure which has cost
us in access of £2,000 so far.
The
estimated cost of lifting the loco and repairing both bogies to mainline
standards, so the loco can once again move around the country to various diesel
galas is somewhere in the region of around £10,000.
Through the
kind generosity of members and keen rail enthusiasts with a soft spot for class
40’s, we have managed to raise just over £11,500 towards repairing the
bogies.
On June 17th
2013 Aureol left the MR-Butterley for the first time in eighteen years and
moved to Barrow Hill Roundhouse for bogie repair work to be carried out. Nine days
later, and the locos in the Deltic Preservation Society’s shed at Barrow Hill
lifted off its bogies in readiness for the welding work to begin. Now some five
months later, the welding work is complete and for the first time in almost
thirty years Aureol has fracture free bogies. Work will now concentrate on
removing the air tanks for re-certification (ten year) then its bodywork
attention and a full re-paint before returning to the MR-Butterley sometime
next year (2014).
INFORMATION WANTED.
If anyone can supply any information on the life and
times of Aureol, in BR service, please send details to: - C.F.A. 65 Darby Road,
Wednesbury, West Midlands, WS10 OPN.
D212
Starting up on Swanwick Shed 10:06:07 Photo by Paul Hill
