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Month: July 2015

WR8 Progress ?>

WR8 Progress

Removing the battery box
Removing the battery box from the WR8

Note: This post was created in May 2016 using photographs from June 2015. Due to an oversight by the Administrator, no write-up had been provided. The following was written from memory in July 2023 using the photographs as a guide.

The Wingrove & Rogers WR8 had been stored on top of the bogie wagon along with the 18″ gauge WR5. In order to make progress in the restoration to working condition it needed to be lowered back onto the running line. Using a pair of rails, the battery box was gently slid off the frames onto some higher ground before shunting the wagon into position outside the mine.

Using some stacks of sleepers to match the height of the wagon, a pair of bridge rails was used to roll the locomotive off the wagon which was then moved out of the way. Using the central support as a pivot, the bridge rails could then tilt down like a see-saw when a sleeper was removed from one end. Using the length of the rails as a lever it was then possible to remove one sleeper from the other and and from the middle, and repeat the process until the locomotive could be gently rolled down onto the track.

History does not record the method used to lower the battery box back onto the locomotive, but no doubt the nearby supply of rails, sleepers, and crow bars proved useful to the volunteers in their task.