
Webb-Elec at Chase Water Railway!
22 Jul 2024
Published in: Member News
We recently received this screwjack unit in our workshop for repairs. The unit is used to lift rolling stock on a preserved railway to enable engineers to safely carry out maintenance.
Something a little different for Webb-Elec this week!
We recently received this screwjack unit in our workshop for repairs. The unit is used to lift rolling stock on a preserved railway to enable engineers to safely carry out maintenance. The repair included a full overhaul of the gearbox, clean and check of the screw shaft & nut, refurbishing the screw shaft bellows and replacing the face and thrust bearings. It’s a good example of the varied mechanical and electrical services we provide. Chasewater Railway is a great day out for the family and here are a few words from them describing their facilities and how the lifter is used when in service….
The Chasewater Railway is one of the pioneer preserved railways in the world and our history as a voluntary group goes back to 1959. Unlike some of the more famous steam railways, Chasewater has always focused on preserving our industrial railway heritage that served our industry. The route of our railway itself is largely on the grandly titled Cannock Chase and Wolverhampton Railway and dates from 1864 so is 160 years old this year. The railway served the collieries of the Cannock Chase Colliery Company transporting products from pit head to the London and North Western Railway at Brownhills and Norton Canes, The Midland Railway at Brownhills West and Birmingham Canal Navigation at Anglesey Basin right up until the 1960’s
Our aim as well as providing pleasure rides to the public is to preserve the history of Coal and its movement by rail and we maintain 3 coal trains available for demonstration from the 1900’s, 1940’s and 1960’s, now all a thing of the past but at one time vital to our nation. Our passengers and other operation fund our restoration works. Our locomotives come from industry and served various industrial settings, collieries, quarries even breweries. We have locomotives from around the United Kingdom but many are local including Walsall Gas Works, Fort Dunlop, Albright and Wilson Oldbury & Worthington Brewery Burton on Trent. We have a unique collection of coaches dating from the 1870’s and 80’s awaiting restoration that were used for miners’ ‘paddy’ trains to the colliery. The vehicle lifts allow us to work on our locomotives and rolling stock for attention to wheels, bearings, and motion parts and are significantly safer that traditional jacking and packing with timber blocks. We made the decision that we would contract the work on this out as a number of our volunteers had used Webb-Elec in their professional careers and being local to us were the obvious choice to see what was feasible. Now the screw and gearbox unit has been returned our own engineering team will look to reassemble the lift and we can then have them LOLER inspected and returned to use. The Railway operates throughout the year, has a cafe & museum & is ideal for young families with a train ride of around 20min each way.
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