Dang you beat me to it i.e. to confirm them out; all 3 pairs had this afternoon / evening.
507007 is the spare at Southport, having moved from Kirkdale on Saturday evening I believe. 016 is still firmly tucked away at the back of Birkenhead North shed.
Ah ok, I’m guessing 016 is still being repaired from the brake fault, also I was having a journey on 018 earlier and as I was on my home journey to Brunswick the driver turned rheostatics on whilst moving, a bit odd seeing as they didn’t engage approaching south parkway or Cressington, either way hopefully nobody turns them off, also are there any plans to get 016 on the wheel lathe soon? as it’s got a pretty bad flat spot in 64382
It's worth noting that the rheostatic can be switched on but the conditions for it to become active arn't met. It only applies if the camshaft has been notched up to at least full series or above. Some drivers I've noticed shut off power (having notched above full series meaning dynamic would become active when brakes applied), but then reapply power to a low notch and shut off again, meaning the camshaft notches back to the starting position/below full series. You then won't get rheostatic braking. Some drivers do this so they can set off from stations quicker as they don't have to wait for the camshaft to notch back down to the start position (so once the driver applies power from a stand, you can tell what position the camshaft was in by the number of contactor clicks and clunks before it actually sets off) - if there is just one clunk and away it goes, it wouldn't have been in a high enough notch for rheostatic to be active.
If it’s anything like the rheo brake on a 313 which was a pile of doodoo, just trip the mcb in the cab. That’s what 99% of Great Northern Drivers did
As you have seen it on a low loader, could you advise where you have seen it please as that may give a clue for its possible destination. I'm under the impression either that or it's mate or both were going under cover at Seacombe.
I don't want to betray anyone's confidence, so please excuse the vagueness, but this carriage is not for scrap. Hopefully an official announcement is imminent.
preservation
Merseyrail website was reporting this disruption and stated that it was due to a trespasser at Walton which didn’t make any sense until I read your post and the trespasser was actually at Waterloo. Poor show when they cannot get their facts right.
Traction motors, i would think.
Probably flashed over.
Reading things like this, as well as trying out "older" locos on Train Sim, really makes me appreciate how far controls systems have come, and how much is now abstracted away from the driver and the modern combined brake/power handles.
