Topic: VDL

Where to start.....

Posted by Admin on Sunday, April 04, 2010

A lot of time has passed since our last 'Preservation update' but make no mistake, a lot has definitely been going on behind the scenes!

The end of 2008 saw a spate of break-ins at our storage site; with the theft of various tools, radiator panels (Roughly 8-10) and other valuable components.

VDL quickly decided that since by the end of 2009, we would have the only pool of these components in existence, we could not feasibly allow anymore to go missing if we were to achieve our end objective. So the board took the decision that the only solution was to seek secure covered storage.

Over the past 18 months we have been settling in to our new home. We now have our "pick of the litter" Valenta engines stored inside along with our Marston cooler collection and many, many other valuable components (We may need an extension soon!)

After much housekeeping and organisational work, we're getting to a position where we can start dismantling and restoring our assets in preparation for use sometime in the future. More to follow...


Ben Webber
Valenta Diesels ltd
ben.webber@valentadiesels.co.uk  

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Preservation update

Posted by Admin on Sunday, June 22, 2008

It’s been a while since the last update as life at 125 Towers has been rather hectic – and who thought that the fewer Valentas there were the busier we’d get! Anyway, to carry on our story of piecing the preservation puzzle together we move to Plymouth. We’d managed to establish that two of our “favourite” engines from 43087 and 43078/197 respectively were languishing at DML in Plymouth having arrived for remedial work that was eventually never completed. As luck would have it there were also two FRH engines at DML that were “in the way” so we managed to strike a deal with Porterbrook and First to acquire S352, S404, S494 and S472. Taking four engines made sense to us as moving the engines from Plymouth to our site was going to be relatively expensive, so the more engines we could move the better. So during the last week of December we dispatched two lorries to DML, one artic and one with a Hiab to pick all four power plants up. There was a mild moment of panic when our driver was told to “hang on a minute” with S352 (which rode on its own lorry – it is rather special!) as he needed to check something. In the end we were told to leave anyway with a recently overhauled NA256 turbo on S352! The engines were then safely unloaded at our site using the Hiab crane and 125 Group’s engine collection rose to 10 Valenta engines.

Click here to view Valenta S352 at our site

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Preservation Progress

Posted by gary on Sunday, February 17, 2008

As the “refreshed” 125 Group website is now up and running we thought it about time to bring you an update on where we are with our preservation efforts. Rather than spill all the beans in one hit, we’re going to bring you snapshots of what we’ve done until we eventually get up to date – there’s far too much to tell! Also, to be fair to our membership, we’ll only post details on the website after the membership have been informed by the Group’s magazine “One Two Five”. So there may be a couple of months delay but hopefully info will get posted to present a working “blog”.

So let’s start with the beginning: S415 arrived at our site on 20/08/07, our first piece of the preservation jigsaw. The engine was just days away from the cutters torch and we couldn’t say no to a flat top engine that we were set of saving. OK, it’s missing a couple of heads, but in the main was intact and didn’t have any holes in the side. The nice people at Loughborough even steam cleaned it for us. Arrival at our site went without a hitch and the engine was lowered into a temporary position on suitable wooden supports in the secure compound. Several of the committee inspected the engine a few weeks later and did some rudimentary work of plugging orifices, oiling the “exposed” cylinder bores/pistons and even barring it over – which was accomplished with ease using a long wrecking bar. The engine was then covered as autumn approached in preparation for winter.

Click here to view Valenta S415 arriving at our site

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Posted by Admin on Wednesday, December 26, 2007

2007 has been a momentous year for 125 Group, and I use those words wisely and without hyperbole. We have placed ourselves in a unique position that I don't believe any UK based preservation group has found themselves in: preservation of the major items required to run the rolling stock, without actually having access to said rolling stock for preservation. We believe that we have acted in a measured and calculated way by acquiring a healthy stock of good, sound, flat top (with one exception) Valenta engines that will be sufficient for many years to come. History has taught us that having such a supply will pay dividends in 20-30 years time, should we have a 'leg out' incident or supply of parts dries up (as it inevitably will) from MAN Diesels and it's subsidiaries. We have also taken Marston cooler groups where we can, albeit to a lesser extent: your committee believes that the main focus should be on the Valenta engine and if we are honest then running a power car with a Brush or Voith cooler is no bad thing to mitigate any high water temperature trips during the summer months. But there is still a mandate and wish to preserve these cooler groups and we certainly intend to keep around 3 complete examples, plus spares, for future generations to savour.

Read more...

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