Perrygrove Railway frontispiece Perrygrove Railway Logo Perrygrove Railway image2 Perrygrove Railway image3
Steaming for pleasure in the Royal Forest of Dean

  1. Home & Timetable

  2. Prices

  3. Father Christmas comes down our chimney!
  4. Birthday parties are fun at Perrygrove!

  5. Find us easily

  6. Things to do and information

  7. History

  8. Contact us

  9. Bookshop

  10. Links to local information and other railways

  11. Coaches & Groups

  12. Diary

Click on any picture to see a larger size image and details of the subject

.  
This page records the history and development of our second diesel locomotive Jubilee.

This page is linked to History - other equipment. If you think you might want to come back here you will need to arrive by the same route, or you could bookmark this page.

All our trains are steam-hauled at present. It takes a couple of hours to prepare a steam engine for service and we need a spare locomotive that can be available at a moment's notice. Also, we would like to operate trains on days when the number of passengers does not justify putting a steam engine into service. Our existing diesel loco is not suitable for hauling passenger trains on our demanding route, and we hope that Jubilee will be a more suitable machine.
Sincere thanks to Bob Darvill of the Industrial Railway Society for help in preparing these notes.
image awaiting copyright consent We were originally told that Jubilee was constructed at Kilmarnock in Scotland but we now know that it was in fact built at Leeds. It was manufactured under the Hunslet/Jenbacher marque but given its place of manufacture we are treating it as a Hunslet machine and it will carry an original Hunslet brass radiator plate from another locomotive.

Manufacturers' numbering is LD 9337 Type DH25 with a construction date of 1994 and an original gauge of 2 feet (609 mm). We were originally told that it was one of 19 locomotives ordered for an abortive Far Eastern contract and that it might have spent some time in Singapore or Hong Kong, and that information used to appear on this page. However, Bob Darvill comments as follows: 'A total of 28 of this design of locos were built at Leeds, 24 of them were exported to a firm called JAN PAN in Singapore, I believe they were for use on the logging lines in Borneo and Sarawak. Four of the locos were retained by Hunslet for use as a hire fleet - 9333, 9335, 9336 and 9337 [this is ours]. As far as I know they were only used on one contract - the Jubilee Line Extension, and after that they went to Kilmarnock for storage. They remained there until purchased by FMB Engineering and were then sold'.

We arranged for the purchase of all four of these locos, keeping one for ouselves and naming it Jubilee to commemorate its original work on the London Underground. The rest of the locomotives went to the Exmoor Steam Railway who have converted one to 12 ¼ inch (311 mm) gauge.

We have pictures of 9337 at the factory and underground, and these will be posted here when the consent of the copyright owners has been obtained. It has a D1105 Kubota engine driving a Linde hydraulic circuit with chain transmission to both axles. We acquired it in 2000 so the conversion process has already taken a ridiculously long time. However it is now on 15" gauge wheels courtesy of Alan Keef Ltd. and it has a brand new engine.

image awaiting scanning This is what Jubilee looked like when we bought it.
Exbury 1 One of the other three locos from the same batch has been converted to 12¼" gauge by the Exmoor Steam Railway. This picture was taken whilst it was on loan to the Exbury Gardens Railway. Ours will look something like this when it is finished.
Exbury 2 Here's another picture of the Exmoor conversion. We have a copy of this pinned up in the workshop to inspire us when the job seems too daunting.
At Phil Teague's workshop This picture shows Jubilee after initial dismantling. At this stage the top half of the machine was being rebuilt. The hydraulic circuit is in excellent condition but the hoses are now re-plumbed to a better arrangement and a by-pass valve has been installed so that the loco can be shunted and towed with its engine off. The difference in cost between a rebuild of the existing engine and a brand new engine was small, so we opted for the latter. All this work was carried out by an experienced plant engineer, Phil Teague.
Perrygrove 12 April 2004 #1 After most of the top half of the loco had been dismantled the chassis went to the workshops of Alan Keef Ltd. for re-gauging from 2' to 15". It then went back to Phil Teague who finished the mechanical work. Jubilee then arrived at Perrygrove for further plumbing, final instrumentation and body work to commence. The first job was to disconnect the original handbrake which will be replaced by the standard Perrygrove fail-safe air braking system.
Perrygrove 12 April 2004 #2 The next job was to build a wooden mock-up of the cab to work out how to fit all the controls and instruments. It is essential that a safe environment exists for training drivers and we therefore need to provide two seats giving good visibility forwards and backwards, with both trainee driver and supervisor having equally good access to the controls. It has taken about four man-days to get everything in the right place but we are almost there now.
Perrygrove 12 April 2004 #3 This is one of our preliminary mock-ups of the controls. We have since changed things around and altered the instrument panel considerably. The black rubber hoses will feed the cab heater with hot water from the engine.
Back to History - other equipment.