Appleby Frodingham Railway-Scunthorpe : Locomotive Shed

30/07/2026

We may have hinted in our last post on Wednesday, but why only hint at something exciting when we can shout! about it...

Our very own Class 144017 has had a trip down 'nostalgia lane'. With shutdown in full swing, and the lack of a railtour, we took the opportunity to separate 017 for her first time in preservation, and removed the center car (MS 55853) from the set to complete major repair work set to take place over the latter half of this year.

The work planned will offer a refreshed interior, a refresh of body sides and roof, and the completion of a major service and outstanding exams.

We also have work planned to give the now 2-car set a deep clean and refresh where needed, along with any outstanding repairs and exams before she returns into service for the latter part of this year.

If you have some free time on your hands. Do you have what it takes to maintain heritage railway equipment? Whether you have skills and/or time to offer. Please give the page a message or email [email protected] to find out more about becoming a volunteer. You do not need to be a British Steel employee or have any engineering skills in order to volunteer.
We also have volunteer opportunities available within our operations department, to help out in our shop and café coach.

Stay tuned, and give the page a follow for regular updates as the work progresses.

29/07/2026

Time for an update from the shed:

We've been very busy with the railtours so far this summer and it's fair to say that the weather has been testing us. Reluctantly we have taken the decision to temporarily suspend steam tours until we see some meaningful rainfall.

Meanwhile, our pacer ran as a single car unit for a brief spell on Saturday as we removed the centre car for some work to repair water damage due to some leaking window seals. The pacer will operate as a 2 car set for the time being.

Jordan and Lewis have been busy replacing wooden panels and glazing on brake van 7606. Mike and Rodger have welded new wear plates into the drawbar pockets on brake van B952012 and Chris T has fitted running boards and a lamp bracket to BW68494 which is almost ready for traffic.
Hunslet No58/ 402 has been keeping us entertained with some electrical fault finding required to identify and replace a solenoid in the starting circuit. Meanwhile the detective work goes on as Chris is sussing out the unique braking system: a task made difficult due to the lack of drawings!

As ever, we could really do with some more volunteers in all our departments: if you would like to either know more or come down and see what it's about, please get in touch.

20/06/2026

Two updates in the same week.... We've gone mad!!

We have a small but significant update on the overhaul/rebuild of 'Arnold Machin'.

Some of you may know from previous updates that, during a test of the water pump, we found a leak coming from the radiator.
Since then, the team has removed, dismantled and cleaned the radiator. A full examination and test of the radiator cores was conducted, and a leak was found in the lower half of the right-hand core.
The engine firnesser John has put his magic touch to good use, and has managed to repair the leak. This has saved us the thousands of pounds that would have resulted if we had invested in a new radiator core.
The radiator core has been retested, the radiator is now back together, and as of last Saturday, the radiator is now mounted back onto her engine, ready for the next stage of testing.

17/06/2026

Firstly, we would like to apologise for the long pause in updated coming from the shed. It's been a hectic month both inside and outside the shed. But we're back with a little update.

We would like to share the amazing work done by a couple of our Volunteers, Mike and 'Little Rodger' who have spent the past few weeks repairing the first Drawbar faceplate on B952012.

During the initial inspection on the underframe, excessive wear was found on both Drawbar Faceplates which would cause excessive movement of the Drawhook within the faceplate. This is very much not what you want, especially in the up and down directions.

The drawhooks were subsequently removed, NDT'd and gauged, and work began repairing the excessive wear.

Since then, the first (No.2 end) faceplate has been repaired and primed for protection by the team. And now, onwards with the next faceplate.

- Rolling Stock Lead.

16/05/2026

Return of the BSC.

Today, 7606 gained some more sign writing to partly return it back to its British Steel Corporation guise. While only a small change, it has made a massive difference to her appearance.

09/05/2026

"A very special experience"

Today we had visitors from British Steel and Krenn steel cutting solutions. As part of a tour at the Rod mill, we worked together to give the visitors a tour of the steelworks as a whole.

One of our visitors gave the the comment that it had been a very special experience that the were able to enjoy and very thankful to us for the opportunity alongside the British Steel team.

09/05/2026

05/05/2026

Take an inside look into the operations of British Steels Internal Logistics, with this fantastic video by the Comms Department.

They start the series off with a look into the operations of the Rail Traffic Metal Department.

Check out the video to learn more ...

04/05/2026

We've been a little quiet over the past week, but were back with an update for you all.

To start things off, we'd like to thank you all for getting us to the 400 follower mark. All the volunteers who work tirelessly cannot thank you all enough for your support of their amazing work keeping these heritage machines working.

And on that note, back to our usual update proceedings...

It has been a big week within the Carriage and Wagon Department.

For start of strong, one of the long term private restoration projects, GWR Toad 68494, has ventured out of the shed for the first time this year. While there's still some work to be completed by the owner, chris and his team, it's great to see all the hard work and dedication that's gone into this restoration project. Well done team!!

But, the work never stops. Out with one job and in with the next. As some of you will remember, just over a month ago we received a new arrival to the railway, CAO B952012 BR Standard Brake Van. B952012 has now been shunted into the shed and Investigation work is well on the way. The team has started removing the side paneling down B-side of the vehicle, exposing all the internal framework ready for inspection by our resident joiner and newly joined carpenter.

In slightly less exciting news, during a recent scheduled inspection, a suspension fault was found on B955160. After some investigation work, and a partial strip down of the offending corner suspension was completed, the team found the fault and rectified it safely and in a timely manor ready for the next Railtour. Thank you team for the speedy repair, allowing it to return back into traffic within the same week.

It's not just been achievements within the C&W team. As some of you may have seen on our main page ( Appleby Frodingham Railway ), we have recently purchased some much needed seat replacements for our outdoor seating area. As you can see, the new seats are much nicer than the previous benches.

We also have updates from both the Steam and Diesel Departments, but in the essence of keeping an already long post short, we will update on these departments later in the week.

We hope you enjoyed reading this update. If you would like to volunteer down at the shed, please send us an email to find out more at: [email protected]

25/04/2026

We're ready for another fully packed day of drivers experiences and engineering! If you see us around, give us a wave 👋