THE Railway Preservation Society of Ireland’s LMS-NCC ‘WT’ 2-6-4T No. 4 has returned to the society’s Whitehead engineering base for boiler repairs, after leaking tubes ruled it out of the ‘Slaney’ railtour on August 6.
The ‘Jeep’ had been booked to work the seven-coach excursion from Dublin Connolly to Enniscorthy and Wexford, and no issues had been found during the warming up of the loco in the days prior to the tour.
However, during the fitness to run (FTR) exam prior to coming off shed that morning it was discovered several tubes were weeping and one blowing at the firebox tubeplate. The loco was immediately failed.
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No. 4 has not had the best of seasons so far, in spite of putting in a flawless performance on the ‘Emerald Isle Explorer’ in June.
Prior to the multi-day tour the loco had experienced niggling flue tube issues, and later suffered a broken rocking grate during the ‘Sea Breeze’ tour from Dublin to Arklow on July 9.
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