Arlington Works Visit
The annual visit by the RCTS to Eastleigh Works took place this morning. Fortunately it was not too hot.
I asked for a stock list and was told that whilst a current one was unavailable on this occasion, there were spare copies from a visit made last week and was handed that. The only significant changes are:
444017 replaces 444021 in the works
458401 arrived during the week and was inside. Incredibly, we were told that it was for a roof repaint! What is the point of that if it as off to store soon?
Note the presence of Caledonian Sleeper 73966 and the large number of other 73s, including long term residents 73002, 73101, E6016 (73110), and 73139. There was no obvious progress in the restoration of 73002.
I did not do a full stock take of the Class 442 vehicles which were in their usual positions.
Access was permitted to most areas, though one of the sheds where Celia was last year was still out of bounds, and some sidings at the rear were not visited due to the ground conditions and coaches being extremely close to each other with no room to walk between them. The former Gat Ex coaches from set 8210 were possibly there.
The LT 4 TC was in one of the main external roads behind 73202. One side of 73202 was not in too bad a condition, but we were told the other was still terrible after RHTT duties. We were not allowed that side due to live rails.
68505 was outside and more visible than last time but still very difficult to photograph.
Last year 18014/015 were in the main reception/departure roads. This year they were towards the back yard but easily photographed.
As usual, all photos taken are strictly for personal use, and Hitachi and Siemens are absolutely no photos permitted, but we walked past 395008 and 802113. The latter is in for a repaint as well as crack repairs and had its coach and unit numbers removed. The ID could be confirmed by marks left from the original transfers.