Pioneer Diesels Limited

26/07/2026

46010 week 7

Crankcase doors have been removed, stripped, cleaned, primed and glossed they just need rebuilding now

The fuel pumps have all been glossed now and stored away ready for refitting. These are NSE grey for those that want to know.

Various oil pipes and valves painted in salmon pink
Fuel rails have been cleaned, primed, undercoated and glossed in 2 coats of light brown

Crankcase breather assembly has been glossed, a new gasket made and refitted to the engine. The fuel galley end covers and the gallery drain pipes have been refitted

The oil filter housing has been glossed and is now ready for refitting this coming week

The brake frame has been deep cleaned and degreased whilst the oil filter housing is out as access is improved

All of the push rods have been stripped apart after a thorough degreasing

Engine governor has been finished after its deep clean and comprehensive rebuild. This has been built up through the stages to a gloss finish (RAF Pale Roundel Blue), this is now ready to be refitted too

And finally 03066, we got asked to help with removing a leaf spring from the middle wheelset and swap it out with a replacement. After measuring and removing the lock nut and the main nuts the hangers were removed and the lead spring lifted down off the top of the axle box. Once it was down and out it was a reverse procedure to refit the replacement spring

19/07/2026

Week 6 on 46010

The oil valves that sit on the end of the engine have been stripped as they were blocked and rusty due to the heat exchanger failing in the past
More engine room painting has been done on the engine block bringing it up through primer undercoat and finally gloss.
A pallet full of items was sent to the shot blasters for blasting and priming which has since been returned, cleaned out and glossed in each respective colour.
The engine governor has been fully stripped and cleaned and is now being painstakingly rebuilt piece by piece.
More items have been extracted from the storage container to be deep cleaned and painted up
Hopefully this coming week we’ll be at a point of starting to refit parts onto the engine block.
The fuel pumps were found to be in quite a bad way. They have been stripped, cleaned and have been painted. They were found to be full of gunge and rust so it’s a good job they was done.

12/07/2026

Week 5 on 46010 and the BH 105 running weekend

45105
Thanks to all the people that came out for the peak in the heat, hope that everyone enjoyed the weekend. 105 never missed a beat and went like a rocket, all be it for not long

46010
The oil filters, filter housing and all oil pipes on the engine have been removed due to the contamination in the oil system. The governor oil strainer has been stripped and cleaned and found to be all gunged up. The governor has started to be stripped, that has been seized up with water contamination and gunge.

All loose pipes and the filter housing has been steam cleaned to remove all the sludge. A pallet of parts is now being readied to go for shot blasting

And finally a couple of photos of 105 on the trains. Thanks to Adam Ledger for the photo from the signal box

09/07/2026

08/07/2026

45105

Moved 105 down into the Roundhouse today for a underframe and motor check. All is good down below, Oil and Motak levels good as are the traction motors. Nothing loose or missing which always helps.
Did a check over everything else and pleased to report that’s it’s running good, sorted a couple of fuel leaks out and that’s it

I’m pleased to say it is now booked to be out this weekend at the Roundhouse running up and down the line

04/07/2026

Week 4 on 46010

Thankfully the temperature was much nicer for us this week

We’ve got the following done
Top of the engine block and the studs on B side have been glossed, the turbo stand and area has been cleaned and primed, just below it the generator pinion oil seal has been cleaned up, gaskets made as fitted to within the specifications.
The transition cups that sit between the engine block and the cylinder heads (4 per block) have been degreased, cleaned, primed and undercoated.
All the pistons have now been cleaned and had the rings checked they are thankfully all in spec.
The big end caps have started to be cleaned to remove all the rust along with the big end nuts and bolts. 2 caps have had issues with the locating pins so they’ve gone away to be machined to have new pins fitted. And finally after 3 days the engine sump has been thoroughly deep cleaned.

Before anyone asks I put the rag in the sump when cleaning the gunge out

Finally a little bit of 105 news

It’ll be coming down over the pit on Wednesday as we’re planning to have it out next weekend (11-12th) Running the trains up and down the Barrow Hill branch.

26/06/2026

Week 3 on 46010. It’s been a hot one! 🥵 highest temperature recorded in the roundhouse today (Friday) 31 degrees. If any of you are aware of the roundhouse it’s always cold. Not this week !

The remaining 8 liners have been extracted. After they’ve been removed the long dirty task of degreasing absolutely everything has commenced

The inside of the water jacket on the block has had all the sludge that has built up in it removed and cleaned out

Once the grease and grime had been removed the top of the engine block, head studs and fuel galleries the whole lot was able to have some primer applied and then followed by some under coat. All done early in the morning before the temperature in the shed got too hot.

10 pistons have had all the rings removed, deep cleaned, refitted and measured to see if they are in spec. 2 pistons left to do

The governor and loose parts have been sprayed with degreaser and remarkably we’ve found paint!

The black hole that was between the turbo stand and engine block has been throughly cleaned and degreased and finally some primer applied

The inside of the sump has started to has many years of sludge removed. I’ve put up a photo of A side and one of B side so you can see the stark difference in having a good clean

20/06/2026

Week 2 on 46010

This week we’ve managed to do the following

Removed all the remaining piston, we saved the worst ones till last! A4 and B6 piston had at some point in the past been over tightened which had sheared the locating peg so when you try to undo them the whole nut and bolt just spins. So we had to get creative to remove the errant nuts and bolts. Once we shipped them out we moved onto the liners
And got 4 extracted

For those of you who like numbers, as the sulzer engine parts are fairly universal you get to see various loco numbers stamped out of things. This case the pistons
D116 - 45103
D174 - 46037
D5166 - 25016
D120 - 45108
D71 - 45049 (The Staffordshire Regiment)
D68 - 45046 (Royal Fusilier)

45105
Rest of the week has been spent on 105. Fault finding the cab heaters. Not ideal in this heat but managed it. A trapped wire was shorting out which has since been replaced. The sanders are now being looked to get them working again with work needed on the valve that controls them and new hoses needed. An air lock in the cooling system has hopefully been removed and now getting 12psi

13/06/2026

This weeks activities for your viewing pleasures

46010
After having the roof removed the loco was shunted into the roundhouse and onto our road in the shed. Work was then undertaken to clear out the engine room of the loose nuts and bolts and rubbish to get a clean slate to work with. It nice that was sorted the top of the engine block pistons and liners were given a clean ready to be removed. Prior to this we removed the crankcase breather assembly and also the engine governor. Both very dirty and in desperate need of attention. So far 3 pistons have been removed. 1 has been cleaned up and has had the rings and gaps checked and found to be in good order

45105
Had had some minor jobs attended to, a small brake fault has been cured and had the brake pipe pressures set as they were not quite right causing the issue.
The bufferbeam brake pipe isolating c***s have been changed for locking handled versions (a mainline FTR requirement) ultimately it will be getting all new hoses for the bufferbeams. A engine fault since it last worked was a suspect fuel pump/injector issue. This actually turned out to be a b**g had somehow come out the exhaust causing the popping!

08/06/2026

46010 has taken up residence on our road in the roundhouse ready for its engine rebuild to begin