The Railway Magazine – August 2019

This month’sfeatureaboutapprenticesattheSevern

Va lleyRailwayfocusesonRichardDavis,whofirstjoined

therailwayas acleaner,buthassince movedintothe

carriage&wagonworkshopto honehis engineering skills.

Above: Wire brushing

asparewheelset,prior

toapplying anti-rust

paint. This isoneof

dozens of wheel sets

theSevern Valley

Railwayhas acquired

from scrapyardauctions

over manyyears.

Right:Richardchecks

the wheel diameter on

ashunter’struck in the

C&W inspection pit.

Using the jackstoliftupthe body of GWR Restaurant

ThirdNo. 9653, which enables the bogiestoberolled

outforaccess.

AT THE age of 30, RichardDavis is agood

few years older thanthe SevernValley Railway’s

(SVR) otherapprentices,buthebelieves this

trainingopportunitycame atjust theright time.

In ourlatest updatefromthe SVR,wevisit

Richard in Kidderminster,where he’s worked

18 months of hisapprenticeship intherailway’s

carriage&wagon mechanicalworkshop.

“I joined the SVRas a17-year-oldcarriage

cleaner,and worked my wayuptobecometeam

supervisor. However,Idon’t thinkI’d really

appreciated thecare and attention thatgoesinto

the maintenance andrestoration side,until Igot

the chance tobecomeanengineeringapprentice.

“It givesyou acompletely different

perspectiveon therailway.PreviouslyIwas

moving the coachesaround and cleaning

them, but hadno idea whatmakes them work.

Coachesreally aremorecomplex than they look.

Mostpeopleonlyget to see thepainted coach

body,because that’sall that’s visiblealongside

the platform.

“Underneath the coaches, there’salot going

on. We do bogie overhauls, which canbeas

simpleas cleaningand painting,orusing the

lathe to machinereplacements for parts that

have wornout,such as pins. Sometimes thebits

you’rereplacingcan be 40year sold. Youreally

get asensethatwhenyou putyournewly made

partintoit, you’r ekeeping it going.

“An overhaul onacoach onlytakes place

every20years, buttheyalsocome to us with

specific knownproblems,suchasabroken

spring orfaul ty brakecyli nders,and thatmight

take afew days tocomplete.”

Richar dadds: “You haveabsolutelynoidea

at all whatyoumighthave t odeal with when

acoach comesinto the workshop.Arecent

visitor,LNER openthirdNo. 43600, was a

good example.Wealread yknew the rideheights

werelow,but when welifted the body offand

wheeledout the bogie to takeita part,wef ound

abroken spring. Noonehad knownabout that.

“Eachcoach getsaroutinemaintenance

check once every six weeks. That’sacouple

of daysworkfor th reeofus, using the long

inspectionpitint he carriageshed, where you

can get toseeunderneathawhole set.We’re

doing oiling, checking, testing,replacingworn

brake blocksandsoon.

“Since I’vecome into this team, aswell

as gainingalot of practical mechanical

experience,I’vepassed out todrive the Ruston

dieselshunteras wellas the Class 08s, which

Iwas already qualified on. PlusI’verecently

completed the college course for my NVQLevel

2inperforming engineeringoperations.

“I’llhavebeenatt he SVR for 13years this

September.Ienjoy thefact that you feel like an

important partoft he team. Everyteamhere

is smallso you havetowork together to sort

problemsout. We havetocoverall aspects of

mechanicalmaintenance and overhaul.

“In amodernsetting, the taskswould be

much morespecialised,soone personwould

do the wheels, another would do thebrakes.

But we get involved ineverythingandthe work

changesalot fromone day tothenext.

“At 6ft5in tall, it’snot too difficult to

see whyIgotthe nicknameof ‘Stretch’.My

heightdoescome in useful though. WhenI’m

workingin thepit,tight eningupdraw hook sor

something likethat, Idon’t need togo and get

aset of stepslike everyone else!

“WhenIarrived at theSVR Iwas only17,

so now whenIsee our younger apprenticeslike

BarneyHill and Jacob Cox,Istarttor ealise that

I’m in themiddlereally,between theyoun glads

and the moreexperienced staff. It givesmea

good perspective.”

■As toldto Lesley Carr. Thenext SVR

Apprenticefeature will appear in theOctoberissue.

RichardDavis in thecarriage&wagon mechanical

workshopat Kidderminster.Behind him is the as-yet

unpaintedGWR No.6045, which is partwaythrough an

overhaul of its bogies.The painting will becompleted

byvolunteers from the GreatWestern Association.

48 •TheRailway Magazine•August2019

heritage skills

Retaining

future

forthe

BEHINDTHESCENES

TheSVR CharitableTrust isthe primefunderofthe HeritageSkillsTrainingAcademy. Mortons Media Group,publisher ofTheRailway Magazineandits sistertitles

Rail ExpressandHeritageRailway,issponsoringtheacademy. If youwishto donate and supportfuture heritage engineer training,gotowebsite: svrtrust.org.uk