As the entire population of the UK sits down on the collective sofa and tunes in to the Eurovision Song Contest, thoughts naturally swing towards our colleagues in such well-known and snappily titled lands as Meerkovo and The Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia. Who hasn't sat and wondered about these countries - and why it is they always award their maximum scores to their closest, and rather better armed, neighbours. But if you're reading this, you also have a passing interest in narrow gauge railways, so you may also have contemplated what the output from the FYR Macedonia's loco manufacturers was. At Apedale, we can't help with that (or Meerkovo), but we do have a good smattering of EuroLoks in the fleet - predominantly German. Both Deutz and Orenstein & Koppel are represented, and in honour of Eurovision, today has seen work taking place on both types. The Deutz is undergoing a general tidy-up; the biggest mechanical issue has been severe wear on one of the crankpins. It was put onto the pit road today to allow work to continue on rectifying this, and our chief Euro enthusiast is seen in the picture hard at work. This job has seen the first ever known deployment of a crankshaft reclamation tool which was bought from the auction sale when Motor Rail closed down in 1987 - we knew it would come in useful one day. The RL1B Orenstein has also had some attention; a broken fan belt has been repaired, and work has taken place to (hopefully) cure a persistent fuel leak. The loco is also being gradually repainted to match its baby brother, the MM class (which was shown on the pages a few weeks ago on an outing to Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester). If there's one thing German things like, it's uniformity. Don't click here to vote on Eurovision, but do to get in touch with us.
