P L E G - Preserved Locomotive Enthusiasts Group

Our future events can be viewed on this page, and while this list may not be extensive, please rest assured that much is going on behind the scenes. It is a fact that the events that PLEG attempts to organise are at the harder end of the organisational spectrum. If they were easy to organise, other groups, or the railways themselves, would have already organised them in the past. A lot of what we attempt to organise meets with various stages of resistance in the process, but rest assured that we do our utmost to persevere, and only come to a dead end when, disappointedly, a railway basically says 'We are just not interested!' That is of course a shame for us, and for them, as we would never propose anything to a railway unless we believed the railway would make money from the event. At this moment in time we are currently working on, or involved in, proposals with a number of different sites. We don't know as yet which of these proposals will go through to a 'live' event, but you will find out about it on this website first. And don’t forget, PLEG still has a 100% record – everything we have ever advertised to work at one of our events has produced on the day! You can view our past events by clicking here.

First the bad news:

The 03 now has its vacuum exhauster installed but not yet coupled to the hydraulic drive (still quite a big job).
The 14 has it's Voith gearbox jammed - They're gradually dismantling it in situ to try and un-jam it. If you know anyone who's done this before please let them know.

Now the good news:

A separate working group has been set up to get the coaches all working OK. So far most of the doors have been un-stuck and the leaks in the brake pipework rectified. They should be ready soon.

So they are currently running the Barclay 0-4-0 diesel with the BEMU.

We have been in contact again with the Royal Deeside Railway regarding their fleet status and availability of a PLEG visit to use their 03 + 14 on loco hauled stock. Unfortunately both these locos are awaiting further work. A vacuum exhauster has been sourced and now needs to be fitted to the 03 in order for this loco to be made operative. The class 14 is in the process of having a new coupling fitted and attention to some leaks. We are still in contact with the railway to pursue the likelihood of an event which hopefully will be achievable in the future.

However, on 16-17th August the railway is planning to use its newly acquired loco, Andrew Barclay Diesel 415 from Rutland Railway Museum on rides using the BEMU. Please support the railway by a visit if you are able to !!”

We remain committed to organising another event at this railway as and when both the Class 03 and 14 become available again, but at this point we have no idea when that will be. We will send an e-mail to all of our members who have supplied us with an e-mail address when we have an update on the situation. Many thanks.

An update from the railway on 1st August revealed that both the Cl.03 and Cl.14 are still undergoing repairs, with the suggested date for our visit now put back to February 2008.

The railway require a mechanical vacuum exhauster and associated governor and proportional valve for the Class 03 - If any PLEG member know of where Royal Deeside can source this equipment please e-mail the PLEG Group Leader via the Contacts page. Many thanks.

Following PLEG’s successful visit in May 2005 we are planning a repeat trip to the Royal Deeside Railway in Scotland during late 2007. The trip will feature haulage from the Class 03 (03134) and the Class 14 (D9551). To register your interest and for further details please send an email to events@pleg.org.uk. This tour has had to be postponed from out originally planned date in February due to problems with the availability of the Class 14 and suitable coaching stock.