MoSI Railway's electric loco gets a boost!

The battery electric locomotive at MoSI today
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I visited the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry (MoSI) today to attend a meeting regarding the proposed Ordsall Chord, a Network Rail proposal which is part of the 'Northern Hub' scheme to improve rail in the North West (the chord's alignment might spell the end of the MoSI railway). I noticed the railway's battery electric locomotive, bonnets up, being ministered to by a couple of blokes from the Exide battery company. As ever.please click on any picture for a larger image.
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One of the original batteries after being removed from the locomotive
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 This 4-wheel loco is very useful at MoSI for shunting our steam locomotives and train in and out of the power hall at the beginning and the end of the day when the steam loco is not in steam. It also has many uses around the site moving rail vehicles. But her batteries are now 25 years old, 50% longer than their published useful life. Some cells have failed and have been shorted out, while the others only retain a small part of the charge they should, and that doesn't last long. Now £12,000 has been spent on a new set of cells, and today they were being installed in place of the old ones by the men from Exide.
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 One man extracts the old cell, while his mate brings a new one to replace it
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 A long pair of 'pliars' is used to extract the old cell, then it is replaced by a new one
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 The loco was in the Liverpool Road platform for its battery change despite the rainy weather, so the heavy cells would not need to be lifted too high by the guys doing the installation
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A view under one of the two bonnets shows 90 individual lead acid cells connected in series. The other bonnet contains another 90. These 180 cells have the electrolyte in already, and are about 70% charged, so once installation is complete a short charging session should see our battery loco ready for another 25 years of life!

The battery electric locomotive photographed on an earlier occasion, hauling 'Planet' prior to getting the latter into steam 

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