New Brake Shoes for Trailer Car M56484

Way back in 2020, just after the DMU had arrived at NPL Thornton, we carried out an assessment of all the work required, and it was decided that the brake shoes on the trailer car (M56484) were very worn and would need replacing.

Fortunately, we were able to purchase a full set of brake shoes from the DMU Group on the Dean Forest Railway.

New brake shoes fitted to trailer car M56484, 2026

These were collected from the Dean Forest, brought up to Thornton, and placed in our stores waiting their turn to be fitted.

This January we spent a couple of work sessions replacing all 16 shoes on the trailer car.

Learning Curve

It was an interesting task as none of us had done this before, but we worked out how the old ones were removed and once the new ones were in place, we found out how they were adjusted to fit correctly with the wheels.

Now they are good for a few thousand miles!

Further adjustment may be necessary once the vacuum brakes have been serviced.