Of Norway and No-way

27th March 2011

There is a long list – a page-and-a-half – of “things that ought to be done” on 14 901 before it moves to South Wales and Andrew had graded them into priorities of Low, Medium or High. He and I might not altogether agree on some, and he, like me, had other things in mind that were not on the list. A couple he even crossed off the list on a “nice, but we haven’t the time” basis in the vague idea that we might get through a significant proportion in the course of the last remaining weekend. A weekend that just happened to be the last in the month.

One major item was a deadmans system. Now when I do a Deadmans, I don’t just do a Deadmans – one of the beauties of a PLC at the heart of the control system is that you can make it as sophisticated or not as you wish. For example, I have worked with locos, using pneumatic deadmans, where you could not even leave the cab with the loco stationary without dumping the train pipe and having to wait ages to get the pipe re-charged and the distributors released – just so that you can exchange a word with the shunter or summat. Of course, the temptation with such a system is to jam a pedal down to minimise the inconvenience – and once jammed, the system is rendered useless. So a Pete Briddon Deadmans system is both Deadmans and Vigilance, and is activated by either the transmission being engaged or the loco moving off, but jam a pedal down and after a few minutes the “system” demands that you release the pedal and prove you are alive and well. You have heard over the last couple of weeks about the pedal installation being delayed by the wrong cable glands (the right ones arrived on Wednesday) but at the sharp end, we had been agonising over which control valve to order – at 3/4 bore it was not cheap and it boiled down to a SMC or Norgren. The latter were 25% more expensive and stocked in Belgium, so on Tuesday I ordered the SMC, and to my surprise found it was stocked in Norway but would be in our hands on Saturday. A Saturday that happens to be the last of the month.

Of course, there was one matter I almost forgot, an almost off-hand report from the direction of Rowsley that Allelys were collecting 14 901 THIS Friday, March 25th. I prized Andrew off the ceiling and the mis-understanding got straightened out.

So Saturday dawned and a phone call to the supplier to check our valve was there revealed that of course, it wasn’t. Andrew loaded the van and somehow failed to notice that my “electrical box” (the things I most need doing electrical jobs -crimps, crimping tool, wire strippers, etc, etc) was not in, so that put paid to doing much with the pedals as well. But there were still plenty of jobs to progress from cleaning off and drilling the blanking plate to go over the (u/s) coolant level gauge through to Andrew painting the new vents in blue (he had been in during the week and undercoated them). During the afternoon we broke off to greet Mike and Judith Edge. We have gladly aided Mike with drawings and such for the Judith Edge kit range, and Andrew had heard during the week that they wanted to measure up his Tyne & Wear Metro Brush 0-6-0DE for a commission job they have for a customer in Norway (yes, strange coincidence of the week). We leant Mike some hi-vi and left them to it. Towards the end of the day I finally got around to adding specially machined packing pieces under the BMAC lights. These mount to the running plates, which are a little jack-rusted at the ends so tended to point the lights up at low-flying aircraft rather than along the line. The packing pieces had been sat in the 407 for several months – at long last they were spayed and the BMAC’s now face somewhere near horizontal.

Sunday: Terry was to join us, as were (briefly) Steph, Andrew’s girl friend and her son, the last-mentioned looking very much the part in a hi-vi vest made for 3 year olds. The electrical box was in, together with a range of other things we’d thought about after yesterday.

Terry at work on casings, Andrew in the cab

Terry was charged with re-aligning and securing the rear section casing top, which was well-bolted to the cab but not so adequately to the casing sides. I was slowly wiring up the deadmans pedals when Andrew summoned me to the front of the engine. On our first “real” work back at Elsecar, 18 months ago, 14 901 had cut out when the coolant temperature switch tripped at only 80 deg C, and I had hurriedly strapped it out and it was on the list to replace. But removing it turned out to be impossible without draining half the coolant, and that was not on the list, but by freeing it off and turning it I could gain better access to its adjustment section, so it would have to stay.

Steph looks after a future enthusiast while I demonstrate that I have another side

Various alterations were being made to pipeworks – the vac reservoir, hastily thrown in a corner for the last 18months was repositioned and connected to the appropriate needle on the desk gauge. We mounted the pilot valve that will operate the new deadmans valve (when it arrives from Norway) and began to cable it. Seats were fixed down to floorboards, wiper motors reconnected and turned on to see if they worked – if this was any normal weekend, it would be put down as very productive. As it was, with the clocks forward, it was 8pm before we were packing the last of the gear back in the van. Somehow, between now and Friday we must get hold of the vital valve and insert it into the pipework between the drivers brake valve and the train pipe, and I have to write and load the remaining software to drive it all. Still, no pressure.