Of things in action

14th April 2019

Grandson has been here most of the week and although we keep trying to educate him on railways he displays a particular penchant for dinosaurs. He even had me set up the Thomas the Tank train track system where the trains were surrounded by all manner of ferocious creatures. I wonder if the Jurassic Park franchise owners read this blog...

With today's tendency to require bits of paper for everything, you will not be surprised to know that after signing in at Tunstead on a Monday, everyone working on RS8 then signs a 'Stop Card' regarding the actual work involved for the day and specifying the practices that would be forbidden, etc. Last Monday instead of a refrence to restoration, the work spec said 'Train Movement', and apart from chiding myself that after all these weeks we still haven't got Pete C to distinguish between a loco and a train, I was tempted to chide him for stating it as a certainty. After all, I was hoping to have the loco running months ago and still we had a few tasks preventing us from achieving this. To put it as an intent for the day, I thought, was tempting providence.

First task was to reassemble the clutch cylinder arrangement using the original lever boss with the arm Andrew had welded on, sufficient to test but not so much that we couldn't grind it off and re-weld if need be. I had bits and bobs to do up in the cab, so Pete C got on with this, and Andy H attacked the torque converter charge pump whose shaft seals were leaking.

This charge pump sits on a pivotted bracket attached to the top of the thermostat housing, and was RS8's original, recovered frm the old engine. The pivot is a piece of tube passing through a boss on the side of the housing, and the latter being cast iron, not something you want to abuse. And under normal circumstances, you wouldn't need to, you merely release the pulley from the end of the shaft, undo four bolts and release the pump. As I've said before though, RS8's old engine is known to have been an 'early' C6 and the drive pulley was secured to the shaft with a grub screw, whereas later ones had a pair of 1/4 UNF clamp bolts. Andy had no success releasing the pulley so turned to taking the bracket off the thermostat housing. But although the bracket pivotted reasonably freely, it would not drive out unless Andy attempted to use a level of force which might result in damage to other parts. In short, the pump bracket could not be released from the housing unless we first drained the coolant and then dismantled the thermostat housing and top coolant connection. I have a fair few of these old pumps kicking around, and probably more of them have leaky shaft seals, I've seen it before. I told him to saw the shaft through.

I had brought up a couple of spare pumps and a pulley of the later variety: that sounds well organised but it was more serendipitous, I'd just grabbed some to cover all options. It still meant recovering the shaft key from the old pump and fitting the new pulley, in situ, to the replacement pump. By now it was lunchtime but when we came back it was to find Pete C had put together a clamp to force the pulley onto the pump shaft within the confines of its location.

Over at the other side, the new clutch cylinder was in position and piped up, but for various reasons my bracket hadn't suited this installation and so the cylinder was for now, mounted only on the two lower bolts in the upper holes, to achieve as much of the cylinder stroke as possible.

So the scene was set, and foregoing the extractor fan arrangement for the exhaust fumes, RS8 was fired up again and the air pressure built up. Base pressure appeared too, showing the replacement charge pump was doing its job. It is also incumbent on me at this point to admit that I didn't know which way the Forward-Reverse air valve was actually going to relate to direction of travel. Really I should have done: I know which cylinder on the gearbox is pressurised for forwards, it was just that I hadn't got around to ascertaining which was fed with air from the valve ports, or to be exact, which valve port was opened by which position of the lever.

With air pressure reasonable, and the exhaust fume smell up in the cab rather noticeable, I let the clutch engage and heard the drop in engine rpm which indicated that the load had come on the engine. So far so good: I let the brakes release but we didn't move anywhere. It took Andy H to point out that there were still chocks under the wheels!

With 'chocks away' (well the C6 is supposedly based on the R-R Merlin engine for the Spitfire) I felt RS8 try to move forwards, so reversed the box and had another go. I wasn't expecting much - the bearings haven't turned in a year and even the fresh oil and new pads can't work miracles. But with a bit of throttle RS8 overcame the stiction and set off for the shed doorway. Pete C was exhorting me that for safety's sake I should check that the brakes worked as soon as we got movement. This was really rather un-neccessary. I knew they would having checked everything earlier, but to humour him I stopped on the brakes and re-started. RS8 nosed towards the doorway. To be honest my thoughts at this moment was that the whole loco was rather gut-less, but I was being unfair, what I couldn't see was the amount of dirt the loco was having to dig its way through. I was also worried that the top of the cab wouldn't clear the roller shutter door. I knew it was the old loco workshop but what if the door had been replaced since last one entered?

The track outside was no clearer than inside, so RS8 slowly ploughed its way through. I was intending to get on to the ordinary track up beyond the tarmac. Jagger and I had walked over it months ago and I knew that it would take a mere 20ton 0-4-0, but I was flagged down and told I couldn't go there as it hadn't been inspected. Another bit of paper I suppose. But I had got as far as the offices, and every window had heads peering at the beast - and RS8 interested them too.



So reluctantly I came back a bit for semi-official photos, then handed over to Andy H to drive it back in. I couldn't believe just how much dirt the wheels were having to displace - the picture below just doesn't do it justice. We stopped for a celebratory tea and bun, and Pete C put an order in to me for an RS8 cake.

So do I know now how this strange CO series converter behaves? No, I'm not really much wiser. Had I got out on the plain track I might have been able to gauge it, but with all the dirt fighting the loco, just closing the throttle was stopping me and I don't know how much was the converter and how much was the dirt. There is also the danger that someone will think that the work is almost complete: if only. At the moment the clutch unloader system isn't set up, the engine tacho doesn't work, the air cleaner isn't on (and won't be until we've finished painting the clutch cylinder bracket and re-designed the clutch detection switch), the sand ejectors are seized solid, the cab radiators aren't in or connected, there are no lights, cab steps, casing doors, etc., etc. But RS8 has moved under its own power for the first time since the sarly 1990s and that is a step in the right direction.

No Monday at Tunstead for the next 2 weks - Pete C is in Lanzarote and then there's Easter, so our next day is the 29th when hopefully Netta Christie from 'Discover Buxton' will be joining us to review progress.

On Tuesday I returned to West Yorkshire - when I had been up last week, and no, the WYorks police have still not been in touch, I had collected two e-bay lots of malleable pipe fittings, and been offered a load more, still sat on racking. A price had been agreed and I was there to collect. Some of these bits were 2 inch and 2 and-a-half inch BSP so I had more than my money's worth in them alone, but it took me 45 minutes to load up by piling them in the back of the van and by the time I got back it had levelled itself out and was about 3 inches deep. Andrew came down to the shed in the evening and it took several hours to get it all sorted into boxes and out, but it is still piled on the workshop floor and our racking may be overwhelmed by the sheer quantity.

I said last week that I had a job booked which might be commercial or might not, I couldn't decide. I'm still not quite certain but I'm sticking it in anyway. On Thursday I was down at Midsomer Norton, and the low loader was there to collect an LMS brake van as a favour to one of Andrew's good friends over at Butterley. The low loader was having its first run since we put the new lifting links on, but even this was not without complication, as it transpired that with the new links, made to the drawing supplied by Andover, the manufacturers, the trailer could no longer reach the ground. This means that the ramp angle is a little steeper than wanted as the deck must be blocked 3 inches or so above the ground. We only replaced the links because one failed last summer and revealed that it had been poorly made, with substandard welding and out of several pieces - the original had been one profile with a bush. Here's the brake van being loaded.

Midsomer Norton is a nice little set-up but severely cramped within its location - what the station was like to operate in the olden days I can only guess. I was shown around the BSK which has been restored from a gutted interior to a very presentable passenger carrier. Andy Chapman gave me a guided tour of his Sentinel steamer. I must clearly return when they are actually open!

On Friday I got called out to a customer and was able to stop off at the haulier's yard where the low load trailer is based to pick up the old links for comparison. The official Andover ones are 345 centres, the ones on it were 495. the Mk3 set will be somewhere in between.

On Saturday Andrew and I were back to the shed and were joined by Toby K and Charles C from the IDRPG. They were anxious to have 1382 out and in action: and since Andrew had finished all the work for the vac pipe that needed it up in the air, there was no point in it remaining in the Matterson bay. So I used Charlie to put the 03, Ludwig and the 14 on to the siding road then with Andrew shunted 1382 and Adolf out, collected Ashdown and ended up with Adolf in the Mattersons, Ashdown in front and 1382 across the other side. In fact, we brought Pluto out too, as it is likely to be having a holiday quite soon and we needed to get it going and see what attention it needed.

So while Toby K and Charles C got 1382 running and attended to leaks and other defects, we checked through Pluto's fuel system, and when all was quiet, got it fired up. It was slow to build air, and a fairly significant air leak adjacent to the horn valve revealed itself, so we blew it back down and changed fittings to rectify.

Then air built up more quickly, and towards the end of the afternoon both locos were in action. But another snag on Pluto revealed itself - the air brake cylinder seal is passing badly. On this loco (and I imagine most Planets as there are few mechanical differences) the Westinghouse cylinder is bolted to the inside of the front buffer beam and is therefore horizontal. Having not been run for several years, it is possible that the weight of the piston has deformed the seal and must be replaced. I've got seals in stock, it's just last time we did this was a decade ago and the engine was out, rendering it accessible. We may have to jack the front of the loco up a bit just to get in and open the cylinder up.

Andrew was taking grandson back to his mother's today, so I had the shed to myself. Pluto's battery master switch was known to be u/s, so I had a hunt through the stock and found a twin pole Bosch switch which should do as an alternative. The only thing is it requires a special handle, which wasn't with it, so I removed the old switch, drilled the bracket and fitted the new, and started making a handle for it with an M14 capscrew, putting a Mills pin through. The switch is rather farther back than ideal (access to the other side of the bracket fixings would have needed a second person) so the capscrew has been extended by means of a 1/4 UNF setscrew and a spare profile, but once Andrew has welded up my creation it should do the job or be entered for the Turner prize.

So that's it for another week. What am I up to this week? I'm really not sure - at least I won't have to leap up at crack of sparrows tomorrow for the trip to Tunstead. But I have a lot of admin work to catch up on, a trip down south west to fit in and a lot more besides. But at least there's the Easter weekend to look forward to and work pencilled in on Pluto, Ludwig and such. What will we achieve? Who knows. See ya then.