Of undercoat and labradoodle

16th June 2019

One of my correspondents this week confessed that he was warming to RS8. Having long experienced the same thing I pondered why it might be. And then it struck me. RS8, like RoSeS, grow on you.

Once again, Andy and I were let loose with no Pete C around, and we dutifully filled out and signed all the safety paperwork that Tarmac requires before getting down to another day on RS8. For Andy, this meant proceeding to re-paint the yelllow on the buffer beams, then applying this cream undercoat to other areas such as the casing top, though he also applied a coat of yellow to the front of one fuel tank to see if there was any inter-action between the different brands - no point in applying a large area and then find it 'orange-peeling'.

I meanwhile was up in the cab, out of his way, starting to cable up the headlamps. This was a slightly optimistic process - optimistic in that without Pete C, whether I could get at a freshly charged battery for the drill was a question I didn't want to get to the point of answering, so holes for p clips and miniature connecting boxes were drilled with trepidation. I got the right hand side completed (bar lidding off the boxes) and the switches cabled up to the fuse and common return point, leaving the left hand side, and provision for the cab roof light, for this week.

Andy had also undercoated the air cleaner panel, fortunately just before lunch as being touch-dry in 2 hours meant that we could put it into position later that day and thus measure up the gaps on either side for replacement casing doors. Only two of RS8's originals survive, and these are corroded, the others having been removed to gain access for metal thefts over the years at the Stone Centre. They were thin, flimsy things to begin with, stiffened by turning the edges over, but I suspect prone to drumming and definitely easily susceptible to rusting. That will be a job for fabricators shortly.

But although the air filter panel fitted nicely, there was a snag: the 4 inch bore ducting will not fit over the cast lip of the inlet elbow on the R-R engine. You can see that the two aren't connected in the pictures, but - hopefully- we can file that off and get it to go. We finished slightly earlier than usual - well no Pete C tea for starters - but we'd reached a logical stop point and I had some parts to take down to the engineering workshop, Sigma 6 for machining, including a piece for Ashdown. Sigma 6 is located in part of the old quarry, next to the Cement Plant, and means going in through Security and a 3/4 mile drive within the complex which does take up rather a lot of time. Still, all being well the bits should be ready tomorrow, which is a much better turn-around than I've been getting elsewhere.

I was busy on Tuesday but on Wednesday travelled down to inspect my purchase in more detail and do some measuring on it in preparation for the mods to take rails and ramp. The weather has been a trial this week and Wednesday was no exception. I had this idea that if I parked the van nearby, left the clipboard and paper on the driver's seat, and legged it out to take dimensions then return and lean in to sketch and annotate I'd be all right.

And it almost worked, but my protective baseball cap (courtesy Alstom) having absorbed as much moisture as it was going to, started dripping off the peak right on to the drawings, and turning it round so that the peak faces backwards might be 'cool' in California but over here it merely transfers the drips down the back of your neck. Anyway, survey completed as best as I could I returned home, and for anyone who might be remotely interested, kept the overall journey to over 52mpg.

Actually, getting on to fuel consumption reminds me I was meaning to tell you a story about dear old George Barnes, the instigator of Bala Lake Railway. George had been an automotive engineer at a laundry before moving to Wales, and spent much of his time maintaining and rebuilding lorry engines and so had a number of unique strategies that he wanted to apply in the Principality. As General Manager at Llanuwchllyn it was felt he ought to have a company car, though in those days (forty years ago) it was a secondhand Mk 1 Escort estate. Not only did George turn back the carb so it ran on a lean mixture, he disliked the disc brakes on the front because unlike shoe brakes, there were no springs to pull the friction lining away when not required, therefore, argued George (and he wouldn't be convinced otherwise) he was wasting petrol pushing the disc past the pads. Somewhow he got hold of another front axle, an older one with drum brakes, and proceeded to swap them. One night he and one of my good friemnds (to whom I'm indebted for this entertainment) went over to Wrexham. It was a cold night, frosty in fact, and their route back took them over Llandegla Moors, a long relatively straight and once over the summit, steady descent well on the way to Corwen. George, ever mindful of preserving the environment by limiting the burning of fossil fuels - if not the pounds in his pocket - would turn off the engine and freewheel for as long as possible before finally bump-starting by clutching in. On this occasion, so I was assured, the freewheeling without engine in the cold night meant that not only had the lights started to dim and the heater cooled off, but the engine got so cold that when he came to restart it at the bottom he had to pull the choke out.

While I was dripping over my drawings Andy H had gone back to Tunstead by arrangement and continued painting. Much of his time was taken up by masking-off but the buffer beams are now completed and certainly adds a sense of imminent completion to the whole thing.

On Thursday I headed up towards Bury. Andrew had picked up a job lot of hollow section offcuts from an e-bay seller and I had something to collect from that neck of the woods so it wasn't a waste of my day. It took four of us to load the van and the steel didn't stay long in one place as I heard crashes and bangs within the first mile despite having put a strap over it all in the mistaken impression it would keep it still. Never mind, I repacked it and made enough room for a (small) pallet with what I wanted on it and put more straps over the lot which maintained some form of order

Friday, and we were back together again at the shed, but mostly on a commercial job or two, although Andrew found time to progress the air main pipework that will provide an air feed to the shotblast cabinet. (Yes, I know, the project lies dormant for ages and then suddenly takes a step forwards: it's like that with us.) Saturday, and Andrew wasn't around but Jagger was visiting and was able to progress work on Ashdown. Where the top and bottom of the cab butt together there is an overlapping strip that plates over the join, but it has suffered from jack-rusting and over the last few months each rivet has been drilled out. Now it was time to de-rust the exposed strips, and the area where the transmission cover meets the cab. Jagger did this, and some work on Jack too. In between other tasks I was looking at wiper motors for RS8: its originals are past redemption, but I hunted two out from the container and spent a while ascertaining what thread they were secured by and finding setscrews to suit (actually 1/4 BSF). Another outstanding issue is the suspect oil cooler, and eventually I found a couple deep in the bowels of the container, although the porting on their bodies varied.

Late last night the heavens opened and we had heavy rain and hail. It was heavy enough that my Freesat signal couldn't get through at all and I wondered whether we might have a return of the ornamental pond. Jagger and I had stopped and watched the flow through the slot drain at the front of the shed earlier in the afternoon but this deluge might have overtopped it. Andrew was first down this morning and no, it hadn't come in on the tracks, it was the personnel door that had overflowed, though fortunately with little or no damage bar a light layer of silt. Andrew has been campaigning for another slot drain from the personnel door, which tends to pond since we concreted it to use up some surplus back in 2014, so that might come up on the jobs list if this is a feature of Britain's evolving climate. Even Darley Castle was looking a little the worse for wear, and received attention.  Anyway, he got the pipework for the air main completed at the Bakewell end, and moved on to other jobs, breaking off to help me strip an oil cooler when forceful-but-don't-overdo-it hammering failed to budge it. The press did though and it went into the degreaser for a clean up prior to examination and reassembling with new joints and seals.

Ashdown got the corner pieces of the overlapping strip re-fitted, but the middle section is another matter. Andrew is planning countersunk setscrews across it all. During the afternoon we were joined by Pete F with two of his dogs, a black labrador and a labradoodle. A pleasant interlude (and tea).. The labrador is one of those intelligent enough to work out that if you start petting it, sitting on your foot will stop you moving away and doing something else.

The Andover trailer has been sold so that has indeed done its last job for us. Just a pity that I got the profiles for new lifting links that we never got round to finishing. Still the King is a far better proposition and there are jobs waiting for it as soon as we can get the mods done ready to load locos. More on that soon. This week sees the usual, plus a trip on Friday to collect grandson for the weekend, so Andrew won't be about much (and apparently we have declared next Sunday is Fathers Day in the Briddon Country Pile). But I'll be back, same time, same website. See ya then?