Of alternator belts and services

1st September 2019

The 03 headed off on its holiday this week and that takes up most of this saga.

I think I caught a little too much sun on Sunday so decided to stay indoors on Monday and catch up with some paperwork. On Tuesday Andrew had the day off and we managed to get some time in. Some weeks ago I bought a job lot of SMC valves from an e-bay seller. Several are useless from my point of view (others more than covered what I had paid) but one caught my attention when I unpacked them as it was marked as suitable for 'light oil' which in my book includes fuel. Now, you have to be careful with Cummins' engines when the fuel tank is higher than the common fuel rail on the engine. Locos like Grace and Claire have what are called 'float tanks' because below fuel pump level they have a small (about 1 gallon) service tank which provides fuel to the fuel pump and accepts the excess back from the common fuel rail of the engine, and fuel from the main tank replenishes this tank through a float valve, like a domestic ball cock. 03901 doesn't have a float tank, but has the alternative non-return valves, but we always intended to install a float tank as belt'n'braces and had left the fuel delivery hose rather long and loose with that in mind. One danger is that when the engine stops, it does so with one injector open (it's a PT system, so the injectors are operated from the cam shaft) and if the fuel is sufficiently high up, it forces its way through and drains through the pot into the sump.

As a precaution we insist that the fuel on the 03 is turned off when the loco is parked up. (Actually, it's good practice with most Drewry/Gardner locos, 03s and 04s and the like, as when the Gardner fuel pump elements wear, fuel can ooze past the elements and as the pump is part of the engine, rather than self-contained, it dilutes your sump oil). Anyway, this SMC valve, which I had not come across before, seemed to fit the bill as a fuel isolation valve, so I decided to add it to 03 901 to see how well it works: any issues and I can always by-pass it with a pipe fitting.

So my first job as to mount the valve on the throttle cable bracket, wire it in to adjacent feeds (it's energised directly from the Battery Switch) and break into the feed pipe with new ends to insert it.

The valve should be clear in the photo at the right hand end of the bracket - with the right hand piece of hose in place I turned on the fuel and nothing flowed through. With the second pipe in place I turned on the battery master and having left the pump connection loose so as to expel the air from the pipe, I had a dribble of fuel escaping until I nipped it up. 03 901 fired up and was soon working normally, and, perhaps as importantly, shutdown on command.

Well that isn't quite true: at first it refused to engage drive. I checked all the fuses, followed things through but could find nothing apparently at fault until I happened to touch a wire and found it was out of its crimp. A fresh crimp and all was sorted.

Meanwhile Andrew took out the oxy-acetylene and burnt the heads off the bolts that hold the ramps on to the front of my low loader.

These ramps are for loading rubber tyred plant and got in the way of a our ramp-building: from my point of view they are unneccessary weight. We first tried undoing the bolts without success, perhaps in part because they were bent.

After Andrew had gone, I got the black paint out having decided I would improve the cab a bit with a fresh coat of black to the control desk top and the seat brackets. But it was a nice evening and enthusiasm got the better of me, and I ended up painting the running plates too.

On Wednesday the 03 set off for Midsomer Norton, and I pursued it with Andy H to whom I am indebted for some more of tonight's pictures. We got ahead of it on the M5, and I pulled in to Michaelwoods services only for it to roll in a few minutes later.

I wandered over to check with the driver, and found another lorry driver explaining to his mate that these big things at the front were used to push on to carriages. 'They're called buffers' I said cheerily. 'That's right' he said.

We reached Midsomer way ahead of the lorry to find a large contingent of members eagerly awaiting us, but at least we had plenty of time for a tea and to answer questions on the technical literature about the loco I had sent down before. The lorry finally arrived just before 5pm, and did so from the south, whereas we really wanted him to swing in from the north, as the angles suit it better. So in the middle of what passes for rush hour in Midsomer Norton, we stopped the traffic on 3 roads, while the lorry did a turn round and backed down so as to swing up into the yard entrance.

We soon had him lined up and detached, and with assistance from S&D volunteers our ramp was assembled.

I was quite happy to drive the loco down the ramp (anything is better than the ignominy of being eased down with a gronk) so the 03 arrived in style and once the formalities were out the way, we set off on a run to find out just how far the track goes. And the answer is almost as far as where Chilcompton Tunnel is, but that somebody has inconsiderately filled in the cutting before it.

As we got back to Midsomer, apart from rain starting, I had the shock of finding that the alternator warning light had come on and on examination found that of the two belts, one had snapped and the other stretched and come off its pulleys. That rather curtailed driver training for the day - I talked people through what there was to see statically and had to leave it at that.

The lorry set off back empty and after finding and sampling a local Weatherspoons we did too, arriving back at the Briddon Country Pile a little after midnight. First thing Thursday I ordered up some Nutlink belting: the original belts are solid but they are the belts nearest the engine and outboard of them are belts for (a) the compressor, (b) the exhauster, (c) the fan and (d) the charge pumps. It would take forever to take that lot apart and do them up again, or take out the flexible drive coupling and get it back with confidence.

Nutlink should serve and we can review things when it returns home.

I only got one day in at the workshops over the weekend, and mostly it was on commercial work which doesn't feature here, but the forklift was exploring new ground again with a trip to the scrap skip to dispose of an alternator carcass that has been getting in the way for months.

This did involve a bit of a shunt which eventually had me in the right place to grab this shot of the last PR train of August heading down to Matlock.

So back to Tunstead tomorrow: I don't know what the rest of the week holds but I am provisionally aiming to be back at Midsomer on Friday to deal with any snags on the 03 and overnight with one of their Directors before spending next Saturday watching it at work - and probably fighting off certain S&D volunteers who are threatening to paint it green! I also have to buy a couple of new tyres for the trailer - one for a puncture and another because the spare that came with it is apparently down to the cords. That's life I suppose. So anyway, hopefully an exciting report of life at a Midsomer where you don't get murdered this time next week. See ya then.