Of issues of friction

14th July 2019

Into the nineth year. Again, a wide range of topics to touch on, and some good news, so read on....

I am relieved to say that I did remember my camera last Monday although I was beginning to think there would be little enough progress to be worth photographing. But when I got to Tunstead, yippee, there was Andrew Hn, the welder we'd had expected last week, ready to do our bidding. We set him to work on the ballast boxes on the front, and he promptly cut a long slither off the plate for the left hand side as the loco isn't entirely square!

And on he went, fully welding the two plates into the enclosures on each side. Meanwhile Andy H (yes, I know. too many Andys) continued painting, firstly yellow onto parts of the cab, then preparing the radiator grille, and finally, after Andy Hn had finished, priming the two ballast box plates.

And what was I doing during all of this? Well actually I had the feeling I was not achieving much. I could tell you mine was a supervisory role but the job I most wanted to do required a 110V supply for the compressor, and that was monopolised by Andy Hn and his grinder. I was determined to sort out the clutch timer, and had brought with me not only another flow restictor but a larger capacity reservoir, which has lain under a bench at the workshops for several years having previously lain under the same bench when it was in the VBA. So, demonstrating that you should never throw anything useful away, I had decided to substitute it and see where I got to.

But Andy had brought the 'friction device' with him. One of the issues with RS8 on our one and only driving session to date was with the brake control. The combined weight of the cab linkages, plus that enormous balance weight (which may, or may not, be in the right place) combined to make the brake control fall back to release when let go, which is surprisingly inconvenient. But Andy, who was one of those who stripped the linkages out of RS8's cab back at Darley Dale, confirmed there had been a friction device, containing a material that looked suspiciously like asbes....s (shh, someone might hear) so had spirited it away. The metal part was now back, and after priming, I set it up on the brake linkage shaft with a piece of thick felt.

That was insufficient in itself, but I then detached the balance weight and felt (see? subtle pun) I was on the right track. It will fall back, but not not all the way, so needs further attention.

Andy Hn finished his work, and gave us an account of the two cab radiators. The one with the visible cracks defied their expertise at welding, although using 'cast iron' rods it refused to 'take' and so they'd given up

I decided that they had better return to Darley Dale for attention. With Andy Hn gone I had the 110V supply to myself so charged the air system. The new flow restrictor and reservoir were loosely plumbed in but I still couldn't seem to get it to work. This wasn't helped by the fact that the clutch valve was venting directly from its ports up on the desk, so I blanked one off and piped the other down under the cab floor, which turned out to be very effective in quietening it. I was scratching my head wondering what I was doing wrong when suddenly I heard a woosh of air as the clutch cylinder unloaded. I tried it again and this time timed it, finding it working but taking far longer than I needed. A bit of fiddling with the flow restrictor and the clutch reliably unloads at 6 seconds. I was also testing my throttle detection valve only to realise I'd made a pig's ear of it and needed alteration. Pneumatically it works fine: if the throttle opens it unloads the clutch or if the clutch is already out, prevents it being engaged, but mechanically it's not so good.

Having thus sorted my pneumatic issues Andy grabbed the capacity reservoir and took it away for painting. Hopefully next Monday we'll be able to site it somewhere permanently.

Regular readers will be aware that a year ago, the Peak Railway Association rejected our renewals of membership, asserting that they had the right to do so under an Article in the company's Articles of Association and giving no reason. The timing obviously was close behind the newsletter issued by Peak Rail plc for which I was compelled to threaten defamation action and resulted in the apology of sorts that appeared on PR's website and in the annual report submitted to shareholders. We took counsel's opinion on the PRA rejection and this confirmed our view, that the Board had the right to reject new applications for membership but the Articles not only did NOT give them the power to reject a renewal, but various other clauses indicated that such a power was never intended: after all, the PRA was drawn up as company that might one day convert to a charity. The PRA however, refused to engage in any way and letters sent to all Directors were ignored. Thus I was compelled to initiate court proceedings. We then had a meeting in early May which made little progress, but after it, we released to the PRA Directors a copy of the 10 page letter I had sent to Peter Waterman after the publication of the PR newsletter which he had signed as President (a letter which, incidentally although being sent to his work e-mail address, his home address and via the PR office, he neither responded to nor acknowledged).

Last month the PRA changed its position, and I was able to terminate the legal action this week. I am happy therefore to issue the following statement in this regard: The Briddon family and the Peak Railway Association Limited have resolved their differences amicably and to their mutual satisfaction. As a result of this agreement their continued membership has been recognised.

Railways Illustrated (August) saw fit to put in a piece about locomotive work I have been doing at Darley Dale, mentioning Brush's Hudswell Clarke 'Sprite' which is indeed in the shed at present. As you know I don't normally comment on commercial work in this blog but any regular reader would be aware that I alone am responsible, but a Railways Illustrated sub-editor apparently changed the original text from 'Andrew and Peter Briddon' (which was wrong to begin with) to 'Andrew Briddon Locos', which is merely the name of Andrew's website. A strongly worded protest went to the Editor: we are promised a correction and apology in the next issue.

Friday night I popped in to provide a conducted tour to Mark H, a regular reader and sponsor of a part on RS8. He had read so much and seen so many pictures, he was intrigued to see what it was like in real life.

Jagger joined us on Saturday and although I was trying to get a customer's loco progressed it required all three of us on Ashdown's clutch mechanism which was not only heavy but refusing to be reassembled. In the end, we managed to get it partly on, but the shiny bit you saw exposed in the picture last week, which had an o-ring in a groove, seemed so tight that it cut the top off the o-ring. We got it on so far before the end of the day, (you can see how far the mounting bolts still had to go) but were less than happy with it for the hours it had taken.

Andrew and I were back today and I was anxious to progress the oil cooler for RS8. Last week, we had filled it with water and left it: but that was not imposing any pressure and although it seemed water-tight, it was not definitive proof. So with the aid of a spare rubbish bin full of water, we rigged up the oil cooler and applied air pressure up to some 15-20 psi.

And it leaked, well, a steady stream of bubbles came up from near the bottom, and one or two from 2 or 3 places farther up, though whether these were tinier leaks, or merely escaping air that had been trapped between the fins of the cooler was rather harder to determine. And the leaks we did definitely locate (and there are 3) should have allowed coolant to escape out, not into oil. So for now the oil cooler is still in bits and a decision on what to do next has not been made. With the gear set up I dragged the two RS8 cab radiators over and pressure tested the RHS one which proved sound. The LHS one however is a different matter and I was totally unable to get it to hold any air pressure, even though only going to about 8 or 9 psi. Andrew reckons that he should be able to braise it, but that not for another week. With the prospect of getting one refitted I sorted out some suitable M8 bolts and cut fresh spacers to hold the radiator off the cab wall.

The front gate of Darley Dale yard hinges on the level crossing post (which is steel) and butts up to a substantial wooden post which is becoming increasingly rickety, being rotten at ground level and below. We've tried to ignore it but it really wants renewing, and last week we dragged out of the ferry van a couple of large flanged pieces of box section steel which we bought via e-bay a couple of years ago.

So Andrew made a start on cutting the top of one square, and welding on enough extension from another to make a new post which we will bolt to a concrete base.

With that welded and dressed (it still needs some sort of cap and sundry bits) we moved back to Ashdown and after much heart searching, took the bits off we had so labouriously put on yesterday. The problem is that the 'spider' that actually forces the clutch plates in to drive, needs to slide over that shiny bit and won't. When Andrew originally came to take it off, there proved insufficient space between the shiny bit and the loco frame to clear as it should have done because, it was discovered later, the collapsed bearing was taking up more space than the designers intended. So part of the spider had had to be burnt away, with considerable difficulty. The suspicion was that in so doing, the heat had stress-relieved the spider and it had changed its dimensions slightly. Once back out and on the floor, some checks with a large vernier seem to confirm this - far from a slight clearance the spider has become a slight interference. It will be machined out, hopefully this week.

And that's about it. Back up to RS8 tomorrow as usual, and a large part of the week looks to be fully-booked as I try to earn a modest crust. Hopefully there'll be lots to write about and I'll be back, if you will. See ya then.