Of showers

28th July 2019

Into our lives a little rain must fall. We we've woken by thunder and lightning one night, serenaded by constant precipitation on another. I'm clearing space at the shed to build an ark.

Tunstead seemed a bit of an anti-climax this week. For one thing, the pit was flooded again, and from the tidemarks on the floor, there must be some serious holes in the roof over where RS8 sits. Worse still, our little tool -cum-storeroom was locked, and so we had to go in search of Bryan P or Alan G for the keys. But Bryan turned out to be at Chesterfield college for the day and Alan had taken the day off - it was beginning to look like a very short day indeed. But another manager found a set of keys on Alan's desk which looked hopeful and we gained entry.

First job though was to pump out the pit, and the ever-resourceful Andy H tied a bit of rope to the float switch on the submersible pump so that it could be activated without getting in range of the numerous jets that emanate from the holes-in-the-hose. With the weather we've had this week, I fear this might become a regular activity. Anyway, Andy seemed to be able to think of things to paint, and I started by adding the tee to the coolant rail, with a reducer to 3/8 for a new hose to connect with the vent port on the heat exchanger. To the rear, I've put a 1/2 inch ball valve ready to connect the cab radiator(s).

I then hid away in the cab and started to do some of the tidy-ups on the pipework that I've been intending. Mostly this involved adding p-clips at strategic places and re-arranging the routes of connected pipes and their connectors. At one point Andy was adding a fresh coat of paint to the cab front on the outside, when he was surprised by my drilling through from the other side. I thought I was still within the casing line. I was tapping the holes M5: I withdrew my tap and found it had gained a fresh coat of Golden Yellow. The 'panoramic' view of the cab front will show you how it all fits together.

Across sat the right is that unique manifold that we had so much difficulty re-using, but now has isolate-able branches feeding various functions. At the extreme right is the throttle detection valve - back in the centre are the gear and clutch control valves and the timing reservoir (the actual controls that the driver operates are actually on the desk) and as we go further left we switch to the electrics. It is so logical you might think I planned it that way. For a change, and having brought up some 1/2 inch BSW sets and a plug tap, I went around the sandboxes starting to fit the sand ejectors. Cosmetic for the moment, but making it seem a little more complete. It doesn't seem much progress for one day though, but the pipework tidying is one of those tasks that takes hours but seemingly makes no change. I daresay there's still a bit more to do, but it can wait for the moment.

On Tuesday I had reason to go to Nottingham on a completely non-railway matter, but opted to sample the Matlock branch, pointing out to Andrew that I was thus contributing to his wages. Neither journey was especially memorable, but for the return run the incoming set was changing crews at Nottingham, and the departing conductor left the passenger information system declaring 'We will shortly be arriving at Nottingham...' or maybe the system had just given up trying. The replacement conductor was checking tickets and a couple on the opposite side pointed out the message still showing (as we left Belper) so he went off and reset it. It then displayed 'Next stop Duffield' and continued to do so for the rest of my journey. Tuesday evening Steph and I attended the local area PRA meeting with the second part of a talk on the C&HP.

I was expecting the casing doors for RS8 to be ready this week, but instead got a call from my fabricators saying that 2 men were off and they were snowed under, and they would appreciate it if they could postpone the job a week. I couldn't see that leaving it a week would make any significant difference, save that it would be an August invoice, rather than a July one!

On Wednesday grandson joined us for a 10 day period at the beginning of his summer hols (he'll be back later for a 2 week stay when we've had time to recover) and on Thursday evening our daughter and her husband stayed the night. They had been at a wedding in Glasgow but were due to have a weekend's camping nearby at Birchover with friends. On Friday I had a morning run-around, which included ordering a cab light for RS8, collecting those temporary filler caps also for RS8 and 2 batteries which Andrew had had me go for on e-bay to replace those truly stuffed ones on Ashdown. Meanwhile Andy H completed the concreting of the gatepost at Darley Dale, bringing the final tally of bags of Postcrete used to 11.

As Andrew was doing his fatherly bit I have had the shed pretty much to myself over the weekend, and most of what I have been on has been commercial work. I had planned to recover and test another oil cooler for RS8 from an R-R engine we have in store, but the weather has been abysmal and I didn't fancy getting soaked up the yard. I put the job off from Saturday to Sunday as the forecast had intimated that Sunday would be drier. It wasn't discernably different: daughter and husband appeared back, their friends having packed up and headed home quicker than they had after heavy rain all night. I got back down after lunch, and did at least set about making up a kit of parts to produce the access steps for RS8's cab. Finally at about 5pm the rain eased, and I took a sack truck to bring the old wooden gatepost down within reach of a 110V supply and recovered the hasp for re-use, and cut off a section of fencing paling in a condition that might be re-usable. (I did all this with a slitting disc: not the appropriate tool for the second task really, it makes lots of smoke and a smell of burning wood. Quicker than fighting my way through with a wood saw though!). So a rather disappointing week this. I'll be back off to Tunstead in the morning, hoping for better news about front ballast weights and at least I'll have the step assembly to keep me occupied. Hopefully more of interest (and more pictures) next time. See ya then.