Of a homecoming

8th December 2019

Well look at this way: only a couple more weeks to the shortest day...

On Monday morning I met up with a Leeds-based enthusiast to loan him some negatives of 'Hudson Go-go tractors' which he is going to scan for a book he's writing. Now, as a rule I find the term 'tractor' for a narrow gauge i.c. loco rather offensive. It's got wheels, it pulls trains, and ignoring the fact that the term became adopted as a nickname for the Class 37, if you referred to a main line diesel loco as a 'tractor' people would think you're a died-in-the-wool steam man and meant it to be disparaging. But in this case it is probably apposite, as a Gogo was basically a Fordson tractor, minus the wheels, set up in a 4wheeled chassis with chain drive to the rail axles from the tractor back axle (as would have been). And if that makes you recall a team putting a similar thing together on to a B5 bogie in front of TV cameras, complete with me singing 'Where have all the power tools gone?' - sadly my recording career never quite took off - you should get out more.

Anyway, we met at a Tesco in southwest Sheffield, only to find the cafe closed owing to roof leakage so a quick trip around the corner took us to a Sainsbury's whose cafe was open. Why am I telling you all this? Because here I was loaning photos I had taken in the 1970s and which have now taken on the mantle of something historic, and discussing them on the site of a brickworks which had had 2ft gauge system itself. It was one of those days to start one off feeling old and reminiscing. Next I'm liable to start telling you about my trip to a sewage works where I drove a Ruston 30DL hauling half-a-dozen skips full of - I didn't like to ask but it was green and gooey....

Tuesday, and for one last time Andy H and I met up at Tunstead. Our purpose was to tidy up, remove our property, sweep up the dirt and such from the floor, load the van with a pallet-full of miscellaneous bits and so on, plus saying goodbyes to the many good people we have met up there. We found eight more mills balls that had managed to escape us weeks ago and had been hiding out waiting to roll to freedom. They re-joined their kin later. Reids were on site, loading a VTG wagon to go away for repair or summat, and it seemed that someone at Freightliner hadn't got the memo as not one but two class 66s had been parked next to the fuel point, too close for safety and delayed the job a bit.

Then it was our turn: we had a lift down to the loco shed and pilotted once again by a Hunslet 0-6-0DH, we took RS8 for one last trip up the sidings that had once been its home. A second trailer was on hand to accept it, and around 3pm RS8 left Tunstead.

Now, the plan was that a customer of mine had contracted Allelys to deliver a loco to me at Rowsley for repair, and I'd assumed that it would be an a.m. collection Wednesday morning and roll in to Rowsley in the afternoon, so I had arranged that Tarmac book Reids to collect RS8 Tuesday p.m. to deliver Wednesday a.m., so as to minimise inconvenience to Peak Rail in the run up to Santas. Then I chanced to ring Allelys and discovered they too were collecting Tuesday p.m. and would probably get there that night. Could I have inadvertantly caused 'Train Trucker Wars' as they battled to be first one on to the unloading point?

The Reid's driver though was adamant that he was tipping that night as he could then head back to Stoke Wednesday morning and off on to holiday. He wouldn't leave the loco unattended overnight though.

About half-five I wandered down to Rowsley and found the lorry stuck outside: the gates at the Nanny Goat bridge were closed and locked and apparently no-one at Reid's office could ascertain the code number. I could, so opened up and Reid's crew set about building the ramp by work light, though eventually I fired up RS8 and turned on its headlamps to aid them. So far so good and no sign of Allelys. Back at Tunstead, when RS8 was unloaded, the combination of slope of the trailer deck plus that of the hillside underneath was more than sufficient to encourage RS8 to roll down: here it was only the former and the loco sat still as the winch rope drooped. So with gentle encouragement, I drove it in stages (didn't want to rip the winch off its mountings!) and forward to the gate, after which they stripped the ramp down, backed the unit away and I drove RS8 back a bit to clear the gateways, before shutting down and heading off for my evening meal.

Jagger, who had been out of the country last weekend, had asked to spend Wednesday here and stayed at the Briddon Country Pile overnight so was ready for an early start. There had been something of a frost and with RS8's cab being less than shall we say weathertight, it had frost on the windscreens on outside and inside. Allelys arrived delivering the loco which I knew well: it was one of the last jobs I had completed at YEC before Barclays Bank demonstrated its apparent inability to comprehend an auditor's letter attached to a draft balance sheet.

Anyway, having inspected both locos and satisfied myself they were fit, we set off for Darley Dale. We had also been joined by local reader David S from Wessington, giving me the opportunity to show some pictures of this move away from my usual snatched vantage points.

Have a good look at the roof line on the two locos - the green one is just inside L1, and is in fact slightly taller than RS8, though people still insist on claiming that the latter is 'too tall'.

With the locos safely into the yard at Darley, we had a break and then set about a marathon shunt to re-arrange everything, but only got it partially complete before light faded. We did though return to the shot blast cabinet, and re-arranged the ducting and the filter assembly into what we felt were better places.

Friday, and after some running around Steph and I headed to Wirksworth for the formal opening of tbe workshop of the Ivatt Diesel Re-creation group. Laid out for examination were many of the major components, valves and such which had until recently been in store at Darley for them, hence the invite. Things ran behind schedule - The Chairman and President had been at an event with Porterbrook in Derby and arrived late, but earlier than the Secretary had announced, and as we had wandered off (with others) to the EVR shop/museum building to kill the time to the Secretary's forecast, unfortunately nobody thought to shout out when the VIPs arrived earlier and proceeded to declare it 'open' (or so I assume) without any preamble. A group member with us had come down especially from Newcastle seemed a little disgruntled.

Anyway, after some milling around socialising we were encouraged to meander in the direction of Platform 2 and single car dmu Iris for a special trip down to Duffield. Unfortunately the weather was again inclement and the windows misted which made it difficult to enjoy the scenery. My last (and only prior) trip over the full line was in July 2008 when I drove Claire down to Duffield, and although not quite from the same position, these two photos are near enough a comparison.

Back at Wirksworth it was getting dark and we forsook the offered shed tour for a return over the hill.

Both Andrew and I had administrative things to do on Saturday so went without dropping in to the shed, but today we were back and joined by Tony S. Being temporarily out of stock of anti-freeze and needing some coolant to top up James, we set about draining some which should have been 50/50 from 14901 only to discover what was in there if it had any ethylene glycol at all, was minimal, so we drained the lot as a precaution.

I won't go in to details but the re-arrangement, because the yard at Darley Dale is shall we say a trifle full, took up most of the day and only by-mid afternoon could we get down to the more usual tasks which included preliminary sorting of components brought back from Tunstead, and priming bits of the winch and Ashdown's rear casing s which have been awaiting such attention for several weeks. For now RS8 sits nose-to-nose with Ludwig Mond. The latter was built (admittedly after RS8 had left for Dinting) to handle the Northwich end of the limestone flow in the famous ICI hoppers from Tunstead, and although there is a suspicion that RS8's main duty was taking coal wagons around, it may easily have handled those same hoppers, and Cheedale most certainly will have.

And this week? As usual I don't really know. No Tunstead tomorrow - that will seem strange - but maybe things will develop as the week goes on. Come back next week and find out. See ya then.