Of out with 2019
29th December 2019
2019 is on the wane. So before I forget, a Happy New Year to you all.
As I think I inferred last week I am not a specially big fan of Christmas. It has almost been a tradition that on Christmas Day I disappear off somewhere as I have an electrical control panel to build up for a loco, and had I been a little bit further advanced on a current job I might have repeated that this year, instead Steph and I had a quiet Christmas together, and my time has been occupied on CAD'ing a revised version of the wiring scheme I used on RS8 for a loco that's being rewired. Christmas day though didn't really happen until Friday when we collected grandson, my daughter and son-in-law arrived and a mass present-opening session ensued. Then Steph got out this year's Christmas cake, which in keeping with the occasion was iced, but instead of the usual cake decorations of snow-bedecked Christmas trees, cottages and Santa sleighs, was instead simply lettered 'Bah humbug'.
And when I have got down to the shed it has been largely on my own which limits tasks that can be tackled, and in turn things that are worth photographing. I am scarcely going to enthrall you with a picture of a new piece of 1inch diameter pipe running down the wall, nor fence posts and beams now given their first coat of preserative. In fact, I don't think I've taken any pictures at all this week, save one of Andrew and Steph both asleep after a good meal, and that had better stay private if I know what's good for me.
Rail Express has published their story on RS8, see page 93 of issue 284. Railway Magazine is due to publish early in January, and Heritage Railway has let me vet their copy before publication. I sit back and await the inevitable 'it would have been better if they'd restored it back to a proper steam loco...'.
2019 has been predominantly about RS8 and given that this has been largely me and Andy H, it is appropriate to review the year and take in everything else. It has in many respects been a difficult year. Andrew was on his way to work one day and stationary at a road junction when hit from behind by a driver who came around a bend unaware of the obstruction ahead. Scratch one Audi. Andrew went on to move jobs to a train operating company who shortly after changed franchisors, and at one point it looked like he would be made redundant at the year end as the new franchisor endeavoured to cut costs. (There are some people who seem to think that Andrew works full time for me - not true, I couldn't afford him.) Had he been made redundant I was hoping for some assistance on a regular basis while he looked for work, but that crisis was averted.
Early last year we were preparing and laying concrete pads outside the shed to facilitate the forklift - that has paid off and the forklift - on dry days when the ground is firm enough - has ventured as far as the scrap bin as well as loading/unloading road vehicles and rail, which is a good job as the yard has continued to fill to the point where access to certain vehicles is - ah, problematic and time consuming. At the same time a few items have been/are being released from the collection for various reasons (and I've promised myself that I'll bring Andrew's website up-to-date over the holidays) Ashdown is sold, Claire is sold (to me for a client), the PCV is going. Jack has been sold and work has started on it after the poor treatment it received some years ago. We've kept saying that once the HST fleet is run down, there is a prospect of acquiring a traction motor to resolve the Brush 0-6-0DEs problem, and ironically that is finally happening for real, although there may yet be a re-incarnation of the power cars for further use. Charlie has been away for much of the year, helping me out. It will be interesting to see if anyone spots where it is now before it comes home again, sporting a brand new set of rear handrails. 03 901 seems to have made a home for itself down at Midsomer: they've already announced its presence at an event they're planning for March: can't see it coming home before then anyway. We did, towards the end of the year, ask our friendly transmission repairers to set up the transmission for Adolf, and get it ready for return to us, and I suspect we might get back to that during 2020. 14 901 has come home but stood down because of the state of the fuel pump: the worklist goes on.
So that's it, I think. Time to turn our backs on 2019 - not the greatest of years when all is said and done - and look forward to 2020 and a new decade. Normal service should resume next Sunday. See ya then.