Of a leg out of bed.

8th November 2020

And I'm not referring to getting up in the morning.

Once again the week has been taken up with commercial activity and seems set to continue that way for some time. Only last Monday (though it seems longer) I had a gronk to see to its destination, and now I have two more to move for that customer plus a list of upcoming jobs for that and other clients. Well, I suppose it keeps me off the streets. Come the weekend and a start has been made on a re-arrangement of locos in and around the shed, but that is not as simple as it sounds. In theory, we need to pull Adolf out of the Mattersons area so that another loco can go in for lifting, but there are 3 heavy lumps in front of Adolf and several more that must be moved in order to get the forklift in to move them.

It is taking longer than I hoped (given that I must also press on with Claire's electrics) but along the way there are distractions. For example a couple of Fowler loco owners have expressed interest in parts of the damaged Leyland engine that has been residing just outside the shed and which Andrew feels is 'in the way'. This loco came in from Whitrope some 18months ago with a big hole in the side of the crankcase where No.2 conrod had punched through.

Although it was envisaged that I would re-power it for them, more defects identified over the following weeks caused a re-think and in the end ownership of the loco fell to me. Earlier this year I attempted to drain the fuel tank from this loco (to reduce the weight and maybe lift it off to gain access to the gearbox underneath) but so far all I have been able to extract from the engine feed tap has been water, and while we may never know exactly what the cause of the engine failure was, water may have played a part. To show you just how catastrophic this failure was, here's a picture (above) of the engine before we lifted it out of the loco - that jagged hole from just under the manifold to just above the sump is not something you see often, nor want to if you own that engine! In fact, the parts that exploded came out with such force that the drive to the fuel pump was obliterated (the drive shaft into the pump having sheared straight through) and the bearing assembly to the front, coming from the timing gears, was pushed away, cracking the timing gear case. Of course, some or all of the coolant surrounding No.2 then drained into the sump.

With a view to recovering re-usable components and clearing space (by dropping whatever is left into the scrap bin) the engine strip-down has begun, removing cylinder heads, turbo, oil coolers, etc. The sump components are of course aluminium, which are better weighed in seperately. The inspection cover was taken off the opposite side of the engine, enabling you to see straight through...

The cylinder head is probably not suitable for re-use: you can see the mottled effect of the middle cylinder compared to the other two - that is actually dents from some form of break-up before the final one. A push rod for one valve in No.2 was severely bent, and if you look at the upper valve in the picture, you can maybe make out that it is itself distorted.

Not that No.2 was alone in being in distress. Here's a picture of No.5, and although it isn't so easy to make out in the photo, in reality the piston is clearly offset in the bore, there is a piece missing from its crown and a suggestion of possible seizure or at least abnormal wear at the top of the cylinder liner.

In less depressing moves, we drained off a 45 gallon drum-full of fuel from a non-operational loco, transferred it to the tank of Ludwig Mond, bled the system through and got it started. (It has been out of action for a few weeks after it ran out and we have been too busy to get it sorted.) That success was celebrated with a cup of tea, leaving the loco running to boost the batteries and dry out the traction motors, before using its superior power and adhesion to continue with the shunt. Up to then I had been using Charlie, which I didn't think was pulling too well and when I came to check, found it low on transmission oil, but even before topping it up I could get slip and slide on the damp, greasy rails of a morning that has begun by being foggy throughout the valley.

On a side-light this week, I was asked to prepare a short history of Janus locomotives for an insert to go with the ALD Models gauge 1 kit you saw a couple of weeks ago, as production examples now are being despatched.

Andrew has a day off tomorrow, so all being well we'll get back down and continue the re-arrangement. But for now that's about it. Keep distanced, keep safe, keep away from minks and come back next week. See ya then.