Of putting on a skirt

15th November 2020

No, probably not what you're thinking.

I've just chucked my overalls into the washing machine for a preliminary rinse prior to a full-blown wash cycle. Before you gasp in horror, there is a washing machine in the garaged dedicated to overalls, and a hard life it leads with all the muck it extracts. I would not dare deposit these (or any others of my collection) into the Briddon domestic washing machine in the kitchen - that would not be good for my health and well-being. Two days this week I've been out with the low loader, and that is relatively clean work, but lounging around on a cab floor, with one elbow on a Land Rover seat and working on electrical panels lurking behind air pipes which are constantly in the way and so you repeatedly move position in order to try and not give yourself a crick in the neck - the overalls rapidly turn from hivi to distinctly black.

Claire has been the main receipient of our attention this week, me on the electrics, Andrew on the pneumatics. Both of us are getting towards the end (of our tethers as well if truth be known) of our respective tasks. As Claire is to handle passenger stock, she is having the two-pipe system fitted which does tend to contribute to complications in pipe runs. Fortunately for Andrew, the Hudswell Clarke side-skirts are actually bolted on and in two pieces (Hills, Hunslet etc welded their skirts as part of the frame assembly. Sentinel did bolt theirs, but they frequently jack-rust and Tom must receive attention for that someday, but the Hudswell arrangement, with running plate slightly overhanging, seems to be immune from that problem).

So for the last few weeks Claire's skirts on one side have been off, giving Andrew reasonable access for bracketry, etc, though over-head welding onto old steel can be a pain. These Hudswells also have substantial outriggers that support the brake hangers as well as the side skirts, so driling through these have taken time up, as well as others through running plates and frame members to get pipes through to join them.

Here he is connecting parts of the brake pipe line together, with the reservoir line underneath: the rear section of sideskirt has already been refitted. Later over the weekend that had progressed, with both lines conected across and then zig-zagged behind the sandboxes and across the front step area.

That has meant that the front side-skirt could be replaced, and after cleaning up, the front steps have been refitted through welding the broken parts in situ still remains to be done.

In comparison I could show you pictures of multiple wires under the desk but you probably wouldn't notice much difference to last time, and anyway I haven't taken any.

Like I said, I've been out two days with the low loader moving gronks again, and it has been becoming quite a slick operation though it has thrown up a limitation with having the winch on the trailer neck. If we have to winch from the side we can do so through a pulley, but getting the wire rope to wind on evenly becomes exceedingly difficult. In addition, Andrew discovered that the wire rope supplied with the winch by the makers is not supposed to bend to the radius dictated by the diameter of the drum! We'd only winched on a few locos and the winch rope started to show minor defects- and by Thursday this week we had to declare the winch rope to be scrap. By then not only had it pronounced bends if you unwound to the bottom layer, but several sections had been deformed by squashing from later layers as the rope had refused to spread out evenly.

At the same time, Adam S, the Heanor boss, suggested that the winch would be better located on the back of the trailer - something I had proposed but Andrew had rejected - so all-in-all, while there's a week or so spare before the next job, the trailer is coming back to Darley Dale for a new rope and some mods. (Actually, judging by the price for the replacement rope compared to the total price for the winch when new, the original rope must be - well, rather ropey.) The new rope is a slightly different construction, fit for the drum diameter and has been ordered complete with lubricant. We'll see how this pans out. So that's about it for this week. I'll leave you with a photo yet another gronk in transit, wish you a quiet lockdown week and hope you'll be back next time. See ya then.