Of a spectator sport

30th May 2021

I thought I'd be a bit arty with an atmospheric steamy picture for openers...

Welcome back to this weeks Weekend Rails. Another week where I've passed the 1000 mile mark and looking similar for this next, but anyway, Monday was quite quiet and I was in the shed all day with progress on various jobs. Andrew and I went down to the shed in the evening as well to progress bits and bobs. On Tuesday I had a fairly prompt start to tour Clay cross, then Sheffield and Rotherham - drop off Tom's starter motor for repair, collect bits from machining that needed to go straight to powder coaters, and so forth. I had to be back by early afternoon as two guys from Alstom wanted to visit to view progress on L173 - thank heavens there was lots of new bits and wires to prove it was progressing!

As I fought my way from traffic light to traffic light in Sheffield, I had a call from Adam, to say that it would be a later start on Wednesday as he had a load still to tip that he couldn't do until first thing. Now all this needs a bit of explanation. Adam was supposed to be on holiday this week, and had said that he would only come in for 2 days to cover a couple of jobs I had booked on the trailer. Thus his plan was to be at Bury early on Wednesday (far too for me) to get a loco down to Tunbridge Wells, offload and head over to East Kent if possible by Wednesday night, to load an 08 and return to Shackerstone on Thursday. So him having a load to deal with at all prior to mine was a surprise, but I didn't interrogate him: I know what running your own business is like. You are told that you'll 'be your own boss', but you aren't, you're instead at the beck and call of customers each day and every day. Anyway, the revised Plan was to be at Bury 10-10.30 which left me in two minds as to whether and where to book a hotel for Wednesday night. Unable to decide what to do for the best, I did nothing, which turned out to be even better.

As I was starting off from nearer to Bury than Adam, and had a faster vehicle, I was planning to get moving at 8.30 but at ten past a text came in from Adam that he still wasn't unloaded so it would be nearer twelve. This didn't auger well for reaching Tunbridge Wells at all that day but it did mean I had the time to assist in moving the PCV up to Rowsley for collection.

In the end I was at Baron Street about noon and was able to find the loco, and a man with gate keys, in time for Adam to arrive at about 12.35. Our target was the front half of the 0-6-0 tender loco nicknamed Douglas, being a former Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST (Works no 2890) whose owner has dispensed with bunker and saddle tank and mated it to a tender giving rise to the appearance of a 'loco builder's standard' 0-6-0 loco and although some regard it as sacrilege I think it rather attractive and certainly a pleasant change from Austerities painted up as non-existent J94s.

Loading was slightly complicated by the fact that it was on a downhill slope and had no handbrake, but by 2.15 it was loaded and rolling.

Adam had accepted that he would return to base overnight and set off at 06.00 Thursday to get to Tunbridge Wells. I headed back to Darley Dale, passing Rowsley at ten past four I saw Reids had arrived to collect the PCV, so after a cuppa I wandered back up to get a farewell photo...

A few minutes after 6am on Thursday and I was on the road, as if Adam was on schedule he would have been an hour ahead of me by the time I passed the junction nearest his yard. As it was I overtook him about half-past eight, and by 11 o'cock I was at the Spa Valley Railway. The last time I was at the SVR the yard at Tunbridge Wells was relatively empty, but like all preservation groups locos and rolling stock arrive to fill all nooks and crannies and the yard today is crammed.

Adam finally arrived after a circuitous route to avoid road works. As the site is so cramped there wasn't the space to get the tractor unit back to power the winch, so it was barrier'd off by an 08 with a brake van and utility van.

We re-connected the tractor and trailer and Adam set off for Shepherdswell, and I left SVR staff trying to reconnect Douglas to its tender - a parallel to the Rev Awdry's storyline that was not lost on me.

Now, years ago I drove from Isfield to the EKR by the A roads that roughly parallel the coast. It was an interminably slow route that I swore never to repeat. Thus when I left Tunbridge I headed back north to the M25, and should have gone straight on to the M26 but somebody hid it and I went most of the way back to Dartford before turning right on to the M20. Thus I got to Shepherdswell about 4.15, not long before Adam. The trailer was split and the ramp assembled ready for the 08 to be brought around from the station. Adam's last plan (be it D, E or F I can't recall) had him overnighting at Bicester services, but he had too few (driving) hours remaining so instead he intended to load the loco, leave the trailer overnight while he and Ian spent the night in a hotel. Nope, said the EKR staff, not unless you're staying here with it. It seems that local undesirables were certain to take delight in smashing anything and everything on an unattended loco, but my trailer would not be attractive (no glass?) and would be OK.

At 5.15 I set off back north, leaving them to load the loco on Friday morning. Not that my day was over, for knowing my movements Andrew had bid on a quantity of malleable iron pipe fittings from somebody in the Thurrock area. I had agreed to collect them, but only after I'd set off did I discover I also had to pay for them

First thing Friday it was back off to Sheffield and the powder coaters, to collect the bits from Tuesday which were urgently needed by a customer. I had arranged that I'd ring Adam about lunchtime to see how they were doing and meet them at Shackerstone: the news wasn't good. They were on the M25 but a Friday of a Bank Holiday weekend and pandemic or no, traffic was congested. I set off to deliver the parts to my customer expecting to head on to Shackerstone, but the afternoon drifted by and it became apparent that with the best will in the world, they wouldn't have reached Shackerstone until 6 o'clock, and it would have been locked up by then. We re-scheduled to Saturday morning, 09.30. That, let me remind you, was day three of Adams's two day sacrifice out of his holiday!

So, here we are, it is Saturday morning and I would normally expect to be heading down to the shed, and instead by 08.00 I'm on the road for Shackerstone. I get there for 09.30 but when I check my phone, there's a text from Adam, there'll be a delay as the tractor (the loaned one) has blown a coolant hose. But he rolls up at about 10.15 and we set up to unload. The Battlefield Line is open for business though, and so it becomes a spectator sport as we're unloading alongside the access path to the station. This 08 though is stiff. Adam said it had been so hauling it on but when I pull the lever and the winch cable starts to extend, the loco just sits there and the winch cable droops. No amount of pulling it a bit will overcome the stiction. Fortunately the Battlefield boys had a class 33 ready to tow it away, so with the aid of a strop I keep in the van for such occasions, the spectator sport became a tug'o'war with the 33 hauling it off and me trying to keep up with the winch rope so as not to overload my strop. (We could have detached the winch cable but had the loco suddenly changed its mind and rolled it would have been out of cnntrol.)

With the loco off we were offered a cuppa, but Adam declined, saying he had to get back as he was on again at 9 o'clock that night. 'Some holiday you're having' I said.

Back at Darley Dale, Andrew and I returned to the shed and pushed on with a commercial job I needed his help on, but both of us were tired and we wrapped it up fairly early on. Today our first task was to have a shunt. For one thing we needed to get a large bit of loco out of the shed, but in addition, the plan was to shunt the HATRAMM around so that it was more accessible as soon as we have the time to get it working. We had barely got Charlie down the yard when two young volunteers passed by pushing a p-way trolley down the line. We finished our initial shunt and left room to manoeuvre the forklift out. Four buffers and a brake cylinder were taken outside for painting, two blue tits flew into the shed, tweeted and fluttered around, and finally left us to it again. It doesn't feel like a Sunday, but then I woke up on Tuesday convinced it was Friday. It's a miracle I've remembered to write the blog tonight. But that's about it. I've another busy week in prospect, back at the shed tomorrow, and days out Tuesday and Wednesday. Maybe even get some work done on our own locos. Who knows? Come back next week and I'll tell yer all about it. See ya then.