Of doors and fire alarms.

17th January 2021

It has been a frustrating week in some senses, with the feeling that best laid plans just have to go awry.

It has been a rather tedious week therefore, with just parts ordered and received, trips to pick stuff up, etc. In fact I was hanging on at the beginning of the week waiting for news that some profiles which I'd ordered before Christmas were ready for collection. As I'd only ordered them on December 23rd I hadn't expected them before, but had hoped that come Jan 4 they'd have hit the ground running. But no, and late that week I'd been told it would probably me Monday this. But Monday came and went, and by half-three Tuesday I resorted to an (I hoped) amusing e-mail to the Production Manager whose prediction Monday had been. He came back almost immediately to say they had been finished when he'd said on Monday, and he'd told the Despatch Manager to phone me and let me know. I arranged to come in on Wednesday morning: just before I set off the Despatch Manager rang...

I did though, get a call from one of the two who bought me dinner at Farnham last February (and it seems so much longer ago) to talk about the erstwhile Wey Valley Light Railway. It seems he is to ;publish a book along the lines of things you never knew about Farnham - and wants to reprint what I wrote about it in this blog last year. I was happy to agree.

When it finally got around to Saturday it was darned cold. Amongst the various bits I'd ordered and received during the week were new wiper arms and blades for Claire, but they were also the solution for RS8 so one was trialled on it to see if it was suitable - although the blades themselves could be a couple of inches longer, they looked good so there will be another order in process this week. The space heater brought the shed temperature up a couple of degrees but it was nonetheless not wildly encouraging handling the cold metals.

One of the bits on Claire we had not looked at too closely were the door handles and catches. We knew they were - shall we say, a little rickety, but when we came to have a closer look it was apparent that they were completely knackered. In essence the catches themselves were ordinary budget locks, albeit tall, thin ones, and the handles would have been contemporary automotive, with the outer handle doubling as an open-door retainer by swinging behind a catch plate on the fuel tank. The inner handle appeared to be secured with a grub screw into the squared shaft, but after 50 years it wasn't going to come out and after drilling one, we gave in and cut the the shaft on the other with a slitting disc. Meanwhile I trimmed out a piece of the battery tray and refitted it. One of the starter motor cables that I had crimped on to a lug at the Battery Switch had come off. It was a 70mm lug and so far as I could judge, a 70mm cable but I had had a similar incident with one of RS8's I remembered, so changed the dies in the hydraulic crimper from the 70 to the 50 set and put a new lug on. With the cables secured and fitted with protective covers, I gave the battery tray a coat of Hammerite (for no better reason than I found a tin in a cupboard) ready to put the batteries in. Andrew continued with the spacer plates for the front of the casings, drilling them to line up with the casing mounting bolts and cleaning up the gas-cut edges.

This morning we returned to Darley Dale to pick up where we had left off. Over on the mattersons a Janus loco sits. It has been a stubborn old thing: we've had to resort to a 12" grinder as the support pin for the traction motor would not come out and even then it had proved neccessary to finish the last bit of it each side with a hacksaw.

But at last the wheelset and traction motor remained on the ground as the loco was lifted off. Back on Claire I made up two new cables to go between the battery switch and the batteries themselves, and with those in place we swung the batteries into position and measured up for Andrew to create a new securing strap. I finished making up the pos and neg battery cables and a bus-bar to go between the two, but they haven't been connected yet as there are still some last bits to finish on the electrics before I start static testing.

Over a cup of tea we discussed where to put Andrew's latest storage cupboard, which was - you've guessed it - an ebay purchase of several weeks ago. We are, I must admit, rather running out of walls to put things like this against, and it came down to a practical observation about fire alarms. We fitted, years ago, two manually-wound fire alarm bells, one adjacent to each fire exit on the principle that you would wind the handle to alert your fellow workers while pausing bravely in the doorway before legging it. This fulfilled our legal requirements even though for most purposes it is usually just him and me in there together so we are seldom unawares about a fire. Most times it is Andrew that starts it and me standing by with a leaky teapot full of water that puts it out. But I had obtained two 'fire extinguisher stations' comprising a wheeled trolley with space for half-a dozen fire extinguishers and above them an electric alarm that you bang a knob and it screams continuously until you turn it off or the battery goes flat (or it melts in the fire). Trouble is, they take up too much wall space, and we agreed that his new storage cupboard could go where one was residing, but that the electric alarms could be usefully relocated adjacent to where fires might start- near where we charge batteries or over by the fabrication area - which both happen to be about as far from the fire exits as you can get. The fire extinguishers that we had (we couldn't use the trolleys to capacity anyway) could remain conveniently to hand. The decision was taken, and striking while the iron was hot (but not afire) the two trolleys were dismantled and the electronic alarms placed near where they'll be mounted - a job I might get around to one day this week. Andrew assembled the cupboard, and it was good to see some floor space re-appear.

Back on Claire, Andrew continued on the spacing pieces for the front and then we decided to fit the new door sealing strip that I'd ordered.

The Hudswell cab doors in addition to having rickety locks, were somewhat shall we say poor fitting in that they didn't really come close to 'shutting' against the door jamb. The first doorway was duly fitted with a sealing strip that does the biz: though may need a bit of fine tuning with the replacement door locks.

And that's about it for the week. Not sure what this week will bring: Andrew has acquired a few bits from an auction to be collected so has booked a day off. Given that his full-time job for a well-known train operating company has not only had him driving up and down to Clacton, Bedford, Ilford and Northampton, but also on call periodically so might get summoned to attend a derailment or breakdown; (fortunately it was not his turn this week when a certain class 50 derailed one evening, blocking access to stabling sidings), his leave entitlement is somewhat in arrears. If he's working from home it is a joyful day full of Zoom-calls, sometimes up to 3 hours long, while Steph and I (if in) creep around the house so as not to disturb. I feel as though I ought to charge said Train Operating Company rent for office space...

Anyway I'll be back next week, with something new to report no doubt. See ya then.