Of a much bigger winch

26th September 2021

If it's not toilet rolls, then it's diesel and petrol. And if the tv news hadn't told us that 'everyone' was queuing up would we have even known?

So, the straw poll from last week was heavily in favour of staying with the blog format rather than switching to You-tube. My thanks to those of you that took the trouble to reply and especially for the kind words included. For the moment therefore, it will remain business as usual.

This week saw a dose of road transport again which went fairly well for the most part, and means I've racked up another 900 miles on the van.. Monday I was off early, destination Barry, to move a loco, van and a Megarailer from there to a filming location. We had hoped to get down to start at 10 o'clock, but Monday traffic put paid to that with several delays on the motorway network. With a good 40+ miles head start Adam and Ian were well ahead of me all the way to Cardiff: I overtook them just after leaving the M4 and got there with just enough time to enjoy a cup of tea before the low loader arrived.

Sat right in the middle of the loading pad was a long wheelbase van. Right in the middle in fact, so that whatever we wanted to do, it would have to be moved a bit to get on the pad either in front or behind. Adam prefered to take the loco first and as that was still in the shed, I was deputised to go start it up, bring it round, and push the van to the far end of the pad so that the lorry could get behind them both. The temperature was now rising steadily, it being the middle of the day, but we duly loaded the 08 and set off further west. Unfortunately some kind soul had had a coming together on the M4 near the Porthcawl turn, resulting in a tailback that had us stationary for nearly an hour. At the destination a loading area had been prepared with loads of ballast and we took the loco off, and again, as per instruction, I drove it down and across a turnout to return up an adjacent track, propelling a cripple out the way as I did so.

By now it was around 5 o'clock and we hurriedly set off back for Barry. I made it for about a quarter to seven, and guessed, correctly, that Adam would want to load the lwb 'Pooley' van before dark to save time in the morning and in case tomorrow was wet. They arrived back about ten-past-seven and by ten to eight the Pooley van had been winched on and the tractor and neck reassembled, ready for an early start.

Steph had passed me a sleeping bag before I left, and as all the local hotels seemed fully-booked, the three of us took my van for a meal and then they slept in the properly equipped bunk beds in the DAF 8x4 tractor and I made myself as comfortable as possible on the front seats of the van. Not as pleasant as the carriage at Plymouth but a bloomin' sight warmer thanks to the 'bag. At quarter past seven next morning Adam was awake and moving around so I dressed myself as best as one can in the front seat of a Peugeot Expert and by eight o'clock we were on our way. And here I wonder whether I should be taking a hint, for as we departed, it had been agreed (?) that we would meet at Cardiff East services to get something for breakfast. But after I had waited half an hour or so, I concluded they had changed their plans, so grabbed a bite and clogged it westward, arriving a few minutes after them to unload the lwb van. Again my instructions had come through that having unloaded it, could I please bring the 08 back across and move them both to the second track to wherever 'Security' could best watch over them, so again I got the chance to play at being a Train driver while Adam and Ian had the harder slog of putting the unit back together.

Having stabled things where required, we set off back again to Barry, and I had enough time to take a wander around the site. A lot of the tracks are taken up with hopper wagon storage, and no doubt a lucrative service it can be if you have spare trackage, but in amongst them were numerous other bits of railwayana, from loco cabs and chassis' and wheels upwards.

The Unilok parked near the shed made me feel old - here it was, having served its time as an industrial 'shunter' and now on a heritage site: but I could remember them buying it and if memory serves, had offered an alternative from Hills. Here was the cab of a loco from the erstwhile nearby scrapyard, still bearing a 'reserved by' script for the 8F group at Buxton.

Here too was a sister TRAMM to ours, but bearing the marks of prolonged vandalism, with little glass remaining, and its cabs ransacked.

Actually, the other half of Andrew's TRAMM (our HaTRAMM) was near our destination.

Anyway, eventually the low loader backed up the narrow lane accessing the Barry site and shortly after one of the Barry railway team came over from the Island to move a Megarailer out from shed and round for us to load. Well that was the plan, but he confessed he hadn't driven it for 18 months and something complicated in its control system thwarted his attempts to get it to move. Rejecting the rail route I had taken with the 08, he eventually got it out and de-tracked it, only for it to be awkward about travelling in the desired direction on its road wheels. At this point Ian got Adam to stop polishing the fresh paint on the tractor, for whereas I may be more familiar with driving locomotives, he is experienced with Megarailers as Heanors often deliver them for Readypower. And before long it was round at the trailer and re-tracked ready to ascend the ramp. The drive on these things in rail mode relies on transfer of drive from the road (rubber) wheels bearing on the tread of the steel flanged ones, so apart from the fact that the direction is reversed (i.e, forwards in road mode gives you reverse on rails) the grip may not be all that great, and in this case we hooked the winch on and loaded it in combo.

Back west again, Adam opted to take it off by changing from rail to road mode as he did so, to save lining up and building the rail ramp, but conceded later it hadn't been such a good idea as the computer didn't seem as impressed with his ingenuity. At this point I left them to it, as I had an appointment much farther east along the M4, and pausing only to further provide custom at Cardiff East (very late lunch), I carried on to Membury Services, there getting directions to a small country estate masquerading as a farm. When I found it, there on the forks of a forklift was a large winch - and when I say large, this is about 3 times the volume of that fitted to the low loader, and somewhat larger than I had judged it to be in the pictures on ebay.

Between us we lifted and lowered and re-rigged the winch so that it lifted evenly, and were almost ready to swing it in to my adjacent van when the forklift ran out of gas. So the vendor opted to get the 'other forklift' (actually a Loadall) and so that, and sorting out a way of fulfilling ebay's 'proof of collection' meant I was there for most of an hour, so didn't get home until after 10pm. And here's a quick preview of the winch, which is/was made by Highfield Gears and is a worm drive, so unlike the winches fitted to the low-loader up to now which have a seperate pressure-release hydraulic brake, this one acts like a model railway loco whereby without the motor turning, it simply won't rotate the drum. It needs a new rope and will get a strip down and check over before deployment. Highfield gears, incidentally, made the final drive gearboxes for Hills' Underground Personnel Carrier (UPC) in the 80s.

For the latter half of the week I've been chasing round getting brake blocks away to customers, plus collecting bits and bobs and placing orders for more. But both Andrew and I have spent a few hours in the shed on a couple of evenings, meaning that the side panels for the cement van have received two coats of undercoat and their first grey topcoat over the primer. With a second gloss and the remaining ironwork preparation completed they will be ready for assembly into the van, maybe as early as next weekend.

I promised you a preview of how the new control layout on the Hudswell 0-4-0DH will look, and here it is.

The remaining original lever controls comprise throttle (right) and sanders (left- the driver's brake valve is out of picture) while the first new panel facing the driver contains his duplex air gauge, speedo, direction and clutch in/out controls plus buttons for parking brake activation and horn. Two lights under the speedo will confirm that the control sysyrem is OK and show the state of his Deadmans/vigilance system. The panel across the front is not as yet so well populated, but the keyswitch, charge warning lamp and tacho gauges are in, togther with hour counter and warning bleeper. Some gauges and switches have yet to be added. The purpose of assembling all this was to determine where the big lumps - of which the most obvious in the picture is the black rectangular PLC (programmable logic controller) towards the back corner - will go and what space is available for connection board and access underneath. The panels are back out now and hopefully soon the cab interior will turn a tasteful shade of Buttermilk and maybe the engine materialise in front.

With Andrew away on Saturday and still recovering a bit today progress has been a trifle muted on other fronts, though the rear engine mounting brackets are now fettled and bolted to the Cummins engine for the Hudswell and later this week should see the sump joints and new big end bearing shells arrive. I've no transport worked scheduled as Adam has another big contract on requiring the 8x4, but as there's no diesel to be had anywhere nearby tonight that's probably for the best! Whatever happens, I'll be back next week, see ya then.