Of funnels, winches and lunch

15th August 2021

Only 900 miles this week...

I s'pose it was my own fault really. Bragging about how slickly we unloaded at Cardiff. Fate had decided it was time to remind me to retain a little humility.

First thing Monday morning it was down to the shed and pull the train back ready for Mr Booth's lorry to collect a full scrap skip and leave us an empty one in exchange. Andrew had declared we should be there for 07.00 with the wagon booked for 07.30, but he was barely out of bed at that time and we got down about 07.15. First thing Monday is not a good time to arrange this. Booth's switchboard isn't open and the Traffic Manager may not be in that early, so if the allocated driver feels unwell and doesn't come in (or gets 'pinged') you can't be warned and can't get to hear what's occurred till at least 08.00. Having sat waiting on a cold morning in the past I had these worries as I fired up Sentinel Tom and drew the train back sufficiently far so that the skip lorry could access the skip. Even before I'd finished pulling the train back the lorry was there and though he complained we hadn't left him a lot of room he dropped off the empty skip, loaded our full one and then swung the empty nearer where the full one had been, netted over the loaded skip and headed off to Rotherham.

It was though now about 08.00 and I was supposed to be meeting Adam at Elsecar at nine. I hurried back to re-start Tom to propel the train back again. Andrew phoned me from the opposite end of the yard -'having any trouble?'. 'Yes,' I snapped. 'it won't start.' Tom's tank is low, very low. It was, if you recall, virtually drained by the AFRPS before it left Scunthorpe and we only put 10 gallons or so in to restore it to operation a week or so back. I had to assume that we had drawn air. Andrew meanwhile was convinced otherwise, 'the fuel solenoid can't be pulling in properly'. It would be nice to be so simple. He sprinted up the yard to me and held the solenoid in while I cranked it again, but conceded that it was pulling over and we had no smoke. We had about 10 gallons of gas oil handy so we headed back to Tom with it and a funnel and poured it all in to the tank. You cannot rely on engines of that age to self-bleed though and Tom certainly wasn't about to do so. By now it must have been well on toward 08.30. Yes, we could start up another loco, but in order to clear the skip, Tom and the first vehicle coupled to it were well across the King turnout, so getting around it to push wasn't an option. RS8 and another loco were in line (so was a Janus but that was dead) so were started up, a couple of heavy duty slings deployed and Tom and its train were pulled back on what is traditionally called 'rope shunting' until clearance enabled us to get past it and push it back properly. The locos were then returned to their parking places outside the shed.

Why didn't we just bleed through Tom? It was a value judgement. We might have bled it through in a minute or two and got it going: we might have not been succesful and flattened the batteries. Andrew was 'at work' from 09.00, I was supposed to be elsewhere, we judged our solution to be more reliable within the available time. As it was I threw things into my bag, managed to leave my overalls back at the Country Pile, and set off for Elsecar lickety-spit, having texted Adam to say I was running late. After I had gone a few miles, Adam texted back - no rush, they won't be ready for two hours.

Regular readers will recall we once had 3 locos at Elsecar, and spent a lot of time also on issues with the resident EHR locos Louise (Hunslet 0-6-0DH) and Earl of Strafford (Yorkshire 0-6-0DH), indeed, I remember re-hosing most of the latters' torque converter oil system one night. Originally, we were to collect a loco last Friday afternoon, given that 3 coaches were due to leave first earlier in the week, but as the contractor hadn't shown up for any of them, we'd been asked to put back our loading until nine a.m Monday. They needed to shunt these carriages out the way (and within the constraints of Elsecar yard that is not straightforward) and when Adam had arrived it was to be told that the shunt would take another two hours.

As you may also recall, we had had problems with the winch on the trailer, sounded like a bearing failure, and this was sat in the back of my van. Andrew had taken a few minutes out of his day and got hold of the supplier (who had finished early on Friday) and arranged for me to collect a replacement and drop ours in for investigation. So once the loco was on board my plan was to dash south to Warwickshire. What I didn't need was a delayed start nor to get a pair of wheels off when we pulled the loco on using the tractor in lieu of the winch, but that's what I got. I carry a 20ton bottle jack for emergencies and so does Adam, so between us we jacked the loco up, then slid it back into line using chain tighteners, but it delayed us an hour and a half.

It was about half one when we finally hit the road south, and I dashed back to Darley Dale, grabbed my overalls and a cuppa and then resumed my sojourn to Warwickshire, not helped by roadworks around Coventry and other delays. I made it at ten to five, just before their forklift driver was going home, and left them our defective one in exchange for a brand-spanking new winch. Where was Adam in all this? A phone call had him passing Gloucester and planning a break at Michaelwoods services: I caught up with him there in the Abnormal load bay, backed the van up, broke open the packing case and the three of us walked the winch up a plank on to the back of the trailer. It was bolted down, the hoses refitted and we were ready for action once again.

I had a break while Adam and Ian continued down the M5. It took a while to catch up and pass them, and I reached Plymouth and the Plym Valley Railway confident that we'd park up and unload first thing in the morning. Adam had other ideas, and having arrived about 9pm we proceeded to unload the loco, although as the site slopes the wrong way it involved a barrier wagon and their 34ton Sentinel to draw off the new arrival. With the PVR's blessing I crashed out in a Mk2 carriage while Adam and Ian had the comparative comfort of the DAF's sleeper cab.

Having not planned on this, a sleeping bag was a luxury I had not anticipated needing so my night's sleep was far from blissful. I was cold and uncomfortable. By seven o'clock Tuesday morning Adam was wondering about, I had made myself a cup of tea (which was about all I had for breakfast) and by half seven they had backed out of the site, turned round and headed back up the A38. I took some pictures, stopped at a fuel station for diesel and some morcels and followed them.

Our next load as at Long Marston, and under our original timetable (load Friday, unload Plymouth mid-day Monday) we'd have beeen there first thing Tuesday morning, but now it was going to be noon at least. I got there first, found the new way in (I spent many hours at Long Marston in Engineer Park days but it has all changed with an eco-village where the Guard house and parade ground used to be) and the loco sat waiting. Being an 08 I checked for the lifeguards to find all 4 were absent (hooray!) but that it also had no radiator elements and brake gear missing, so no brake while in transit. Adam and Ian arrived just after noon and we lined up, assembled the ramp in the sweltering sun and put the new winch into action. So far so good, the loco crept towards us and started climbing the ramp. But I had the feeling that this was a stiff'un, a view which came crashing into focus as the donkey engine almost stalled and the winch stopped as it came on to the trailer. This has never happened before. Nothing for it though but to chock the loco securely, dig out a snatch block (a pulley on a hook) and re-arrange the winch rope through the pulley and back to a fixed point to give it additional mechanical advantage. Thus re-deployed, the winch pulled the loco aboard and we stowed the ramp, chained the loco securely and set off, but our plan to unload Tuesday pm at Worksop was out of the question.

To compound an inadequate breakfast I had gone without lunch: at least I wasn't too late home. Wednesday was a run-around day for me, Adam had 2 other loads to shift so my trailer sat at the yard until Thursday. We met up again to unload and sure enough the 08 was reluctant to leave us. In the end it was a tug of war, the 08 was pulled downhill by another loco while I paid out the winch rope so that if it did get it into its head to make a run for it, I could restrain its unexpected enthusiasm. After Adam and Ian had got away, I saw a fitter with oil and a funnel. The axlebox dipsticks, he told me, were so rusted in that he'd had to hammer them out and having done so, found that there was no visible oil in any axlebox. And people actually like 08s.

Andrew theoretically had Friday off work but still found himself taking calls and such. To get away from the work phone we went down to the shed, him some time ahead of me and when I arived it was to be told that Tom had bled diesel almost as soon as the bleed nipples had opened and was now runnable again. Wouldn't you know it.

First thing Saturday we were due over at Wirksworth to carry out more formal driver training on Charlie. We found the car park almost full with visitors and the loco sat by the loco shed in front of a poorly Class 33. I had four trainees whom I took through the basics of how the loco is laid out and how the control system works (they have a much older Tommy Hill 'Noddy' but it has different arrangements, including the old Westinghouse '5 way valve' that went obsolete forty years ago). We took the loco down and shuffled between Platform 1 and the class 58 (that used to be at Rowsley before the Ivatt group de-camped) while all the trainees got their hands on the loco in turn. Then we returned the loco to the shed, shut down and retired for a cuppa and to sign off the paperwork. Andrew had meanwhile re-secured the walkway plate with countersunk screws and before we left we identified (and hopefully cured) an oil leak on the converter cooler pack.

Returning home, a quck lunch ensued and then Andrew went off to collect grandson, leaving me to wander down to the shed and get on with some commercial work, including stripping out corroded conduit and pipework from Hudswell Clarke 1387. When we got down today first job on the agenda, Andrew declared, was to drag the new scrap skip up nearer to the North British 0-6-0. He proposed to haul the train back so as to get the forklift out and shove it. That seemed a waste of fuel and CO2 to me so instead we used a pull-lift to drag it the twenty feet or so and revelled in the area that is now clear of clutter. We lunched and I returned to 1387, Andrew moved back out to the Cement van. Jagger had had a day during the week and progressed some cleaning up of its steelwork, but the end angle was declared unfit and as it was both welded and rivetted between chassis members and body end framing it was going to be a swine to extract. By dint of drilling some rivets, gassing others, it had come out by the end of the day and now awaits a new angle, cleaning and priming before any of the plywood body panels can return (though Andrew tells me these must have more primer, undercoats and a top coat before refitting, on advice of Dr Ben).

There are periods of time when we have a lot of introspection. Collecting locos for the sake of collecting them has never been our goal. In many cases Andrew's decision to acquire has been when a loco has otherwise faced imminent scrapping, such as the NB 0-6-0. Our enjoyment is more in the re-engineering and improving and this may not match everyone's concept of 'preservation'. One such is Teddy Bear D9500. It came about after a phone call to the effect that it had been bought in part exchange for another and if we weren't prepared to take it on, then it would go for scrap. The decision therefore was to buy, and although we assessed options using different engines to get it operational again (it last ran c.1988) we are no nearer getting the time to progress it and in the meantime Andrew's other 14, 901, has had to be stood down for repairs.

Consequently he is open to selling it, with the benefit of engineering support from us if the purchaser wishes (up to the level of installing a new engine, etc if required). Contact Andrew via me or from his website if you are interested.

And so that's about it for this week. A quiet week in prospect perhaps (as Adam is on holiday and allegedly is actually away from home) but I suspect a few events will prevent it from being so. And then next Saturday we have Phoenix Railtours picking up from where they left off before the pandemic. Is normality finally at hand? Come back and judge for yourself. See ya then.