Of a live wire

21st November 2021

- or in this case, a not so live one.

So first off, an apology - there's no photos this week, partly because I've been too busy to take them and partly since what I've been doing hasn't been especially photogenic.

By most criteria it has been a quiet week: a mere 300 miles driven, nothing coming or going and the low loader having a bit of rest and TLC. On Tuesday though I had run to Louth - well, just outside - to an airfield to be exact (though I took a wrong turn and ended up in a farmyard). Andrew had acquired through (another) auction site a suitable radiator for a Cummins 855 and I had emptied the van sufficiently to get it in. That evening Andrew and I popped down to the shed and lifted it out of the van by hand (too much trouble to shift the train back and get the forklift out) and left it sheeted down outside.

I had a supplier or two to visit in Sheffield on Wednesday, and on my return went straight down to the shed and loaded up with an empty 45 gallon drum (we could have dug this out on Tuesday but it would have been hazardous doing it in the dark) ready for a trip to Ashbourne on Thursday to get some gas oil. Partly this was brought about by Tom, which has cut out a few times lately: not sure yet whether it was due to low fuel (the gauge would indicate more than sufficient) blocked filters or even a defective lift pump, but we'll deal with them all in turn and the fuel level was no.1 to be excluded, so I returned with 200 litres to be lifted up from the forklift and drained into Tom by gravity.

By Saturday I was keen to make some progress on something tangible amd the cement van was in my sights, for Jagger's C6 is sat in the workshop and its transfer into the cement van - soirry 'engine overhaul module' would free up access to other work. I had already earmarked a small enclosure designed for circuit breakers and kitted it out with two 10amp and one 6amp breaker, the last for lights and the bigger breakers for twinned 220V outlets and a small 220-110 transformer. The 'van, when in use, will plug into the workshop through a trailing cable hence restricting the loads.

I would have liked to have brought the incoming cable to a weatherproof socket oustide the van body, so that it could be plugged in and the doors shut to maintain some semblance of warmth to the poor outcast volunteer, but Andrew pointed out that this would mean putting handles on the inside of the sliding doors which in turn would mean that they couldn't be slid open all the way. I conceded his point and mounted an industrial 220V fixed plug on the van inside wall below the enclosure. I had a suitable enclosure with twin light switches so decided that the striplights that I am to install shall be split between two circuits, and flex conduit (for speed) was put in to a first light over the sliding doors.

Some spare twin-and-earth was laid out to the sockets over the workbench and a second run to feed the transformer, but that is heavy enough to be a two-man job, else you end up with it cock-eyed as I did when I installed it in the VBA years ago. Andrew meanwhile was cutting and welding the pieces in to replace the corroded sections on the second end of the OBA, which together with grinding smooth, took up most of the afternoon.

A relatively early start today had a shunt around to get the OBA down to the shed and the train pulled back, bar the Ferry van, to transfer a piece of racking from the 12ton van to the cement van. This was a section made some 11 years ago for the VBA, so was already on its second 'home', and was full of parts stripped from the C6 Rolls engine mentioned earlier. So Jagger and Andrew spent time transfering the contents of 2 shelves to pallets before the racking module could be lifted out, still partially loaded, on the forklift. I was a bit stumped for cement van progress as it was now parked well out of range of extension cables from the shed, so contented myself with producing a suitable cable to plug it in, plus chop some rough and ready brackets out of Dexion to secure the striplights from the van roof when I can. (In the container, I hung the striplights with short chains, but the container doesn't get shunted!)

By early afternoon the 12Ton van was rolled out the way and the cement van pushed down and the racking was presented to the door aperture on the forks. The racking was measured at 74.5 inches high and coincidentally, so was the height of the doorway in the cement van, save that this was just on the threshold where a 3/8 inch steel plate reinforces the plank ends. But an attempt to guide it in proved unsuccesful, and a check of all 4 corner posts showed that the one we were leading in with was just over 75 inches. I don't remember but Andrew assures me I had to cut them hurriedly in half at the stockholders in order to get them in the van: certainly the cuts were wonky enough to have been a frustrated me with a hacksaw - the square cut bits I hadn't touched had been used for the bases.

Anyway, a few minutes with a grinder and slitting disc got them down a bit and with a bit of a shuffle the racking went in and was positioned with the aid of a pallet truck. The pallets of parts were lifted up and ceremoniously the shelves re-populated. On the opposite side of the cement van, a crate containing a Rolls' C8 crankshaft, which I collected from Skegness about 2 years ago and was faithfully promised would only be in the workshop 'for a couple of weeks' was re-housed: more racking will go over it later, theoretically so that as you strip an engine down there'll be shelf-space to put the 'arisings' on.

Then the cement van was pushed out the way and the 12Ton van brought back to load two stillages of bits that had been taken out earlier to get at the racking (yes, it's a complicated logistical exercise) Finally the vans were put back into their usual place and the train reformed, and I had the opportunity to plug in the new feeder cable and carry out the obligatory 'flash and bang' test. The sockets over the workbench should have functioned as should my first striplight: but absolutely nothing So I started the usual checks - continuity on the trailing cable, then the cable from plug to circuit breakers and at last found a problem with a loose connection. Plug back in again, still nothing. Eventually I traced a wire that had pulled out of the mains sockets and rectified that, but the striplight still refuses to function and awaits more time to investigate.

It was a full afternoon by the time everything was back and exactly to forecast, the temperature was at 3 degrees as I drove back in the evening. But before that, Andrew and I had had further discussions on the future. At present he is under considerable pressure at work and we are unable to get on with as much as we would both like. The decision to release D9500 was because he could not see himself as having the time to progress it in the reasonable future. The 2HAP as well, is sold subject to a half of it departing by March 2022, now Coronation is in his sights as it is a loco worthy of preservation but one we cannot see ouselves as having any time to get on with. It comes wth a spare 6RPH Mk1 engine and a fully-overhauled Brown Boveri turbo: contact Andrew through the website if interested.

And that I am afraid is about it: sorry if the presentation this week is a bit below par, but how else can the better ones be appreciated without the occasional dud in between? No time to mention that incident in Birmingham on Saturday when the 'Duchess' touched the overhead lines after the track had been re-ballasted, nor moan about the roadworks just along the road which every day now results in queues over half-a-mile long and force us to go to the shed via Church Lane (as do a lot of people who take this 'old' road -the original before Whitworth built the long straight through Darley as a contribution to the local community - to avoid the interminable delays). But I digress; all being well, there'll be something of interest and worth dragging the camera out for by next week. See ya then.