Of turn-around and turnover
28th November 2021
Welcome back. A little bit more activity this week and pictures to prove it.
Although Monday was still allocated to paperwork, I was hoping to get things tied up for a trip down to Bristol on Tuesday to collect a power pack featuring a Lister TS3 which Andrew had acquired through ebay. I was waiting for the vendor to come back with some overall dimensions to ensure that the whole thing (it was on a skid frame with tanks fore and aft) to be sure it would fit in the van. By the time he did, Andrew had a message from a timber company that the wood for the OBA floor was being delivered on Tuesday, and I couldn't be in two places at once. (Well I can't yet, but it's a super-hero power that I'm working towards.) Anyway, the next day I was almost ready to wander down to the shed and 'get a bit of work done' when the phone rang and it transpired that the lorry was waiting, so I dashed down and opened up. Fortunately it was equipped with a HIAB-type grab, and I didn't have to fire up a loco and drag the train back in order to get the forklift out! (Or worse still, hand-ball the whole load off.)
Fairly early on Wednesday and off down the M5 to Bristol. I'd said to expect me late morning and I thought a quarter to noon was a good achievement of my prediction. When I saw the item itself though I did wonder where the vendor's tape measure had come from. It looked substantially larger than he'd said. It wasn't, though he had taken the dimensions of the bed frame rather than the 'little extra bits' like pipe connections and hoses from the tanks. A re-arrangement of the back of the van was neccessary (I'd already taken some stuff out, had I known the actual dimensions I would have emptied out rather more!) and just managed to squeeze it all in. That evening Andrew and I went down to the shed, drew the contents of track 1 back to get the forklift out, and moved the timber and this new acquisition round the front of the shed. And as I didn't get a photo of it before squeezing it in the van, here's one I took today and you can guess what part of the story is going to include.
On Thursday I'd been asked by a customer at relatively short notice to uplift a loco from Rowsley, which was OK except that I had had a Covid-booster jab booked for 11.50 so wouldn't neccessarily to be able to see things through. Anyway I got down to Rowsley to see the loco ready and waiting and Adam and Ian arrived about quarter-past-nine (after a bit of trouble with the trailer that is scheduled to be sorted this week) and we set about getting it aboard. As usual loading took about an hour and a half and by 11 o'clock they were turned round and ready to leave.
A low loader with a loco on cannot take the direct route to Chesterfield (I'm told Peak Rail once had a coach delivered by a haulier who came down Sydnope Hill, but how he managed the zig-zags with a load that length has remained lost in the mists of time. No, to go what is largely north east he must first go north west, through Bakewell, up to Ashford-in-the-Water and there turn right to head to Baslow. Even 600hp doesn't make it go that fast uphill with a 45ton loco on the back. (45? They're 48 in working order but this one has a few bits missing.) So I left them, about to set off at 11, dashed back to the Country Pile for a quick cuppa and a loo-break, then off up Sydnope Hill to Chesterfield, anxiously watching the fuel gauge - The Trip computer kept telling me I had abnout 75-80 miles left in the tank, but another part of the electronics kept pinging up warnings of 'Fuel level too low' and the needle itself was well in the red - through to Whittington Moor. I got in and had the my jab within barely a minute of arrival and ahead of the appointment, but had to wait 15 to ensure I didn't collapse or whatever. So just after noon I was let out, and the van and I proceeded to Barrow Hill, confidently expecting to see the low loader there and the ramp half-assembled but instead all was quiet. When Adam arrived about 12.35 he was surprised to see me, asking if it had been a 'drive-through jab'.
The loco was unloaded and a VDA put in its place and we were off again, unloading in the dark late in the afternoon. Now, I don't know what experiences you've had but my first and second shots were A-Z and I had a soreness on my arm near where it had been punctured but that was it. I was too busy on Thursday to notice but on Friday, following a Pfizer-booster, my whole left arm was sore and I had a headache, so it was not a very productive day.
It wasn't a great deal better on Saturday and to cap it all, Storm Arwen had crept in and deposited an inch or more of snow overnight. But we had a couple of guys coming up from the Kent & East Sussex to collect a pallet-full of bits, and although Andrew was scheduled to spend a day with grandson in Norfolk, he wasn't planning to leave before 11 and had promised to help me move the train out and access the forklift ready. In the end the K&ESR arrived earlier than expected, so he stayed on and after loading, we put things back together. I did intend to pop back down again after lunch, and progress some more work, but somewhow the attractions of Rabbit-sitting in a warm(ish) house outweighed the joys of working alone in the damp and the cold. A thorough Risk Assessment (Risk - falling down and hurting myself in snow - Likelihood - the more so for being on my own - Mitigation - don't go out in snow) convinced me to postpone things to Sunday.
There was no more snow overnight but what had stayed from yesterday was well and truly frozen. I got down at just after 10 (Andrew still in bed as having taken grandson on an evening 'Polar Express' out of Dereham he and Steph hadn't got home until the early hours) I got the cement van open and plugged in. After checking that my wiring to the fluorescent was sound I fitted a new starter and after a second or two it lit up. I turned my attention to the next fluorescent which is to go over the workbench, and had just got it screwed up and level when Jagger arrived, shortly followed by Andrew bearing lunch.
Target for the day was to continue the tidy up by extracting an ex-NBL MAN engine block that had been taking up shed space, transfering it from pallet to a 4 poster stillage and stowing it in the 12ton van, a process made slightly more complicated by Andrew's desire to get it in lengthwise, but with a block 63 inches in length through a doorway which turned out to be only 60 inches clear. In the end it had to go in sideways (lengthwise through the doorway, sideways across the wagon), though Andrew later devised a cunning plan to turn it round now it is in (but not yet). I should add, incidentally, that snow had now resumed and our forklift, as regular readers may recall, is not one suited to low-adhesion environments, so one of my self-appointed tasks was sweeping fresh snow off the concrete in between his shuffles.
Next was the Rolls- C6 engine out of Jack, long since promised to be first in the 'engine repair module'. Up to now we have never fitted an engine into the turnover stand, so this was a first in more ways than one, figuring out how best to get it in given that it would normally be used to receive a complete engine, with its lifting provision on the cylinder heads still intact, but we were putting in a block with that already removed. So the process took rather longer than planned, but as darkness fell it was in, and Jagger ceremoniously turned it 45 degrees or so.
And with the one striplight in operation, the cement van forms haven of light in the darkness amid snowy wastes.
(Arty huh?)
The forklift was able to move rather farther up the workshop than it has for quite some time.
So what have I to look forward to this week? Well, there's a couple of trips out to assess possible upcoming transport jobs, then a job itself, and a cement van that needs more striplights wiring and other commercial work to get on with. What else is in store remains to be seen. Return next week for another instalment. See ya then.