Of tarp and temp

10th April 2022

The week started off with a face-to-face meeting with Mark Sealey, the new General Manager and also Director of Peak Rail. I won't go into detail, for much of it has yet to be converted from 'plan' to 'reality' but the importance of drawing a line under past events was stressed. For us, the significant change will be that once again, we are to provide a works loco in line with the Agreement under which we operate the Geoffrey Briddon Building. Nearly ten years ago, when all this was first mooted, I asked whether I was expected to pay a rental for the land on which I was to build the shed and was assured that Peak Rail was very happy with the benefit it got from Andrew and me, namely that we provided a works loco (in practice more than one) and all Peak Rail had to do was service it when due, fuel it and drive it, but if it broke down phone us and we'd fix it. Then in late 2014 Peak Rail declared that we were in breach of a second agreement for use of 14 901, and because of that, it declared, it did not have to pay anything, either for 14 901 or the works loco(s). We were at an impasse and were ordered to move all the locos to Darley Dale - even the works loco(s). That subsequently we were compelled to take Peak Rail to court (where we won) only exacerbated a deteriorating relationship, and we were told 'Peak Rail will never use any of your locos ever again'.

I recount all this not to rake up the past but to illustrate how much things are changing (and hopefully for the better).. We (by which I mean almost all the volunteers I've spoken to) knew that dragging 2 carriages, empty and with their doors locked up and down as part of a fixed rake was a waste of fuel, and wear and tear: with Mark at the helm, the set has been reduced to four and for the moment, trains are only operating to Riverside and there run round, so only one loco is required. There are other changes - a revised timetable sees trains start earlier in the day and Darley Dale station has re-opened for passengers. Back at our meeting Mark expressed interest in the HaTRAMM - once the crane has been tested and certified - previous offers made for its use under the 'old regime' went unanswered.

So, the nonsensical nose-cutting/face spiting decision of a past administration is being reversed, and that has rather put us on the spot. The obvious candidate to take on the duties pro tem is Tom leaving the rather more delicate RS8 to be works shunter at Darley Dale for now. Had we had a crystal ball we might have been all set: there again with such foresight a lot of things might have been different. But as we haven't, and hadn't, releasing Tom up to Rowsley is not a drop-of-a-hat action. We have a snag list on it which we can work around but obviously must be addressed before it is operated by others not so familiar with its quirks. High up on that list is the two lift valves on the fuel pump which we need to replace, and the heat exchanger that has been leaving a trail of oil on the track. There are other locos that we may deploy in due course, but for now it just adds pressure on to that long list of outstanding tasks which include my commercial work along with everything else. Nevertheless I chased up Tom's transmission cooler, or rather the replacement which went in to our friends in Sheffield weeks ago and I had seen on test when last I called. It transpired it was waiting for me to collect (but I had to pay up front, never got around to sorting out an account) only the e-mail telling me this and including an invoice had somewhow not got to me.

Consequently after taking out a fresh mortgage (it was not a cheap job) I collected it on Thursday on my way back from sizing up a loco transport job. Here it is after I took it out of the van on Saturday, and you can imagine why we refer to it as a 'torpedo' cooler.

First thing on Friday morning (and I mean first thing, like well before eight a.m.) Andrew and I were down at the shed as Booth's were swapping their skip. I forget how long it has been there, but a number of stillages and sundries had been put in the area needed by the lorry to back up and load it, so apart from drawing the train back Andrew had to free up the forklift and move things out the way. Mr Booth's lorry was there before us though, so as quickly as possible it was exchanged, the parts put back (tidier) and the train returned to its normal position, with Andrew back home in time for 'normal' working hours.

Saturday started trying to tidy up in readiness for the visit of the Inter City Railway Society on Sunday. This had been planned for 2019 but called off off as the pandemic exploded. Today we were to expect 30+ members and for this number we would remove most of the tarps that protect the locos from the elements and stone-wielding morons. Anyway, for Saturday Andrew had declared no work until tidying was complete. However he had someone calling from Wensleydale to collect a quantity of parts (that's OK, it was free-ing up floor space and making the shed look tidier) so the train had to be pulled back on road 1 so that the forklift could be got out. And that hit a snag. Andrew had brought RS8 back and shut it down the morning before, but he had inadvertantly left the battery switch on, and the batteries had lost enough charge that they couldn't quite crank the engine. They were brought in for a charge while we got on with other tidying. Eventually RS8 was started and the train drawn back, and a Land Rover and trailer backed up and was duly loaded, strapped down, its driver refreshed with tea and sent on his way back north.

Now with the train drawn back and the forklift able to go around the front, there was a large machine which, as its purchasers have never come and collected it, could now go in the (empty) scrap bin. And while the forkift is out there, there's the front axle to come out from under the JCB (which was supposed to have departed again by the end of March but has taken unsightly root) which would make it ready to receive its replacement. Oh, and as we had to move one wheelset waiting to go under a B5 bogie from the PCV (both of which are still with us even if the PCV itself is not) why not line it up and get it fitted to that bogie? And so the original good intention of doing nothing but tidying up got gradually diluted but achieved quite a bit instead.

At 09.00 Sunday morning I was back and opening up: we had an hour before the ICRS visitors were due, but 3 who looked suspiciously like possibles were nattering outside the station car park gates. The plans for such visits are simple: we need to draw locos into places from which they can be seen and photographed without anyone being able/tempted to stray onto Peak Rail running lines to do so. Thus by half nine most of Track 1 had been drawn forward, but while Andrew had joined me and was starting to undo tarps, I was also setting up tape barriers to prevent any straying. A tape right across the entrance lane meant that they could collect together but be coralled until we were ready. Getting the tarps off is (relatively) simple - aside from when they snag on cab rooves or gutters, gravity generally aids you, thus by 10.00 all the tarps were off (bar a couple which we felt we couldn't for other reasons) and I stuck my head out to find that there was nobody waiting. Good, I thought, I've time for a quick cuppa, but even before the kettle was boiling a sea of hivi could be seen on the security cameras moving up the lane to us. I went out, did the welcome speech, handed out the hand outs and realised all I needed was a large pair of scissors to cut the tape and declare the visit open.

For the next hour they were free to wander round, take photos, and ask questions. I'd even created a vantage point from which they could photograph the Prairie as it puffed past with the first train southbound. At 11 though, we shepherded them back towards the shed, removed the tapes and shunted the locos back into place, thus freeing up the headshunt. We had promised cab rides, my plan being that by having RS8 on one road and the HaTRAMM adjacent, one could load up while the other proceeded to the end of the headshunt and back. This plan nearly got thwarted though when as RS8 returned after its first excursion, it suddenly shut down. It restarted but ran only a few seconds before stopping again. Clearly an automatic shutdown was taking place and a glance at the engine coolant gauge suggested that that might be the issue (it was indicating around 80 deg C but I've never been too sure whether the switch was correctly set) and touching the top of the radiator it wasn't hot there. I did a turn with Andrew on the HaTRAMM allowing RS8 to cool, then as our guests were keen for a ride on the 'unique' RS8, I topped up the coolant slowly (clearly some air had worked its way round after changing the transmission cooler) and all was well again, RS8 completing a few more excursions to make our guests happy. One late-comer got a guided tour as the others departed (I hear some turned up at Heritage Shunters) and we broke for lunch

Steph had been running a bookstall in the shed and had managed to get rid of a couple (I'd put an ad on the back of the handout for the "Railway to Merhead" but that hadn't worked) and afterwards headed back to the Country Pile. Andrew and I returned to refitting the tarps, which as gravity is not now your friend, takes far longer but doesn't have to be at such a rush.

Part way through, on a whim, Andrew came across a 3-link coupling chain from a Hudswell loco and decided to see if it would fit RS8. The chains on Hudswells are unusual. Most 3 links have a flat section in the middle of one link which will pass through the slot behind the hook on a standard 'Gedges' coupler, but Hudswell fitted their own forged drawhooks which had a hole like a UIC one. The first of their 3 links is a U, with a stiffener bar, and loops at the top through which a pin passes. Avonside too fitted their own forged drawhooks that don't match the modern standards (for that matter, RS8's buffer height is lower than today's) and to Andrew's delight, the Hudswell pin was correct for the Avonside hole.

Thus RS8 now has two Hudswell Clarke coupling chains fitted, another anomaly to confuse future historians what with an Avonside frame lengthened and modified by ICI, a drive axle that was made by Hunslet from the Avonside wheel centres, Lang valves that came off a Sentinel, etc., etc. (A visitor today spotted the 'J' number on RS8's frame and asked if that was 'its number'. In fact it was the Job number allocated to it at the contract workshops in Tunstead by the fabricators that Tarmac paid to deal with broken bits and cracks around the footsteps. No-one else has previously commented.) While all this was going on I took the opportunity to tweak the throttle linkage. We haven't been achieving full rpm which has rather impaired RS8's performance. It now achieves the correct no load rpm, but the response under load hasn't improved much, leading to the conclusion that the fuel rack needs opening up a bit. With a heavy load on the hook you give it full throttle, wait and after what seems like 10 seconds it gradually moves off and starts to accelerate. That does tend to indicate that the governor is set but the fuelling is to low. Shifting the entire road 1 we need the full power it should be giving us.

And that is about it for this week- sorry about the lack of photos, I just haven't had the camera to hand. This next week leads us up to Easter and I have a couple of transport jobs planned, but then this morning I received two texts from friends advising me that, as I had been in close proximity with them in the last few days, I ought to know that they had just tested positive for Covid. Whoopee. Thus for the next week every cough, slightly sore throat, drippy nose or feeling of fatigue will be construed as the first signs of infection. But the Government says we've got to learn to live with it, so that's OK - 'Hullo little virus, do you like trains?'. Will I be back next week or suffering manfully? No idea: hopefully see ya then.