Of turning and returning

24th April 2022

The Transport Division has been in action again.

Regular readers will recall that from time-to-time I celebrate, or ramble on about the miles per gallon I achieve with the van. In the present circumstances itseems even more important. Now, I know that there are a lot of variables to take into account, but a pattern has emerged, both with the van and with the Peugeot 407 I had earlier, that suggests that you can see the effect of living in the Peak District (or Sheffield for that matter) in that the outbound journey is downhill and the return journey is uphill. Take for instance Tuesday. I set off with a considerable load in the van - with my usual tools and other clutter probably 700 kg or so- and drove very carefully. I wasn't slipstreaming HGVs on the M1 but I was matching them at around 55mph. After an outward journey of almost 70 miles, the van recorded 52.3 mpg. Now, logically, returning by the same route (well not quite but very nearly) you might expect, with the van now emptied of about 500kg of that 700, I would get even better figures. I held my speed down as much as possible to the 55-ish I had done on the outbound leg. Yet the overall fuel consumption deteriorated despite my efforts, returning to the Country Pile at 49.5mpg overall, i.e. the return journey must have been at about 46.7.

Discussing with Andrew afterwards he suggested that as the van was now largely empty, it was riding higher on the suspension and maybe therefore incurred greater wind resistance, but if that were the case then I could never achieve 49/50mpg on any journey. I saw similar effects when driving the 407 from the old Sheffield house up to the Derwent Valley line in the Vale of York - same vehicle, same load, same route, driving as consistently as I could (it had cruise control which the van doesn't) and still I'd repeatedly get better outbound consumption than return-bound. My conclusion is that you can see the effects of living on higher ground,. but if you have other ideas or explanations, I'm happy to listen.

Last year we moved various things around in South Wales for Cambrian Transport for a filming contract, finishing with dropping off their 08 at Tyseley as it had previously suffered a moved flycrank. I hadn't realised, till Andrew pointed it out, that it was a loco to which Yorkshire Engine had fitted 24volt power supply and automatic changeover of (24volt) lights when it was at ICI Wilton in the '90s, but as apparently this 'non-genuine' equipment was ripped out by its first owner after it came out of Wilton then I might be excused that failing. After all, 08's are not my favourite loco.

Why 24volt lighting? Well the rail operating staff at Wilton were fed up with requesting an electrician to come and change a light bulb, as being a 90volt gronk it fell into the category of 'electrial equipment only to be worked on by electrically-trained staff'. Worse still, they were convinced that ICI's sparkies, while at home on AC and 3-phase, regarded DC as 'black magic'. By giving them 24Volt headlights they could not only see ahead in the darkness but were allowed to change blown bulbs themselves. Plus the 24V supply had battery-back up for the radios, so if the loco failed they could keep the red markers lit and call up control for assistance. But I'm sure it was far more important to subsequent owners that the loco was returned to the condition in which BR once operated it, after all BR always knew best (sarcasm alert).

Anyway, on Thursday we were due to collect it and take it back to Barry, and without thinking I headed south through Derby and down the A38 before swinging on to the road that took me across to the M42. Without thinking? Well, yes, had I thought properly the more logical route was to gain the M1 southbound at Mansfield and head down the A42/M42- dual carraigeway all the way and lacking traffic lights and roundabouts. Adam had said to meet a 09.00 but I had cut it fine and was still on the A45 when the phone rang, it was Adam. It wasn't quite nine - was he there already? No, he was still on the A42 - a broken down vehicle was blocking a lane and caused a considerable tailback. For once, and this doesn't happen often, I'd picked the better way to take.

Tyseley loads and unloads through a gateway, and once Adam had arrived and having checked that I'd brought the extension hoses he parked the tractor inside and I left him and Ian to assemble the ramp while I deployed the hoses, and fitted a fresh silencer to the Lister as the old one had broken. I had had an e-mail, from the customer as to which way the loco had to be when it arrived at Barry, and whilst we could have loaded it any way round (well no, not sideways, smartypants) as we had another vehicle to load and bring back north it made sense to load it radiator first: that way we unloaded into the yard (rather than face to a building) and so the ramp would be ready while the return load was shunted round to us. It did however mean backing the trailer a quarter of a mile up the entrance lane (having turned it round at the bottom) but Adam preferred that to dismantling the ramp, moving the trailer aside and re-building once the second vehicle was presented. So I went off and prevailed on a kind Stuart to drive the loco back to the turntable and get some volunteers(?) to wind it round by hand (the motor drive isn't servicable right now) and bring it back.

Thus reversed, back at rest and shut down, we hooked on the winch rope, I got the signal that the brakes were released and took up the slack. Actually I was leaning on the trailer as the rope went taught and was rather disconcerted as the trailer leapt towards the loco. No, the 08's brakes weren't released and as far as the winch was concerned, if Mohammed wouldn't come to the mountain... Four WMR traincrew filmed the loading on their phones. I said I'd be coming round with a hat. One replied I wouldn't like what they'd put it in it. For once there was plenty of space in the car park so we turned round easily and headed south westward.

Down at Barry I had plenty of time to encourage waiting staff to make me a tea and discover that our return load not only wasn't immediately to hand, but was a mile away on the Island. This rather frustrated my efforts getting the loco the right way round and Adam backing up rather than driving straight up and backing more easily (empty?) back down. Moreover staff were assuming we'd unload that day and return to load the following morning. Adam arrived about an hour behind me, we unloaded the loco and once we had run out of gravity, Barry staff started it up and drove it away. We hurriedly reloaded the ramp, re-attached the tractor and convoyed across to Barry Island and a unpre-supposing gateway next to a housing estate. Adam stopped, double-parked, to assess accessabiliity. I donned a hivi vest and started directing traffic.

By five twenty we had loaded the HAA wagon in the yard and were about to set off. I held up a vehicle or two and assisted in Adam getting out without scratching parked cars on the other side of the road, then dashed back to get the van and follow. I'm not an Escort Vehicle in the accepted sense, but I often follow behind to assist as I know what route he'll take and can keep impatient motorists from trying to cut up the inside, etc. Taking one of the first roundabouts along what was once the dockside the trailer tyres clipped the kerb and I winced (as they're my tyres and I know how much they cost) and a few yards ahead Adam pulled over to re-set the trailer steering. I stopped behind and tried to direct traffic but without my hivi no-one took me seriously.

Anyway we left Wales without incident and I overtook them on the A449 as I made my way home. Overall, incidentally, 411 miles at 48.6mpg.

Friday and I was at the shed all day, working with someone on the HaTRAMM. The reason why we could not retract the stabilisers turned out to be simple. The push button wasn't working - a new element from another switch corrected that and engaging and disengaging was now assured. On to the crane controls. The big electrical control box with half-a dozen joysticks had a rotary switch which you needed to hold over in order to get the panel to power up. First thought was that this was a 'two hand' function as a safety feature, but it was awkward to have to hold it so we investigated further. It transpired this switch was not of the same manufacturer's parts as used throughout the rest of the vehicle, suggesting it was a bodge. Indeed, given that we had found a limit switch cross-wired last week, another switch was found that provided a by-pass for that. ('I can't have wired it wrong, I'll just put in an override...') A change of switch operator (to one that stays once switched) was a temporary solution and with the load detection pcb temporarily overridden, all functions started to work from this remote panel.

It was though a voyage of discovery, as the markings relative to what each joystick did had faded so as they were tested, a suitable inscription was added in what we hope is permanent marker. Next task was to eliminate the cause of the load detection failure. The output of the transducer was found to be a steady 5Volts, so we put a load on the crane and checked it again - it was unchanged, but if it had been functioning at all it would be different. Indeed, the error code from the pcb showed that it thought the transducer might be 'out of range' and some on-line research suggested this unit should return a signal of 0.5V to 4.5V - a 5V signal would therefore be out of range and suggestive of an internal short from its supply voltage. A suitable transducer is now to be procured.

If that was progress at that end of the HaTRAMM, it was not so good at the other end, as both the alternator drive belts, having smelt of burning rubber, failed, leaving us with no charge circuit. These are 140 amp alternators - that's 3.3kW - and Deutz, who built the engine, provided a two groove pulley to run one. But such is the power demand of a complete TRAMM, that Geismar installed a second, and allocated one groove for each from the engine. When Andy M first got it going, he found one pulley was out of line and I issued him with two ordinary vee belts as a temporary measure to get it going (they were in stock) but ordered up a couple of the toothed variety which can transmit more power. They haven't arrived yet, but I did not foresee any urgency. Now Andrew has decided that given all the equipment removed or no longer connected to our HaTRAMM (no trailer car with all its relays, no OTMR, GSM-R, TCA, AWS, quite a few relays, stabilised power supplies, all no longer aboard) we should be able to work with just one, and drive it with both belts together as Deutz intended. Just one snag, we need a two-groove pulley on the remaining alternator. I just need to find one, or get one specially machined to suit.

Saturday, and I was back again. Andrew was due to return grandson to his mother's, so wasn't expected down, but I had Matt and Jagger for company. Matt was on with work on Tom, including manufacturing a new sand pipe and fixing another, plus reassembling manifolds on 1387's engine. Jagger disappeared into the Cement van and continued stripping the C6 from the loco formerly known as Jack. I concentrated on further wiring on 1387s control panel, which is not a very exciting but as it's about the only thing I can add, here's a photo of progress.

That work has continued today, while Andrew has been modifying the Lister's replacement silencer ready to refit and added a stabiliser to my roller in an attempt to make loading and unloading rails from the trailer a might easier. We've had a steady flow of visitors today, from the expected who came to collect a compressor to the unexpected, a couple of Peak Rail p/way members who came to see us for the first time since well before the pandemic to talk about life under the new management. I well remember a conversation two or three years ago with another volunteer in the yard at Darley as a train went by, that if a certain lady director saw us talking together he'd get grilled as to what had been said. Anyway, it's a good excuse to put the kettle on. All friendly PR members welcome.

I'll fit the modified silencer and try the roller again tomorow, as we head in to Butterley to drop the HAA wagon off before heading over to collect another loco that Andrew has rescued from imminent scrapping. What is it? You'll have to wait and see. Later on I have more wagons to move, but on Friday Steph and I are headed to more northern parts of Wales as we've been invited to a book launch at Llanuwchllyn on the first 50 years of the Bala Lake Railway. How time flies. I can still recall meeting George in his eyrie at the Creamery and being directed to where to find the wagons and Ruston LBT loco that would form the early stages of that railway. Now it is within clutching distance of running trains into Bala itself. And hopefully I'll be able to tell you even more about it next week, see ya then.