Of unaccompanied cows

12th June 2022

Just another tale of country folk.

I should begin by thanking those readers who contacted me expressing concern that I might be falling for scammers with my DHL-import charge. I wasn't concerned because firstly it related to a consignment I knew all about and was expecting, and secondly, while the Nigerian bank scams deliberately make their initial approaches slightly ungrammatical such that you think that you're dealing with someone who isn't all that bright, the one thing that would be guaranteed to be 100% would be the stage parting you from your dosh. Only a genuine firm like DHL would have a duff website and give out a number where nobody answers! In the end, first thing Monday I had a text from DHL to say they'd be delivering later that day, so I hoped (forlornly) that they might deliver and forget about the payment, but no, one of our regular DHL people arrived with package, smartphone and a Bluetooth card reader, though it took about ten minutes to get the reader to connect and read my card! After that I set off to Matlock and returned with the new starter for Steph's car, though it was Tuesday before it got fitted.

On Tuesday I got a phone call from the machinists that a pulley I was waiting for was ready (at last) so popped up to collect it. It was wrapped up but the main man told me he could not drill and tap the small hole on my drawing as 'you couldn't get a drill in'. I kept fingering the package and thinking that can't be right; but I came home before unwrapping. It had been a standard cast 3 groove pulley which I was adapting and the drawing had shown a bore and keyway, a tapped hole for a grubscrew and machining off the 3rd groove. With the third groove removed there was access to tap the hole (or so I'd thought) but it was so long ago that I'd drawn it my memory was hazy. Back home it was obvious that they had bored and keywayed but hadn't machined off the 3rd groove, so back it went. Machining is one of those areas I always have problems getting done. I was summoned back to collect it on Friday - groove machined off, and the 'inaccessible' small hole drilled and tapped. My regular route over involves some narrow lanes, the sort with passing places and twists with high hedges to prevent you seeing on-coming vehicles, even in a van. On this occasion I came up behind two other vehicles moving at barely walking pace and couldn't initially see why. It turned out there was an unaccompanied cow in the lead, walking up the middle of the lane and probably a little perturbed by us following, judging by the way it kept flicking its tail and looking over its shoulder at us. After five minutes of this it turned into an open  gateway, and my last view of it was it looking to and fro as if wondering where to go next and was anything edible. Trouble was, this was the entrance to an up-market barn conversion, and a rather expensive open top silver Mercedes stood nearby...

Andrew was on leave so on Wednesday we popped up to Rowsley to service Tom and trace a brake leak-off problem. We had assumed that a brake cylinder seal was weeping and would need renewal before going into PR service but Andrew had brought a leak detector spray and the cylinders were OK, so he worked through the pipework assuming there might be a bad joint or a pinhole. In the end, we found it right up in the desk, in fact barely 6 inches away from the brake valve itself, where someone has attempted to get a parallel steel thread to seal into a taper malleable iron elbow. This looks suspiciously like it was that way when it was at Hills many years ago (but possibly packed with sealant) as the paintwork is consistent with the rest of the desk. Either way it hasn't a chance of sealing properly though undoing it without stripping out a load of other adjacent pipes may be a struggle. Our plan is to replace the offending section with a flexible, but I didn't have sufficient taper nipples in stock so on Thursday I went back up to Sheffield and collected some, plus some other bits and bobs.

Another trip that way during the week had brought back the profiles from the laser cutters, most of which were related to the new engine mounts for 2895. We've been looking carefully at the history of 2895 and 2896, the only two Yorkshire 0-6-0DHs of this design. The first was revealed to the press and publicised in November 1963. It eventually got sold to a firm near Burton on Trent and remained there all its industrial life, going to Ruddington first before ending up at Elsecar. 2896 became the YE yard shunter, and remained there when YE ceased a couple of years later and the site became McCalls reinforcements. 2895 seems to have had plain coloured buffer beams from new, whereas 2896 possesses diagonal yellow/black stripes in every photo of it you see. This points to the publicity photos in November '63  (and reproduced in Tony Vernon's book on Yorkshire Engine) as most likely being 2895. To complete the circle, by the time McCalls closed it had gained two Sentinel 0-6-0s (from Consett) and I was sent in from Hills to inspect all three with a view to purchase. This involved shunting them in turn over a pit in the end of the YE building, and as 2896 was the working loco I used it to bring the other two and itself in in turn, thus becoming almost certanly the last person to drive a YE loco out of the YE works!

The new mounts for 2895 are a little complex - more so than usual because of the engine installation angle, and Andrew is anxious not to end up with any distortion so welding them together is being done in stages, with much cooling in between. The front mount is however finished, bar some dressing a few areas and a lick of paint, so I have tried the first one in place as the angle of the pads on the loco, and the matching pads on the mount, didn't seem right, but with the a/vs in place all fitted nicely so here's quick preview.

The LED-ification of the HaTRAMM has continued with a fresh delivery of green lamps and LED-BA9s, the latter to replace the incandescent bulbs in the illuminated push-buttons. That just leaves the two alternator warning lights in the desk, one of which is no longer relevant anyway. Unfortunately on test today one green lamp didn't come on and one button didn't seem to function - so I must go into the panel once again and see if a wire or two have become detached.

Saturday was a busy day. We had two lots of visitors, one of whom is the new owner of a loco which has been featuring in this blog for the last couple of weeks. Having taken the engine out and detached all the mounts, there has been a reversal and so the mounts were being put back in and an engine re-installed, though first the seized brake hanger had to be unseized and the weighshaft bolts nipped up. With that the brake gear appears to be operating freely (at last!), and the gearbox was therefore drained of the diesel that has been used to flush out the rust resulting from excessive condensate, fresh oll substituted and the box closed up. With a few last bits to finish off this loco will be leaving soon.

Regular shunter (for now) with Tom having moved north is RS8, (pictured earlier) and although I had my doubts, it has proved able to shunt the entire rake on road 1, provided you give it full throttle and are prepared to wait while the torque builds up, though to be fair one known-stiff loco had been put over onto road 2. Late on Saturday afternoon we dug all the loose bits of Yorkshire 2654 out of a container and on Sunday the loco was brought round to the shed to load as much as we could legitimately as this loco too is to leave shortly. Here's a photo of it late this afternoon, the sheet removed and ready to depart.

Once again as I wandered around the site on Saturday I saw someone taking photos over the fence and invited him in: it turned out that he had been on the cream teas service that afternoon, and was 'intrigued' by the shunters he'd passed so after touring Rowsley he had parked on Station Road for a closer look. Full time he is a driver for Prestons of Potto, so I'll be peering closely at each of their wagons as I pass them!

Anyway, it may not seem much but it has been a busy week and there's more ahead - 2654 to leave and another loco due to arrive, and possibly (arrangements yet to be confirmed) the HaTRAMM to take a working party down to Matlock. Adam has been busy kitting out one of his trailers for forthcoming carriage moves, and another low load trailer for heavier locos may be in the offing. Saturday, by way of interlude, we have a visit from the Industrial Railway Society, so we're promised on dropping all the sheets before and the hard work of putting them all back on again after they've left. Tell you all about it next week. See ya then.