Of Winifred, Bluetooth and Wasps

15th May 2022

We know of radio-controlled drones, but can you fit a Wasp with Bluetooth?

When asked the difference between pneumatic equipment of 'modern industrial standard' (mass produced, relatively cheap) as opposed to equipment made by 'rail' pneumatic people (the Davies & Metcalfes, Westinghouses etc) I usually try to explain that the 'rail' valves, being of older design, assumes that the air they are controlling is not as clean and can usually function with debris up to the size of a grain of sand passing through. That might in reality be rather too generous, but certainly they function for years with whatever is thrown at them whereas modern industrial valves look for debris no bigger than that measurable in microns. I returned this week to a loco I was working on a couple of weeks ago, because the compressor unloader valve, which had been replaced under my auspices, had jammed open. I took another up and replaced it, running the engine for a while with the connection open and tapping the pipework to try to get any loose material flushed out. My suspicion, as the loco had been standing for some time, was that rust had been blown into the valve when the client came to use it.

Oh yes, and once again I had to spend ten minutes or so dredging a spanner out from the brackish, black water of their inspection pit.The next day back at the workshops I opened the valve and sure enough 4 or 5 flakes of rust, a couple as large as a grain of rice, were lodged under the valve seat. The moral, if there is one, is always vent the air down and get rid of condensate and try not to leave a loco unused for long periods!

Thursday: the move we put off from last week took place. Originally I had planned it to kick off at half-eight in the morning, but last thing Wednesday night I had news that Phil, who was driving on this occasion, would only be unloading in Leicester at 07.30 that morning and must then return to Heanor's base to collect my trailer. That in fact turned out to be a little optimistic and it was half-eleven when he finally arrived to join me at the collection point. Loading was tangentially off a curve: not easy at the best of times, especially when the 'pad' slopes down at the outside of the track and you can't sight the line of the trailer rails through the tractor unit. Hindsight says that I should have measured up and put a quick mark on the ground to align to, but at the time it was much later than I had intended and I needed to get done and get home. So we charged on in and ended up with a bit of a kink in the ramp but being a 4 wheeler, the loco ascended and accomodated us. (Would I have tried that with a six wheeler? Good question. Wth two axles, wherever the first goes, the other normally follows, but with 3, the first axle says 'go!' but the other two say 'no!'. You've got to get it fairly well aligned to begin with.)

The loco was going to Barrow Hill, where the manager was very accommodating despite being much later than he'd asked for or I'd intended. The loco came off in the usual way, and I drove it a few feet inside and parked it up for the client's staff to collect.

On Saturday I was planning to go back over to Llanuwchllyn for the Bala Lake Railway company AGM and Plan A had me off quite early so as to go 'somewhere else' either business or pleasure I wasn't quite sure. But two old friends of ours arranged to pop in on Saturday morning about eleven, so I thought I ought to at least say a hello and maybe get off at 11.15-11.30., But one thing led to another - well, mostly catching up on news and events surrounding Peak Rail - and it was gone noon before I finally hit the road.

I try to observe the laws of the land and as my van has a built-in Bluetooth my phone is connected to it. All I have to do is turn the Bluetooth on on my phone before I move off and hey presto, it connects automatically. But every few months or maybe a year it gives problems and Saturday was one such day. Before I had got to Bakewell I noticed that the hands-free had disconnected. I was stopping for fuel anyway so tried to reset it, and it demanded that I 'pair' the two things, which if you have never done this requires both phone and van to have the same PIN number entered. They had of course been 'paired' months before, but thinking, oh no, not this again, I did so before leaving the garage, seeing the hands-free symbols register on the van's display.

Before I had got out of Bakewell it had disconnected once more. I pulled into a quiet side turn and paired the units again, got everything correct and resumed my journey, but 400 yards further on - yep, I had to pull over and try it a third time. This time they held, but it had delayed me such that as I dropped down the hill through Wardlow to join the main road coming out of Stoney Middleton, I could see a long string of cars dawdling behind a slow-moving horsebox and yes, they reached the junction before I could. Past Tideswell, down to Dove Holes, right along the A6 where the old Peak Forest Tramway trackbed is now a layby next to the Buxton line, and finally where I turned off to Chapel-en-le-Frith I had the relief of seeing the horsebox continue up the A6. Not that this was the end of my troubles, with queues around Tinwtwistle going up to Mottram and heavy traffic west on the M56. It was a quarter to four as I came through Bala, just about as the last outbound train was entering the terminus on the other side of the lake. Thus at Llanuwchllyn I had plenty of time to purchase a cup of tea and position myself to picture this last train of the day coming up the bank, as I had done a couple of weeks before, for comparison.

The loco here though is Winifred, a Quarry tank built to the Penrhyn specification and thus slightly larger than the Dinorwic locos like Maid Marian and Holy War. Oh yes, and cabless, which I accept is true to the tradition in the quarries but both the Penrhyn and Dinorwic (on its Village Tramway or shunting around Port Dinorwic) had the locos cabbed.

With its final trip of the day complete, it pushed the carriages back into their shed before retiring to the running shed for disposal.

The AGM was a typical Bala affair - four Directors and two shareholders, me and Ian Jolly, whom I hadn't seen for twenty years or more. That led to some stories being trotted out and recollections of George Barnes as maybe Ian and I tried to out-tell each other! Not only that but this was the AGM that should have been held last year (for 2020 accounts) and they hope to hold a second AGM later this year for 2021 results to get back on track from lockdowns. The idea of having two Annual General Meetings within one year produced debate as to what to call the second, I pitched in with AGM2 (squared).

In contrast to my outward hassle, for the return run I took the Llangynog road through Llanfyllin to Welshpool and then back east via Shrewsbury and Cannock to Derby. The first part was delightful, with quiet roads and beautiful sunny weather, though on the long down hill to Llangynog, I made the mistake of glancing to my right. The road here is relatively narrow, and built on a cliff way above the valley floor, with nothing but a dry stone wall between the tarmac and a precipitous drop of several hundred feet. The view is not for those suffering from vertigo. Meanwhile Andrew had been down at the shed doing a bit of tidying.

Today I had barely got down when a couple walked up the lane and turned out to be Alex B,, stalwart of the Industrial Railway Society (who are themselves due to visit shortly) and his partner, who partook of my freshly-made tea and a tour. He made the appropriate 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' at the new control arrangements on 1387 and the wiring that goes behind it, though did assume at first it was Claire.I had a plug connection to make up to suit the new transducer for the HaTRAMM, but in the end we didn't get to test it today as Andrew was away most of the morning/lunch on a domestic mission of his own.

On a whim I removed the remains of the front sandwich mounts on Yorkshire 2895, finding one stud damaged and cleaning it with a die nut, whilst its proper nut - a 3/8 Whit - was badly worn and replaced. While doing this I became aware of a wasp or two paying considerable attention to the loco and eventually realised we had a developing wasp nest nearby. We've had nests in locos before - I think there's still one derelict in James - but they've been hanging papier-machee affairs like chinese lanterns. Here the stinging things appear to have made their home in a hole some 1.5 inches deep. Well, let's take a closer look.

This is the pad, which Yorkshire bolted to the frame sides to carry the rear engine mounts. I know it's three and a half inches thick because I have the drawing and Yorkshire have the engine offset from the centre-line, this is the thicker pad that holds it over. The bolt-hole the wasps have chosen to be their bolt hole is though only 1.5 inches deep and tapped 5/8 Whit for most of that. That doesn't leave them much room for expansion - actually it doesn't give them much room for anything and as I watched, I realised the wasps were flying in forwards but walking out backwards before dropping off and flying away.

I'm no wildlife photographer (yes, all right, you can tell) but I assure you this one was in reverse gear. These pads are due to come off and go in the scrap bin. We'll have to see what happens to these insects as to whether they trade up to somewhere in a higher council tax bracket or we have to deal with them. The engine that is to go into 2895 is the one that 14 months ago we put in to the 0-6-0 Fowler, and very proud of the front mountings I was (and still am) but it doesn't look like I'll see them used, at least not in that loco. The main task of the afternoon was to lift the engine back out and that was achieved.

The next job with it is to exchange the sump for the 'dry' one fitted to another engine and thus make it fit for the installation angle on 2895. By that time, hopefully, the profiles for the new front and rear mounts will have arrived and been assembled, the pigeon crap will be gone and 2895 can be re-united with its torque converter.

But that for now is it for this week. The next few days have as usual only vague plans so I'll not predict what I'm doing nor when, but hopefully we'll all return to this place next week and I'll tell you. See ya then.