Of a lost policeman
27th February 2022
As I said, it was an early start last Monday. With the trailer being based some 40+ miles south of us, if the destination is southward then I have to be on the road almost an hour before Adam does: if north, well he can be on the motorway within 5 minutes of leaving the yard, for me its 25 minutes or more from home. As it was I was out the house about 6 am, down to the shed (having thought of things that I should have put in the van) and rolled up at Tyseley at almost the same time as Adam did. We were kept outside waiting a few minutes but then got lined up and loaded the HL 0-4-0ST that Mike T had sold to Del Tilling and that we were due to take up to Butterley. Last time we had backed the tractor through the gap in the gateway partially occupied by the trailer in order to get the donkey engine and pump on the neck to the back of the trailer. This had taken some time to accomplish,so Monday the tractor just moved aside and I deployed extension hoses from the van. They're heavy and cumbersome and fight you trying to coil them back up again, but did result in a faster load, and we were on our way in little over an hour.
I got to Butterley a little after 11 o'clock and Adam arrived barely ten minutes behind me, but Butterley wasn't ready and it was nearly an hour before dmu's were moved aside and we could set up and lower the loco. A gronk took the loco back to Swanwick, and we packed away and backed out.
For once, my van had the edge. Normally Adam would have turned down the A38 back to Ripley, across the A610 and back up the A6 through Matlock, but flooding had both the A610 and A6 closed at Ambergate, so instead he had to go back to the M1 up to the next Junction and back round through Chesterfield and Bakewell, though even this had been closed above Rowsley for most of the morning. (The floodwater incidentally, had got nearer the level crossing than in my photo last week and the road over the Derwent to Darley Bridge remained closed for a couple of days, but the shed again remained free of inundation.) Meanwhile I had the usual direct journey past Alfreton and Wissington to Matlock, though even parts of Matlock were closed. I ended up down at the shed agonising over which loco to use - Tom which had managed to resume leaking oil from the converter cooler and still needs new lift pumps fitting, or the HATRAMM which was as yet unproven. Andrew made the decision to go with the HATRAMM, so I got it started, coupled it to the OBA, and left it ready for him to take over (he was taking a late lunch break for the occasion) while I went back up to Rowsley to help Adam setting up ready.
Our regular pilot, Harvey C, finally managed to get to Darley Dale (he lives on the opposite side of the valley!) and the HATRAMM propelled the OBA up to our waiting trailer. It was soon aboard and I was able to leave Adam and dash back to Darley Dale to capture its triumphal return to the yard, or maybe a little after.
But when I got there all was quiet, no HATRAMM but a HATRAMM sized space on road 3B. My first thought was that it had broken down on its way back from Rowsley, but no, when I checked my phone there was no plea for help, rather a text that he had got it into 3rd and (perhaps fortunately) the speedo was on the blink. Far from stopping, they had travelled on as a 'track inspection' until, not far from Bridge 36, they saw the signs where floodwater had deposited debris on the rail heads overnight and deemed it prudent to return. With much appropriate use of the horns, they sailed down Red House Cutting, the first 'Briddon-owned' motive power to run south of Darley Dale since - well let's not dig up past squabbles.
The next morning it was an equally early get up but in this case I arrived at Chasewater well ahead of Adam who had been delayed at the yard by 'technical issues'. In due course the rain - and Adam - arrived and the OBA was delivered to its new home.
We packed up and hit the road south to Lydney. I took the northern side of the Severn after Gloucester, wondering whether such places as Westbury-on-Severn would turn out to be Westbury-in-Severn or even Severn-on-Westbury before I got there, but the worst still seemed to be up north at Bewdley and Ironbridge. Awaiting us was a brake van, sheeted down for fear that some of its bodywork might become detached if subjected to 50mph slipstreams. We hauled it aboard and spent another three quarters of an hour resecuring the front end sheeting more tightly so that it wouldn't just 'balloon out' in motion.
Adam was now about 14 ft 8 high rather than the 14ft 3 of the bridges on the road back north, so turned out south to cross the Severn, while I headed straight home. Wednesday, and I was on the road at little less early, to assist in delivering the brake van to Dave Turnock. I hadn't been there before and it took a bit of finding, after which I parked back out on the main road to await Adam and Ian and pilot them straight in. The brake van was duly onloaded and the lorry departed. That was the week's programme finished as Adam was covering for another driver. It was not my work over though as I continued my regular visits to other jobs and suppliers.
Wednesday night however, was not so pleasant. A phone call came through from the neighbour at the shed to the effect that several youths had just climbed over the gate. Steph and I drove straight down and were shortly joined both by Andrew and the Police, whom the neighbour had also called, and who suspected that this might include 3 lads who have been committing acts of 'social nuisance' of late so they were especially keen to apprehend them. Although Andrew spotted torchlight further up the yard and chased after it, he found no-one and we could find little or no damage, although our CCTV showed them - all 6, five in hoodies and one girl with long hair and bag - heading up past the shed and through the yard - plenty of trip hazards to the unwary in the dark. As Steph and I returned to the Briddon Country Pile we found another Police car almost outside the Pile and assumed that they had come to talk to us about the incursion, but no, it was a lone Policeman who couldn't find a street nearby. In the 'good old days' you could ask a Policeman for directions, now in cutting edge 21st century policing they ask you if you know where ... Avenue is?
Andrew did further night patrols on Thursday and Friday but there was no repeat. On my way through Sheffield on Friday I stopped at the heat exchanger specialists to drop off additional sealing rings and UNC studs and came away with a completed transmission cooler. This was basically Charlie's old one with different end caps, and once I've had time to clean it down externally and give it a lick of paint it will go on to RS8 and help ease Tom's burden. (That is no criticism of the repairers, they merely incurred the minimum costs as I had asked, hence my supplying specialised bits.)
On Saturday I had visitors due who are interested in purchasing a loco so work before and after was tailored around that visit. The 'tag board' (as I call it) for the Hudswell 0-4-0 was drilled and partially assembled and over both Saturday and Sunday the first wires were being attached. Andrew and I had a conference on 144V, stemming on from agreement as to which transmission cooler goes to which loco as they return from the repairers. Apart from a general policy as to how much of the original flameproofing bits are retained (which can be summarised as anything external will stay the same, anything internal may be changed to suit ease of maintenance and reliability) the plan for stripping down and shotblasting bodywork was reformulated and a commitment to get it running this year advocated.
Towards the end of the afternoon we agreed on certain things that we ought to get done on Sunday but it was one of those 'in order to do A, B and C we need to first do X, Y and Z'. And when it came to it, X, Y and Z took up most of the day. Some bits of D9500 are still on site, some parts that we recovered from an old DV8 engine years ago have now been sold on together with some Brush parts that Andrew doesn't reckon he'll use - many of these were in the Ferry van and required a shunt around to get the stillages concerned out and replace them with others. But the space available to manouevre all this is limited and ends up taking an immense amount of time, one forklift, two pallet trucks and some cursing. As darkness fell the train was positioned back on road 1 and while X Y and most of Z had been completed, A and B were being left for later!
This week sees me up early again on Monday but this time to head back in to Sheffield for an eye test - I think new glasses are on the cards. After that it is in to the fabricators and the heat exchanger repairers, this time to drop off a 'torpedo' cooler for Tom which we dug out of the ferry van this afternoon. The transport work resumes on Wednesday, by which time I hope we'll have a new winch rope fitted - the old one has been damaged somehow. I don't know when, found it last Monday but it's been causing the drum to 'lump' at one point. Though fortunately not within the rope normally deployed, it is a weakness that we want changed out before we're hauling 48 tonners aboard again.
And so with that I'll wish you a good week, may the Ukrainian situation resolve itself peacably and if Mr Putin can refrain from launching his nukes in a petulant sulk I'll be back next week. See ya then.