Of tyres and bridges

20th March 2022

So have you got your Monday morning coffee/tea to hand? Then I'll begin.

So first thing on Monday it was back over to Sheffield to pick up my new glasses and drop in on a few suppliers, from more wire to hydraulic fittings to a repaired heat exchanger and finally Wickes - to get some timbers to support the floorboards in the Hudswell loco. But in the end I didn't get back to the shed on Monday, or Tuesday, but made a dash in first thing Wednesday morning rapidly to unload what I had collected and replace it with bits for the transport work planned, and even then managed to forget to pick up Big Mak (but having said that, I did trip and give myself a few cuts and bruises, so my concentration may have been 'off' - I nearly forgot to put in the battery for the Lister engine!). Anyway, I met Adam and Ian down at Tyseley where they had arrived just ahead of me and were lining up.

With loading at Tyseley taking place through a gateway, we can do it by staying sufficiently far back to leave enough room for the tractor to squeeze through, or we can deploy extension hoses so the tractor can stay in the yard, just set to one side. (If you haven't gathered, the power unit for the winch is on the swan neck but the winch itself is on the back of the trailer, so reversing the tractor unit to the back of the trailer after disconnecting the swan neck brings them both into close proximity, and explains why so many pictures feature Adam's tractor right alongside the loco about to be moved.) These hoses were bought in order to get in to Ian Riley's, but have been used several times since. They make Adam's life easier but definitely not mine. On the one hand they're heavy (not only because the hoses are twin wire reinforced but because, having sealing connectors at each end, they are permanently full of oil) and on the other trying to unwind, or wind them back up after, is a darn sight harder than coiling up a 220V extension cable or a washing line. Last time we did this at Tyseley, Adam swung the tractor to the right: so as soon as my overalls were donned I started rolling out the first of the two hoses up the right hand side of the trailer. Only Adam had got it into his head to park over on the left this time, and I wasn't about to roll it all back up again and re-roll it up the other side. There was plenty of room of course to pass under the ramp, but I did run the second hose up the right hand side instead.

Mayflower's tender was ready and waiting and simple to winch on, although the donkey engine makes heavier work of the task as the extra 30metres of hose to force the oil up and back mops up a noticeable amount of horsepower, and although with the tractor parked alongside the winch-operator (usually me) can reach the donkey engine throttle, with the tractor remote, it's a long walk or a call to Adam or Ian. Anyway, off we set - Adam taking one route out of Brum and me another - down to the Smoke where thanks to waiting patiently to get through a temporary traffic lights right in the middle of Southall, I arrived at the depot only a few minutes ahead of the tender. I had a piece of kit to pass over from Andrew to someone at Southall, and this close arrival upset my plan to get that sorted first.

The tender was duly unloaded and pushed out the way, watched over by a couple of class 33s and a kettle in light steam. Adam and Ian hit the road as soon as packed up, but I located my contact and ended up talking with him for 45 minutes or more, which, though highly pleasant and could easily have been enjoyed for longer, was not planned in the day's timetable. So when I left I hit more traffic which delayed me further, as we were heading west to Cardiff. Fortunately they waited for me outside the works and we went in together, the loco was waiting, a driver moved it up to the end of the ramp for us and the load was completed in little over an hour.

Adam and Ian headed for a services as far back north and east as his hours allowed, and I unconstrained by such regulations but very much preferring my own bed, drove back to Darley Dale. Total mileage for the day - 511.

Thursday and I was out first thing, this time to Burton-on-Trent. Adam and Ian were on the M42, the loco we were due to collect was waiting and it was a nice sunny day. My ego was boosted by one of the staff who went out of his way to say he reads this blog every week, part of his Monday morning break - this is a very familiar - the proportion of you who read this either over breakfast or mid morning coffee seems to be significant. When Adam arrived it was arranged that he'd back in, and I was out to stop the traffic but he called down to me to see if he had a puncture on one tyre. My heart sank as this usually meant a trailer tyre and all too often a new one is required, and at £300 a go this can ruin your day. However this was on the tractor, and sure enough as he backed around one of the rear driving wheels deformed and emitted squirting noises as a slit in the side wall opened and closed.

After lining up Adam got on the phone to order up a mobile tyre fitter and two new tyres: these axles have two wheels per side and rather like rail, adjacent wheels need to be the same diameter or they will wear badly. If my trailer tyres weren't costly enough, I shudder to think how much his are, but at least the inner tyre could be saved and re-fitted at some point in the future. By the time the gronk had been unloaded and the Sentinel put in its place, the tyre fitters had arrived and the tractor was moved over to them to do their stuff while we dismantled the ranp and chained everything down.

We hit the road again and I had a head start to the next location, firstly because they were stopping for a bite to eat and partly because abnormal loads like us have many places where they are inconvenienced by bridges that are weight restricted. Leaving Cardiff on Wednesday night, for example I was following them and was surprised when he suddenly turned down a slip road. I thought he'd headed for a truck stop, but no, a bridge coming up on the M4 is weight restricted so he has to go along the A48 through Newport and rejoin the motorway farther on. Even without his lunch break he had a Cook's Tour to do to get to our final destination: the direct trunk A-road being prohibited, he has to go all the way round and come back in from the far side. Arriving in advance I was able to suss out where we were unloading and that reversing in would again be beneficial, though I hadn't taken account of a 40ft artic that had been parked on a double yellow line on the entrance road and whose driver had left the scene.

Still, even that wasn't as narrow as the access to the Ecclesbourne Valley at Wirksworth!

And to the weekend. We were welcoming Andy M back from his holiday in Switzerland, and as we haven't had time to service the HATRAMM he set too and put this in hand, moving it up over the 3A/3B turnout for the extra space underneath that it provides. During the week the fault display for the Hudswell had arrived, so I determined I would get that fitted, though that took a little longer than I'd planned as I had to mod a couple of bits to one side but having got it in, it seemed only reasonable to carry on and cable it up, which led on into continuing the cabling up of the tag board.

I'd popped out for something from the van when I found a couple walking up the lane - they'd been looking around at the Heritage Shunters Trust at Rowsley and wondered if they could look around here. With the usual caveats I gave them the guided tour, though to my chagrin failed to route them past the collecting tin on the way out. Andrew arrived and spent some time on some air valves, including getting to the bottom of a Laycock-Knorr driver's brake valve which exhibited the strange characteristic of not passing air, even though I had seen it function when I first had inspected it.

This is a non-lapping valve, in other words it has 3 positions 'apply' 'lap' and 'release'. In 'apply' the exhaust valve stays shut and the inlet valve opens, in 'lap' both inlet and exhaust valves stay shut and in 'release' the inlet valve stays shut and the exhaust valve opens. The valves should be brass spindles with a sealing ring in a groove which bears on its valve seat. On opening up, it was found that someone decided they knew better and had machined the groove out of the spindle, replacing the seal with an oversize rubber disc with a hole for the spindle shaft which wasn't even central! Being oversize and only held to the spindle by friction, the inlet valve was rendered u/s by the air pressure getting under the disc and holding it on the valve seat so that none could pass. (When I'd seen it work the main air pressure was quite low.)

Driver's brake valves are generally regarded as Safety Critical - there may be no secondary brake available other than to start winding the handwheel and praying - whosoever made this alteration should hang their heads in shame.

I got home on Saturday night to find a message to return the call of a Peak Rail member/shareholder. He rings me from time to time, usually to find out what is going on as Peak Rail tends to be uncommunicative, especially when the PRA hasn't published a magazine in ages. This time he was furious because apparently there is a page-long obituary in Heritage Railway for Mrs Statham which in his view gave her credit where it wasn't merited.

Sunday and as well as Andy M we had Tony S. Tony owns the Baguley railcar, and we hear that his wife is now aware he has it (it has been a secret up to now) so maybe he will not need to invent so many dubious excuses for coming over!

Andy had started removing he plugs from the end of the HATRAMM as part of the wiring simplification and had moved on to the cabling that ran down to them, yielding some interesting cable in a conditiom fit for re-use.

I started on re-flooring the Hudswell cab: I had partially refloored Claire's years ago ad if memory serves it was all hand sawn, drilled and screwed. This time not only was every t&g cut with a jig saw, the tech-screws were inserted with Big Mak's recently-acquired slightly smaller cousin in scew mode.

The result was both sides cut and fitted in less than half the time. Andrew was sorting out bits due to leave us and collecting scrap together to take advantage of the higher prices triggered by the isolation of the Russian market(s). The van is now full and I know where I am off to in the morning. Ah well. Tuesday we are due a meeting with Adam over mods to a second trailer to cover forthcoming transport work, and on Wednesday we've another loco to shift, but other than that, the crystal ball is as misty as usual. You'll have to wait for next Monday's morning coffee to find out. See ya then.