Of Doll and Hopper

!8th September 2022

When I was younger, I used to wonder who would send the Queen a telegram when she reached 100?

Welcome to yet another edition of Weekend Rails, and another rather mixed recipee it is too.

There are times when I wish the crystal ball had had another update to its software. For after all our efforts getting the ramp modified to work with the Doll trailer (and conceding that it will probably be useful in the future) it turned out that it couldn't be used this week as, for reasons I won't go into, it became more practical to load with the unit the other way round, i.e. over the front and up the deck rather than over the back and down. The latter would have saved time by not having to split the tractor and swan neck, but manouvering with the loaded wagon on board offset the advantage. And while I was reluctant to tempt fate by announcing what the move was all about last week,I can safely reveal that it concerns big bogie hoppers (HXAs) which were in store at Barry going to Sims for scrap. Having been in store for so long, getting them brought up to 'fit' condition, even for one journey by rail only, wasn't viable and moving them by road the better option, though some 30 or more have already been scrapped on site at Barry as the sidings they occupied are due to be handed over to TfW.

Adam and Phil have been shuttling to and fro all week, so here's a few, courtesy of Phil G who was driving the tractor.

On Monday I chased up what had happened about the profiles I was expecting, and it was admitted that the order had been 'overlooked' but it went into process immediately and late Wednesday I was able to pop in and collect them. They included a number of chassis plates for Alistair at ALD Models, and here's one posed by the 3.5 inch gauge class 25 body shell it is destined for.

'My' profiles meanwhile arrived at the workshops to await the weekend when Andrew would be around to weld them. Thursday and Friday were reasonably quiet days, with trips out to collect and deliver various bits, plus see a visitor at Darley Dale to look over various parts on the two Fowler locos. Come Saturday it was back to the shed, with a long, long list of jobs drawn up as I try to get on top of the various commercial work that is occupying space and mopping up my spare cash. The trouble with having 5 or 6 jobs on the go at the same time is that unless you can afford manpower, you cannot be working on all them, all the time, so at extremes you can either push one forward to the exclusion of all others, or take each one forward a little bit each time. In practice we have tried a policy that comes somewhere in between where we do a bit on one for a few weeks and then turn to another. You may be thinking that I ought to take on a man or two full time and that would be the right way of thinking were I about 40 years younger: but since Barclays Bank forced me to put YEC into liquidiation in 2001 the desire for getting on that treadmill (for once the job is out, you must have already got the next job ready to take its place, else your manpower is standing arund earning nothing) has not returned.

Over on the Janus, we are about as far as we can go until the second generator is back in place, but that awaits either a repaired or replacement engine/generator coupling. So for now we finished securing No.2 power unit to its mounts and the last few bolts in the casing structure that end. Andrew dismantled the coupling from the other end and a fascinating concoction of plate and shim it is too.

At the back of the Hudswell, Matt made a start fabricating a new handrail to go across the rear. The original was destroyed in the accident at Blaenavon and the base material for this one comes from a pair of handrails that Hills fitted to another loco whose owner discarded them.

Andrew assembled some of the mid-week profiles. The large arched ones are the mountings for the Hudswell silencer, which I had hoped would be with us by now (it was about to be painted on Tuesday, I was told) but is not yet to hand. The others are two batches of filter mounting brackets for filters I often seem to make use of, one being allocated to the Hatramm.

During the week, I had been sending out enquiries with a view to getting the plain pulley I have for the Hudswell's alternator machined, but as usual getting such companies interested in one-offs is near impossible, and I wasted several days waiting for one to reply before concluding that they simply weren't going to. It adds fuels to Andrew's oft-spoken plan to create a machine-shop adjunct to the shed at Darley Dale, as there simply isn't room to start installing lathes and such within the main building. Maybe one day. But back to the pulley problem. Going through the container looking for something else entirely. we found a pulley that at first sight matched my drawing almost to a tee. Sometimes it amazes us what we have got and other times what we haven't. It turned out it was from an alternator and was bored and keywayed the same as the AC5 I am fitting on the Hudswell, so it was cleaned up, and fitted to the alternator which now awaits wiring and suitable belts.

I'm fitting BR type headlights to both ends of the loco and Andrew had dug out some examples he could spare. The front end is straightforward as there is a hole which can accept the dome of the reflector, but the cab back is now flush (after we put a plate in to replace an earlier attempt to fill the hole which resulted in distortion) but Andrew had a lamp with an extra rear casting that sets the lamp further out and so removes the issue. That is now fitted and cabling is going in to it and the rear light mounted underneath.

Indeed, having resolved most of the issues outstanding in the desk area electrically it is not far off complete. Pneumatically though it is a bit behind, and there are some other mechanical issues to resolve: the old worn-out brake blocks have now been consigned to the scrap bin and the new carriers for the composite blocks have arrived from driling and await painting.

Today Peak Rail had a vist from the Branch Line Society, with a two coach special top and tailed by D8 and the 25 plus brake van tour of the yard at Rowsley under HST auspices.

Here's the returning trip leaving Darley Dale for Matlock. On another job, Andrew has been building up vac piping, again following recent experience of using weld-able bends rather than screwed ones. The result, seen here at the fab' bench, looks rather like the entry for a Turner prize but maybe I'll show it you fitted to the loco next week.

And thats' about it. We're back in the shed tomorrow so won't be glued to the TV watching a funeral. Phil is back shifting HXAs for the rest of the week and hopefuly I'll get down to Adam's to sort out the rails for T2, particularly as some of our standard 'kit' for T1 is currently on the Doll trailer so a roll call on T1 might be advisable as other work is imminent. What else? We'll see. I'll know before but you can read all about it next week, same time. See ya then.