Of things that break

14th August 2022

Technical hitches, snags and bitches.

Steph and I married in 1974. That autumn we bought our first car - an Austin Mini Countryman, the 'estate car' mini with the polished wood exterior framing - and did a tour of North Wales narrow gauge railways as a belated honeymoon. It became our first visit to Llanuwchllyn as a railway, but the reason for this diversion is that throughout our journey-ings, the mini went 'donk-donk-donk' in proportion to roadspeed. When we got back - several hundred miles later - I got a friend at work to look at it and he confirmed that a wheel bearing had failed, indeed it fell to pieces when he pushed it out of its housing. Years later I was driving a hired Transit pick-up through Manchester on my way to Sellafield (with a BSI Shunt coupler in a crate) when the front right wheel bearing failed: whether it went donk-donk-donk I don't recall, but it did get to the point of emitting smoke, being too hot to touch and turning black when it cooled off. I heard (I thought) a similar noise with a new Peugeot I had bought but the dealership disagreed, the Service Manager riding in it with me to tell me no, it was merely tyre noise. I there and then decided never to buy that brand of tyre. A few weeks ago I started hearing noises with the van - was it a bearing; was it tyre noise? I couldn't decide, and as I needed the van to get around and support the transport moves I tried to tell myself it was tyre noise and not to worry.

On Monday I decided I really ought to get it checked out, so rang the garage I use in Matlock but they couldn't fit me in for an inspection until Thursday. On Tuesday we were due to collect the second half of the Pacer, but meanwhile Andrew had spotted another winch on the well known auction site and thus secured a WARN winch (an American make of some repute, apparently) and I had paid for it. So having agreed with Adam that we would meet at St Philips Marsh at 2pm Tuesday, I set off first thing that morning for an industrial site near Aylesbury to collect the winch before hitting the M4 west to Bristol. By now, to be honest, I was pretty certain that what I could hear was a wheel bearing. The donk-donk-donk started at about 25mph, became loudest between 40 and 50 but if you turned the radio up and kept at about 55mph it was tolerable. The winch was duly collected at noon and at five to one I had a call from someone who identified himself as an other Heanor driver, Carl. Notwithstanding I'd said 2pm he was there already, so I gave him the neccessary access details and maintained my steady 55mph along the motorway, reaching St Philips Marsh at about two fifteen.

Carl is an ex Heanor Haulage driver who spent five years away before returning to the Searson clan a few months ago. Adam had put Carl on the job as he himself wasn't going to be back in time from Scotland but as Carl hadn't moved rail vehicles before I briefed him on the sequence after which we lined the trailer over the rails. Carl lowered the trailer neck to the ground and - the electric pump stopped. It was hot, I had already driven 200 miles with a slightly dodgy van and didn't need an additional problem. We removed access panels and with my faithful test meter (that I keep in the van) I started checking my way around an alien electrical system. Long calls between me and Nick back at Heanor HQ began to unravel the secrets. We had the high current side - I could make the pump run by bridging across the solenoid terminals with a large piece of metal - but nothing on the low current side - the buttons that fed solenoid valves as well as the pump solenoid had no power whatsoever. At one point I left my trusty meter perched on top of the mudguard of the tractor unit and as soon as I turned my back it slid off, hit the ground and stopped working. I won't say I was determined to locate the fault, but sitting here stuck (we couldn't raise the neck to get clear of the track without the hydraulics, let alone load the Pacer) was not acceptable, and calling out a local specialist sparky would have wasted hours.

With further advice from Nick that there was a fusebox in a junction box at the other side of the neck, we removed further covers and exposed this.

The fuses were OK, but I waggled a few wires (actually ones that appeared to be snipped off in mid air so were doing nothing) and the pump came on, so we got on with loading the Pacer. The Pacer was much where we had left it last week, rather a bit further inside the wheel lathe building, so most of the winch's 73m of cable was wound out to reach the coupler bar where I had an eye arrangement bolted on the drawbar. We winched the Pacer nearer to the ramp, then set up with two snatch blocks and the vehicle rolled up with less trouble than we had had last week, even through it was 3 tons heavier.

Admittedly getting the trailer all back together did require some more wire waggling, but at about quarter to six we left site.

Thus far, although I knew that Adam did not intend to let me and Carl negotiate our way into Nantmawr unaided, I didn't know his plans so got on the phone, to find out that he wanted to be unloading at eight a.m., which Nantmawr personnel agreed to accomodate. I also thought Carl was stopping at Strensham but didn't fancy there again so pulled over to get on the 'net and booked myself into a Travelodge at Telford. Staying on the M5 I paused at Frankley for a PNB and found him parked there instead.

I went on, and was the last guest to arrive at the Telford hotel that night. Wednesday and I was on the go just after seven, and as I trundled at 55mph up the A5 to Shrewsbury was passed by the HFS big van being driven at full tilt. I got to Nantmawr ahead of them though, parked the van and walked back up the lane. Some readers commented last week that the photos I took, though very picturesque, didn't make it look all that difficult, so here we are getting the Pacer around a 90 degree bend near Porth-y-Waen, and squeezing through further along.

With last week's experience to go by we made a better guestimate of trailer position tangentially to the curve and unloading was straightforward, though once again we had to open up the Junction Box and waggle the wires from time to time. Indeed, at one point I had barely got out from under when it went off again and I was told to stay under there and waggle as needed, at which I protested that I was not riding there all the way to Nottingham! Despite this, we set off back by ten o'clock and the reason for all this rush was revealed to be that Adam was off first thing Thursday for a long weekend in Barcelona and wanted time to pack!

On Thursday I took the van in as arranged and sure enough a duff bearing was diagnosed, but it had to wait until this Monday to be changed. Late that day Andrew and I unloaded the WARN winch from the back of the van (I needed space for Friday) and here's a picture of it on the workshop floor.

Thus on Friday as I headed up to Sheffield and Rotherham I was again taking it easy, not wishing to 'do a Transit', but it does help the fuel consumption, arriving in Rotherham at over 55mpg. On the return leg I went into the laser cutters to collect the order that was placed on a 5-6 day delivery promise nearly 3 weeks ago, only to find it still wasn't complete but the vast majority of it was and I brought that away.

Peak Rail had a Mixed Traffic Gala for Friday through to Sunday, the sort of event that the previous Manager had given up on ten years ago. I don't know how Friday went, but Saturday and Sunday showed much better passenger numbers than usual, though with the heat I preferred to be in the shed rather than out in the sun. Nonetheless the Janus was shunted outside by RS8 and the power unit bedplates cleaned down with the pressure washer ready for overhauled gennies to be reunited with their engines.

I had had some special tabs made up in laser cuts to act as supports for conduit runs over the converter on Hudswell 1387, but after installing the first two I was so pleased with them that I employed a couple more in other places. The missing flange for the transmission cooler was in the laser cut bits so I tapped it 1 inch BSP, cut a joint and mounted it ready for the hoses as soon as a fitting arrives that can allow me to measure the required lengths. Finally we detached the front engine mount, lifted the engine and got the sump pan back under.

I also had the inevitable unscheduled visitors (as happens whenever an event is on at Rowsley), 4 on Saturday, for a look around, one of whom only wanted to 'see our 03s' so didn't get the full tour. Late on as the temperature fell a bit, RS8 was fired up and we re-arranged the locos on 3B, putting Yorkshire 2679 and 144V over on to to Track 2 and bringing the Ruston 165 ex Aln and two other locos back in their place for forthcoming attention. Today was similar, I was carrying on with wiring jobs but ended up during the afternoon as tour guide with more visitors waiting as I got back from conducting the previous batch - we must have had 10 or 12 in all and the donations tin received a boost, though once again I was confronted with a visitor who was astonished to be told that we were not part of Heritage Shunters.

You might think that the title was not very apposite this week. Yeah, the trailer electrics were 'eccentric', my test meter ceased working (I opened it up on Thursday and the battery had become detached, but it won't beep on continuity any more) and there's an iffy wheel bearing on the van, but not actually broken. Not enough for you? On Monday the washing machine stopped part way through a program with a full amount of water in the window and an error code on the display. I spent an hour emptying it and giving the kitchen floor an unscheduled wash. Temporarily my machine for overalls in the garage is standing in as the family washing machine. It is perhaps another example of the KISS principle as the garage machine, a s/hand Beco, is less sophisticated than its kitchen compatriot (a Hotpoint) but has required only one visit from the repair man compared to 3 or 4 to the latter.

Anyway, never mind. Tomorrow the van gets a new bearing, I get a big bill, and the merry-go-round starts again, though I don't know what's in store. You'll have to come back next week and find out, BUT! As things stand, I may be taking Grandson back to his mother's on Sunday, so I might compile the blog on Saturday or leave it until first thing Monday, I dunno. So if it is a little late, forgive me, but I'll see ya (roundabout) then.