Of vans, snags and on-line orders
2nd October 2022
On so on into the final quarter of the year.
I start getting morose about now every year. Whether it's the onset of the colder weather, and the chagrin at all the things I intended to do during the summer that somehow I never got the time for, or the imminence of yet another birthday I can't decide.
Down in South Wales, Adam and Phil put a spurt on and finished the last 9 wagons in 3 days. Up in Derbyshire on Monday Alstom arrived with fresh batteries for their loco - the old ones weren't retaining charge and preventing me from getting on with fault-finding. I have a problem with that loco with the pneumatic manifold. This is a block of 7 valves mounted on a common base with one air feed - saves loads of space and assembly time but one valve was leaking badly, indeed, looking closely at it it seems as though someone has had it apart and lord knows what they've done. (Yes, this photo is with the troublesome valve removed - the one on its right is missing a fixing screw too.).
The assembly was manufactured by KV but they got taken over by Parker some years ago and I had fought shy of trying Parker direct, but early in the week I put a call in to their technical department and a nice helpful guy assured me that they still manufactured these KV valves but I would have to go through an agent. So full of excitement I emailed an agent, and commendably quickly they replied with a quote. This valve however was termed a 'legacy' product - a euphemism for 'don't want to but will do it if you insist'. The price was not unrealistic, but the killer was the lead time - 36 weeks from order. (It reminded me of Self-Changing Gears in their declining years when they quoted me for a new 52 tooth gear wheel for an axle at '9 months, provided it doesn't fail quality inspection at any stage'.) But, went on the agent, Parker has suggested instead their xxx range, complying with ISOxxxx. I perked up, OK, their lead time was still 2-3 weeks, but if it was interchangeable and an ISO standard, then other manufacturers like Camozzi or Festo might well supply them (quicker? cheaper?). I hunted out the catalogues and with better pictures the alarm bells rang. The KV valve was held to its manifold with four 2.5mm screws in a rectangle. The ISO valve also was retained with 4 screws but more trapezoidal. I queried this with the Parker agent - how could they be interchangeable?
'Ah' he replied, 'no they can't be, shall I quote you for a complete assembly?' That's over a £100 each for 7 valves, plus the manifold and sundries... I thanked him but said not to waste his time.
TNT delivered on Tuesday, not an earth-shattering event, this big van backed up on the drive and I popped down to meet him. He handed over a package and went off, not asking me for a signature, nor taking a photo of it as evidence for later as so many do nowadays. The following day TNT delivered again, this time a hydraulic motor from Poland via a well-known auction site. That it had been delivered I learnt through an e-mail from said auction site, and a search on the TNT website through the tracking number revealed that it had been signed for by P Briddon at 12.27.
Just a little snag: I was down at the shed and Steph was out, so there had been no-one at home, and certainly no-one named P Briddon could have signed for it then or there. On my return it was nowhere to be found. All sorts of scenarios presented themselves - had a passer-by nicked it? - had it been delivered to a neighbour? - left somewhere out of sight? We searched all over, and I went back down to the shed after lunch convinced this might be a long-drawn out affair with TNT claiming they had a signature as proof of delivery and therefore it wasn't their problem. Late in the afternoon Steph texted me to report it had been brought round from another house along the road which TNT had decided was my address, even though it wasn't. And who had signed for it? Is there another Mr P Briddon only a dozen houses away? I doubt it: with the pressure on delivery drivers to do the drop and get on to the next one to meet an inflexible timetable, it must be a temptation to dump a package anywhere and maybe forge a signature. Be aware.
I had ordered up some more profiles this week which were promised for 07.00 Friday so I drifted down to the laser cutters at Alfreton at about 10 o'clock not expecting any issues. Except embarassed faces as someone hadn't put the order 'on'. Could I come back just before they close at 12.30? My plan had been to run across from Alfreton to Ashbourne and pick up the parts for 1387's exhaust system and return home from there, the more so as I'd left Steph in bed suffering from some bug or other (it'll not spoil the story to say she tested positive for Covid today) but agreed and set off across country. Actually Alfreton to Ashbourne isn't far in the alphabet (you go via Belper so it's only A to B to A) but is a bloomin' sight longer when you drive it. I got there about eleven, just enough time to collect the pipework and retrace my steps to Alfreton, where 'all' my profiles were ready and waiting. ('All'? Item A, advised 10, received 1, but I didn't know that until Saturday). Then finally back home to see how Steph was.
I had to chase up another delivery this week. I had ordered on line a pilot-bored pulley (that is a pulley with small hole in to give you a centre for machining it to suit what you want) and some belts from a firm in Stoke on a 5 day lead and by Thursday it occurred to me that they were late. So I rang them: 'oh', they said 'can I ring you back on that?' And to be fair they did. Having ordered the pulley on the basis that it was in stock as per their website, they had to admit that 'the warehouse' had tried to order one from Dunlop because it wasn't, but Dunlop weren't quoting a delivery. Could I accept something else that they did have in stock? Fortunately a similar pulley 10mm bigger would make little difference, and I grabbed the opportunity to order up another pulley for the hydraulic pump drive on D1120 using the same order.
'When will I get them?' I asked. 'Tomorrow' said the man 'or Monday'. After my epic A-B-A sojourn I half expected them to be on the door-step or a card to say they'd called, but there was neither. Let's hope it wasn't TNT.
It was the usual start on Saturday, with Matt in his new van. I set him to work with his basic fabrication skills to form a flared end on a 5" pipe to suit the turbo outlet. When Andrew got down he had some welding to do for me, the new brackets to support the back of the silencer which had been hurriedly drawn up last weekend and profiles ordered Monday. Then there was the new carrier for the jockey pulley on 1387's fan drive.
Longer ago than I like to admit I had picked up a set of profiles as per the design for the 03 back in 2011, but when we came to assemble it on 1387 the jockey pulley 'carriage' (it slides up and down to make belt tension) was completely out of line. A new arrangement was called for and as so often happens, the new arrangement looks to be better than the old one, for whereas the old one clamped horzontally, the new one clamps in the vertical of the slide, but let's not get ahead of things.
Two of the profiles were for the mounting of the hydraulic pump on D1120 (for which the new pulley needs to be machined to suit) but they at least go together and with some lasered holes countersunk, the pump bolts in position and can be pivotted to tighten the belts.
Back near 1387, the silencer was being strapped to its two cradles. The strapping is 'Band-it' and stainless, but if I repeat this design in the future I think I'll make the cradle one piece rather than two. Here it is on the floor with the tail pipe elbow trialled in for a dimensional check.
After lunch we installed the batteries on the Alstom loco and Matt made up a blank for the missing valve. As the fan drive belts are off while a new fan bearing assembly is produced, we put them to a safe place and then started the loco up: at last it could make air pressure as previously it leaked out as fast through the defective manifold valve. With more pressure and less to concern me, I was trying to see if clutch and gears were working: I got the gearbox to select one way but fear there are some more issues to address from its long idleness. Oh and there was no indication from the charge warning light yet the batteries weren't being charged, so that's another on the snag list for later.
Sunday: as I spoiled earlier Steph tested positive for Covid but was feeling better than she'd had on Friday when the test hadn't been clear one way or the other. Matt wasn't able to come in so I did some jobs here first before heading down about eleven, starting with drilling the casing top on 1387 and loosely fitting the hanger brackets (couldn't do them up as my arms aren't long enough). Andrew came down later not feeling all that well, but between us we lifted the silencer in to place and secured the rear hangers.
Something has gone a little awry - there's next to no clearance over the beam at the front to fit a flexible pipe and clamps, and the silencer is sloping downhill, so the front bobbins will be altered to level it up and provide more space. Andrew continued with the pipeworks on D1120: the branch to the exhauster is complete but we can't line up the exhauster and its (ex Poland) motor partly as the base is slightly foul of the torque reaction bracket, but that can be easily rectified. His plan is to do a vac test using a static pump first and to do so the vac hoses and dummies need to be in place, so he carried on with that but was struggling more as the day went on.
And yes, he took a Covid test when he got home and it showed positive. I stayed on a bit: I wanted to get the fan drive assembly painted but it needed a bit of fettling. The draw screw wasn't quite lining up - my 2011 design didn't use the tab-and-slot practices I use now - so a hole needed a bit of elongation. But here's the result.
To alter the belt tension you release two bolts that clamp the carriage to the framework, then wind the draw-screw on the end one way or the other. And in a moment of inspiration, both clamp bolts and draw-screw require the same size spanner, so only one is needed to carry it all out. All I need now is a pulley to pop on the shaft....
So I said at the beginning I was feeling a little morose. Perhaps I should attribute that in part to being in a house where both my wife and son have now tested positive for Covid within 72 hours, so every cough I make could mark the onset of it for me. I felt hot this afternoon. Was I running a temperature or was it that I had a thick sweater under my ovvies and it had turned quite mild again? I booked a Covid booster jab for the 14th - what if I'm too ill to go? And so with that genuine cliff-hanger, I'll wrap up this week's installment. I'll be back next Sunday, see ya then - or will I?