Of Entente Cordialle?

12th February 2023

Another 1000 mile week - well, it keeps me off the streets.

Welcome back to Weekend Rails, and I say that knowing that everyone has seemingly managed to crack the temporary procedure for getting in to the site. WRL as we call it runs on one of the 'content management systems' that make web-building so much easier. Instead of having to write specific code that puts text, colours, pctures etc exactly where they are wanted every time, the system does the hard work and you can buy templates that give you an appearance for the viewer that you like. From time to time the basic software is altered and improved - sometimes, like those annoying Windows updates that suddenly appear on your shutdown menu, to plug a hole where some little ... has managed to find a way in, and the template must be updated to match. In this case an update to the basic software came up some months ago and we've been waiting for the vendor of the template we use to come up with a re-issue - which is why I was trailing a slight change in appearance months ago - but they haven't and we've given up on them.

Consequently Bill has been working off-line on a different template that fits the current standard when somehow some files in the on-line version became damaged. We don't think it was hack but just in case we dropped the old version and switched over to the new version as far as Bill had progressed it. He's still at it though and trust you will bear with him until all is working as well - or better - than before, just a bit differently.

So what about this week? On Monday Andrew took a day off and we headed out together to Long Marston. I am moving some locos from there and it had become apparent that they needed a check over to make sure all was ok before uplifting them, and as T1 was out of traffic while its steering ram was repaired nothing would be happening right then. I of course spent many years at Long Marston and once considered that if I ever wrote an autobiography it might get titled 'Microlights over Marston' as in the 90s it was a daily occurrence as they flew from the adjacent airfield. Long Marston was built as an Engineers' depot for bridging and other materials in anticipation of D-day and the airfield housed an RAF squadron allocated to deal with any of the Luftwaffe that got near. By the 90s the airfield was also a raceway for stock car enthusiasts and held pop-festivals. motor-bike meets as well as there being a small aircaft museum. Today there is no sign of the airfield - a large housing development stands there instead. At Long Marston Engineers camp the eastern side of the site has also become a large self-contained housing development and a lot of the old Engineers wharehouses are leased out as an industrial estate. The rail sidings have been developed for vehicle storage and are currently run by Porterbrook.

So, no more microlights and difficult to visualise where all the old railway lines around the 'camp' were. There was one open day where I was driving Pluto with a dmu trailer car and a Major in a Range Rover was in charge of what route I took. Or put it another way, I would be trundling along minding my own business when there at a strategic turnout was the MiaRR having operated said turnout (they were all hand lever) and pointing one way or the other (as if I couldn't read which way the turnout was set) and off we'd go on another detour to our tour. The MiaRR jumped back into his RR and roared off to another place further on where I'd be redirected again. Eventually we'd make it back to the starting point, sometimes from the same direction, sometimes from the other, usually confused. Every tour for every party took a different circuit.

On another occasion there was a big do for a retiring officer that would start at the Camp Commandant's house but the dinner would be on a long, long table the length of an enormous wharehouse. So they removed a buffer stop, jacked the track and built an extension across the boundary road, through the fence and across the field to the House. Only one train ever used this - Charlie with the dmu trailer - but despite our best endeavours we couldn't get the lights to work in the dmu so having taken the guests to the dinner, buses took them back.The Guest-of-Honour saw the fresh red paint on Charlie and assumed it was painted specially for him: I hadn't the heart to tell him the truth.

Our sojourn on Monday didn't take all day and we returned reasonably early to Darley Dale to empty the van as I had other business to attend to on Tuesday. My customer meanwhile was becoming a trifle concerned as T1 being off the road was making us drop behind our target, and so Adam did a temporary set-up on the Doll trailer so that we could maintain progress until the ram was ready.

Thus on Wednesday I was back again, loading a loco on to the Doll (a novelty) as fortunately although the customer had been told the loco was 48tons, I was certain from past info that it was 42 in working order, and the Doll, being an extendable trailer, doesn't want to be loaded much over 40 in the bed (and had to be extended slightly as it was a long beast for an 0-6-0). In fact, he had made it too long having misunderstood the lengths I'd measured Monday so we shortened it down to what was needed before loading the first. The loco was loaded and in due course delivered to the scrapyard to join the one we'd delivered the previous week. Oh, and on the weighbridge it scaled just under 40tonnes.

Thursday, and we repeated the exercise with another. The scrapyard is now more geared up for us, scrap skips have been moved away fom the rails and a Liebherr driver hangs around and pulls the loco away as soon as it is on their rails. I now have the phone number and email address for the lady at the weighbridge too, so they know when we are on our way. While loading I asked Adam if there was news of my ram. 'It failed test,' he said 'they've got to re-seal it.' Oh, I thought, bang goes tomorrow then, for the next loco was supposed to be 48tons and too heavy for the Doll.

So after this was unloaded at the scrapyard I headed home thinking I could catch up on a few minor matters on Friday, like an overdue VAT return. I was just girding my loins to starting on this  Friday morning when my phone rang. It was Adam, and my first thought was that the ram was ready and he wanted me to collect it: instead he said 'We're nearly loaded, where are you?'. It seems the ram was re-sealed, passed test, had found its way back to T1 and they'd worked late Thursday night getting it all back together. Goodness knows what it is all going to cost me, but for Friday it was bye-bye VAT and hullo Van and off to meet them at the scrapyard for unloading.

Saturday. Grandson arrived Friday for the week so Andrew's first priority was some father and son time. I went down to the shed and resumed the fun of scraping out the crud from the Hudswell's fuel tank. A dust pan turned out to be quite effective and I'd show you a photo of what it brought out (a) if it was photogenic and (b) if I'd taken one. Also around this week from their home in France is Steph's brother Tony and his french wife Monique, plus two of their friends, Jean-Claude and his wife. Jean-Claude was apparently very interested in diesel engines so a visit to my shed was put on their itinery. You never know just how to take this. All too often you'll get told that 'Fred is very keen on trains' and when Fred appears he will be a died-in-the-wool steam man or only interested if it was built by the Caledonian - you know, Joe Public recognises the interest but doesn't have any understanding of the total spectrum of railway enthusiasm. Added to that Jean-Claude spoke no English, and my 'default foreign language' is German. To me France has always been that bit you have to drive through from Coquelles to get to Belgium and beyond. So when they arrived I was a little apprehensive - I would have to rely on Tony or Monique (a retired nurse) to translate anything technical in either direction. But saying little I took them inside and swung the doors open on the Hudswell and he did bite, wanting to know if it was 6 cylinders and how many litres, was it a single turbo and how many horsepower. It is amazing what a few words and gesticulations can achieve.

Outside I took the side covers off RS8 - he had already seen the Rolls-Royce cast on the radiator side walls and so I showed him the C6NFL (and managed to explain that it had once been a steam loco - vapeur - those lessons back at school weren't totally in vain). He declared that he had never seen a Rolls-Royce diesel before. A couple of minutes later I stood back and turned to point in turn at the line of locos on Track 2 - 'M A N, Paxman, Rolls-Royce, Rolls-Royce, Ruston, Ruston, Cummins, Rolls-Royce, Rolls-Royce' I declared loudly. It didn't need translating. They were drifting back towards the car when I suggested they could have a ride. Jean-Claude it seemed had driven a train for 5km or so while in the Army, but I got the feeling it had been a one-off event. It was enthusiastically accepted and I set about firing up the Hatramm and uncoupling it from the loco behind - which did involve chocking and squeezing up as the chain was taught. Then off we went - not 5km but as far up the headshunt as usual, then back to our starting point. I think they thought that was it, but I pointed Jean-Claude into the driving seat and in case he hadn't been watching, summoned Monique back in to translate 'throttle' and 'brake' (frein- never got to hear what throttle or accelerator was) put it into first and off we we went again. On return he pulled up way to early but seemed content, his wife - who did it seems know a bit more english than I can recall of french - assuring me it will have made his day.

Andrew finally arrived and we got on with the last few outstanding tasks on the power unit of the Hudswell, refitting rocker box covers and such, followed by installing the front sander pipework with a view to carrying out air and water tests the next day. I had cut a new joint for the access cover on the fuel tank so having removed 75-80% or more of the crud from the tank (I hope) boxed it back up and swabbed down the running plate and steps, slick from spillage. I also nipped up all the battery cable connections, ready for a more serious start up soon.

Sunday and again Andrew availed himself of father and son time. I set up the air line at the shed as I was aware that one tyre on the van was a trifle low and with more miles in prospect this week (and fuel consumption not being up to the 50mpg target I like) I ought to go over them. Having done all 4 I looked underneath to see if I could acccess the spare without getting it out and was faced with a support bracket for the exhaust tail pipe that was no longer attached to said pipe. I managed to force the rubber bush off the chassis and took the bit inside, drilled a hole out so that a cheap jubilee clip would go through and put it back together. It'll see me to the next service, I hope, and stop the pipe banging on the rear suspension!

Back to railway matters, and we had agreed a shunt the previous night, and I was part way through when Andrew arrived. The 03 came out of the shed and back on to track 1, and 144V was repositioned behind the Hudswell to come in for some work to begin. Andrew had bought a new transfer pump for diesel and we tried it out by transferring the contents of two 45 gallon drums of gas oil, one to the Hudswell and the second to the Hatramm. This pump came from Amazon and had one deficiency - the output pipe was 3/4 BSP but the port on the 'High Accuracy Meter' was 1 inch BSP and there was no adaptor. Other than that it was quite a nice tool and being operable on 12V can be run anywhere powered from a loose battery, as here.

We'll see what else it gets used for. We filled the Hudswell with water - a few leaks appeared - a coolant temperature switch not sealing, the water filter dribbling from a split in its case (it was due to be changed anyway but reveals that the isolating valves aren't) and a pin-hole in one of Andrew's welds, but overall these were minor and our big worries - was there any issue that allowed water into the engine sump, or a defect in the heat exchanger matrix for the 'converter, proved to be groundless. The static air test had to be postponed but with fuel in the tank and a few issues on the cooling system to deal with, it won't be long to it running - at last.

And that's about it. A few things that I couldn't tell you about that may well be resolved this week anyway, as I do another 1000+ miles and try to earn a crust towards the next VAT return. Coming back next week to find out? See ya then.