Of gearboxes and such
27th August 2023
A little bit of everything: transport, trains in motion and engineering. Oh, and a tear jerker
Once again Sunday has come around and I'm sat here staring at a keyboard wondering how to get started on another stimulating edition - or if it will be just the usual boring ramblings.
Andrew spent some time on Monday with the Hatramm at Rowsley and as a result it seems to have endeared itself with the p/way department as we always thought it would. He also loaded some of his bits that have lain in the grass for the last decade as although we were ordered to remove them by the 'former PR administration' they had been blocked in by later arrivals of equipment and we couldn't get a lorry anywhere near. It was like the continuing presence of the 0-6-0DH - I would get a letter or email demanding removal without further delay, I would reply pointing out why we couldn't and she would sulk and say she'd get back to us and we'd hear nothing more for a few months. Anyway, gearboxes, an engine and sundries were put aboard and the Hatramm left at Rowsley to return to Darley at the weekend.
Adam meanwhile was a little apprehensive about the Tuesday job, to the extent that he'd been over to Crewe to have a look. The entrance to Locomotuve Services Ltd is just beyond the entrance to Crewe station, on a busy thoroughfare. Since there is no room to turn around within LSL's yard, it was a choice of backing in or backing out, and backing in without a load on wins every time. I got to Crewe about 08.45 with Adam having said he'd be there for 09.30. I made contact with site staff and we were about to go and remove some railings at the corner when Adam announced he'd arrived - 30 minutes early. Ian had been unavailable so it was down to me to steer the trailer, which had had its rear extensions fitted but wasn't fully extended, making it a little easier to manoeuvre. LSL staff stood and blocked the traffic, Adam drew forward enabling me to crab the trailer across the road and so point towards the side turn, then he reversed (carefully avoiding an adjacent pedestrian traffic light) and I got the trailer as far down the turn as I could. We missed the removed set of railings by a couple of yards but had to stop by them farther down. Adam goes back forwards after I'd reversed steering, so bringing the trailer out into the middle of the side turn and the second reversal then brought us down and clear of the main road. To be honest it was much easier than getting T1 in through the gate at Darley Dale!
Then it was a long slow reversal down the lane and into LSL, all this of course achieved by my having my headset on and talking with Adam on his cab phone. Our task was to collect a NKA bound for Wirksworth, and it was sat waiting next to a long concrete pad which we duly lined up over and set to with the ramp. By the time we were in place it was 09.30 and the van was loaded and secured by 11.00.
Back out to the main road, LSL stop the traffic and we cautiously move out, once again with a shuffle to reposition the trailer - the steering slower with the load on. Finally I line the wheels back to straight with the tractor, climb out from behind the trailer and wish Adam bon voyage, and off he sets for his rendezvous with the police escort that will see him safely into Wirksworth. His route is south down the M6 then east and back north. I can return direct over the hills through Leek and past the Hulme End terminus of the old Leek & Manifold, now a visitor centre. Andrew had asked for an hour count on Charlie, and barely had I got this than Adam rang to warn me he was about 25 minutes away as the police were already clearing the way. I was able to warn EVR management of the imminent arrival and walk up Cauldwell Stret to the main road. A few minutes later I heard two tone horns followed by flashing blues reflecting in the shop windows and a patrol car chased up and swung across the road signalling everyone to stop. Adam arrived and swung down on to Cauldwell Street, I came up behind and with the headset again proving its worth guided him through the lane with the cars parked both sides and into Wirksworth Station.
The unloading area is spacious but everything must then be pulled through a gateway and a line of rolling stock stood on the other side of that gate. As far as I was concerned, we couldn't afford to wait for them to be shunted clear so we lined up at the outermost end of the pad, rolled the van down and then pulled it clear with the tractor so that we could get the unit back on. Then it was reverse out into the yard opposite so that Adam could swing back round forwards and up Cauldwell Street once again. Getting back to Darley Dale from Wirksworth should have been straightforward - I set off for Middleton only to find the road closed, returned to the main road to Cromford and queued from halfway up Cromford hill, got through Matlock Bath and had to queue the last mile into Matlock..
During Thursday Siddalls had collected the remaining pieces on their pallets from Toddington and initially they were expected in late that day but then a revised ETA was for 07.00 the next morning. Andrew and I went down and waited until 07.50 then returned home only to be rung up that it had arrived 2 minutes after we'd left. Back down and open the gates. It was a driver we knew but although we has able to unload by his HIAB, he needed his stabilisers deployed and the quantities of palisade fencing, etc, rather limited where that could be done. In the event he only backed in a lorry length or so and then unloaded over the end, leaving the acess road rather obstructed. Andrew dashed off to work and I returned a bit later to open up the shed for Jordan and friends to do some work on his locos. How 4 lads in a black BMW do not get stopped by the police I will never know. They look suspicious to me and I know who they are.
Saturday and we are joined by Andy M. I let him loose at first on T1, tracing which wires went where in the junction box (you can see why it is a trifle cluttered) to get the radio control box finish connected. Andrew drew the train back and got the forklift out to start moving bits back from the roadway, but was mindful that he was due to bring the Hatramm back from Rowsley. Once again we were moving it down on a path in between passenger trains, a thing that was totally out of the question in the days of 'former Peak Rail management'. In this case the service train with D8 had headed down and the dining train was on its way back up as the Hatramm was fired up, moved up to the headshunt to pick up the Yorkshire 2952 (Workington 305 - helluva score line that day) and park them on the loop where Andrew and I hurriedly moved the gearbox out of mesh.
As an aside. many locos in Andrew's collection have the Self-Changing Gears RF11 final drive gearbox, as used by Sentinel and Thomas Hill (though RS8 uses its smaller cousin, the RF25). Hunslets made their own, as did Yorkshire and Hudswell for some of their DH locos, but with an eye to future business, Rolls-Royce started developing their own final drive gearboxes - the CGF310 for dmus and the CGF610 for locomotives. The RF11 was notionally rated to over 600bhp, but it had tooth-load limitations which meant that you couldn't have that horsepower if the loco was heavy enough to sustain the tractive effort. (When we built a 70ton 0-6-0 for Mobil, even though the engine hp was only 427 gross, SCG refused to accept the RF11 as the gross weight meant that the tooth loads at the tractive effort the weight could hold down would be excessive. Derek Harper at Thomas Hills convinced them that with only 427 hp, the tractive effort that the loco could produce was much less and the adhesive weight was primarily there for braking - it didn't have train brake - and reluctantly SCG accepted it. They were probably right though - that loco has had several failures where its final drive gear wheel has lost teeth.)
Anyway, the Rolls' designed CGF610 was fitted to the Yorkshire Indus and Taurus designs, and strangely, to this late 0-4-0 which is/was Workington 305, though it would be speculation as to whether it was a 'use up stock rather than incorporate another' as Yorkshire neared the end of its commercial existence. But it is another reason why Andrew wanted to ensure this loco survived.
After the Palatine diner had arrived and cleared the platform road, the token was collected and Andrew set off for Darley, arriving well before the returnng passenger train. The train arrived and the Hatramm was immediately given the road and the token, which we retained so that we could access the main line for some material collection.
After emptying within the yard, it came out again and we collected various rails from T1 and T2 and took them to the far side of the building, before returning the token and packing up for the night.
Sunday and Andrew wasn't around until late afternoon but I had Andy M, Tony S and Jordan to keep an eye on. While Andy took a look at the alternator on the crane (suspected, and now proven, to be duff) I made up a plate on which to mount the fuel tank to the power unit. Andy had yesterday spent some time on the electrics, mounting a starter button for me (recovered from another Lister which we probably won't now use as Andrew thinks we should standardise on TS2s) reconnected the voltage regulator and installed a battery isolator and starter cables, though the latter are unfinished until a battery tray could be added.
I cut some angles for the latter and Tony found me some mesh so that the battery could be sat drained and cooled. T1 had quick release couplings fitted and a new advertising sticker added to its rear. The pump for this power unit was from another adaptor, but on examination this turned out to be one size whereas the TS2s are the next size up, though the drive gear and mounting bolts are the same so the pump was swapped to the original flywheel adaptor ready for assembly.
A phone call came through from Rowsley. A lady had turned up there looking for RS8, could she come down to Darley? A few minutes later I was introducing myself to Beth, granddaughter of Derek Burton, the engineer who had largely been responsible for converting RS8 from its original steam loco form into the diesel hydraulic of today. For readers who have started more recently, or just want to remind themselves,see here.) She had as a young girl been at the Stone Centre when the loco first arrived, and helped in early painting, but then education had taken her away and she had last seen the loco in poorer condition as it suffered at Wirksworth. She knew that our restoration had made her grandfather very happy (he sadly died during the pandemic) and on a whim had made her way up to Peak Rail that day. I had fired the loco up but at such short notice hadn't the time to drive it as the Hatramm was parked in front. Maybe next time.
Just after Tony had headed home, Andrew finally appeared and a grand shunt ensued, ready for a serious bit of work tomorrow, for not only is it bank holiday but Andrew has taken the week off to catch up on jobs. In fact he popped back down after tea (as I was writing this) to carry on with some welding jobs, so I gather the power unit now has its fuel tank and battery tray attached. There's another transport job planned for the week, and T1 to make ready for collection on Friday. All in all we've much to do and so little time. Come back next week for another stimulating ramble. See ya then.