Of Worksop and drawing tokens

20th August 2023

Three weeeks in to August, eh?

Monday, Andrew asked me to collect some bits he'd won on an auction site from an auctioneers in Worksop. This was a closing down type sale and I've been a to a few over the years. Usually the auctioneers have some signs outside or the invoice quotes the firm on whose behalf this stuff was being sold. This shower had neither, so I found the street allright but finding the actual yard took a little longer, but while I was out that way I tripped in to Sheffield to collect the 4th stabilizer ram for the crane, to another supplier for some hydraulic bits and finally back to Chesterfield to pick up some filters.

First thing Tuesday it was on the road again, this time to Chasewater to pick up Mark Sealey's Hudswell 0-6-0T S100, which is twin sister to the one now in traffic at Peak Rail, though a few years older.

Its boiler was already at Rowsley, we were to collect the rolling chassis. I arrived just as Ian and Adam were about to turn in, so stopped the traffic with the van. In short order we were lined up and soon the chassis was propelled up to the ramp end and winched on. After a tea and in some cases a bacon sandwich (Ian swore he could smell the bacon from 200 yards away) we prepared to depart.

Initially Adam's plan was to swing out forwards and right to avoid scratching the loco's paint on rampant hedgerows, then do a 180 around the roundabout, but I questioned whether he could do that as another haulier succeeded in taking out kerb stones on the same maneouvre. Plan B had him backing out, pointing the back of the trailer right, then pulling forward so as effectively point left back towards Brownhills. I therefore pulled the van out of the lane and a few yards up the verge, ready to hold back traffic coming over the motorway toll road bridge. Only somewhere along the way Adam opted for Plan C, came out forwards and turned left. I was holding traffic back nonetheless and was able to see the trailer ground out. Ian went round and raised the air bags, I dashed down the slope and lifted the neck further and the trailer lifted sufficiently for Adam to get away and clear the road.

I drove lickety-spit back to Rowsley, and thinking I had at least 30 minutes in hand, drew the token and commandeered Bagnall the Barclay to take it round to the unloading area, only to find Adam and Ian driving up just as I got there. There had already been suggestions at Rowsley as to what to call this loco. The first is of course named Cathryn (even if the nameplates don't appeall to some) and apparently Doris was a suggestion that Mark recalled. And before you ask, I don't know what significance Cathryn and Doris may possess. My first thoughts were the staple ones - Pinky & Perky, Ant and Dec - but Cathryn and Pippa came to mind later. Whatever its name it was a stiff old soul and refused to roll down the trailer deck (maybe it heard someone wanted to call it Doris) so had to be encouraged with the faithful strop from Bagnall the Barclay. Mark took over and drew it away, while we packed away and relocated to Barrow Hill, to collect a couple of loco bogies going out for refurb.

By rights I should have been with them on Wednesday, but having cleverly organised both dental and asthma clinics on the same day, I had to leave them to it but it was supposed to be crane off at the other end. Thursday and it was back in to Sheffield to collect laser profiles and by circuitous route to avoid Sheffield's ULEZ, some stickers to go on the trailer. On Friday I was back at the shed for a while - Jagger and friends were down and I thought it would be easy to plug the radio control in to the junction box on the trailer. But although King show exactly where each wire ought to be, someone has re-cabled the box so for example all the common returns (which should be on row 4) are now on row 8. Although they are all colour coded it would be advisable to bell through each wire and check, so that came to a halt for now.

Saturday was, shall we say, 'a-typical' and as a result today hasn't felt like a Sunday. Andrew and I hit the road Saturday morning with a reasonably empty van and made our way to Toddington, where we were to bring back a large number of 'strategic spares' to support the Yorkshire 0-6-0DE 'Des'. A box van with a soggy floor was being emptied as we arrived, and we soon had most of its contents in the van, plus a pallet of bigger bits collected together with others to come back via lorry in a week or so. We set off back after a couple of mugs of tea, back this time Broadway - Stratford- Coventry as the A38 had been closed north around Lichfield. By the time we got back I was in no mood to go down the shed, so put my feet up for the evening.

Sunday. An early start it was not: I woke up with a headache which has lingered all day. Down at the shed, I moved RS8, Tom and the Davis' Barclay out the way so that the Hatramm had a clear run while Andrew lifted a band saw belonging to Ben R out of its home in our shed where it has lain for several years. Then the deck of the Hatramm was cleared and bandasaw plus the Strail pads (with the concrrete ones being available we don't reckon we'll need them now but Peak Rail does to start improving the crossing at the north end of Rowsley site). A break for lunch and then Andrew made a start on welding nuts to lasered profiles which will then be the caps on the hollow tubes Andy M has been cutting to make tie bars of narrow-gauge sizes for a fast approaching job.

Tom Dakin, the day's Duty Manager arrived and after the train had passed by heading north, the token was drawn, the lever frame unlocked and the Hatramm ventured out.

After a quck sojourn south to pass the time, they arrived back and went to wait in the the down platform until the 3pm came through heading for Matlock.

I cannot let this pass weithout explaining what momentous occasion this was. Despite a clause in our agreement granting us a right to operate between Rowsley and Darley Dale, the old management would never tolerate a movvement such as this, and instead pulled Harvey C off his work to pilot me or Andrew up on a weekday, solemnly unlocking level crossing gates, etc as you've seen so many times in these pages. I wondered whether she did this simply to be awkward or because she couldn't bear her normal rigid working arrangements being deviated from. It was certainly more inconvenient to PR the way she insisted on doing it, so here we were. with 'paths' in the working timetable (used on Saturdays but not Sundays) and the blockmen in place, so the Hatramm set off for Rowsley with me in pusuit (well not in a real chase, my head still hurt remember) providing a bit of variety to the day and interest for passengers.

At Rowsley Bagnall the Barclay and a train were in the way, so Tom moved it all clear and then Andrew stabled the Hatramm ready for later tomorrow and I roaded him back to Darley.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with emptying the van, pretty much, though we did reassemble the stabiliser ram to the crane and test that it now works. This evening Andrew has been out to Worksop to collect a lot from an ebay seller, who listed them as 'M24 nuts' but this turned out to be 24mm across flats as he knew no better (M24s are 36 a/f, whereas a 24 a/f nut is an M16, which is actually more useful to us than M24!).

OK, bit brief, blame it on the headache and the mileage racked up on Saturday which is little to write about. Try to do better next week. See ya then.