Of two 14s equals 28?

8th October 2023

I don't seem to have used the cameras much this week- so fewer picks but more words.

As has oft been remarked, there is no 'comments' box at the bottom of each post of Weekend Rails as when we have tried it, all that happened was that it attracted spurious entries either as advertising or as a means of hacking a way in to the website. I know that, however, around a third of the readership of this blog do so in the course of Monday, either over the breakfast cereal, the mid-morning coffee or at some other allocated moment during the day, and that the other two thirds seem to log on and catch up over the next 2 to 3 weeks. Then there's where you all are, and that is a bit more of a mystery. At one time I had an analysis program on the ISP's servers that suggested that 'hits' had come from various countries, but it is possible to bounce your service through servers all over the globe so it doesn't prove where one's readers actually reside. So unless they say 'hello' from time to time, or suddenly reveal themselves when I'm loading or unloading something at their heritage railway, I compile this story week after week and launch it into the ether not knowing quite where it will end up. There was at one time a group of readers in Sweden (maybe still is) and I rather assumed that was about as far as it was likely to have penetrated.

Until this week, when I got a 'hello' message from a reader on the West coast of Canada, which knocks Sweden into a cocked hat as far as distance goes. Unless of coure you can beat it?

Monday - after a trip up to Youlgreave (earliest appointment offered with a 'health professional') it was time to get ready and hit the road for Sheringham once again. We took D9537 out there in June for its summer holiday, but all good things must come to an end and it was time it came home to Derbyshire. My original idea had been to do it all in a day, or rather, travel out late on day 1, load first thing Day 2 and get it back to Wirksworth and unloaded that day. But at 48tons the lorry is legally restricted to about 40mph and the Police, who insist in escorting everything into Wirksworth after a haulier who apparently didn't regard the regulations as applying to him, damaged 5 cars on a route that he should never have followed, nominated 2pm to meet near Duffield for the crucial last few miles up the B5035. To load that morning and travel 140 miles or more plus be sure of arriving at 2pm was too much of a risk, so the North Norfolk agreed to the loco being ready for collection on the Monday afternoon.

I arrived about 3pm, and Phil was not long behind. The access to Sheringham involves a roundabout and a sharp 90 degree into the car park which was once the goods yard. On our first visit there in June Phil had a bit of difficulty going around the roundabout in the traditional manner so was keen to go 'wrong side' this time as it was straighter. As he approached I did my usual brave stand in the road and attempted to hold back the cars, most of whom have (a) not seen the big low loader, (b) have no idea what he intends to do and (c) don't wish to delay their journey for a second. Despite a few awkward moments we got Phil across the roundabout without flattening anyone (or me) and on to the last few yards coming up to the car park entrance, for which, given the turning circle of the tractor unit and the length of the trailer, Phil must remain on the wrong side of the road before swinging in.

I am in contact with Phil through my headset (bought as a result of the June visit) so in addition to his birds eye view from the cab I can hold back or he can tell me to let them through. I held back someone who was about to exit the car park, and they had the sense to realise that the unit would swing wide: not so two motor cyclists (with L Plates so obviously seasoned experts) who came up behind this car, passed him and pulled up about 20 yards in front - right where the tractor unit would be passing through. I called at them to move and got some abuse in reply. 'And what sort of a turning circle do you think this has?' I asked them but their ego's were too strong to back down. No point in arguing - Phil was concerned about the car park's gate post so I went to the back as he pulled forward to check clearances and just caught sight of two motor cyclists suddenly getting out of Phil's way!

Class 14's are no heavier than an 08 but much longer length and wheelbase and the tarmac is several inches higher than the rails at Sheringham so we built up a slightly longer ramp than usual and snatch-blocked the winch rope. To be correct we towed the loco to the base of the ramp on a single pull and then extended the rope through the snatch block and back to the rear of the trailer for the climb up. There was a coach parked next to us and I think their party would have liked to watch the whole operation but they had a schedule to meet. We did though have a NNR observer present so were on our best behaviour as the loco came aboard- even letting it back down a bit so as to correct some packing that we weren't 100% happy about.

Thus it wasn't an especially quick loading but by around half-five we were ready to roll. There was enough space for Phil to turn around in the car park by now so we arrived at the exit in the expected direction and with me on rear steering talking to Phil on headset we negotiated the route out, straightened the steering for travel and he departed the same side of the roundabout as he came in, but this time on the side recognised by the Highway Code. I wandered back to the van, and set off a few minutes later. My journey was back home - Phil had an hour or so of driving left for the day before parking up and setting off next morning.

Tuesday I could afford a late start but had plenty of admin work to get through before an early lunch and an amble over to Wirksworth. It made sense to get there in good time, check that the loading area was clear and that we were expected. I was just about to walk up to the top of the road at five to 2 when Phil confirmed that the Police had arrived and they were moving. I leant against a bollard in the middle of Wirksworth and watched the cars and lorries go by, anticipating the mayhem that two Police cars and a big low loader would cause. They had requested Heanors provide an additional escort driver, so Ian was in their van coming up behind. At about twenty past two the first police car swept up, blue lights flashing, swung across the road by the entrance to Cauldwell Street with Phil coming up a minute or so later. We were already in contact so as he came past I walked out behind, grabbed the steering cable and trotted along as he headed down the hill towards Wirksworth station, his idea of 'walking pace' was not the same as mine. As usual there were cars parked each side but this time there was insufficient room to get through so the advantage of having Police - they got hold of the owner's number, phoned him and politely requested he move it. D9537's owners had asked that we unload the loco the other way round so as to even tyre wear, and as it was loaded the same way as it came out in June, that meant swinging in to the yard opposite the station and reversing across the road and all the way down to the gates at the far end of the loading area. Thus we unloaded towards the dead end of the siding and dragged the loco clear of the trailer so as to reconnect tractor and trailer before departing.

Wednesday. We were due to meet up again to collect a loco - I won't say where from but it was agreed in writing both for date and time. Thus it was rather a surprise, having been waiting for half an hour, to be told that the loading pad was occupied, they hadn't time to clear it nor bring the loco over for us, so we'd have to come back another day. I pointed out there would be a charge, they replied that that was understood. So we came away empty-handed which meant that Phil could head on to our next job - a loco out of the Embsay & Bolton Abbey - with plenty of time. Indeed, a quick phone call to Dan F ellicited the promise that they'd leave the gate open and Phil could park there overnight.

Thus on Thursday I had a very early start so as to make best use of the day, but the motorway network thought otherwise. A new roadworks somehere by Sheffield had created miles of jammed traffic, so I turned on to the M18, only to find bridge repairs on the A1 creating two miles of tailback there also. Instead of a 09.00 arrival my final time was 09.40 and Phil had already got some of the ramp out. We finished it up together and were about to draw on D9513 when Hunslet 0-6-0ST Beatrice came by with 3 coaches: I hope it was not a service train as there was virtually no-one aboard.

It returned later after we had the loco on board and I managed to grab a photo - the little Fowler on the left?

That's a next week's job. We were to take D9513 to Leeming Bar which is an easy run over the A59 towards Harrogate and then north-ish to the A1 near Ripon - well it was for me but not so for a low loader with a 48ton loco which, because of bridge restrictions, had to go south across and around Leeds and back up the M1 to get to the A1. Thus I had plenty of time to wander around Leeming Bar station and chat to volunteers. A 'driver experience' train hauled by a 37 arrived and was shunt released by the ex-Tyne & Wear loco so the participants could get lunch. Phil gave me an ETA of 14.20 and almost to the minute I heard a familiar blast of air horns and guessed - correctly- that it was Phil announcing his presence while passing over the railway just before the slip. A couple of minutes later he came down the road to the level crossing, we held up the traffic and guided him in to the car park for unloading. The Guard of the driver experience train was gutted - he wanted to see it unloading but would be back out on the afternoon's experience train. The loco was duly winched down the ramp and drawn away by 03 144 - once Western Waggoner, and I couldn't resist pointing out that in my YEC days I had been contracted to remove all the tandem pneumatics which included substituting a cable throttle for air and so on. At the time the loco belonged to the TA - strange how you meet locos again later on in life.

Friday: the van was booked in for a better look at what the diagnostics had whinged about (though it hadn't recurred since) and I had a lot of other things to attend to that didn't involve driving anyway. The verdict was that it needs a new turbo and DPS module which accounts for its recent propensity to clog the oil filter and deterioration in emissions. Looks like I'll keep it a while longer than I had planned - well it has only done 135,000.
Saturday: Andy M joined us at the shed. We had a bit of a shunt around in order to get the Hatramm right down to the shed doors whereby it could peep in and lift off the casing tops from the W&L loco. Mitsubishi designed the casing tops in two portions and I expected to remove the rear one in order to lift out the train brake compressor which is not needed on the W&L and its space will be utilised by the exhauster. It certainly would be difficult, if not impossible, to get the compressor out through the side doors. But whomsoever repowered the loco to Cummins did not take this into account, and hung two air cleaners from the lightweight casing tops - across the join between the two and welded them. This first became apparent a week or so ago when I released the rear-most bolts on the casing top and it sprung up indicating stresses present. But if we attempted to lift the casing tops together using the lifting eyes Mitsubishi put in - unless we managed to get each strop or chain absolutely correct, the lightweight fabrication would try to fold, and in so doing strain or distort the air cleaner housings - themselves thin steel not intended for structural purposes.

This had occupied our minds for several days and even thoughts of making a dedicated lifting beam had been considered. In the end we found a length of channel, supported it from the casing top with wooden blocks, and clamped the one to the other with lorry straps. Thus 'splinted' we could lift the beam in the centre with the Hatramm and the casing top came away with it, to be parked on top of a container outside with supports each end to keep the weight off the air cleaners. At this point Phil arrived with the Heanor van containing rails and sundries needed to go back on T1 for this week's work, so I went up to Rowsley with him and transfered the bits. The two Andy's got the train brake compressor out and we discussed the route of the vac train pipe - largely to be as I envisaged though changing slightly at the ends.

Sunday: Andrew was elsewhere but had assured me he would be back early, so Andy M and I repeated the shunt but this time put D2128 and the 0-4-0DH Barclay on to Track 1 and brought Louise across to pull 372 'Des' out of 3B to get its casings off and the generator out. Tony S arrived hoping to get his railcar engine running. Rob Sanders turned up to collect some parts fror LSL and we chatted and did much of the usual tour - including admiring the new palisade fencing. I did think to call this edition 'Of Palisade Progress' as during the week the two bays you saw last time have extended to 6 and now reach the south end of the shed, but decided that while this fencing is important and quite impressive to us, it might not leave you with the same sense of awe.

In the end I ran the Hatramm's crane and lifted the two casing sections away from Des, and Andy did some general tidying while I spent some time with Tony in the railcar. Despite bleeding the fuel through on both the bleed ports, and holding the throttle lever well open, it refuses to deliver any fuel up to the injectors. The Perkins engine has a rotary fuel pump and is not a pattern I have had much to do with. It would be tempting to assume that Tony has reassembled the linkage incorrectly and so the fuel pump is in the stop position - but I cannot see how that could have been done so I must have a natter with the fuel injection specialist who overhauled it. Andrew finally arrived and we set the crane up to lift out the generator on Des. It was going to be the last job of the day as it was 5pm but Andrew stopped at 2.9tonnes on the hook without the power unit so much as twitching. On one side, the coil spring which acts as the a/v mount will not come out so we are assuming that the corrosion has welded this and the mounting foot down so effectively trying make us lift the whole loco. Andrew favours attacking it with an Enerpac - I suggested soaking it with diesel for a day or two first. For now, it was shunt everything back and lock up for the night.

Last week I said 3 locos to move and only succeeded with two, so I shall not tell you what we have planned for this week save that it includes my birthday (hooray?) and a visit to the dentist (definitely not hooray). All being well though (and fingers crossed that I don't have anything like the discomfort that Andrew has suffered from his extraction) I'll be here to tell you all - wherever you may be - same time next week. See ya then.