Of Wakefield and back

19th November 2023

Wakefield? Since when has he had anything to do with Wakefield? Actually, I once bought a  loco from Wakefield and RMS Locotec was domiciled there for several years. But neither event has anything to do with tonight's title. Read on.

Another quiet week at the Briddon Country Pile, or so it might seem. Part of Monday was taken up with trying to remember how to process all that Northen Ireland Customs paperwork that I hadn't had reason to fill out for almost 11 months, and 4 of those were because the customer hadn't paid - firstly texting me that he was either 'in hospital' or 'awaiting discharge from hospital' - (which rather begs the question of how he could continue in business if no-one else in his company could pay any bills) and then when we spoke later an entirely different story blaming it all on his divorce. Perhaps I should give him the benefit of doubt and assume the stress of his divorce was what put him in hospital - but I am always reminded of advice I was once given that if you are going to tell lies to other people you're doing business with, always remember which lie you told to whom. Personally I thought it easier to tell the customer the truth, even when it didn't neccessarily reflect well on you or the company you represented, but then maybe being brought up by a civil servant father and having sister who went from QC to High Court Judge may have had an influence on my up-bringing. Either way if he pays late again it'll be last time I give him credit terms.

With an email in from the foundry that a core box for one of the patterns was missing, I had to have a hunt-around in the shed to find it and so Tuesday was a roundabout trip south to the foundry then back up north to Sheffield with the bits for 'export' to Northern Ireland. Meanwhile another order this time for composite brake bits came in on Tuesday so Wednesday it was back up there to start getting carriers drilled and ready. Actually I was a bit alarmed at the fuel consumption on Tuesday as I drove to the foundry. Since I forked out on the new turbo and DPS for the van the fuel consumption had if anything been marginally improved but on the journey to the foundry it was 20% poorer. (Typically I will go south to Derby and it will be up to 55mpg as it is relatively downhill - that day it was little over 42 with no reason over than air temp to account for the shortfall).

Having dropped off the core box I returned to the van, and walking up a slope noticed something hanging down underneath, so knelt down and found two pipes and a component of some sort between them all detached from a bracket. A tie-wrap from inside the van soon had them secured back up out of harm's way and the fuel consumption markedly improved as the day progressed: effect or a concidence? I'm uncertain. On Thursday Steph disappeared up to our daughter's in Darlington by train. After a short hop from Chesterfield to Sheffield the next leg north (with Cross Country) was full and standing. 'A trolley service is available on this train' said the announcements but the trolley had zero chance of getting through passengers and their luggage and even the toilets were locked off, though whether this was from being full to overflowing or to prevent passengers using them as extra seating I don't know. Eventually she got a seat after Wakefield and the train became somewhat emptier at York.

So let's move on to Saturday when we were joined by Andy H once again. Andrew set him to work under Des until my arrival, but I re-directed his efforts towards sorting the charge circuit on the crane and installing some external lights as the weather was conducive to either. The crane however was low on battery power and wouldn't start, so we set up a battery charger and moved over to that other task. Originally I had planned external floods over tracks 3A and 3B to aid us in the winter months - the switches were put in and cabled back to the nearby junction box then but there it had remained. Andy started running cabling out up to and over the roller shutters but that was about as far as he got.

Meanwhile Andrew had gone up to Rowsley as reports had come back that Bagnall-the-Barclay was having starting issues. Indeed, he had been up with the Thursday Night Peak Rail working party (where he oversaw lifting the Austerity sufficiently to substitute girders for some rather dubious wood packings) and they had had to charge the batteries before it would start. His Saturday expedition confirmed the charge circuit had failed, so he took up a spare regulator and fitted it, whereupon it functioned. He also found the compressor belts had stretched, but was unable to free off one base bolt so had to leave that for another day.

Returning to Darley Dale, he had permission to draw the token so that we could shunt out on to the main line. Louise hauled various locos including the Fowler 0-6-0 which was then transferred down to the shed before the others were returned to road 1. After lunch he and Andy resumed investigations on the crane and after much headscratching, managed to make the alternator charge by jabbing a wire from end to end of an existing one. You could then remove the wire and the alternator continued to work, but stop and re-start and the alternator didn't charge. There may be an external relay in play? Without a circuit diagram who can say, and Andrew and I had mutterings about giving it a complete re-wire but let's be honest, we have more than enough on our plates without such a distraction. For now, a link wire is ensuring the alternator will work, but it is strange that, so far, we have not found either a charge warning light (nothing on the dashboard is labelled such, though there are a couple of lamps which remain a dark mystery) nor a voltmeter or ammeter. There ought to be something there somewhere. (Heritage Shunters at Rowsley have a similar but smaller Jones crane - on the assumption that Jones will have had some standardisation, so won't have entirely different wiring schemes for every crane, we might see if they have a diagram somewhere.)

I meanwhile had set up to upload a fresh version of the software on the Alstom loco, having spent most of Friday locating an error or two and along the way developing a few improvements. Well to be honest, I'd been getting an error message about the speedo-tacho unit, which turned out to be because I'd overlooked a refrence in an error-detecting routine that had needed amendment, but in the process revealed that I had forgotten to create a sub-routine that 'verified' the speedo-tacho system was working anyway.

But when I came to download the new version I was unable to establish communication with the PLC. This has happened in the past, and was usually when the COM-port that the program was talking to wasn't the one that Windows had decided the interface was resident at. This was different though, and eventually it sunk into my brain that although the PLC had a 'Power' indication, there was no 'OK' LED on the CPU. That was a not one I'd encountered before and might be connected with a pool of rainwater on top of the desk: the flashing beacon on the roof above must need a visit from a sealant gun. I detached the CPU module and gave it up for the day.

Late in the afternoon, just as the 3 of us had arrived at some success with the crane charging system, a car pulled in and we were joined by Tim O which was a good enough reason for a tea break.

Sunday, and Andrew wouldn't be around until later but I was to expect Tony S to work on his railcar and Mike K to pick up some parts. I had some extra chores to do back home so didn't get down until 10.25, and as I did so, a light blue vehicle pulled up in the entrance to the station car park opposite and remained there as I turned across and backed in to our side. A few minutes later Mike K rang to say he was 'adjacent to Darley Dale station' and when he confirmed he was in a blue vehicle I assumed it was the same one. I set off on foot to meet him and was disconcerted when he was actually in a dark blue vehicle having arrived from the opposite direction. Anyway, he declined an offer of tea, insisting he had loads to do, and departed.

Tony S normally arrives about then, and to fill in time I inserted another CPU module in Alstom's loco and up came the OK light but as the rain was persisting I wasn't wild about deploying a 220V extension cable that would need another to reach the loco. In fact the weather had rather dampened my spirits and as Tony didn't arrive until noon, the morning was not especially productive. I had made up a short piece of nylon pipe to go on the end of that new JIC adaptor to suit the lift pump, but Tony wanted first to drain the existing fuel tank and remove a filter assembly which appeared not to be original and whose mounting bracket had fractured. The emptied tank contained fairly dirty diesel and the filter element felt significantly heavier than expected, thus as we rigged the suction pipe into a litre plastic bottle of fuel I had high hopes of getting somewhere with it. Alas no. We can pump fuel (with leakage at the fuel pump outlet side) through the secondary filters and up to the flame start assembly, and/or through the tank return line, (I assume that there must be some sort of pressure relief valve there in the filter else all the lift pump's efforts would go straight back to tank,) but so far we have had no luck in getting any delivery up the injector lines. This remains perplexing. Any Perkins experts out there?

It was Steph's birthday today and after being entertained by our daughter and son-in-law, she caught a train home. Andrew was due to meet her just after 6pm at Chesterfield, but plans got changed. Apparently at Wakefield Westgate, two men got off, one had a bag very similar to Steph's and picked hers up, unaware that his mate had already got his. Realising his mistake, he handed it in with profuse apologies to the station staff, who raised it with Cross Country control, who in turn contacted the Train Manager. He walked the train asking for anyone with that type of bag, which is when Steph realised hers was missing. De-training at Sheffield with a complimentary ticket, she took the next train back to Westgate (nearly boarding a train for Kirkgate until Andrew warned her off it by text) where station staff had her bag, and shepherded her into the first class waiting room for a drink and when, in conversation, she mentioned it being some way to celebrate her birthday, spirited up a card for her. Put on the next Cross-Country train south, she was again upped to first class for the run to Sheffield as Standard was crowded. Full marks to all involved for customer service, especially Wakefield Westgate.

So that's the week gone by. I had hoped to fill this week with transport work, but Adam had other plans for Phil so it's just Thursday-Friday and a host of other things to fill the time. At least there'll be less excuse for lack of pictures. See ya then.