Of a brief encounter - twice
28th April 2024
A transport job of two slices made up with a filling of two others. Sandwich.
A 900 mile week. It kicked off on Monday with a dash first thing down to Chasewater. Phil Civil's Bagnall 0-4-0DH Myfanwy (pronounced Mer-van-wee) was sat with its rods off and waiting a trip up to Carnforth for a reprofile. Jeff was driving the first half of the week with his Merc and hauling Adam's 4 axle King trailer for its last few rail jobs, or so it would seem.
With the familiarity of the site I am able to warn Jeff to raise the neck and suspension else he's likely to ground on the way out, not to mention clout the rear offside marker light on the gatepost. I'm on trailer steering at the back and we miss the gatepost but still manage to skim the belly on the tarmac a bit. He has been routed back up the A38 to Toyota island, there to transfer to the A50 and so to Stoke and the M6, whereas I can just sneak about Cannock and get on the M6 much lower down: so I have plenty of time to amble up to Carnforth and warn of our impending arrival. Parked out ready is an 03 D2084, which is part of the filling in our sandwich, as we are to leave Myfanwy and take this to the Embsay & Bolton Abbey. Jeff arrives and despite the lateness of the afternoon, Chris Beet stays on and we exchange locos and are away in just over an hour.
Jeff parks up for the night nearby, I book myself into the Travelodge near Skipton and amble down the A65.
Tuesday and Jeff has indicated he will be on the road at some silly hour of the morning so as to be off the main roads before the morning 'rush' - if Skipton has such a thing. At ten to seven I'm pulling out of the motel with my breakfast in a cardboard box. I open up at Priors Bridge and consume cornflakes and milk with a wooden spoon (so much more environmentally aware than a plastic one but feels rough on the lips) and I ring Jeff to see where he is. He starts talking about a low bridge - I can't think of one, and am still pondering where he meant when he rings back because he's realised that his pre-ordained route is taking him to Embsay station. I had made it clear where we unloaded but the message hadn't got through.
As I'm waiting at the top of the lane I am hailed by a pick-up driver who it seems is E&BAR staff and asks if I want a tea. Jeff arrives shortly after and we start unloading. It strikes me that the first time Adam used this trailer was here at Priors Bridge, and here we are on one of its last jobs, almost a full circle. The loco is about unloaded when an 08 arrives, with two crew and our teas.
The 08 draws it clear but the 03 is the motive power back to Embsay, though it does have a bit of a smoke issue, even for a Gardner.
Jeff meanwhile is putting a temporary bandage around an air receiver on the trailer which has developed a pinhole. We set off south, for the remainder of our filling is to move a Sentinel 0-6-0DH from Hope Cement works. Loading at Hope is in the wagon repair depot and usually cannot take place before 4pm, but having got home I get a call from Breedon to say the pad is clear. Jeff to is twiddling his thumbs as it is only 2pm but I give him the go to get on in and I head up to Hope myself, arriving just after. The loco is 10156 Derwent, though its plates have been removed for safe-keeping.
A class 20 pushes it up for us and we winch it aboard and shackle it down. At 4.15pm we start to move off the pad, I'm on trailer steering when suddenly it stops working, and over my headset Jeff reports he can see oil. For the second time this year we have blown a hose. At least it isn't my trailer - but I will cop for the bill. I ring Pirtek in Sheffield, and they class it as an out-of-hours call out (read - higher charges). While we're waiting we try and put a more robust patch over the hole in the air receiver, using Bandit strapping, but we can't actually see the hole and only make it worse when a bit of rust falls out(!); a lot worse. Observation 1 - the old British standards for air receiver manufacture were based on boilers, so were much more substantial. Present specs are 'dumbed down' to European standards so are lighter and flimsier. A traditional British receiver would have weighed 3 times as much but outlasted the trailer. Observation 2 - Aside from any defect of manufacture which will manifest itself within a few hours, the characteristic of air receivers is not an 'explosive' failure but a self-protecting leak through corrosion. We used to pressure test them with water at Hills, (safer if it does fail) but suffered under warranty when fresh rust, created by the water or by disturbing adjacent pipework, found its way along and screwed up adjacent valves.
Anyway, the lad from Pirtek arrived. Fortunately he was thin as this is a low loader, it has 48tons on it and the hose has broken underneath. He changes the hose. Meanwhile Jeff has unscrewed both the pipes going in to the defective air receiver and asks if he has a suitable fitting to join them together. (The receiver is acting as a capacity reserve and provided the compressor on the tractor is up to scratch, it can maintain the air quite acceptably for now.) It turns out he hasn't, but he might have something that will join the two (rubber?) pipes instead. This turned out not be a good move, and darkness fell as between them they tried a range of fittings to join the pipes, which turned out not to be rubber but nylon, 18mm OD with a 2mm wall. I was cold and a bit fed up, so regaled myself with taking a picture of an adjacent class 20 - exposure 1 second at F3.5 if anyone is interested.
Eventually our Pirtek lad said he'd have to get a suitable fitting first thing in the morning and come back - as the trailer was well and truly stuck (spring parking brakes devoid of air) Jeff slept in the cab and I headed home.
Wednesday, I headed up for 11 o'clock as I thought an hour for the part and an hour to travel over and the Pirtek lad would be there, but a phone call revealed that Pirtek had sent him out on a 'quick job' which turned out to be over two hours. He arrived though with a push-in plastic fitting for 18mm OD pipe but even then in took an hour of brute force to get both ends sealed. At about 3.30 - almost 24 hours living in Hope (an alternative title for this week's blog) we hit the road. Jeff had this job in part because the Merc has 16 gears, and is automatic, as well as having more power than Jezz's DAF, and the hill up from Bradwell towards Tideswell is a challenge with 48tons of loco. While I got home, had tea and re-packed, he headed up the M18 and back along the M62 to Ferrybridge (abnormal loads banned on the A1 north of Doncaster while bridge works are on-going) where Jezz took over in the hope of confusing enthusiasts. He reached Leeming Bar at about 8pm, and I popped in about 15 minutes later on my way to my daughter's in Darlington to crash out.
Thursday - now 24 hours behind schedule I was back at Leeming Bar at 08.00. 0-6-0s are always that bit more awkward than 0-4-0s, and Adams's trailer, having rails merely 'on the deck'has a greater angle change on to the ramp. The 03 didn't object but the Sentinel stuck on the middle axle and wouldn't roll further. Eventually we gave it a tug with the 03 and a long chain (just gently: I had a bit of slack on the winch cable but didn't want it ripping the winch out the deck!) and it condescended to - well decend.
Pack up and on the way again, my direct route was probaby the A684 but I had it in my head to use the A66 and back south from Tebay because that was what Jeff had said and sure enough I caught up and passed Jezz near Bowes. Back to Carnforth, to finish the sandwich, and Myfanwy is sat waiting with freshly machined wheels. Jezz is not hanging around and arrives close behind, and we load Myfanwy and are away about 3pm, delayed a bit when having cleared a space by the buildings to get the trailer in (where I pictured the 03 leaving, above), the 'boss' proceeded to park his Merc untidyly so we can't get out.
Back at Chasewater Allelys were due in that afternoon to deliver a Clayton battery loco for test but we won't get there until 6pm at least so I figure we should be ok. I pass Jezz not far down the M6 and push on, stopping at Keele for a PNB (Personal Needs Break - keep up with the TLA's please) and am gobsmacked to find he had overtaken me and I pass him again south of Stafford. He can drive through Cannock but it is about 6.30 when he arrives, fortunately as Allelys had not long departed and RSS had also been in to deliver bits.
But the way is clear just in time and Myfanwy returns to its home rails. Jezz heads back to park up near Derby and I make my weary way home.
Friday - Adam had said 'it wouldn't take long to swap the bits back - he'd put a couple of people on it'. Bear in mind T1 already has the winch and power pack from the Doll and now must receive the winch and power pack from the 4 axle, chains and binders, 'our' packing timbers, rails and tie bars, fishplates, etc., etc to return with us. In the end the only people that help is (their) Jezz to drive the forklift after we'd shifted most of it and detached the winch, etc. Thus it was around noon before we shook hands with Adam and set off with T1 for Rowsley. Originally we had intended to do this on Thursday and have Friday for running the Hatramm up to Rowsley, lifting off the 'surplus' and returning to Darley Dale. But that's too late for the day and instead it's postponed for Monday. T1 is parked by the fence so that the Hatramm can reach - in future it is planned that it will park in Rotherham when not in use, to save the empty mileage.
Saturday and first thing I must be down at Darley Dale as although I am the only one of our band on site for the day, I have arranged for a trailer fitter to look over Andrew's 4 axle with a view to getting it fully road-worthy for forthcoming jobs. He arrives with his family and I give him all the help I can while wife and offspring remain in the car waiting for their day out in Bakewell. Once he's gone I start measuring up the front end of the trailer as I must think about bracketry. But after lunch Andrew has suggested that I must fuel the Hatramm as it is flashing its low fuel light and running out mid-section would be embarassing. According to the fuel gauge, the red EE has half a tank full and needs draining. Now, it has a drain pipe and a tap, but I don't trust it, disconnect the pipe and gently open the tap - eventually a very slow drip of water emerges, but that's all. (Water? OK, posh word, condensate. The bottom of the tank will be where the dirt and condensate congregates, so no surprise that the drain tap isn't functional after 50 years).
Next to it is the engine fuel feed, with a similar tap and pipe. This will have a riser on it to keep it clear of the condensate and muck, so I disconnect the pipe, open the tap and - out comes a slightly faster drip of water. Right, there is nothing to stop Pikey Pete from pumping it out with the transfer pump other than the pump being in the shed and the loco, although brought nearer to the shed by Louise, is still some way away. So I carry out the pump, hoses and a battery, set it up and in 30 seconds have transfered 20 litres into a drum. I turn the pump off, and rather innocently assume that it will stop flowing. But no, I soon discover as the 20 litre drum overflows, that it is syphoning itself through the pump.
I carry the drum down to the Hatramm and pour it into its tank. Actually I do this 4 or 5 times before deciding that a 45 gallon drum would be more efficient. But getting a 45 gallon drum up to the loco is another matter with all the obstructions and since I have set up on the opposite side. In the end I move things, including Pluto, so as to get drum and barrel trolley up to the loco, pump 220 litres into the drum, drag full drum and trolley over rough ground, ballast, rails, etc to the Hatramm, then bring the pump down and deliver the whole lot back into the Hatramm. The fuel gauge on the EE though hasn't moved - is it stuck? - but the Hatramm should be good for a fair few moves and I decide to call it a day.
Sunday - again as there's no-one but me I spend the morning on paperwork and after lunch go first to Rowsley, to look over T1 and measure up the cupboard on the side where the electric pump lives. I'd like to swap that for the one built up in the shed, but that was part and parcel of running the whole gig off the oil tank on the donkey engine up top and I haven't the time to do it all in one go - for one thing the trailer's own oil tank is tacked into the cupboard. So can I do it in stages? First question, will it fit where the (smaller) Haldex set fits, as this came off Andrew's and he'd like it back (though if my pump set works I'll produce another for his).
Then it's back to Darley Dale, with a few little jobs including making a spacer to sit under the pump motor. From my measurements it should just squeeze in, but will be a shoe horn job. And that's about it. The title? The film Brief Encounter was filmed at Carnforth - pub quiz question isn't it? This week has a couple of jobs, hence T1 must be stripped of the surplus and made to look presentable. But that's for later and I've a month end, VAT return and all the usuals to get through as well. And people keep nagging me for quotes and manuals that they're owed. Such is life. You can mull over this during your morning coffees. I'll be back same time next week (I hope). See ya then.