Of optimism misplaced 

26th May 2024

And plans going awry.

As we left things last week there was a loco sat on a trailer to be dealt with and I was due to meet Ryan at Worksop first thing Monday morning to unload it. I got there a little late (Monday morning traffic) but we were expected even if the yard was a trifle chaotic. I had by now acquired a replacement cylinder for the trailer and had brought it with me thinking that perhaps I'd get to find enough time to fit it but that was wishful thinking.

Once emptied there were 2 class 37 bogies to collect from Barrow Hill - one at a time - so we headed over to find Barrow Hill even more chaotic than Worksop, with contractors breaking down the marquees from the weekend's ale festival. A 40ft curtainsider stood on the loading area and we had to find the driver and ask politely that he move, after which we could line up and winch the first bogie aboard, secure it and dash back to Worksop.

Back there it was unloaded but as no loco was handy, we pulled the bogie clear with the tractor using a strop from a ring on the trailer neck, which of course had the effect of pulling the neck slightly out of line and making it extra-time consuming to put the neck back on to the trailer, especially when you are reliant on gravity to get the kingpin back in. Eventually we headed back to Barrow Hill, where the curtainsider had re-occupied the loading area and involved further delay. By the time we had loaded it was late afternoon but we returned to Worksop and got the second bogie away before the day ended.

Now, had my week gone to plan I would have had the van through MoT on the Tuesday and fitted that cylinder to the trailer Wednesday or Thursday, but the week then went completely awry. The cooler air once again suggested light smoke from the exhaust but I was still optimistic that it would scrape through with a bit of tweaking. By half eight Tuesday night, when the garage rang me, it was all too apparent that my optimism was misplaced. They had reduced the emissions, but nowhere near sufficiently to pass. I picked it up the following morning and brought it back home, its last journey with me I fear.

Having already spent time looking around on line for a replacement I had three to go look at, the first of which I did Wednesday afternoon and opted not to look at any others. A deal was struck though it required a couple of days to sort out the formalities. As Steph required her car for those days that largely limited my scope of action and the trailer cylinder remains unfitted.

On Saturday Andrew arrived but as I had to pick up the replacement van about noon he ran me over there and  it was after lunch before we reached the shed. First task was temporarily to move that air receiver out of the way in order to get the crane past and lift a large piece of scrap that had prevented EMR collecting the skip (as it was stood too far proud of the skip top). After that Andrew decided to do some 'tidying'.

I meanwhile adjourned to RS8. In July the 4-6-0 Bahamas is coming to Peak Rail. Bahamas was based at Dinting and RS8 was a stablmate, indeed RS8 was then owned by the Bahamas Loco Society - wouldn't it be nice if they were to have a reunion? And in thinking that I remembered that I had pulled together a kit to put a relay valve into the brake line so that the slow straight air brake valve could act as a pilot and the relay valve shift the volume. Now was maybe a good time to get on with it, so I went out the back and started to modify the pipework.

That which we fitted up at Tunstead incorporated a 3/2 half-inch bore valve for emergency changeover and the pipework to the manual straight air brake valve came out of this in 1/2 inch and stepped up to 3/4s before an elbow to take it up to the brake valve. My kit had taken over at the elbow in 3/4s and stepped it back to 1/2 for the relay valve. This now struck me as a bit daft and I determined to replace the entire pipework between new relay and existing emergency valve in half inch. I got as far as stripping it apart when Andrew came to say he had to think about departing and as my brother-in-law and his wife were due to arrive at the Briddon Country Pile I broke off too.

Sunday and I headed in to Chesterfield first thing returning wth some timber and opened up just before Tony S arrived. In between rain showers I set about installing a plywood floor in the back of the van (it has a 'hard plastic protector' but was damaged in various places) while Tony set up a temporary fuel tank and fed the fuel pump on his Baguley railcar directly. To both our delights the fuel pump started delivering and the engine fired up - briefly - and he spent the rest of his day reassembling the radiator and other parts so that it can be run for longer. The plan of attack is to reconnect his temporary tank farther 'up stream' and so find out where the problem has been before rectifying it and restoring the railcar's own fuel tank to use. For today he went away elated that the engine ran and I am hoping for better weather tomorrow such that I can carry on with RS8 and the Alstom loco.

So it was a short report this week although a lot of things happened behind the scenes (like the hours I spent on the Alstom loco software identifying bugs and other anomalies that I hope to have fixed). Some of this last week's plan must therefore be rescheduled in to next week and hopefully I'll have more to report. Until next Sunday therefore, see ya then.