Of interface and keypad

31st March 2024

But the transport side is back in action.

I was being deliberately obtuse as to what the 'stop gap' measure was that I refered to last week, just in case for whatever reason it didn't happen. The fact was though that Adam had kindly offered loan of his 4 axle trailer until my 3 axle (T1) was back in one piece. Andrew pressured me in to going down on Monday to see that everything was ready, and he was probably right to do so. The 4 axle trailer had had the rails, timbers and other loose bits taken off, but the winch and power pack were still on it. Those other essential components were stacked on T1 alongside, and it should have been an easy matter of lifting them back on with the forklift. Three of HFS' tractor units, the ones previously used for haulage work, are still on site, and one of each were coupled to T1 and the 4-axle. but having not been used for 2 months neither condescended to start and a fourth (working) tractor had to be brought over for a 'jump', and the second, while still bringing its own batteries back up, was jumped to the 3rd tractor (the 8x4) to get that going.

Now at last the trailers could be moved sufficiently to allow the forklift acess, rails were returned to the 4 axle, ramp materials and lashings of timber. During all this Jezz had arrived with his 8x4 tractor to collect it and I am sure he thought I was loading far more timber than was neccessary. Eventually, Jezz hooked up and set off north, and I packed up and returned to Darly Dale, just in time to eat and get out to the PRA local area meeting. But I wasn't unfortunately finished yet. After the meeting I had to go down to the shed and load the van with securing chains. Adam has always insisted on using HFS ones because he knew their origins, and consequently had taken them back and put them away. Andrew had however amassed almost sufficient chains and binders for both T1 and his trailer, and I therefore had to load them and have them with me the next morning. I turned the external lights on, conscious that the sound of chains dragging across the threshold of the container or being piled up in the back of the van might either give people the impression of mischief afoot or that the gates of hell had opened and certain inmates had returned. Half expecting blue flashing lights to arrive I was torn between trying to do it all quietly or exude a confident noise level, but to be honest after the first 15 minutes I was too tired for any finesse. I was though challenged by Mark at Station House in case it was thieves at work, and we had a little chat over the fence while I got my strength back.

Tuesday and it was off to Scunthorpe. Jeff and Jezz arrived just after me in Jeff's 8x4 and having had their inductions brought up to date, I met them at the gate and guided them down to the Appleby-Frodingham Railway shed. Usually the AFR cones off the adjacent car park to afford us space to turn in, but on this occasion they hadn't and we were inching past a BMW with a few millimetres to spare when its owner dashed up and moved it. Cranford had been outside the shed when I arrived, but Janus No.1 had taken it for a quick tour in order to turn it round and load it the other way. I set up the trailer, but, a little out of practice, misjudged the distance from the end of the trailer to the curve, so we re-hitched and moved it forward about 6 or 10 feet so that the ramp was properly tangential.

The ramp was assembled and timbered and the Janus, now with an open wagon in front, pushed Cranford aboard. Chains and binders were drawn from the back of the van, the loco secured, the ramp dismantled, and about 2 hours after we'd arrived, Cranford was on its way.

While Jeff dropped Jezz off in Rotherham and continued on to Micheal Woods Services, I swung by a Rotherham supplier to pick up some brake blocks. Late on Tuesday me and Andrew popped in to the workshops and I plugged in the 'customised' interface that had arrived that day. To my consternation it didn't seem to work. Too late to do anything about it then, I brought both interfaces out and as the supplier wasn't far from where I would be on Wednesday, my original plan to get the first customised to match the second became a slightly more urgent to figure out what was wrong. So Wednesday morning it was another early start, and I was on the road just after 6a.m., serenaded by the front wheel bearing that is gradually increasing in volume.

It took longer than usual to get down to Bristol - a car fire on the M42 gave us 25 minutes of crawl-stop-crawl-stop followed by 10 minutes of going nowhere at all. Consequently as I drove up the slope into the yard at Bitton station Jeff had already arrived and lined up with the unloading track. The ramp was reassembled, and as we had to winch the loco down, I tried starting the engine of the power pack. To be honest I didn't expect it to go, after 2 months when the lorry batteries had succumbed to lethargy I assumed the exposed 12V battery would be the same and had brought a freshly charged one in anticipation. But to my surprise it fired up and ran, but did seem a trifle sluggish. First task was to wind in the winch cable, as it was still played out from when it last unloaded a loco, and the twin cylinder Lister struggled even with this minimal load. I knew it had sufficient fuel - or was it contaminated? Finally as I looked up at the engine it registered that one of the decompressors was set wrong - a quick flick and the engine started running like it should.

Cranford was connected up, its brakes let off, and gently rolled down the ramp to where a waiting Gronk took it away. With the ramp dismantled and the unit reconnected, I donned my headset and between us talked Jeff through a 5 point turn in the yard, gently between a Ford Focus and the gatepost, and as he reached the road at the bottom, that it was clear to come straight out and be on his way home. Me though, motored so far up the M5 then turned off and by means of quaint byways and ROAD CLOSED AHEAD signs, reached the interface manufacturer. The first interface was set up on the bench to match the Mk2, and the cause of the problem with that identified. Although I had sent them a copy of the 'final' wiring diagram on Monday, they hadn't spotted that a wire link between two pins that they had told me to insert during our marathon calls on the previous Friday, hadn't worked and should have been taken out again! They do some work with heritage lines regarding embankment stability and were interested to know what sort of loco it was I was fitting it to, so I pulled up a past edition of Weekend Rails!

Thursday and an interface was reconnected (it might have been the first or the second, I don't know!) and its static condition - i.e. no vac showing - gave the correct output to the pressure regulator. Whether the pressure regulator was set right I very much doubted, as we had spent some time with it trying to counteract the inability of the Mk1 interface to do what we wanted, and I couldn't set it up again without firing up the engine, which, considering the smoke it created in the shed and the fact that the prevailing wind was blowing up from Matlock and thus preventing smoke from escaping, I was reluctant to do. Steve Clewes from the W&L arrived and I showed him over the completed installation, and only then did we run the loco up - he demonstrating that a button on the desk which had more heiroglyphics adjacent to it than a hand in Mah Jong, would cancel the annoying 'low air pressure' audible alarm that had bombarded our ears every time for days. Sure enough, the regulator settings were out, but the two meters demonstrated that the input scale moved with the vac and the ouput did the opposite in response and it was only a matter of a tweak or two. As by now the shed had almost disappeared in a thick grey fog I think may have encouraged him to accept my assurance.

Outside Matt H was continuing the scrapping of a Hunslet 0-4-0 and Peak Rail, meanwhile, had the line booked for a wedding party, with the freshly painted Bagnall 0-4-0ST in charge. Later that day I was able to make a dash into Sheffield and get a pallet out in time for the month end.

Friday, and Andrew was about and hell bent on 'tidying up' in advance of the ICRS visit. But we did sort out the various tie bars for 2ft 6 and made up another 10ft panel ready for a rapid ramp build on Tuesday. D8 was out on the Peak Rail traffic.

Saturday and I got down at 09.30 to find Andy H waiting for me at the gate. Things didn't start all that well. I had a 'senior moment' and dialled the wrong number into the alarm keypad. When it didn't work I punched it in again and eventually succeeded in locking myself out of the system. Still, it did prove (a) how b****y loud the alarm is inside if you are the miscreant who has set it off and (b) that the text messages the alarm system issues work perfectly, even though it does mean your son knows all about his father's error. Ah well. I carried on tidying, making a single walkway free from objects to step over from one end of the shed to the other, while Andy cracked on with a list of jobs which included breaking down the last three fencing panels that require reassembly with new horizontals when the OK to resume fencing work comes through from Mark Sealey. (Who tells me that the executive at the council he's been dealing with went off on a month's leave, nominating as deputy another exec who after two weeks disappeared on leave too....). Aside from tidying I also took the grease dispenser out to Pluto and attempted to get some into the weighshaft bearings, which don't look to have received anything since it went to Whitrope. We'll have to see if the brakes free off but Andrew is anticipating having to strip all the rigging down and clean it up component by component.

Finally as the afternoon drew to a close we fired up DL34 and set the regulator so that the vac brake does now send an air pressure signal to the brake system, like it should. D8 was out on the first two passenger turns, with Waleswood on driver experience and then Palletine, but for the last run Kathryn appeared with D8 on the tail, and the last train came back from Matlock double headed with Kathryn leading D8. I presume this was to prove the lubrication system on Kathryn was now sorted. After Andy had left I tried to set the alarm, but it wouldn't, and I was forced to leave it off, which gave me an uncomfortable feeling all evening.

Sunday and somewhere in my office was the alarm system manual but things have become a bit chaotic of late and a thorough filing session was in order. Thus the spare bed is now covered with piles of papers and files, though at least the envelope containing all the manuals turned up quite easily. By mid afternoon I wandered down to the shed, to see Kathryn go by solo, consulted the manual and taking my courage in both hands (which wouldn't leave any fingers free to press the keypad actually) keyed the master code and then the user code after which the keypad seemed satisfied and reverted to green state. So I turned back to DL34 and set about taking my meters out of circuit, boxing it back up, replacing the cab floor panels and tidying tools and stuff away. Thus here's the completed vac/air system...

As five-thirty neared I locked up, setting the alarm as normal and headed home. DL34 is due to be loaded on Tuesday. That I hope will be the success story to tell you all about next Sunday, so have a happy what's-left-of-Easter and return next week. See ya then.