Of ice and silver steel
24th November 2024
Is there actual silver in silver steel? asked the man at Twiggs. I think it is more appearance than content...
On Monday evening it snowed. Andrew had borrowed my van to go and collect some iron gates from Hull (to guard his new home); and as he came back down the motorway, he phoned to ask how bad it was. Earlier I'd looked out and although it was still snowing, the A6 was 'black' but by now it was white over and I suggested that his safest option was to stick south to the A38, turn off at Ripley, cut across to the A6 and come north as it is much flatter than trying to come over hilly roads from Chesterfield or Alfreton. He reached the country pile, parked my van, collected his car and set off for his house. An hour later (midnight in fact) he was on the phone - he'd made it as far as Cromford (he would have come that way with the van) but there was no chance of him getting up the hills from there. He returned and slept back at ours.
Tuesday was cold and icy, but the roads were passable for the most part and finding that the gates in my van were a decidely tighter fit than I (or he) had anticipated, I offered to bring them up that evening. Getting up there was straightforward, getting the gates out and then returning to the main-ish road through the village was another.
It had been arranged for L173 to leave at long last, and as Alstom considered me fit to repair their loco but would not approve me to transport it, the job was in the hands of Allelys and they intimated they wanted to start loading at 07.00 Thursday. That meant moving it up the line on Wednesday so by lunchtime I was at the shed getting everything started that could run. The exception was RS8, whose exposed battery box had not been appreciated by the occupants. I'd found this out Tuesday afternoon, popping in to check things over and add some neat antifreeze to RS8 to offset the plain water we'd topped it up with earlier in the year. I could add it, but couldn't persuade the engine to run and mix it all up! Luckily it doesn't seem to have taken any harm.
By early afternoon Wednesday L173 was trundling north from the yard to the level crossing but the throttle system had started operating oddly, only giving 1000 rpm max. Andrew had popped in to say goodbye to it and insisted on investigating, pulling the actuator linkage manually in the casings and proving it wasn't an engine issue, then asking me to give it full throttle in the cab, which I did only for the throttle linkage to jam. I tried to force it back but it had stuck so hard that the 8mm dia silver steel rod which translates linear motion into resistance bent instead. Some frantic tinkering got the linkage apart, the potentiometer out of its enclosure and L173 resumed its trundle up to Rowsley, there to be parked up overnight.
Up at 06.00 on Thurdsday, I got to Rowsley at 07.10 expecting to find Allelys lined up and ramp part assembled. It was -8 deg C on the van gauge (I wasn't there for the o'clock as it had taken 15 minutes to scrape the ice off the van 'screen) and the wagon was there allright, but the crew were asleep and it was going on for 08.00 by the time they surfaced and started getting things ready. L173 had decided it was low on transmission oil again so wouldn't even try to start and so, in a sense, it left the same way as it arrived - on an Allely's low loader and not able to drive itself on or off. I passed some oil over to the two Alstom engineers who had come to see it away and later headed down to Twiggs in Matlock to purchase some more silver steel. I could cut this to length quite easily, but threading one portion was a different matter and in the end, I started by cutting a thread to M9 (yeah, there is such a thing though you'd have a job finding any) which is also 1.25 pitch and having achieved a partial cut, then used that to get a grip with the M8 die, though it did put some scratches farther up the shaft where it had turned in the vice jaws, despite protection.
Friday, and Andrew had won some lots on a commercial auction, tools from a firm in Huddersfield that had ceased trading. I was off first thing to go and collect his winnings, a supermarket trolley full. In the afternoon I had a visitor in the shape of a Peak Rail consultant, who wanted inter-alia, to inspect the fencing. Hopefully this may help clear the log-jam that has prevented us from carrying on with pallisading the footpath side, and get rid of the razor wire, which has at least kept the kids out even if more determined burglars weren't deterred. By now I had packed RS8's battery box with some spare insulation and given it a boost, so it was running and warmed through.
Saturday I would have been alone in the shed but after intending to set off after lunch, in the end, the rain and wind convinced me to carry on writing and illustrating the operators' manual that will be guiding its drivers at Alstom. Subject to any comments on the draft version I passed to the engineers last Wednesday, it was completed and ready for printing. Today however I went down in the morning. The silver steel shaft took a lot of stroking with aluminium oxide paper before it would condescend to slide through the bushes of its enclosure. Hopefully though it will meet back up with the potentiometer and be ok for another 20 years. I set up the throttle control electronics on the big minilok with a meter in circuit to read the input loop - when I powered up the meter went full scale, (it should have been either zero or at most 4mA) which explains why at Long Marston it initially gave full revs, but presumably the amplifier module has gone down since (as well) or at least shuts down in what must be over the 20mA max it expects. This though does nothing to explain the refusal to drive, although I was able to prove that the Not-Aus loop is not the culprit. Andrew had taken some of his tranche back to his house, but left 4 or 5 items for me to bring to the shed, so I tried them out and apart from one Bosch drill (which wouldn't respond and whose trigger doesn't feel right) they all functioned. But aside from a couple of other minor jobs, I didn't feel it had been a very productive day as the rain continued in heavy showers precluding work outside. I was about to pack up when Andrew arrived to cut some bits of wood on the bandsaw, so we locked up together after he'd done.
This week is roughly mapped out but I'll tell you all about it next week. See ya then.