Of no barrier to departure

5th January 2025

The last couple of days of 2024 saw little happen in railway terms, but January 1st 2025 was quite the opposite. For one thing, Peak Rail was again running passenger trains (for those of you not more closely involved, under the old M.D. Peak Rail shut down for two weeks after Christmas, and if she had her way no-one, but no-one, would enter railway property while she had a 'holiday' (or, more likely, that she wanted a break from trying to control everything and everyone)). The railway now was operating both on Boxing Day (succesfully apparently, the park-and-ride scheme to access the raft race on the Derwent having been well received) and now New Years Day.

As the BG ( a former HST barrier car, hence the title) was due to leave a day or two later it had been arranged that we could work it up between trains as once again it was something different for the blockmen and saved us all the hassle of having to unlock and operate level crossing gates, etc. I got down reasonably early and was having a natter with Jacob in the Darley Dale blockpost when Tom D turned up and as I'd heard nothing from Andrew rang him to ascertain he was on his way. I therefore got started by firing up Louise and moved it across to hook up to the BG. At this point Andrew appeared and it transpired that he had been delayed by news that one of the sets he oversees on the main line railway had been accidentally driven through a derailer at a depot and said derailer had done what was expected of it.

With Tom D on the ground frame, he took Louise and BG out on to the main line while I returned to RS8, fired it up and moved into the space on Track 1 vacated by the BG, with Pluto behind and the ex Chasewater Baguley in front. Andrew then returned for the Hatramm while I took over on Louise.

With the Hatramm coupled up and moved clear of the crossover, I took Louise back into the yard and we moved up to the level crossing, and then into the northbound platform to await the southbound train, pulled by Cathryn.

Almost as soon as it arrived our signal came off and we headed north, picking up the token at Church Lane and at Rowsley switching onto the loop and then the loading bank road, where we parked and detached the Hatramm.

I walked forward to the top lever frame, setting the road for the Hatramm to re-enter the running lines and then set back into the platform, where I got teas and Tom finally had breakfast(!).

Then it was back south, to make sure we were in Darley's southbound platform before the northbound passenger train, after which the Matlock section was ours to re-enter the yard and sort the order out a bit. With a few miscellaneous craning jobs out the way that was it for the day.

Thursday: I had an email from EMR advising me that they had programmed the collection of my waste steel skip for Friday 3rd, so I was savouring a bit of a lie-in when my phone rang and an EMR driver said he was just departing Bakewell. Out the house and my van was covered in a thick icy frost that took 10 minutes to scrape off. I got down to the yard to find the skip lorry patiently waiting - and the gate padlock frozen solid. I put a kettle on to warm up and after a few more minutes the gate was open, one empty skip dropped off and the full one lifted on board. I glanced at my watch - it was still barely nine o'clock and the man was coming to the Briddon Country Pile to service the alarm system. I soused the padlock in penetrating oil in the hope of preventing it freezing again next night and returned home.

That day and in to Friday I was planning on doing various Admin tasks but I received a text from Andrew on Friday saying that Reids were due between 10.30 and 11 to load the BG and could I get him some pictures? I dutifully wandered along to find the BG already aboard and the crew just getting ready to re-connect the tractor unit.

Now, I had been meaning to get up to Rowsley for several weeks with the bits for the gear detection system for Bagnall the Barclay (aka 873) so I decided that I might as well make use of the opportunity. 873 was by the loco shed, so I lifted the floor and tried the parts in place. The flat plate that will carry the sensors lined up perfectly, and the arm fitted - but, well, I had had a square cut in the profile to go over the operating shaft on the gearbox, but I should have measured it with a vernier, not a tape measure, as it was a sloppy fit.

Leaving 873 I found the Reids crew had moved to the cafe to partake of lunch, and I grabbed a further photo with the BG in the background, while in the foreground is the platform works under way to create a bay road and new loading/unloading area, just as the original plans for Rowsley station had envisaged, many years ago.

The existing loading pad, just outside the station gates, will become the main line if/when the extension to Rowsley (proper) gets under way.

Saturday - all on my lonesome I decided that faced with the options of squeezing shims in to take up the gap between my lever and the squared shaft it had been meant to fit (snugly), or adding a pair of extra clamp screws, I prefered the latter so set about drilling and tapping two M6 holes. I finished the first and was 2/3 of the way through the second when the tap snapped. Less than happy about it I decided I would open both out and tap at M8. That done without breaking any more taps (the M8s being signficantly more robust) I also drilled some 'weight reduction' holes, having belatedly remembered my own cautionary tale of adding mass to the manual levers on RF11s. 873's 'box is a Wiseman, and there was once some sort of lever on the shaft as a limit switch is still mounted to the box (from the miscellaneous wires there might have been a second) but how large and chunky the lever that wuuld reach them will have been I know not, so a bit less mass wouldn't do any harm. Then I had a quick painting session of it, the sensor bracket, and the other trailer brackets that had been waiting patiently since Andrew welded them up 3 weeks ago.

Incidentally the external air temperature was about 2 deg C with snow forecast for later, but the shed was steady at 4.5 degrees, though a bit colder at the roller shutter end where the insulation is non-existent.

When we had our break-in in 2023, the thieves helped themselves to battery power tools and spare batteries but left the charger as I had built it a dedicated shelf and run the cable behind the shelf before bolting it down. They grabbed the charger, found it was captive and left it hanging. I had a second charger at home, but recently Andrew wanted one to take up to his new home and promised a new charger for the shed. It arrived a few weeks ago and was a larger one capable of charging two batteries at a time, and the power cable plugged in rather than being permanently connected. Being larger my dedicated shelf was now a little too slim and I decided it was time to manufacture a replacement. As the new charger is plug in, making the cable captive doesn't prevent the charger being removed, but as the job progressed I found that I could make it so that it is fixed (and so makes inserting and removing the batteries easier).

It was time to break off as our daughter and son-in-law (c/w with retired greyhound) were joining us for a meal in Bakewell, and we hoped the snow would hold off until we had got home. It did, but by Sunday morning everything was white over with 25-30mm of the white stuff.

Once our visitors had set off for Darlington, I had lunch and returned to the shed, still at 4.5 deg C incidentally. All yesterday's painted brackets and bits were turned over and paint applied to those areas I'd missed, more work carried out on a gate I'm building for use at the Country Pile, and then I turned to manufacturing a battery isolation switch bracket to go on the DH60 minilok. I got this largely finished but as darkness and rain fell, decided it was time to wrap up and return to the comfort of home.

So that's about it. The first week of a new year. Doesn't feel a lot different to 2024 really, though I suppose it must be in some way. And the forecast for this week? Cold. Oh, railway work wise? Let me see... no, not a clue. Come back next week and find out. See ya then.