Of three to four hours

9th March 2025

Which actually is what it often takes me to write this blog, though tonight it refers to something else. Or something elses. Oh, you'll get the idea....

This week has been a 50/50 mix of 'work' and 'chasing up things'. Early on it was confirmed that we had a job to do taking an 08 out of Celsa, up to Leeds for tyre turning and then on into Derbyshire, and that because of fitting appointments in it would be split over 3 days. It is more than 15 months since I was last in to Celsa (with Heanors in fact) and I had allowed my computer-based registration there to fall into arrears as it was always a pain to work with, and the officer at Celsa who was supposedly there to oversee it and assist didn't consider the latter within their job description. They wouldn't return calls or emails, and on the one occasion I got through on a text I got a reply which basically asked ' Who are you?' and once I'd answered it they conversed no further. In addition the questions the system asked and the certification it required were somewhat inappropriate to the nature of my work. A training course on low voltage electrics might be relevant to a contractor coming into the plant to work on it but my only reason to go inside a building was if I needed a loo.

So I went in to the database with a certain amount of trepidation and it took up over 3 hours, as I got stuck when it came to changing from my old van to my new one. Nowhere would it accept deleting the old vehicle and substituting. I went to the 'help' pages and found instructions on how to, but they were complicated and I thought I would copy and paste them into a blank file and print them for refrence. It wouldn't let me copy it. I jotted it down (I should maybe have tried a screen dump but that option didn't occur at the time) and tried to carry out its step-by-step instructions. I wasn't surprised, given the unfriendly-ness of the rest of the system, that reality didn't match what it said. That night I gave up, but before departing sent a plaintive email to a new name there for support.

Before 9am next morning I had had a reply and an invitation to ring if I had any more problems. I did, in fact we had about 4 calls during which it became apparent that I was recorded in two different places in the system and the one was presumably inhibiting the other. Anyway, I was all set and arranged to meet Jeff outside the plant at about half five on Thursday.

On my way down on Thursday afternoon, Andrew had volunteered me to meet up with a Dean Forest member who had bought a couple of rail clamps from him. The handover was to take place at Monmouth services which I estimated I would be passing about 4pm, but would ring him after Strensham. When I tried to ring I got that 'We are unable to connect you' message (that we all love) and again a few miles later. Andrew though managed to get through to him but not before I was passing Monmouth and fretting about the time. In the end I was kicking my heels at the services for 10 or 15 minutes before a grey car arrived and the clamps could be transferred. Not to worry, I still got down to Cardiff at about 5.40 and found Jeff waiting, in fact he said, he'd been there a couple of hours (and that part of Cardiff has nothing to commend it).

At ten to six I lead him to the security gate: I was OK to enter but somehow the notification to the gate had excluded the low loader (despite my giving the vehicle reg, etc) and by the time we were let in it was 6pm and we could 'take possession'. The loading area is part of the perimeter road and is actually a disused level crossing. Consequently the procedure is that we cannot load or unload until 6pm when 'traffic no longer uses it'. That is not entirely true and after several previous encounters with foreign lorry drivers - ('Why you block road? I want go home') I had invested in half a dozen road cones and place them, with tops taped, behind and across from where we are working as a clear barrier. Even then we were once challenged by Security as to why we had closed the road!

Anyway, the loco was sat waiting for us but the rails had not been used for a while and we had to dig out the flangeways and rail heads where someone had piled ballast over them before winching it aboard. This 08 had different buffers to normal as it had knuckle couplers and we positioned it slightly short on the trailer which gave problems getting a hydraulic connector re-made and pushed the new pump motor to its limit raising the deck, but by eight-fifteen Jeff was setting off and I had a few minutes natter with a loco driver who was waiting with a rake of wagons for us to clear before shunting into a nearby building. Somewhere in the gloom at the far end of the rake was a Zephyr. I have yet to see a Zephyr there at work but the driver was rather scathing, confirming rumours of braking issues and a derailment, and remarking that they were built of Meccano and bits keep falling off.

I set off back for Derbyshire. Jeff could only get so far as there is an abnormal load ban for Gloucestershire after dark and the A40-Ross-M5 route was closed to him because of roadworks around Ross. By the time I got to Newport I found it was closed to me too as the A449 north was coned off and so far as I could see, no alternative route signposted. I got back on the M4, crossed the Severn into England and turned up the M5.

Friday and first thing Jeff was on the phone to report that he was stopped on the M5 with a puncture. It was important to get the loco to Leeds that afternoon as it was booked to be tyre-turned that night. We made it, just, and unloaded the loco outside the wheelshop, then pausing to assist by backing off the slack adjusters so making sure that the brake blocks didn't bind in any way. The trailer was left, ramp down, and Jeff parked outside the depot entrance, having persuaded me to be back for 07.00 Saturday morning instead of the 08.00 I was expecting.

At about 1 minute past seven next morning I was back at the depot. Jeff was up and we got the unit back in, hooked up the hydraulics and the winch cable to the loco and started to bring it back aboard. After Thursday night we took it about 6 or 8 inches farther on - not only did the handle for the hydraulic connector now clear the buffer but the pump had a much easier time lifting the deck, such was the weight distribution. Thirty-six hours after it had left Celsa, the loco was leaving Leeds, bound for Hope.

I asked Jeff how long it would take and he estimated two to three hours. That surprised me as, even though I didn't know his route, I'd thought three to four. In fact, thanks to weight restrictions on both the M1 and A1, he had to go east from Leeds along the M62 and then south and west down the M18 to get to the M1 at Rotherham, then south to Chesterfield, out west along the A619 as far as Tideswell before turning north through Bradwell and finally up the lane at Hope. The section from Tideswell to Bradwell includes a particularly steep hill which taxes any tractor with a 48ton loco in tow going up - it isn't a picnic coming down either! But for now, I headed home to grab some more batteries for the trailer radio transmitter which had been displaying rather limited range, before dashing up to Hope to ensure everything was ready. And it wasn't - the loading pad was deserted and the gates closed. A few phone calls and someone came down to open them, and parked a class 20 as a backstop.

However  the usual track we use was occupied by two FSAs which meant that we had to unload in a fairly confined area and the tractor would not be able to get to the back of the trailer. Fortunately I had brought the extension hoses in the van, though it was with the thought they might be needed at Leeds rather than here! Andrew kept ringing me up for updates on Jeff's progress, as he and the family were waiting in Hope to see it come through, and I had given them an ETA based on Jeff's 3 hours and I was quietly smug when he finally rolled in 3 hours 55 minutes after departing Leeds. When he arrived I could smell 'hot brakes' on the trailer and Jeff confirmed that one of the tractor brake drums had been smoking a bit as he brought the load down from Tideswell. The loco as duly rolled off, the ramp dismantled and just as we thought they'd forgotten about us, a crew turned up, towed the 08 away with the twenty and we were free to reconnect the unit and head home.

Sunday. Andrew picked me up and we headed together in to Rowsley for a Safety Briefing, which turned out to take about three hours reviewing where the railway was and how things needed to be. A new campaign 'Aiming for the Peak of Safety' is being run, not because the railway has been happy-go-lucky but rather to instill the correct culture and mind-set as the ORR looks more closely on heritage operations. There were case studies which included the now-famous collision at Aviemore where Flying Scotsman collided with its train because the driver hadn't expected it to be there and nobody on the footplate (and a number of 'extras' were riding) kept a look-out. In addition there were aspects of safeguarding, conduct in front of the public, etc.

Back home and after a quick lunch I headed down to the shed planning to get the foot-throttle working on the big minilok and then move over to the little one as a second ECU had arrived to try on it. I connected the wires up as per my sheet, fired up the engine and after a second or so the engine revs went high and stayed there. A check with a meter revealed that the footpedal, with its 5V supply coming off the throttle amplifier, was returning a constant 4.76V. Assuming I had managed to get my wires crossed somewhere and hoping I hadn't damaged the electronics in the pedal, I went through it all again and when that revealed nothing apparently wrong, ran 3 temporary wires from footpedal direct to the amplifier, i.e. by-passing the existing cables on the minilok which I had taken so much trouble last week to locate and utilise. Thus set up I could get a clear pedal range from 0.8V to just under 5V, and with a bit of adjustment to the amplifier, I had a working throttle. So assuming my adjustment must have done the trick, I put the wiring back to original and immediately the throttle went high again. I decided to bell each wire through and check there wasn't anything crossed. No, that was OK, but the pedal still returned a constant 4.76V no matter depressed or not. Perplexed I started by changing one wire at a time and the problem appeared only to be related to one cable. So for now the 3 temporary wires have been made to the amplifier plug, (until a better cable can be routed underneath the floor) and I assume that somewhere within the multi-pin plugs and sockets at Verteiler, one of my 3 wires is jumpered to another pin. With the short afternoon and the unexpected issues, the small minilok didn't get a look in, and anyway conversations during the week suggest that what is needed is the throttle to be calibrated and that requires Deutz software.

On that topic I must return this next week - one of the ten things I have on my list to do tomorrow - and thereafter? Jeff is busy so nothing on the transport horizon is planned, but what else you'll find out in the usual way. See ya then.