Weekend rails

5th February 2012

Some of you may think they smell a rat when, a week after having had a day away from the collection (for new readers, see here) I am back reporting on three days in succession. Is Andrew demanding recompense? Actually, it was already planned this way, but it nearly didn’t happen. My friendly fabricators had promised to get the casing parts for the 03 finished by the end of January, and as Andrew has a busy work programme ahead of him, he could see his way clear to taking Friday off (after a week involving visits to Norwich, Southampton and Selhurst, and explains why I must disappoint those expecting the link to “Beverley” in operation – he simply hasn’t had time to do it) but not much else. But as Monday and Tuesday came and went without the pieces moving from outside into their workshops, it was looking doubtful. We had provisionally booked the man who had moved them out of Scunthorpe, and I was nervous that if we didn’t confirm soon, he would have taken another booking.

But on Wednesday Gavin was charged with making good the corroded patches on the 03s casings, plus a section of “Libby’s” cab interior and the exhaust cowl for “Beverley” and when news came through late in the afternoon that they were ready, I rang through to the haulier only to find that the gearbox on his lorry had died and he wasn’t going anywhere. He put me on to someone else though, who agreed to do the job and at 08.00 Friday morning we arrived to find him already loaded and ready for the off. We agreed a rendezvous and charged off for Scunthorpe.

Fortunately the weather was being kind – if cold – and by the time he arrived at the steelworks we had de-sheeted the loco, signed in, opened up and Andrew had hurriedly applied paint to various surfaces to act as a sealant to mating pieces. The vehicle was a large 8-wheeler, capable of hauling half the loco’s total weight so hardly noticed our casing parts – sorry for no pictures of it in progress but I was too busy aiding getting things swung into position and loosely bolted down. Last to go on was the Fat Controller’s hat and within 2 hours of arrival our man was on his way home. We re-sheeted the loco, conscious that, with the additional height of casing top and chimney, the sheet no longer reached the running plates so will be more open than it was before.

Beginning to look a like an 03 should

Saturday – and armed with another £20’s worth of nuts and bolts we headed back over to Scunthorpe to continue with both locos. I had volunteered (at least, I think I did) to do the outside work on the 03, in a strong and bitterly cold wind. Many of the holes, for whatever reason, weren’t quite lining up and a drill was needed to open them up, and what better means of testing my nice new Makita drill, that arrived last Monday. Yes, the man turned up in a bright big TNT truck that must be so warm that he always totters up the drive to Briddon Towers wearing shorts, come wind or rain. And a potent little beast it is too (the drill, not the TNT man) as I found when it snagged and leaped out my hands, or later when it snapped a 13mm twist drill as I held on more tightly. My only gripe is that it is one of the keyless-chuck variety which requires a strength of grip to do up and undo that sometimes, on a freezing cold day and howling gale, I struggle to achieve. But I suppose I shouldn’t look a gift-drill in the chuck. Anyway. my task was to continue bolting the casing parts together and to the casing frame – the former with 10mm buttonheads and the latter with 12mm ordinary. With an eye to some later refurbishment (if we ever get time) Andrew wanted all the bolts copper-slipped, so the ones laboriously fitted yesterday had to come out and be dipped in the tin before being refitted. With some 50+ bolts to do in total, I was kept busy most of the day on this, with Andrew periodically rendering assistance when faced with bolts whose opposite ends were out of my reach. Since the casing top was only roughly guestimated on my master CAD drawing, it is reassuring to see it pretty much correct, and bemusing to be able to sit on the cylinder heads of the Cummins and my head not quite touch the underside of the casings!

..enough clearance to sit on the cylinder heads..

Andrew meanwhile was at work on Beverley in comparative comfort. An air line enabled him to carry out test work on the air system, stripping and cleaning the gearchange valves got them working cleanly but the main clutch isolating valve requires new seals and the air leak we’d noticed last week and attributed to the air brake cylinders is in fact the driver’s brake valve, which we thought we’d fixed a couple of years ago. Ah well.

The weather forecast anticipated snow arriving late afternoon, and at 4pm white powdery stuff started to descend. We removed the leaky oil reservoir from Beverley, and the cylinder head from the 03’s BroomWade compressor, and packed up. Now I do not consider myself to be an irresponsible driver, but the snow had barely covered the M18/M180 and as I motored carefully back at around 55mph, I encountered a line of cars, pottering along at 40mph, in the middle lane. Ugh.

Sunday: The world had turned white, but actually the wind had gone and it was quite pleasant out. Reports from Rowsley was that the A6 was open but lesser roads may not be, and 4″ or so had descended overnight. We left it for a while until it was obviously melting then headed over, getting there without difficulty. Andrew’s main task was to add more weld to the leaking connection in the bottom of Beverley’s tank, which, as it still contained a modicum of oil, proceeded to smoke and flame as he added a further layer of MIG around the outlet until it began to resemble a volcano surrounded by a sea of lava. He declared that no pin-hole could have survived, before heading off to the VBA van to hunt out a few bits needed for Scunthorpe while it cooled. I had brought over the Paxolin panel planned to form the interconnection and fuse board for the 03. On 14 901, I used commercial Termate connections, basically an M5 stud set in a piece of interlocking plastic. Very good but rather adding up when around 80 connections will ultimately be needed. A pre-cut piece of Paxolin, however, was about a fiver and a bundle of M5 and M8 plated setscrews and nuts also quite modest. All it required was a plan, a drill and patience to mark it all out and produce about 100 holes in various diameters and countersunk most from the back. More work for the new Makita.

The AFRPS web site now lists the Gala plans and so gives us our target, as D2128 is rostered to work the final DMU trip at 4pm on the 12th and 13th of May. That is 3 months, and seems a long time from a freezing cold February but isn’t much when you get down to it. We have compiled a list of things which are categorised as “Jobs that must be done cos it won’t work without”, “Jobs that would be nice if we have time but not the end of the world if we don’t” and finally “Jobs that we haven’t a chance of doing in time”. All 3 lists are long!

28th January 2012

Work – that is to say the kind from which we are supposed to earn our livings – gets in the way this weekend. I have to be on site Sunday and Andrew must travel Sunday to be on (another) site at 09.00 Monday morning, and as he was attending a party Saturday night, we agreed that it would be just the one day this weekend, and back on Beverley. But of course you are all waiting avidly to hear what arrived from Mr Makita, aren’t you? Well, as I had to be at a meeting Monday, Steph stayed in all day waiting for Parcelforce, who in the end arrived at about 4.30, after I had got back home. And it wasn’t a “I’ll give you mine if you’ll give me yours”- it was a collection, plain and simple, and I was left anxiously wondering whether I had misheard it all. In the end, something arrived, unheralded, via TNT on Friday morning, but as Steph and I were both out earning a crust they went back away with it. So I am still on tenterhooks until that nice TNT man calls again on Monday.

During the week parts for the 03 (et al) have continued to arrive. More oil for Beverley’s torque converter – on a whim I went back in with the two drums my supplier had used last time (clean and uncontaminated) and discovered that by doing so I saved myself 10p/litre. Note for future. My local casting supplier produced two more levers for the 03’s vac control by casting off the brake valve’s original. On a “real” 03, these handles are gun-metal and chrome plated. Ours are aluminium, cheaper and lighter and will save chrome-plating, just have to buff up the knob part. I chased up my friendly fabricators, taking in Beverley’s exhaust cowl for a bit of corrosion replacement, and was assured that the 03’s casing parts will be dealt with before the month end, Monday in fact. We’ll see. On the negative side, a fortnight or more since I dropped in the disc brake to the machinists and they’re still too busy to touch it – where’s this economic downturn when you want it?

So Saturday was the only day to report on this week, and we agreed to be off early, amazingly so by our standards and by half-past ten were getting suited and booted in Scunthorpe. We had taken the chimney section of the 03 back since there was space in the van and brought this inside with a wheelbarrow. The batteries were given a boost on Beverley (we had only been running the engine at low revs so there had been no charge coming off the dynamo) and I added more oil to the converter reservoir. Andrew had hoped to couple an air line up and run a static air test, but ours was a few feet too short and trying to sort out another with the necessary adaptors, etc,, wasn’t worthwhile. We fired Beverley up and after yet more oil, the level seemed to stay about the same, and the air pressure crept up to 70psi.

The Fat Controller put down his Top Hat... (D2128's Chimney)

Andrew decided that we should check gearbox operation. In the desk are 3 valves which control the two gearbox cylinders for forward and reverse and clutch in/out. They work off cams on a cross shaft but having been inert for a year or three it was no surprise when air gushed out and the valves stayed motionless. Andrew encouraged them and reluctantly they rose to the occasion and the gearbox reversed. In front of Beverley were the 02 (D2853), a Peckett 0-4-0ST and outside the shed, “Arnold Machin”, the AFRPS’s Yorkshire 0-6-0DE. Andrew coupled the first two, opened the doors and signalled me forwards. I put the clutch in and Beverley after a moment, crept forward, buffered up to the 02 and with a touch of throttle, propelled it and the Peckett out of the shed to “Arnie”, which was added and taken forward until all 4 were outside.

First powered move for several years - Bev outside.

We paused there, found a few more leaks, stopped the engine and took a link out of the fan belts. The engine revs still hunt, and latest informed suggestion is that it might be that one or more injectors are over-fuelling, causing the governor to try to correct. Andrew is giving this theory some credence (they’re about the only things that haven’t been reworked or renewed) and intends having the injectors out for some TLC. Equally the 3 gear change valves and the 4th clutch isolation valve in the desk all leak so he dug the spares out to bring back for cleaning and re-sealing, but while we left it outside in the winter sun the air leaked off rapidly, so it may be the brake cylinder seal must be checked. We had hoped that Glenn would arrive to witness it move, but by two-fifteen, having declared 3pm our departure time, he hadn’t shown, so Andrew took a quick video as I drove it back into the shed. He  will upload it to You-tube and I’ll pass on the link next week. Finally I drained down the converter reservoir – there must be a pin-hole in Andrew’s welding around the outlet boss as it is damp – so we’ll have to deal with that in the near future.

22nd January 2012

I have spent that last few weeks struggling with close-up work because having lost of pair of glasses, the replacement pair I got from the opticians seemed to be “long range” rather than “close range” and I insist that this has been my problem in reading measurements when marking out tank tops. I went back to the opticians on Monday and after checking their records they admitted that I was indeed correct and the wrong spec had been ordered. A new pair arrived two days later without charge. So this weekend I was looking forward to being able to see what I was doing properly. The pump for my hose swaging machine was refilled by the local agent (the manufacturer thoughtfully uses the filling plug as a pivot for the handle clip and neglects to mark in any way what its primary purpose is – how was I supposed to remember when I haven’t had any problems with it in over 5 years?).

You may also recall the on-going saga of my Makita drill, the one that has a heartfelt urge to be a hammer drill when all I want it to be is a rotary. When it returned from the local agents, they copied me the paperwork from Makita wherein they stated that if I continued using the drill in this manner, it was likely to fail again. I took exception to this, so wrote back, quoting this blog, and enquiring in what way they felt I was misusing it. On Friday Mr Makita phoned, being under the impression that I was using it daily for diamond coring. I told them I hadn’t bought any diamonds since Steph’s engagement ring and it was only used for drilling mild steel. He went away to check with his supervisor and a while later I was asked to wrap the drill up, have it ready for Parcelforce on Monday as they would like to exchange it for a newer, better, Makita with their compliments. I await tomorrow’s delivery with baited breath and will hopefully be singing Makita’s praises in next week’s instalment.

So Saturday we headed up to the DVLR at York, stopping off on the way to purchase a couple of new batteries. We had agreed a fair division of labour – I was to get Pluto’s batteries changed while Andrew removed the exhauster, opened it up, reversed the blades and put it all together again. And it all went together fairly well but I got finished first and ended up lending him a hand when reassembling the exhauster threatened to need at least 3 hands to control 3 plates and half-a-dozen tiny springs at the same time. “Pluto” was started up and immediately sucked far harder than it had done last time, something like 19″ at idle which, given the speed range over which the unit must operate, was about as good as we could expect. Andrew went to report to Vince M., and came back with the quote if the week, when Vince invited us to “go and suck off that carriage”. We obliged with similar results. The only marring element was a slight oil weep from where the delivery line enters our oil separator (aka Land Rover air cleaner) that we think we will need to improve. We set off for home in much higher spirits, especially as it started to rain just as we’d hit the road.

Sunday: It was planned to be Beverley’s day but as we arrived at Scunthorpe, we agreed that Andrew would pursue a few bits of work on the 03 while I caught up with the outstanding issues on Bev. The wind was strong and gusting, and the noise as it coursed through the roof sheets of the shed sounded like the buzzing of a giant vexed bee, and more than once I expected the sheets to take off in the direction of Cleethorpes. I swaged the hoses of the new hydraulic transmission lines we’d left last week and moved on to the battery cable, forming a new one with the hydraulic cable crimper. Andrew meanwhile, was lurking within the tent, fitting a couple of new hydraulic hoses around the converter cooler and the auxiliary drive shaft with three of the 4 pulleys that will come off it, and cursing me for making him shave a little off the key.

It's going to be quite busy once all the belts go in.

I in contrast had the task of filing the holes in Beverley’s hydraulic tank top until, after a lot of trial and error, the screws all went in. The cooling system was filled with water and the new tank with hydraulic oil, Andrew wrapped things up outside and with some trepidation, he pressed the switch to crank Bev’s engine. Of course, nothing happened. Well not quite true, a few funny noises came from various places but nothing much from the engine. Repeated tests identified a rattling sound from the starter contactor, and tests with the voltmeter lead us to suspect that one of our batteries, the one with the ominous bulges in the casing walls, was collapsing as soon as called on to crank. They were dragged off and the batteries recovered from Pluto fitted in place and given a few minutes of boost.

It was my turn to operate the starter and after a couple of seconds of cranking, the engine fired, which was a trifle surprising as the fuel system should have been completely dry. But run it did and after blowing all manner of smoke and soot out, settled down but with a hunt from 500-750 rpm. After a couple of minutes the converter reservoir oil level was heading rapidly down the scale and Andrew called a halt while we topped it up with the remainder of our supply. I already suspected that the 40 litres was not really going to be sufficient (it might just about fill the system but won’t leave any for the reservoir) and we restarted and ran for a few more minutes before the oil level again disappeared out the bottom of the sight glass. We saw a few leaks of air and fuel to sort, but in general terms Andrew pronounced himself very happy with things, and although the hunting is still there (but considerably less than when it was last run, several years ago) and still remains something of a mystery, it is much more controllable and may be steadied once the converter clutch is engaged.

Bev is back in action at last

I celebrated with a cup of coffee from my flask. With more oil and a day’s further fault finding, Beverley should be fully operable – I hope.

15th January 2012

According to the histories, Swindon added a massively heavy cast chimney to the front of their build 03s in order to achieve balance since the locos were front end light. This has never altogether rung true with me – for one thing putting a ballast weight on top of the casings requires a very substantial casing frame and anyway, who would to put it up that high? There again, there is an answer to that, and that is “Autoloc”. When Redlands at Mountsorrel bought their first robot loco in the early 1980s, it was to be a 48tonner but on arrival from France the commissioning engineer explained that it arrived grossing only 31tonnes, and you added the ballast of your choice in the big open box that was the roof of the vehicle. Redlands added 17tonnes of the punchings from manufacturing washers. Now 1/3 of your loco’s weight sited in the roof does give a whole new meaning to the oft-quoted “top heavy” and when it stopped smartly, it continued rocking fore-an-aft for a while after. I said I didn’t want to be around when they came to re-tyre it.

So as I say, I was a little apprehensive when in a moment of generosity I said I’d pick up the exhaust chimney from the shot blasters. Thus far it had been lifted by hoist, HIAB or forklift, but there was no point in letting my friendly fabricators go down specially for it, they were bringing the casings up in two runs of two parts each as it was. But two of us lifted the chimney into the van quite easily, and it took two because when all is said and done, it is a large lump, but not especially heavy. Later in the week Andrew declared that, but for its sheer width, he could lift it on its own. So I am not disputing whether Swindon’s chimney is an attempt at balancing the loco to the last gramme, but I suspect it is more cosmetic in reality, and had they had their way, would have had a copper cap.

The pressure to crack on with the 03 is quite strong and with that in mind, I had organised quite a few purchases for it and Beverly during the week. Andrew had a Cummins fuel pump spotted on e-bay for Wednesday, so I planned my day to win it for him, only for some so-and-so to outbid me in the last 2 seconds. It should have given me some insight for the weekend that things were not going to go as well. On Friday I ended up doing a round robin. A stack of hydraulic bits and hose, including two made-up 1inch hoses for the 03’s powershift to cooler connections, temperature switches and the 03’s tandem charge pumps from Wakefield, a stack of profiles and finally 40 litres of hydraulic oil planned for filling Bev’s new tank and pipework. Friday night we drove lickety-spit for Rowsley, and collected the big MIG welder.

Saturday dawned frosty, the first real chill of the winter. The van was well-laden with welder, batteries and charger and all manner of sundries as we headed over to Scunthorpe. The AFRPS was busy, with steam and diesel locos out on a brake van tour, and after laying out some bits next to Beverley we decided it best to concentrate on the 03 while whatever warmth there might be was present. Target No.1 was to mount to torque converter cooler. The 03, you will recall, has both a converter and a powershift transmission. On the loco from which they were recovered, Hunslet ran the converter on diesel, the powershift on oil, and had separate charge pumps and shell coolers. Our views on converter medium I explored last week, and in practice the oil can be common for converter and powershift, but they need separate charge pressures and cooling provision. The shell cooler for the powershift is being re-used from the Hunslet, but the converter has a brand new air-blast cooler and needs to be in position before the re-plated nose cone returns from the fabricators. Welding the angles to mount this, in the cold, crisp air, did rather try Andrew’s patience, as did fitting the securing bolts on later, but in the end we got it on.  It then became apparent that the plates I had left with a view to mounting the cooler on the opposite axis now fouled the 1.25″ pipe connections, and needed to be removed. I set to to grind them off but we soon discovered that the release tool to change the blade on the Makita grinder was missing and nowhere to be found in the van. My temper was not improving anyway because when I had tried the profiles together that formed my exhauster base they all fitted together perfectly, trouble was, the whole thing wouldn’t fit the b****y loco. Similarly infuriating was when I came to screw-on the two 1″ hoses specially made to suit the powershift to cooler circuit. Andrew and I had measured them, allowed a little for engine movement, and added 150mm for a little curvature, yet they were both 50mm short.

I've got two coolers on the front of my 03..

Having got the new cooler on, the plan had been to install the Centaflex coupling and auxiliary drive shaft that will carry the pulleys to drive the compressor, exhauster charge pumps and fan, but owing to a let-down from a supplier, there were no pulleys. The Centaflex finally got fitted however, after yet more blue language – as the rubber ring has to be under some compression when it all goes together, the bolt centres that it finally achieves are not what it is at-rest state, and getting the screws into the tapped holes requires brute force and teaching it exactly whom is in command, and honestly, it is a close-run thing.

The Centaflex is now on the front of the adaptor - one of the 1" hoses peeping in on the left

By now it was 4.15 and getting a trifle chilly, so we piled back in to get on with Bev. We had brought two slave batteries with us and left them on charge while we worked outside, but when Andrew started to swap them over, one of the battery lead lugs came off the cable. It was one of the old hand-crimped ones made years ago, before Andrew procured a super hydraulic cable crimper, but we did not have either tool nor spare lugs, so that put paid to trying for a start. If things weren’t going bad enough, I started cutting hoses for the new feed and return lines from the new res tank, but when I started to swage the ferrules (I have my own swager for hoses up to 1/2″) the hydraulic pump stopped working. Only then did Andrew see fit to report that it had been leaking while in the garage. I was beginning to get mightily fed up with this day. In the end, we finished the hoses, loosely assembling them, Andrew put in the drain tap into the converter bottom, and I fitted the temperature switch into one of the main circuit lines. Then came the best bit of all, Andrew had made up the joint for the tank top, sprayed it and added the filler cap and return line connection. All I had to do was insert the 8 M6 screws through the holes I had drilled last week into the tapped holes I had created the week before. Both had been marked and drilled to the same drawing. You know how I oft-quote that the hardest job in engineering is getting a hole in the right place? Well, three went in and the rest – not a chance….

Sunday: Back to Rowsley to return the welder and continue the rail sawing. It was bloomin cold and somehow spraying the hacksaw blade with water to cool it seemed rather superfluous, but we did anyway. With that complete Andrew felt we ought to fire up the Drewry, which hadn’t been run for months  ( a group were also running up the class 31, covering a significant area in white smoke). Needless to say the batteries were cold and tired and we ended up taking them over to a charger for a boost before the Gardner condescended to fire on any (Gardners have individual de-compressors, which means, on occasion, that they can be started on a couple of cylinders then brought back to full strength). Andrew collected some of his radiator elements that had been in store courtesy of Peak Rail’s S&T department and I rested with the Drewry, watching the temperature slowly struggle to get the needle off the bottom stop of the gauge. That done, we declared it a day.

8th January 2012

The Briddon clan saw in the New Year at my daughter’s in Darlington, and had a relaxing New Years Day, but by Monday Andrew was itching to get back to activity and we headed over to Scunthorpe. Object of the day primarily was “Beverley”, but while Andrew spent time on minor amendments to the supercharger/dynamo drive we reinstated the previous week I did some dimension checks on the 03 before joining him in the warm of the shed.

It was “traditional” in the 60s that loco manufacturers using the ubiquitous Twin Disc converter ran it on diesel fuel. It saved carrying a separate reservoir, so there was less to build and maintain, and if you took two independent feeds off the fuel tank, and made the engine the higher one, the engine would stop before the converter was starved. But that was then. Fifty years on, and successive legislation has reduced the sulphur content in diesel, indeed, from the beginning of this month the sulphur content in “gas oil” (the red stuff we put in the fuel tank) has to be the same as that of DERV (the clear stuff you pay the extra tax on for the privilege of running your car). The process by which the sulphur is reduced unfortunately impairs the “lubriscosity” of the fuel, in other words, that elusive element that makes it a good lubricant is taken away. Added to that, we have seen converters fail through water in the fuel (as the converter is often below the fuel tank, it ends up finding its way there, especially when operators forget the cardinal rule of keeping the tank half-full at all times) and suffer when various microbes take up residence. Consequently it has become our policy that as Andrew’s locos come through for major TLC, we switch their converters to run on hydraulic oil.

Bev's supercharger (oranged ribbed bit), dynamo behind, oil cooler right foreground and old converter cooler (top right)

In Beverley’s case this primarily requires adding a reservoir tank for the oil and re-routing the suction and return lines to this from the fuel tank, but, as always we made it a touch more complicated, improving the system by incorporating a direct-to-air cooler- which has added 25mm to the overall casing length, and in anticipation of eventually vac-braking, added a pulley to the front of the engine to drive an exhauster, which involved raising the radiator a few inches in order to clear it. When we started all this on Bev, the converter and its associated piping was still full of gas oil and although in the course of re-routing the main converter hoses from old to new coolers, some of it had been drained, we needed the loco over a pit to access the plug in the bottom of the converter which, sadly had been left as a plug when we had the whole power unit out at Middleton a few years ago. Bev was now over a pit and it was my first task to get underneath and drain the converter. Working in a pit is at least easier and more comfortable than crawling about on a filthy concrete floor, but standing in close proximity to a 25 litre drum and funnel and hoping that you have successfully lined it up to the column of fluid that will emerge when the plug comes out is not a comforting feeling. Having reached up through a strategic hole in a frame cross stretcher to release the plug, I chickened out and found that I could – just- reach the plug with my fingers while laying down on the running plate. At such safe distance I drained the fuel out of the converter and afterwards made a generous donation to the fuel tank of the nearby 02 as Andrew had no confidence in me pouring it in Bev’s tank without spilling it down his pristine paintwork. A drain tap will replace the plug for future changes.

The new tank

Next I went back to the front of the cab and set about determining where the tank could go. Neither Mr Hudswell nor Mr Clark considered the possibility of needing to add anything here, so there are a mass of air, coolant and fuel pipes, tacho cables and throttle linkages to miss, and finding a suitable location on one side might not be convenient on the other, but eventually 4 holes were drilled, 4 spacers cut, and the reservoir tank mounted. But plans to test Bev by cranking and maybe starting the engine (I had disconnected the converter charge pump belt in case we did) were thwarted by the discovery that not only were the batteries flat, but that they would take no charge, and sadly that is really our fault for leaving them unattended for so long.

During the week I have had my mind on the 03 so far as control system, etc goes and the first stage of the wiring diagram is now in existence, though it will take a fair few revisions before it incorporates all that we require. Part and parcel is turning the old 5-speed gear change linkage (of which only the cross-shaft and hand levers remain) into a means of operating 3 solenoid valves on the powershift. By the end of the week I had abandoned hours spent over the last few weeks mapping complicated quadrants watched over by perception sensors to traditional cams tracked by limit switches that came from the Jarvis auction lots last year. I also made enquiries with my favourite prop-shaft specialist about a suitable drive shaft to connect the powershift to the final drive, and was rather shocked by a price of £620 +VAT. Anyone out there got an 1810 series shaft they don’t want?

Saturday: Andrew woke up late with a streaming cold and his original plan of heading over to York to deal with Pluto’s reluctant exhauster was abandoned. Instead we eventually made it to Rowsley and while he pottered about firstly on “Libby” and then, after the compressor and riveting gun of the boilersmith made the atmosphere un-conducive, outside in the VBA. I meanwhile, having donned the ear defenders (for no other reason than the shed radio was turned up loud with Tony Blackburn), chopped two lengths of angle and drilled them ready to mount the transmission cooler on the 03 followed by drilling out a piece of 3mm plate to form the top of the new tank on Beverley. Finally the collar that will form part of the brake operating linkage on the Drewry was drilled and tapped to accept a grub screw.

Sunday: Andrew was feeling a little better and had arranged to make a start chopping up some rails he acquired a year or two ago when he had plans of having his own low-loader complete with loco-loading ramp. Today such ambitions have been replaced by the reality of £620 prop-shafts and since the rails are on odd-ball section, they are destined for Mr Booths once they have been cut down to fit a skip.With a crash-course in operating a Geismar rail saw – (Aah, Geismar. Back in my Thomas Hill days we manufactured several maintenance vehicles for Geismar. One was fitted with a hydraulic crane, so carefully balanced that our overhead crane hook picked it up and it stayed perfectly vertical. But it was so heavy that the vehicle springs wouldn’t take the weight. The Geismar resident engineer told us to burn off the crane’s counterbalance and weld the column firmly into the chassis of the vehicle. We protested to no avail and our fabricators set too to burn off a significant lump of steel in convenient pieces. The remains lay for a few weeks on the workshop floor, and somebody chalked them an epitaph – “Mickey Mouse wears a Geismar watch”)  – we had cut two or three when we had to break off for a meeting with Peak Rail Joint MDs about future projects. By the time we’d finished we had daylight for a couple more before it was time to call it a day.

30th December 2011

Having had the whole weekend before Christmas “off” I resisted the urge to do something on Andrew’s locos without his being there. For such a dereliction of duty not only was it inevitable that he would “book” me for Christmas Eve but 4 days between Boxing Day and New Years Eve to boot. Oh, well, what else would one do?

Christmas Eve – was nonetheless a quiet day by our standards. Having not had the opportunity to lift the casing tops off Libby (they are due a visit to the shotblasters) with mechanical aid, Andrew opted for manual procedures and we lifted the front section off and placed it on top of the rear section, so that we could get a better look at the space I left in front of the radiator with a view to installing the ex-Poole Harbour Vanguard transmission cooler in place of the current Cummins one. It is several years since I did this installation, and in hindsight another 20mm or so would have been advantageous. It will go but we might need the engineering equivalent of a shoe-horn. Meanwhile on Peak Rail itself, the last Santa trains of 2011 were running, with an Austerity at the Matlock end and “Pen-y-Ghent” at the other. “PyG” was running with a most-becoming piece of Yuletide decoration on its nose – no doubt it was once a ‘Tinselley‘ Depot loco? Anyway, we broke off for a discussion with another “03″ class loco owner as to whether he had any bits spare that we needed or that we had any for him, and as the light fell, loaded the welder and a compressor into the van and headed for home.

Beverley had been parked outside by D2128

Tuesday: With Christmas behind us we headed over to Scunthorpe and had a nasty shock, for “Beverley” had been parked outside with the “03″ D2128. At first sight it was rather like a husband coming home and finding his belongings parked in bin bags on the front step as a subtle hint from his wife that she’d like him to leave. After all, Bev’s engine was open to atmosphere, had plain water in and no attempt had been made to sheet it or even bother to close the cab doors. Not only that, the flat wagon (with the 03s fuel tank on) and Andrew’s box van had been parked a long way down a siding round the back. After a flurry of telephone calls it appeared that it had all been a misunderstanding and we set about putting the supercharger and dynamo back on Beverley (the test having apparently been successful) and draining the plain water, I also had brought with me the forward drive shaft for D2128 and decided on a trial fit.

The front PTO shaft will drive compressor, exhauster, rad fan and charge pumps

No prizes for this, but I was speaking to Steph on the phone at the same time. "Arnie" in mid-shunt..

In due course Glenn arrived, the Yorkshire 0-6-0DE “Arnold Machin” condescended to fire up and some rapid shunting followed. The siding was emptied to access the 2 wagons, the shed road followed, the tank was lifted off the flat and D2128 brought back in underneath it. Glenn then helped us unload the radiator from the box van and D2128 was moved back a bit (the hoist is fixed in position) and the radiator lowered in place. Well, that sounds good, but it was apparent that the a/v mounts weren’t quite correct and the rad was at an angle across the loco so off it came, I re-drilled the mounting holes and on the second attempt, the radiator was positioned correctly. Andrew meanwhile had been welding the compressor base together and left it to cooler overnight, but moved over to D2128 and welded the top radiator stay mounts.

Andrew secures the top of the rad before the slings are removed

Wednesday It is a truism in this sort of work that “large lumps” make for visible progress but are relatively quick to install whereas the time-consuming work is the small bits that the casual observer fails to spot. Big lumps for today were the compressor and the powershift cooler – the former is quite obvious but the latter is hidden between the engine and a side frame and requires some ingenuity in plumbing it in to the coolant circuit.

Compressor and its new base. The front PTO shaft is back out the way, but this will be the first belt-drive on it.

The shell cooler will cool the oil from the popwershift part of the transmsission

Andrew was cleaning up a number of surfaces – such as the fuel tank top – which are inaccessible once the casing parts return (the shot blaster did his stuff within a week but in the pressure of work before Christmas our fabricators failed to get them collected, so those repairs can’t start till next week) and coating them with primer. There is a large mounting plate on the back of the Cummins where usually the air cleaner is mounted on a genset. I have seen it mounted here too on locos, but on a “normal” Twin Disc fitted loco it then obstructs access to the clutch inspection cover plate, so I invariably place it somewhere else. It was during Wednesday that it occurred to me that the transmission on this loco did not have a clutch, so the air cleaner could go there after all. I drilled the plate ready but Andrew insisted on painting it first.

The air cleaner is now in place, fuel tank behind

Thursday: Scunthorpe again. Maybe our stamina was running out, maybe we were just lacking “big lumps” ready to fit. The next major item is the torque converter cooler, planned to go in front of the radiator, but my CAD drawing suggested it was a little problematic, indeed it became apparent that the drawing the manufacturer had sent us was substantially different to the cooler he’d then supplied. A “planning meeting” ensued as the rain lashed down outside. In the end, I fitted my air cleaner (the pre-cleaner “mushroom” is left on for the moment but in due course will be replaced with a duct to draw fresh air – see the mod to 14 901 last March) and drilled out the mounting holes for the paxolin termination board that will hide behind Andrew’s new instrument panel. Then I started on various measurement jobs – such as a what the t/c cooler really is through to “as built” details to incorporate onto my master CAD drawing. Andrew had been muttering that there must have been a joint of some sort under the fuel tank mounts, or the wooden bars it rests on had swollen as there was a gap when he came to tighten down the bolts. Lurking on the cab floor I found four plates each with two holes in that looked suspiciously like spacers – sure enough, having dismantled these parts a couple of years ago even Andrew (who frequently and annoyingly reminds me of things that I cannot remember) had forgotten that these had been there. Having finally re-sheeted D2128 “Arnie” was fired up again and a very wet “Beverley” brought back in whilst D2128 returned to the siding outside the shed.

Friday: Back to Rowsley. We had visitors booked but apart from a few volunteers down at the HST shed, Peak Rail was very quiet. We had brought back the welder but also the hydraulic oil tank planned to fit on “Beverley” as part of its conversion from fuel to oil in the converter. I had had this tank fabricated without any fittings (for cheapness) but could now use Andrew’s welding prowess to add the bits, so marked out the tank bottom and made two holes for 1/.2″ nipples for feed pipe and drain, then drilled and tapped the top edge M6 ready for its cover plate. Once the first set of visitors had departed, it wasn’t long before Terry arrived “to do us a bit of cutting”. This would normally be a simple matter, but with the railway shut requires the two of us to open and close several sets of gates between there and the outside world. Eventually, Terry was kitted up and set too to remove the cupboard, which, despite earlier prophesies, still lingered, rusting and unsightly, in the corner of the cab. There is only a little remaining now, awaiting the attention of a grinder. With a few other minor bits of work on Libby’s converter oil system, we declared it an end to 2011.

An EX-cupboard

And a Happy New Year to you all.

11th December 2011

So, a minute after eight on Monday morning I was back at Scunthorpe and there was the Hiab fitted lorry waiting to collect our bits. The operator was no stranger to preservation work and within ten minutes we were loading the first of the casing parts and within fifty minutes they were on their way to Sheffield, together with some other bits and bobs destined to get through to Rowsley.

Casing parts are aboard for transport

I drove back and found that the lorry had beaten me to the shot-blasters, and I left him to get unloaded while I sorted out the commercial bit. Once they’re sorted, they’ll head up to our favourite fabricators for replating various bits before heading back to Scunthorpe, hopefully early in January, but before they do, we need to get the cooler group and fuel tank fitted in the loco…

Although dire prognostications of snow abounded during the latter half of the week, we judged the best combination was to head to Scunthorpe Saturday and progress D2128. While I opened up the tent and started cleaning off the old compressor mounting bracket and its rivets with a grinder, Andrew disappeared inside and completed securing the oil cooler on Beverley, and refitted the coolant hoses and clips. I was then summoned in to witness the test-filling of the system. Previously, Beverley had suffered from a progressive contamination of the sump from coolant, and the most likely candidate had been a minor hole in the oil cooler. If, after leaving the cooling system filled for a week or more, there is no discernible rise in sump level, we will breathe a sigh of relief and get the rest of the engine (supercharger, dynamo, etc) back together and fired up again. At this stage all we could see were external drips as various hose clips didn’t quite fulfil their task.

Last week didn't really give you an impression of the "tent". Here's a full-on view with the flap up and the newly-fitted angle in the foreground

Back out on the 03 we fitted the front angles that carry the nose cone – bolted back in place with copious amounts of silicon sealant to try and bed the parts on to the tread plate. With the decision not to take off the casing side frames, attention turned to resecuring the left hand side to the cab, where the bolts had sheared when Andrew undid them, and I set up the infamous Makita to drill out the remains of the old bolts and open the holes to clear M10. I had the ear defenders on – not because it was particularly noisy but they do keep your ears warm – when I noticed the sound change and sure enough, the Makita had again decided that all it wanted to be in life is a hammer drill. That’s the third time this year, and Northern Power Tools said if it did it again they’d be sending it back to Makita UK to sort it! Fortunately we have a “strategic reserve” drill at Scunthorpe so work was soon resumed and the casing frame re-bolted. On the other side of the cab bulkhead the instrument panel frame was refitted, the lower setscrews have nuts welded in place, the upper ones, above the casing line were ordinary bolts but being much the worse for wear, we’ve replaced with plated button head M8s. Andrew moved on to the fuel tank, still sitting on the wagon behind the loco. When we’d arrived this was dripping in condensation, but the sun had dried it and with the grinder now fitted with a wire brush, he ground the face of the tank that butts up to the cab and gave it a coat of red-oxide primer. At a pinch it could go in like that and the top be treated before the casing top arrives. But the tank sits on angles that connect the two casing sides, and these were cleaned up and put back.

And the instrument panel frame is back in place

The forecast for Sunday was wet, and sure enough it was. We headed over to Rowsley. Andrew asked me to strip two Yorkshire headlamp bodies with a view to fitting (those on Libby having rotted clean through) but the slotted, countersunk screws refused to budge, nor did they surrender to a drill. I realised that they were some grade of stainless – with enough chrome in to make them hard but not enough to stop them corroding themselves solid to the surrounding steel. In the end, I ground them out, but at some cost to the aluminium ring they were holding. Boiler work was proceeding (loudly) in Rowsley shed s Andrew abandoned any idea of progressing Libby (after applying a little more body-filler and instead tidied up the VBA interior. By 4pm though, we were wet (from trips to the van get this or that) and decided to call it a day.

Now, next weekend Andrew, Steph and Andrew’s girlfriend are leaving me home alone, so I am not sure what kind of a blog entry there will be (if any) and then Christmas looms – so I’ll wish you all a Merry Yuletide now.

4th December 2011

As Andrew was away until Sunday morning, there has only been one day on the collection this week. With a close eye on the weather forecast, we reckoned we had to go to Scunthorpe to ensure all was ready for the movement of D2128’s casing parts to Sheffield for shotblasting, plus other bits, so within an hour of his arriving home, he had breakfasted, changed, loaded the van and we were on our way,.

As advised, the flat wagon was sat next to D2128 and we were soon getting things organised. I again fitted the two base plates to the radiator as I had had a suspicion that a measurement was wrong somewhere and yes, summat had gone awry. so off came the plates and after a repeat dimension check they were re-drilled and refitted to the rad. Meanwhile after spray painting up some of the various bits we’d brought over, Andrew had humped the transmission oil reservoir for “Beverley” and given it a coat of red primer. This tank has not been mentioned in these pages – yet it has been sat, mostly in where we call the boiler room at Briddon Towers for couple of years now.

After satisfying myself that the re-drilled plates now fitted and determining the resultant bolt centres for the a/v mounts, it was logical for me to drill the pads to suit, but as Andrew was using the 110V extension inside to clean up the second of the two oil tanks we’d brought over – the squat one for D2128 – I instead removed the side casing doors from the flat and stashed them in the palvan. These doors are aluminium and I had been worried that if they had seemed unwanted, they might have migrated on their own. Better that they are now safe and secure.

The oil reservoir tank for D2128 is now almost ready

Andrew announced that the 110 was free as he was now wielding a paint brush. The forward section of the 03 is still under a tarpaulin, and with a cold wind blowing it seemed a good idea to leave it there, so I set up the inspection lamp and worked inside the “tent”. First job though was to fit the front PTO adaptor, to check everything fitted. The tapped holes you can see will carry the drive through a torsional coupling on to a drive shaft and then to various pulleys.

The front PTO adaptor is now on the Cummins

Then after a bit of toing and froing, I backmarked the first of the pads and mounted the first a/v rad mount, before setting up the second with the first secured. By now Andrew was impatiently waiting for me, having blacked the cab sections inside and out that had been primed last time and wanting to do the same to the front where I was.

And the first of the radiator a/v mounts is temporarily fixed in place

I got on with some sorting and tidying but Andrew had one more job to do before we went home, and it was at least inside in the warm. The oil cooler for “Beverley” we suspected was the source of sump contamination with coolant that has occurred when the loco was last run. Unfortunately, one of the 5 bolts holding the cooler in place is behind the supercharger and cannot be reached with any spanner known to man, so about a year ago we took it off with a view to changing it for a brand new core. That came from an e-bay seller ages ago, and during the week, I had ordered up the various joints and seals to complete the job. With the cooler now back in place (minus a screw or two for the moment) Andrew’s plan is to do a coolant test and see if any migrates into the sump, and if it passes that test, reassemble the supercharger drive and get it going again.

Before and after on the oil cooler

So Saturday left to me, I had an easy weekend, huh? Yes, perhaps, but while Andrew is off earning a crust tomorrow, guess who is back at Scunthorpe at 08.00 sharp to meet the haulier and oversee the transport?

27th November 2011

We should, I suppose, stop being optimistic and try to avoid planning anything significant for the last weekend of the month – and even include Friday. We had a provisional promise – well, OK, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but he did say “he’d try to…” – that on Wednesday the flat wagon at Scunthorpe, upon which the 03’s casing bits have resided for the last couple of years, would be shunted out from the very far end of the AFRPS’s longest siding and put round the front ready for us to collect and take them back to Sheffield for shotblast. On the strength of this, Andrew booked Friday off work and I nearly booked a wagon. But the deadline went by and with no positive news we instead went our separate ways, me to do some (revenue earning) work and Andrew for a quiet day painting “Libby” at Rowsley.

He reported that his ex-german flat wagon was now in use, having become the carrier for PR’s Austerity boiler, now on its side for attention, and he got various more bits primed and undercoated.

Saturday: The start was not as early as he would have liked but we headed over to Rowsley with some more scrap for the skip and a rendezvous with the S&T store. Before even the palvan arrived at Rowsley, those nice, friendly S&T guys had allowed Andrew to stash some bits in their stores but they were now dropping hints that they’d like their space back, and anyway, we needed some components destined for the 03. Some years ago, when “Claire” was at Wirksworth, we had planned to upgrade the transmission cooling system with a separate cooler and bought two brand-spanking new ones. In the event, the first was fitted to “Beverley” and ironically, as “Claire” is no longer a part of the ‘fleet’, the second is going on the 03, also at Scunthorpe. So this was to come out of the store, together with one of two fabricated oil reservoirs which I drew up and had made when I was at RMS Locotec. In the event the RMS project didn’t proceed – the two locos they were intended for worked in a potash loading area and were corroding away fast: it was felt that upgrading them was not really worthwhile. Eventually I ‘acquired’ the tanks and with a bit of modification the first should be usable on the 03, which needs a fairly ‘low-profile’ (=squat) reservoir as it must be lower than the return line drain on the transmission. While we were there, Andrew finally took a decision on the marker-light mountain. When the ex BAOR Hunslet 0-4-0DHs finally met their end about 8 years ago, he recovered all the marker light assemblies, and being to European standards, comprised two different fabrications – a tall ‘U’-shaped one with both red and white markers, and a ‘V’ shaped one with a single white light. Given that the markers are about 6″ in diameter and carry a single domestic sized (but 24V) bulb (from those simpler days when bulbs were bulbs and not electrified spaghetti) the U-shaped boxes looked monstrous and I voiced my dislike of fitting them to anything: me and Andrew had just agreed to disagree. But, as a sign of Andrew’s growing maturity and good-taste, he finally decided that the twin ones could be scrapped, although we might use the lamp assemblies built into a cab structure (the NB 0-6-0 is in mind but that is a few years off) so I spent an hour carefully stripping out the lamp units, lenses and wiring and chucked the steelwork into the bin. Andrew meanwhile took his nice new tin of black paint and his nice new top quality paint brush and started applying paint to the cab side of “Libby”, only to get quite disgusted as temperature was getting the better of the job, causing ‘curtains’ in the paint. Eventually, he retired to take out his frustration in the VBA, the objects receiving his ire being the two ex Class 31 exhausters whose motors are to be removed and scrapped. I ran several more barrowfuls down to the skip as the dusk drew in. On the good news side, a phone call confirmed that over at Scunthorpe the flat wagon was recovered and awaits our visit to uplift the casings.

Sunday: We had been expecting a visitor at home on Friday to assess a small collection of ex D9500 trifles that had been awaiting him for several weeks.  He had cried off, but promised to present himself at 09.00 on Sunday morning, so we were suitably readied in good time. Needless to say by 09.50 he was still fifty miles away and it was gone 11.00 by the time he’d arrived, professed himself satisfied and we could get on our way.  More scrap was in the back of the van and I was in charge of moving it to the skip while Andrew assessed the results of yesterday’s paint and tried again on the side skirts. He was not at all happy with the results. Glossy, yes, very much, but smooth and even? No, well below the standards he has set.

I moved on to the Brush. These locos were built with the Rolls-Royce DV8N engine, probably for no better reason than they were British-built. The DV8 was a problem-child for Rolls. Intended as a 1000hp engine in its turbocharged/after-cooled form, it was weak on the big ends and never sold commercially above 750bhp. The DV8N however was its normally aspirated form, rated at 445bhp in a number of locos, and so rated here at first. But the combustion characteristic of the DV8N was less than satisfactory. For those enthusiasts of diesel engines who misguidedly believe that it should produce “clag” (for the rest of us, that is smoke, soot, unburnt hydrocarbons and sundry other undesirable by-products, some hazardous to your health), the DV8N was a contender. As even Rolls’ employees would concede, it was a ‘dirty’ engine. Now, if it was plumbed straight through a generous silencer to atmosphere, this was not, in the 60s and 70s, a problem. But for tunnelling use, all emissions are unwelcome and Brush had routed the exhaust system through a water-wash. To feed this system a large L shaped water tank was built in under half the cab floor, compelling Brush designers (though after the battery box, I use the term loosely) to squeeze large contactors, all pneumatic valves and half a mile of pipe and conduit under the remaining half. And it was all to no avail – eventually the engines were de-rated to 427bhp and the water wash abandoned in favour of fume diluters. But the water tank, around and about which the whole cab appears to have been assembled later, remains. (As an aside, the Rolls-Royce Motors Report to Shareholders one year featured the Brush locos on the cover. Such was the awareness of the Publicity Department who produced it, they had assumed that, because it was a loco, it must be one of those built by R-RM subsidiary, Thomas Hills, and were rather embarrassed when Hills management pointed out that their own parent company was plugging a competitor!)

A small part..

..of what we're removing

Andrew keeps telling me that it will look better once we’ve stripped it all out. But I think that the fitters and sparkies at Loughborough must have been demented contortionists to begin with, and with an inherent hatred for all those who might have the temerity to follow in their wake. For such is the volume of pipe and ‘objet d’mechanique‘ in such a small place under the floor that there is nowhere to swing a spanner – and metric bolts, like Unified, have a machining tolerance that ensures that moisture and corrosion take hold. Say what you like about Whitworth and BSF – they’ll undo when metric lock up, screech and eventually shear. Being late 70s build, this loco is all metric, and Brush seem to have used setscrews twice as long as they needed to be to make sure that unwinding was a long and torturous process. Some idea of the jungle we have entered can be seen in the attached photos (sorry, no arty 3/4 views again this week), but Andrew having joined me by half-two, various floor boards, brake valves, distributor pipes, conduits, seats and clutter have now left the building.

20th November 2011

On Wednesday this week I was back down to the shotblasters to collect the bits of 03 they had in and get a price for dealing with the casing rooves and nose cone. The Scunthorpe firm were a disappointment – £450 – I reckoned that was twice what it ought to be and sure enough that’s roughly what the Sheffield firm estimated. Of course, it’s only worthwhile if we can keep the cost of transport within reasonable limits, (they are too bulky to go in the van) so Andrew is on a mission to find a cheap transport vehicle, preferably with a HIAB on to simplify loading at Scunthorpe.

On Thursday my favourite profilers delivered – which was a surprise as I always go and collect – and proved yet again that putting my postcode into Satnav does not get you within 250 metres of our house: actually it doesn’t even get you on the same road. And don’t try telling me my postcode is wrong – we’ve occupied Briddon Towers since 1978 and would have found out by now. So a few drawings were run off and on Friday I was smiling sweetly at our local machinists (who are run off their feet) about creating the auxiliary drive shaft and a few other bits, as I collected the front end-adapter for the Cummins.

Andrew was off again Friday night, leaving me “free” on Saturday, but with the promise that I would pop into Rowsley and collect our air-line that goes with his needle gun. By the time I got there, it was nearly dark – “Lord Phil” had just about completed its ‘driver experience’ work for the day (known colloquially on Peak Rail as ‘pay and play’) and Charlie shunted in a while later with the works train, so I decided to see just how well the camera coped with night scenes.

"Lord Phil" back at the stabling area

"Charlie" heads into the sidings with the works train

Sunday dawned foggy. Andrew arrived home around 9.30 and we loaded up the van to head to Scunthorpe. Although Steph later told me that it had been a nice sunny afternoon back home, it remained cold and misty in TaTa-land, as you can see from the Hunslet BoBo propelling the flats loaded with slabs (through the cab door).

Away in the mist is the CEW and rail plant

The cold was giving Andrew problems with finish on the paint at home – the shotblasted lower gauge panel and instrument casing frame were to be turned out in Halfords finest gloss spray black like the upper panel, but it was coming out all matt. So we brought them over, remembering that the AFRPS loco shed, linked on to the plant steam lines, was nice and warm and would suit the paint better. While it dried, we attacked two of the profiles which will shortly form the base of the radiator where it mounts to its a/v. Being gas cut profiles, the holes tapered so we opened these up true and drilled out the smaller ones for the a/v securing bolt. Next we deployed the air hose and Andrew set to work with the needle gun.

Years ago I had a needle gun. It would demolish paint like rabbits in a lettuce patch but every action has an equal and opposite reaction and your wrist took the brunt of it. Nearly as bad was the numbing effect of the cold exhaust air over your fingers, and the tendency for the whole tool to dismantle itself from the vibration. Andrew however has a Trelawney needle gun, which I gather is to my old device as a Mercedes is to a Skoda. Apparently it incorporates some shock-absorbing technology that makes it smooth and easy to use. I wouldn’t know, he would never let me have a go on it. The other memorable bit about needle gunning is where all the shards of paint get to. It’s not just the obvious places like your hair (less of a problem for me than it used to be) or lodged in any woolly jumper, but it’ll come out like a flurry of snow when next you drop your underpants or reach into a pocket. Anyway, we undid the tarpaulin covering the 03’s prime mover and he climbed inside, cleaning up the front of the running plate where the angle that supports the nose cone will shortly be refitted. I left him to it and headed to the storage van, tipped the radiator over and checked that the profiles we’d drilled now correctly bolted to the bottom, though they need painting next. By the time I got back Andrew was at work at the front of the cab, forcing a gap between casing frame and cab sheet so that the Trelawney could poke its needles into the gap behind.and all over the front which will be obstructed by the fuel tank when it goes back in. I headed in to the cab, removed the floorboards and trialled my paper template (printed 1:1 from the CAD drawing) against the gearbox input flange as a final check – paper is much cheaper than machined steel. I had barely finished when Andrew moved in to deal with the inside cab sheet, where the instrument panel will locate, then after running over everything with a wire wheel on a grinder, broke out the red oxide and started to paint the exposed metal. I took my chance and got his permission to try out his Trelawney. Within 60 seconds he has grabbing my attention and complaining about the noise! I pointed out that I was no louder then he’d been (he’d had the ear defenders on, of course) but he declared that whilst his had been essential, mine was, for the moment, cosmetic. I did a bit more anyway and yes, if my memory of neede gunning bogie wagons at Llanuwchllyn is anything to go by, the Trelawney is a much smoother gun to use – though still heavy to hold above your head when attacking a cab roof.

Above the control desk, where the instrument panel will return

The areas Andrew deemed essential were duly red-oxided, and as the day grew dark we rescured the tarpaulin and packed up. Winter is definitely here, but with a thought towards next Summer, I have been asked to put out a plea. Steph works at a school in Sheffield, and we’re not talking the posher parts. Every summer they have “New Opportunities Days” where groups get to go on educational expeditions. Steph has proposed a two day exploration of new uses for disused railways, incorporating industrial archeology with leisure pursuits, and including Peak Rail, the National Stone Museum and sundry trackbeds. But school funds are limited in these austere times, so if anyone out there could dip into their pockets and offer a bit of sponsorship…..