Tony's Diesel Traction Preservation Blog

2BA or not 2BA

2009-06-17T12:21:00.005+01:00

Ok, I apologise for the pun in the title.

Last week I bought a pack of 2BA machine screws from an internet based supplier (who for the time being will remain nameless). When I received them I was puzzled to find that they didn’t fit the electrical equipment coverplates, or more tellingly the 2BA nuts I had received from the same supplier only the week before.

After a few minutes rummaging in my collection of old screws, I found that I had been supplied with M5 machine screws. Unsurprisingly I phoned to complain….

“Well they are equivalent” I was told.
“What do you mean by equivalent?” I enquired.
“M5 parts can be interchanged with 2BA parts”, came the reply.
“But I have 2BA threaded holes and I need 2BA machine screws to fit them”.
“Sorry sir, but I think you’ll find the M5 will do the job better”.
“But I need them to fit the equipment that already exists with 2BA threads in it”.
“You will find that if you use the M5 it will fit perfectly well”.
“No it doesn’t!”
“Yes it will!”

“Please can I speak to your supervisor?”

After a 5 minute wait, a lady picked up the phone and we went through the whole discussion again... No improvement. Not the slightest understanding of the problem.

“Can I return them and get my money back as they don’t work?”
“Have you opened the packet?”
“Yes”.
“Sorry sir you can’t return it if the packet has been opened”.
“But it says 2BA on the packet, and you now admit that you’ve supplied me M5, so you have mislabelled them”.
“No sir M5 and 2BA are equivalent, so the labelling is correct”.
“But equivalent to is not the same as identical to”.
“Yes it is”.
“No it isn’t. I think I better speak to your manager…….”.

To cut the rest of the story short, I went on eBay found some 2BA parts, confirmed with the seller that they were genuine. And three days latter they were fitted and the equipment covers were back in place….

Back to the original supplier; I have taken out small claim paperwork and sent them a copy with a note saying that I will submit it to the court unless I receive a full refund within 28 days. I’ll keep you posted….

Why is it that paint causes so many arguments?

2009-02-11T13:09:00.004Z

In the railway diesel traction preservation world, what is paint for? Apart, that is, from a subject on which we can all fail to agree and argue endlessly about.

Well, paint does two things. It provides a degree of protection for metal to save it from oxidisation in the UK’s damp atmosphere. Secondly it allows the owner to advertise their brand through a choice of colours and design.

Back in railway history, I wager Mr Stephenson didn’t bother with paint for the second reason, applying just enough to prevent the metal deteriorating.

So why is the chosen paint scheme such an emotive subject? And I should point out here that my particular grief is with those who are not involved in the preservation of a particular loco but seem to think they can tell the owners what colours it should carry.

“Because large logo is hellfire”, “Because XYZ loco never carried it in BR service”, “Because I once had this loco in that livery”, “Because that livery was the start of the end”, “Because these locos never carried that livery in BR service”, “…

OK, let us unpick these particular issues:

a) Starting with the last one. OK so the loco didn’t carry it in BR service, but for several preserved locos they have been in private hands longer that they ever were for BR, so why not look at what might have been had they survived a little longer. Imagination is a powerful thing and shouldn’t be ignored.

b) Because that livery was the start of the end, this frequently is levelled at the NSE liveries when applied to class 50s. However for a small number of enthusiasts this is how they remember them, so why not recreate it?

c) I’m sure we’ve almost all had at least one loco that has followed us around. So over the years we’ve had it in what ever livery it carried at that time. Perhaps not a bad reason to chose a livery but unless you own the loco not a good arguement to put to those that do.

d) Why is BR ownership the only marker of authenticity? Many locos worked for only a few years under BR then had an even longer career with the National Coal Board before entering preservation. Should these examples only be painted in NCB’s colours? But I see very few are.

e) It is true some liveries suit some loco designs better than others. And aesthetics are at least one good reason for a choice of colour scheme.

If we followed all the rules dictated by the paint police (outlined above), probably all the class 50s would be large logo, and many other classes would have just two choices (green or blue)….

Surely there is room for all liveries whether they are authentic or not. And because locos in preservation are privately owned, why shouldn’t the owners decide.

I for one are waiting for the furry that will be unleashed if one private owner decides to apply his own livery in a preservation setting. But why should they be subject to ridicule or rudeness for a decision, which in all fairness, is their’s to make? Why shouldn’t they advertise their brand, in their way?

So stop wasting energy arguing over the livery. Just protect the metal and agree that this is the best form of advertising hording available.

Confidence Down at the Quarry

2008-06-24T13:01:00.003+01:00

Last week I had the joy of taking two taxis in London, both were metrocabs, both fulfilled their duties fine. One was clean, tidy and everything worked. The other had a missing window catch so the pane rattled, the floor was dirty (several weeks worth at a guess), the seats had several small burn holes and a badly repaired tear. It has to be said I was far more confident that the first would get me from Liverpool St to Thames St, than I was the other one would get me back after the meeting.

Last weekend’s East Somerset Railway 150th celebration combined the East Somerset Railway, with tours of Merehead Quarry, Steam Launch operation on a nearby reservoir and a display of railway loco maintenance at the Mendip Rail Workshops.

In the grounds of the Mendip Rail Facility picnic tables had been set out and a fairground was in operation to keep the young, and young at heart happy.

Also in the yard near the depot complex were steam hauled freight train demonstration runs using a 9F, and a static display of locos. Brand new Class 66s, rubbed shoulders with 19th century 0-4-0 tank engines as well as the depots own extensive fleet of class 59s. Other visitors included 50049, 37901 and 37906 all from the Severn Valley Railway.

But what has this to do with a scruffy Taxi?

I was impressive with the condition of each of the Mendip Rail class 59s. No scruffy paint jobs, no torn seats, no bodged supports for conduits and pipes, no covers taped into position as the catches had failed, no stained paint work, no used filters and parts left lying around .. etc etc etc. Each 59 was clearly heavily used, so nothing was “out of the box” perfect, but everything looked cared for and maintenance was of the highest order.

Unfortunately apart the GBRF 66 which was almost brand new, the army liveried Class 60 and the preserved locos on display, most of the others were obviously less well maintained.

Now I’m not saying that the other locos were not safe to operate, but by maintaining these vehicles to a high order Mendip Rail inspire confidence with the public and their customers, a confidence that comes from their obvious attention to detail.

I know that in the commercial world the costs of maintenance have to be balanced against the income streams and the needs of making a profit to pay dividends to shareholders. But if Mendip Rail can keep their fleet in this good order, surely other freight operators can too.

More B****y Paperwork

2008-05-06T20:23:00.000+01:00

Over the years I have collected all sorts of stray railway documents (mostly of the diesel locomotive engineering kind). They have come to be from friends, ex-railwaymen, and bought off the internet (Ebay etc) or at railway marts or car boot sales.

So I have a collection of Workshop Overhaul Standard Specifications (WOSS), TSUs (training books), and a fine array of engineering notices (LDs and MPs etc). All very well and good.
Last week I turned up at a railway mart, to be greeted by a stallholder who knows my particular fetish. With a huge grin he presented me with a few sheets of roughly photocopied paper, covered in oily fingerprints and looking more than a little worse for wear.

“Would sir be interested in these?”

Fortunately Network Rail group standards are not my thing as I can get them for free by other methods, and as I pointed out to him, the set he was offering were not even up to date, as they had been superseded by more recent issues.

However this encounter got me thinking. How do I know that my other documents are the most up to date available……

By the 1980s some rudimentary version control was in place and this practice is now second nature to almost everyone involved in document handling and reproduction.
But back in the 1970s document version control on the railway was not widely practiced outside the cloistered atmosphere of the drawing offices. But then giving a document a reference code as well as a title appears to have been fairly alien to them too. In fact I have two documents both produced by different departments inside BR, published within two weeks of each other, and both have the same title but cover fairly different subject matter.

So taking a real example. I have two copies of a document called “Diesel Locomotive Disposal”. One in a blue cover the other in green. They are not identical, but very similar. So how can I tell which is the later version? Indeed is there anyway of knowing? Or do I just guess that the copy with the corrected typos and extra few paragraphs is more up to date than the other one? Hardly satisfactory but unless anyone out there knows differently its my starter for 10.

A Mis-spent Youth

2007-10-08T13:41:00.000+01:00

This weekend I went out to photograph a few rail-tours in the Scottish Borders. At one location I was set up ready to go, when an irate farmer advised me that I was on his land in a manner that suggested I should do something (or else!). As I made to move off to find another location, he asked me what I was doing there anyway.

Normally I tend to deflect such questions, but surprised at his interest, I responded, telling him that I was a part owner in a locomotive that was due past any moment now and I wanted to get a photograph of it.

“How do you become a part owner of a locomotive?”

I suggested he didn’t want the long story, and the short version could be summarised as "a mis-spent youth".

From this point his manner became far friendlier and we got talking. It transpired that his uncle had been a driver for many years before being forced to light duties following an injury. The farmer used to go with him on Sunday engineering trains and occasionally as far as Inverness in the cab of a Deltic or Brush (I assumed class 47). It was clear he remembered the time with fondness and was now quite happy to stand there and talk, he even let me get my shots in.

After the train had disappeared round the curve, the conversation continued. It transpired he had wanted to follow his uncle on to the railway, although he knew it would disappoint his father as he wouldn’t then be able take over the family farm.

What had stopped him?

At fifteen he had an argument with his mother, and in a fit of rebellion he had stolen the village bobby’s bike and cycled into the nearby town. There he had nicked a bottle of sprits and tried to drink it all in the park. Although he was never prosecuted, the police record had been enough to prevent him getting a job on the railway.

Dryly he remarked, “That was my mis-spent youth”.

Cooperation

2007-10-05T14:17:00.000+01:00

I was very pleased to see the crowds out to witness the passing of the Railway Touring Company land Cruise to Scotland this weekend.
This operation features no less than 3 preserved locomotives all from different organisations during the long weekend. 55022 Royal Scots Grey started passenger leg of the train rolling from London’s Kings Cross station at 07.20hrs this morning. 50049 Defiance and 40135 will take on most of the running in Scotland over the weekend.
It is a tribute to all three groups: Royal Scots Grey, The Class 50 Alliance, and The Class Forty Preservation Society, that they can all work together to this successful end.

Remind me, who are we fighting?

2007-07-17T12:56:00.000+01:00

In recent weeks I have been dismayed at the slagging off that some hard working individuals have been receiving on internet forums, message boards etc.

Why? Well in at least one forum the planned livery of a loco is being attacked. Yes this loco never carried it in BR service but the group’s management team suggested it and it was voted on at the AGM (and accepted). Now some members who didn’t bother to attend the AGM or authorise a proxy to vote, and a few non-members are up in arms. The criticism as I understand it is that they are accusing the committee of undemocratic behaviour.

The vitriol has now risen to such an extent as to be nauseous. It has become deeply personal and, from what I see, likely to be deeply damaging too.

What the members and non-members must understand is that the committee are all volunteers who put in their time for free. It doesn’t matter if the work is engineering, administration, or fund raising related, it still takes time, in many cases more than 20 hours a week.

If these hard working individuals get fed up with the complaints, they may just stand down. Who is then going to replace them? Do the replacements have the right skills and the time to give up to the cause?

Yes, discussion and genuine complaint is good, and the democratic process is there to allow management teams to be changed. But unless there is wrong doing or there is an obvious and capable replacement waiting in the wings, you may just find that replacing a dedicated enthusiastic committee member is harder that you think.

But above all remember we are all in this for the fun of it, so keep the discussions frank, honest and open, encourage dissent, and do not expect everyone agree with you. But there is never any place for petty arguments, rudeness and person insults. Surely our fight must be with rust and those who stop our beloved locomotives from operating in a safe and regulated way, not with those individuals who actually make it happen!

Recent Failures and Successes

2007-07-02T13:20:00.000+01:00

Firstly 50049: Well done to the guys of the Class 50 Alliance for repairing and returning Defiance to operation so quickly after her failure on the Pompey-Vectis Explorer. She developed a water leak from a fracture in the coolant pipework and had to be relieved by 47853 (from Acton). A week later she suffered with over heating on the charity do round Bristol but a good radiator clean up seems to have cured the problems and she is now out and about again (to Paignton and shuttles around Melton Mobray). I saw ’49 at Tyseley in the rain on Saturday and spoke to one of her support staff, who was busy removing an unofficial Tyseley shed sticker. He reported that there was still work to do but that they are generally satisfied with her current state.
37906: Since reporting the theft of parts, spares have been located from both inside the UK and elsewhere and she has been undertaking work on the SVR. Well done to all involved too.
On the down side the Severn Valley Railway has been breached, and parts of its tracks washed away by the recent heavy rains. An appeal has been launched: click here. Please support it.

The Start of the Season

2007-06-25T13:45:00.000+01:00

Well two months ago we started the preparation for the new season. You know the drill:
· re-fill the water systems drained to stop frost damage in October,
· top up the batteries and then recharge them,
· pump the oil round and test it for contamination and viscosity,
· clean the contacts on the switches, relays and other devices that will have tarnished in the winter due to condensation and lack of use,
· check springs are still springy……(!?) and replace if necessary,
· clean off the brush holders and supports on the generator and numerous motors.
The last one is not as easy as it sounds, many of the motors for exhausters, compressors, and pumps are mounted such that the driven item is easier to get at than the motor. This arrangement made sense during the era prior to preservation when the driven part was usually more temperamental in constant use than the motor, and anyway both could be removed with a hoist in a warm dry workshop if anything went wrong. In preservation it is generally the motors that give trouble when they sit comparatively idle for long periods of time.

The worst offenders for being awkward to get at are the traction motors, so it was with some trepidation that I turned up for a working party with Dzus and Andy. They had done much of the pre-season preparation the previous weekend……

On arrival I was handed a clean cloth, some isoclene, a hard hat and a pair of long rubber gloves, so I knew I was to start on the traction motors…… The traction motor brush gear is accessed from underneath the bogie, through a gap of about 30cm wide in the base of the motor (normally covered by a flap that is double secured).

The first job to complete was to bail the water out of the pit next to the depot building, then, remove the remains of the ash and clinker. Once I had completed the clear out and dropped the plastic box containing our cleaning kit into the pit, Dzus shunted the loco into position using the station pilot. The pit is only just long enough to get one bogie over it at a time, and even then access is limited to a squeeze between the pit edge and the buffer beam pipework.
Andy put on the “not to be Moved” boards and he and I descended through the gap into the pit. Standing in a steam shed pit is never clean, crawling about in one is perhaps the dirtiest thing you can do.

There doesn’t appear to be any way of undertaking the clean up without getting the muck to run down the gloves and accumulate in your arm pit. So by the time we’d finished cleaning the traction motors and re-securing the covers on the No 1 end bogie we looked like escapees from the Black and White Minstrel Show.

There are two choices for conduct when the loco is moved to allow access to the No 2 end bogie; the version I’m sure the HSE would approve (climb out of pit, move loco, climb back in the pit), and the version we use (duck down and let Dzus move the loco over our heads). Being bent double in a confined space, head down and keeping hands clear of the rails pushes the body into a contorted shape. Needless to say under these conditions the excess pressure from the previous evenings beer and curry started to make itself felt. By the time Dzus had re-chocked the loco, the air in the pit was thick, and Andy and I were laughing ourselves silly.

After the work was complete, we elected to stay put while Dzus removed the loco from over our heads, with the same results from our digestive systems. As we emerged back into daylight from the foul pit, a passing fireman and his mate covered their noses and were heard to refer to us as the “Swamp Monsters from the Black Lagoon”.

For the next few weekends Andy found he had to answer to “Swampy”. But my part seems largely to have been forgotten…..

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

2007-04-16T13:57:00.000+01:00

This may feel like a sermon. In many ways it is.

I understand from the railway press that the Dean Forest Railway is suffering from a spate of thefts of parts from their restoration projects. Over this weekend I’m told a few other railways have also discovered that important parts have been removed from some of their assets too.

The items stolen are not lumps of metal (steel, copper, brass etc) that would fetch a good price at the scrap merchant, and consequently the prime suspects would be from outside the railway community. But in each case the components taken have been carefully selected and targeted, the break ins have been undertaken carefully to cause minimum damage. In at least one case the parts removed were electronic PCBs (circuit cards). These have no scrap value, but are essential to the operation of the vehicle targeted. What is even stranger is that these cards will not work in any other type of locomotive (all class members are now in preservation).

Consequently I‘m finding it hard to seriously come to any other conclusion but that preservationists are stealing from each other. I seriously hope I’m wrong, I really do. Until recently preservation has been marked out by cooperation, celebration of each every groups successes and a friendly rivalry. If this has been replaced by deceit and deliberate sabotage then we are all much worse off.

So my appeal. If you know what has happened to these missing parts, tell the owners and do the honourable thing and get them returned. You’ll make better friends and gain a huge amount of thanks and possible future assistance from grateful owners. If you know who has been nicking the bits, let them know you are not happy with their behaviour (yes this will take some bravery), and get them to return the parts (anonymously).

Come on, you know it makes sense, otherwise we will end up spending more time trying to steal each others parts and less time getting our projects completed.

Consequently I make no excuses for the biblical title for this blog entry.

Tony B very piXXed off!

Buyer Beware

2007-03-12T13:28:00.000Z

With so many redundant locos currently available for sale in the UK it is inevitable that some people with half an idea of preservation and no previous experience will take an interest in restoring a few of them.
To my mind there are few pitfalls for the unwary:
1) Before you bid, make sure you have;
a) Sorted out a railway that will be happy to host you while you restore the loco to working order.
b) factored in the cost of the transport to your chosen place of restoration.
c) a ready supply of spare parts (talk to Booths and other railway scrap merchants about component recovery).
2) Once there, you will need to get together with a group of like minded enthusiasts to help with the work. Doing it alone can be very slow work, unless you have very deep pockets to pay for professional help.
See recent banter on the Preserved Diesels Forum for more details….
One of the suggestions was that those in the know should write a guide to diesel preservation:

Matt Stoddon was kind enough to mock up the title page…….

Cycling; Avoiding the Preservation Jam

2007-03-10T14:39:00.000Z

The teams of people working on every rail preservation project I’ve been involved with appear to go through emotional cycles. No not pushbikes, but a repeated cycle of;
1. enthusiasm for hard work,
2. bask in the glory of attainment,
3. mild antipathy,
4. then lethargy and disinterest.
The cycle restarts when something or someone new comes along.
Sometimes the cycle is short, say a month, but more frequently the period is a year or two.
It is perfectly possible for some projects to get stuck in one part of the cycle, particularly the later two stages. Many of the once running preserved locos that now languish in the sidings of the UK’s private railways are testament to that.
Why does it happen?
I suggest that in reality it is just human nature at work: When there is a target to achieve, everyone involved works enthusiastically to attain it. Once achieved, everyone revels in the glory. Then we take it for granted, and finally we start to get bored with it.
I’ve heard this basic tale in different guises from four different groups/owners in the last month alone. The trick to keep the team together and making progress appears to be to find the next exciting (and achievable) target before lethargy takes too strong a hold and it becomes difficult to break.
The new challenge can be as simple as a new livery variation, obtaining and fitting headcode blinds (or plating them over, and adding market lights), or more complex issues like reinstating the train heat boiler, or even mainline running.
However, just when you have reliably achieved your ambition, whatever it is, even the holy grail of mainline operation, the next part of the cycle will start, and you will need to quickly think of something else to keep the volunteers motivated.
One trick I know used by the management of some owning groups is to have several targets running simultaneously, each with different timescales to attainment and diverse enough in content to stimulate different sub-sets of the volunteer force. This way there is a wider spread of focus and as one team starts on a negative path another on a positive upswing can re-fire their flagging enthusiasm.
Interesting, the smaller the group of people making up the team the worse the down swings appear to be. Larger groups seem to be able to keep focused for longer and are better able to continue making progress when a single (perhaps key) member of the team needs time away from the railway.
In my opinion the upshot of this is that diesel traction preservation is best undertaken by larger groups of enthusiasts as smaller groups more readily get into stagnation.

Mainline Loco in Trouble! Another has Unexpected Success!

2007-01-29T14:11:00.000Z

It is with sadness that we hear that another mainline preserved loco has suffered a major failure; 50031 suffering a main generator flashover near Ludlow.

Good Luck to the Class 50 Alliance Ltd (the name for the combined organisation of The Fifty Fund and Project Defiance), in getting the repair done speedily and economically. We know their voluteers and sub-contractors will work diligently to get Hood back and running as soon as they practically can.

Read more about it in the press release: click here. For those who’d like to donate to help continue the restoration of 50031, 50035, 50044 and 50049 see their websites: http://www.fiftyfund.org.uk/ and www.class50alliance.co.uk

On the other hand the doomsayers had been out in force predicting that Saturday’s outing for 45112 would end in tears before the train had even reached the second pick up point. In fact although the locomotive had been out of use for a long time, and had a reputation for embarrassing failures, it came through it well. A very happy Peak Army conscript contacted me on Sunday to rave about it, his wife however was less happy, as the only issue with the loco noticed by the punters was the lack of ETH……….

Competitive Texting & Happy New Year!

2007-01-02T13:44:00.000Z

With the proliferation of texting and e-mails, it has become apparent that there are those among us that take great pleasure in sending their Christmas or New Year greetings from as wacky or far flung places as possible.

This year it has risen to a new competitive level:

My first Christmas text was on the 24th December from the top station on a Swiss mountain railway.
Then came an e-mail with a photo of the correspondent watching the shunters loading the train ferry between the New Zealand islands.
On the day itself: a text from the high speed maglev line in China, quoting the set number and train timings and letting me know that this message was sent at the highest speed possible on a scheduled ground based transport system. Er-doesn’t the maglev float?

On New Year’s Eve an e-mail arrived from the snow covered Rockies with photos of a 70 wagon train with 8 locomotives; 6 at the front and 2 at the rear.
Two texts on the day itself reportedly from the high point of the Ferrocarril de Antofagasta a Bolivia (does this run on New Years Day?), and the next from the Qinghai-Tibet railway. These are between them the current and previous highest railway routes in the world.

Well, I can’t compete. I can only wish you all Happy New Year from the comforts of my own home. Where I want it to be known I have been undertaking repairs to a fuel lift pump, rather than swanning off around the world enjoying myself.

A Grand Day Out

2006-12-21T14:38:00.000Z

As Christmas is upon us, here is a story from the balmier times:

During the summer we were running in a locomotive that had been idle for a number of years awaiting its turn to go under the spanner and have its power unit fettled.

The repair itself was unremarkable (just rather long winded), and the result is something we are all rather pleased with. The next job is to re-plate those parts of the bodywork that have succumbed to the metal moth, and pick a colour scheme in which to paint her (as many will know; the most important part of any restoration project - Yeah right!).

Once she was trundling up and down the stretch of yard between the station throat and the start of the housing estate reliably, it was clear she was fit for more of a challenge.

Consequently Simon negotiated a turn on the S&T (Signal and Telephony) department’s monthly freight duty, and a few weeks later a very tatty locomotive drew the short freight out of the sidings and took her first steps on the running lines for over five years.

The train consisted of an un-braked seven plank open wagon, a vacuum only short four wheeled well wagon, and a guards van (caboose the Americans call them). The 7 plank had a number of signalling artefacts with in it (I’m no expert and I’m not going to guess what they were for), and the well wagon was empty. Not exactly a heavy load, but with several stout lads (huuummmm, we are all gentlemen of ample stature) in the loco and a few more enjoying the sunshine on the guard’s veranda with the S&T team, were certainly providing more load at the drawbar than the loco had seen for a while.

At the first loop we were due to wait for the down passenger train to pass. To make ourselves useful we assisted the S&T department remove some point rod guides from the undergrowth. This proved to be quite hard work in the sun, and all of us got up a healthy sweat. One particularly difficult briar snared John the S&T team leader as he lent over to cut it with a knife the length of a Japanese sword. At almost the same time the guide in my hands came apart dropping its concrete base on to my foot. Thank God for steel toecaps! Unsurprisingly both injuries, his forearm and my grazed boots, became the butt of the day’s jokes.

The 0-6-0 on the passenger serviced wheezed past and we passed the time standing clear by waving at the children on board, and grinning like mad Cheshire Cats.

At our next stop the original contents of the seven plank were unloaded into the S&T’s stores and rod guides rearranged to even out the load. Then we were set back into the yard to put the well wagon next to a refurbished signal post.

After waiting twenty minutes or so and hearing lots of raised voices from the vehicle compound a cloud of blue smoke appeared over the fence and shortly afterwards the near-demic yard lorry appeared with its Hiab. This device would probably fail the Afghan MOT let alone a British one, even the crane leaks like a sieve from every control and piston, fortunately it is confined to the yard and generally kept from public view. However after a few false starts to stop the post from twisting when lifted, it was safely loaded onto the well wagon and secured.

The delay in getting the lorry started had lost us our path on the mainline, and we would now have to wait for the next opportunity. This proved not to be hardship, as the buffet was open and an opportunity to sit in the shade have a cold drink, watch the world go by and tell jokes and tall stories couldn’t be missed.

Consequently we were very chilled when the yard phone rang around an hour and half later, and five minutes after that we were underway again.

In both the loco and the van the temperature had risen again, the seats were hot, the metal work was hot, the plastic control handles were hot and sticky.... we had all the windows open and where safe to do it, the doors were open too. But under the sun the temperatures continued to rise.

When we arrived at the western terminus we were held outside for the road into the yard. The signal hung at a slightly drunken angle and when cleared only moved a few degrees to indicate the road (the cables had started to expand in the heat, and hadn’t yet been adjusted).

As the mid day heat hadn't abated the S&T department decided to just abandon the wagons in the yard and unload them in the evening cool. So after a short shunt to release the guards van, so we could return it to the other end of the line we were ready to retrace our steps.

The return journey went well, we exchanged tokens at the mid way point and were only about a mile and a half from our start point before the excitement started.

As we rounded the corner and reduced speed to cross the viaduct over the river, canal and ring road it was clear the preceding steam service had dropped some ash right in the middle of the longest span (over the river). About four sleepers in that area where well alight with the residue of dropped oil, adding to the fuel available.

Simon pulled our little train up short and about six of us descended to the track bed and inspected the fire. The extinguisher from the guards van dealt with two sleepers, but ran-out shortly after being applied to the third. Three bottles of drink and an improvised beater (made from an old thread-bear piece of carpet) finished off the blaze on the third sleeper. Unfortunately the carpet had caught light itself and that combined with the beating action and its old age had reduced it to a useless gossamer.

This left us with the forth sleeper, now burning well and spitting hot cinders at its neighbours in an attempt to get them started too. A mad search of the loco and guard’s van revealed no more material to be used as a beater or any further non-combustable fluids.

In a last ditch attempt to rescue the situation Andy started to unbutton his flies with a view to relieve himself and become a human fire extinguisher, when Simon pulled a much distressed garden hose from the bushes on the embankment before the viaduct.

With the hose un-wound it neatly reached from the loco to the seat of the fire. To guide the water into the hose an oil funnel was found in the tool box which John forced on to the hose to make a rudimentary joint.

Once assembled Andy knelt beside the loco holding the funnel under the radiator drain outlet. Simon opened the drain cock (inside the loco) and sent hot water cascading over Simon’s hands. Much shouting ensued while the water was slowed to a more reasonable rate and it started to trickle down the hose towards the fire.

Ten minutes later the fire was out, the hose wound up and stored away on the loco and we were underway again. All somewhat blacker in face and hands than we had been twenty five minutes earlier.

Flushed with our success and pleased with our ingenuity we failed to take account of some fairly basic issues and as we breasted the hill and started the run down towards the terminus. First the low water level fault light came on. Shortly after this the high water temperature warning indicator illuminated, and within sight of the terminus the loco shut down altogether. Fortunately we were still rolling down the grade and were signalled directly into the yard. With some skilful late braking Simon managed to get us inside and clear of the running lines without coming to a halt or needing to apply more power.

It is a very eerie experience travelling in the cab of a locomotive without the noise of the diesel set in the background. Just the noise of the rail joints and the rush of air as the brake valves are manipulated, most of us didn't make a sound and might as well have been holding our breath.

We used the yard pilot to put the loco away, completed the disposal and left her to cool down. We were all quite relieved when a brief inspection revealed that the safety systems had done their job and saved us from more repairs. In need of cooling down ourselves we spent that evening rehydrating and soaking up the last of the rays in the beer garden of the Station Public House.

Cheers!

Merry Christmas to you all.

Fund Raising

2006-12-01T21:46:00.000Z

Diesel traction preservation is perhaps not as expensive as formula 1 or horse racing, and although the relative costs of owning and running a locomotive have fallen over the last 20 years, it is still not “cheap as chips”. With bills of tens of thousands of pounds for major component repairs, it surprises me that more groups don’t see the importance of fund raising activities.

Three of the best known (and successful) groups; The Deltic Preservation Society, The Fifty Fund and Class 40 Preservation Society all have fund raising teams. They run raffles, have sales-stands on their trains (both on the mainline and on heritage railways), and mail order operations. The later is a great way to extract cash from those who you wouldn’t otherwise see.

These operations not only make money, they also serve as a shop-front for the society themselves. Yes the people doing the fund-raising may well have to try to answer every fool question that comes their way from the public (who doesn’t benefit by a little education), but done properly the group will make friends. These friends may not give any input for years. But the knowledge that at a point in the past the person they met was friendly, informative and knowledgeable might be enough for them to help the group out with money or in other practical ways when it is needed most.

The fund raising team are often among the best recruiting sergeants for any organisation and will obtain more new members (or shareholders) per year than any other activity. New membership is not just about money, it also has the potential to be nurtured and become useful help and eventual controllers of maintenance, repairs and operation.

So why don’t many groups have active fund raising teams? I’ve heard a myriad of excuses:

“We can’t be bothered”
“We don’t have anyone who can do this”
“It would tie up too much money” (in stock I assume)
“No-one would want to buy what we would want to sell”

These groups of preservationists clearly have enough money already, and can’t ever see their lives changing to the point where they won’t personally be able to keep their loco(s) running.

Sorry, I just don’t buy that.

Unfortunately there are many half completed projects around the UK gently rusting because those involved have effectively lost the will to carry on, and don’t have the money to pay someone else to do it. Usually they have had no new blood bought in, thus denying them to opportunity of new ideas and enthusiasm to revitalise the maintenance teams. New volunteers also allow existing members to take a break when their lives demand it, without their work falling to an ever reducing number of team members.

Stock doesn’t have to cost a fortune. The more expensive items tend only to sell to the committed enthusiast anyway, and they are probably paying in to your coffers in other ways. The most successful items tend to be small and low cost. The general public’s appetite for pens, fridge magnets, bookmarks, and key rings never ceases to amaze me (each of these are generally sold at a low price but with a high mark-up).

It is true that not everyone can successfully put on the “act” and be persistent enough to be a successful sales person/fund raiser. However many people can, and with a little practice they will find it isn’t actually that difficult.

So look around you, who do you know who is keen, personable and trustworthy (remember they will handling the group’s money). Go and ask them, invest £300-£600 in a variety of stock, ask the host railway for permission and next time your loco is in operation; have a go at selling it to the travelling public. You might well be surprised at what you can achieve, the funds raised, and the friends you make.

But if you still don’t want to set up your own fund raising operation, please support those who do this Christmas:

DPS Sales: http://www.thedps.co.uk/staticpages/index.php?page=dpssales
The Fifty Fund Mail-Order Forms: http://www.class50alliance.co.uk/salesform.pdf and for special offers: http://www.class50alliance.co.uk/specialoffer.pdf
Class 40 Preservation Society Sales: http://www.cfps.co.uk/sales.htm

Remember you can also direct your loved ones to buy your present this way too!!!!

Zontar

2006-11-14T13:22:00.000Z

Do railway preservationists have a sense of humour….?

The image of serious, unimaginative, conservative, rail enthusiasts is not generally true. Yes of course there are individuals who fit that description, but they are similar to many other people who inhabit the borders of most “hobbies”.

Following on from the disaster of his loco suffering a major failure on the main line, the owner of D9000 clearly still has his sense of humour intact when he agreed to allow this to be filmed:

Zontar’s New Deltic;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh4MBa1bk4w

If you enjoyed that, you might like to try these by the same team:
Zontar Goes Trainspotting;
http://www.babydeltic.com/media/zontar_trainspotting.wmv
Extreme Trainspotting;
http://www.babydelticproductions.co.uk/media/extreme_trainspotting.wmv

Information…..

2006-11-01T12:43:00.000Z

BR in its wisdom, provided its staff with a range of different instruction manuals. These dealt with basic stuff like how to prepare and drive a locomotive, and more detailed workshop manuals covering how to dismantle and rebuild almost every serviceable item used. The former are called 33056 manuals (no, no relation to the Cromptons with similar numbers), the latter WOSS or Workshop Overhaul Standard Specification. BR also kept a number of drawing offices going who produced diagrams (technical drawings) covering everything from loco sub-components through to paint schemes and on the civil side; bridges, station buildings and track-plans.

To the preservationist, these documents are a godsend. The driver’s guides tell you how to trace and work round most of the common faults, and the WOSS will in many cases take you through the process to repair the faulty item once you’ve finally identified it. Well that’s the theory . . . .

I’ve been lucky enough to come by quite a few documents over the years. Most have come from people who know I’m interested in trains, and have inherited them from a relative or are ex-railway employees themselves. Ebay has also been useful, allowing me to pick up those items not obtained from other sources. Of the documents I’ve acquired, some I’ve kept, and other’s I’ve sold on to raise money for preservation projects. However with the advent of scanners, I now scan the documents into .pdf format, and this virtual library is kept on a CD that can run on almost any PC I come across.

But before this time…..

Andy and I had finished a full day partly replacing the workshop floor in our support hut, and had retired to the Wheel Tappers for a refresher. We found a quiet corner and took a few deep drafts before starting to discuss the following days work.

Once again at the bar to procure a follow up round, I looked back to our corner to see that a stranger had taken my seat and was talking animatedly with Andy. Even from the bar it was obvious he wanted something, and was trying to get Andy to provide it. On return to the corner the stranger had gone, and Andy looked faintly annoyed. “Change of plans”, he said, “Tomorrow we are helping Mick with his shunter”.

The shunter was an ex-industrial built along the same lines as BR class 03 or 04. This example carried a false ID and the BR lion and wheel emblem, it was also named after an obscure Greek god.

The morning dawned bright and with little cloud cover, but was fairly cold. I met Andy at the Market Cross Café and over a fullish English Breakfast (I don’t do mushrooms, or black pudding) and tea, Andy filled me in on the background to the day’s activities.

The loco had been one of three used by the local cement works, but they had sold it to one of the founding fathers of the railway back in the 1970s, and under his care it had never missed a beat. It transpired that Mick bought the loco from his estate, his widow only too happy to see the back of it. However since Mick had taken ownership, it had become increasingly unreliable, and now it refused to start or maintain a charge in the batteries overnight. Unfortunately the railway had sent away its 08 for tyre turning (re-profiling the wheels), and which had left Mick’s machine to do the stock moves and shunt releases from the terminus platform (until the run round was recommissioned).

Mick was already there when we pitched up down the yard at 08.30hrs. He looked at his watch and greeted us with “Good Afternoon”….. “!”

With the covers off the control cubicle it became apparent that a mouse or some such had taken up residence in the winter, and it appears that it’s diet had been supplemented by cable insulation. As with all rodents it hadn’t been too fussy about mixing up its bedding with its droppings, which were liberally littered around the bottom of the compartment.

A hand held vacuum cleaner removed the worst of the debris and revealed what we thought was the source of all the problems: Clearly the diet of insulation material had not agreed with the animal, as his remains were rotting, stuck between two particularly well stripped cables. A little further investigation showed that these two bought the power direct from the battery to the main switch and circuit breaker panel in the driver’s desk. Rotten rodent was clearly a low-ish impedance connection, which flattened the batteries over night……

As a temporary measure we reinsulated all the cables we found with miniature teeth marks using glue-lined heat shrink (wonderful stuff)…. But for those wires with more serious damage we had no choice but to pull in replacements.

So far so good.

For those who are worried by such things; a few simple words were later said over the carcass of the deceased, before its mortal remains were hurled into the flames of a good old fashioned yard clearance burn up.

Back to the topic in hand: The locomotive batteries now took charge and appeared to keep it. But against expectations it still wouldn’t start.

Having already asked if Mick had any documents covering the shunter’s electrical systems, and being told he hadn’t, we were left with exploring the problem long hand. Fortified by regular tea breaks as the morning progressed, we revealed:
a) There was no power on the starter motor, but power to the start button on the control desk.
b) When the start button was pressed: there was power to the coil of the main start contactor (we could hear it "clunk" over), and there was voltage on its contacts.
c) The ground line was less than 1 Ohm impedance between the contactor and the starter motor, but the positive side was open circuit.

“Ah ha!” I hear you cry.

Well yes, shorting out the open circuit cable did get the starter motor to run and turn over the diesel set, but it still wouldn’t fire up.

I will at this point admit that neither Andy nor I had any experience of this type of locomotive, neither, it has to be said did Mick, who is by his own admission more of a kettle man himself (kettle is a derogatory term for a steam engine, used by diesel enthusiasts).

Lunch consisted of a toasted sandwich from Linda in the station buffet (show your workers travel card, and get extra ham and cheese……. ). While we were lounging on the volunteer’s entrance steps waiting for the toaster to finish its duties, the station master spotted us and made straight for us. “Is it fixed yet?” His disappointment was clear when we provided a negative response. We understood his concern; the current manoeuvre to allow the loco to run round required it to reverse its train into the yard, then run round and reverse back into the station. This was proving to be costly in time at on each occurrence, and the knock on effect was a significant delay to services built up over the day.

Back in the yard, we started to trace the cable run from the start switch to the starter motor. After a few twists and turns in the driver’s desk it disappeared through the bulkhead into the motor compartment, but didn’t reappear where we expected it to. Tracing the cable from the other end, we followed it from the starter motor until it arrived at the bulkhead but in a completely different location.

After failing to progress this line of attack, we tried looking at the diesel set itself. By putting some fuel into the small header tank above the fuel pump, we could (with our lash up cable) get the diesel set to start, but no new fuel was arriving to replace that consumed, and it soon stopped. Obviously the fuel pump wasn’t running. A multi-meter revealed that the pump wasn’t being powered, and another quick lash up cable allowed us to start the diesel set and keep it running.

However two lash up cables are not a permanent solution, and both Andy and I had the feeling we were missing something. But needs must, and the loco was quickly back in service, being driven by rostered drivers in the lashed up state (we secured the extra cables with cable ties and had tried to hide them away as best we could).

Once the running day had ended and all but the very last of the punters had left for home, Andy and I went back to the shunter with Mick for one last look. We removed the lash up cables, and tried to start her again. Much to our surprise, she powered up first time! We were dumb founded. Mick eventually broke the silence suggesting that he should take her for a run down the yard and back.

Mick completed the static preparation duties by complaining bitterly about the last driver who had wound the hand brake on too far, and by unwinding it, Mick had made his back problems worse. But down the yard, and back we went, the only problem appearing to be be with Mick's back which gave him a twinge at every rail joint we ran over.

Mick shut her down, and we went to wash up none the wiser. Stood in the wash room Andy had a flash of inspiration. Borrowing the key from Mick he wrapped a towel round his waist and went back to the little loco. I grabbed a fresh t-shirt and headed after him, pulling on my shoes as I went.

The shunter wouldn’t start again. “Right!” said Andy, and proceeded to wind down the handbrake to its end stop. Then he tried again, and the diesel set burst back into life at the first attempt. “Yes!” He shut it down again and wound the hand brake half off again, and tried to start her again, this time without success.

Mick arrived at this point still damp from his shower. Andy wound down the handbrake and started the shunter again. Mick looked quizzical, so Andy explained; “To start the diesel set, the handbrake has to be all the way down, or the fuel pump and starter motor won’t run.”

“Oh yes” said Mick, “the manual says something about that”.

AaaaaaarrrrrrGGGGGGGGhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Party in the Station

2006-10-17T09:51:00.000+01:00

Kidderminster Town Station (on the Severn Valley Railway) has been substantially improved over the last 9-12 months. Gone is the porta-cabin restaurant, and the grotty staff facilities. Now the station buildings are complete, a new staff rest room has been added and to cap it all the whole concourse area has a glass roof.

To celebrate the Railway put on a bit of a do…. Live music on the concourse, steam engine cab-rides, and a concert party on the Saturday night (star turn was one of the Railway Directors on Sax as part of an excellent swing band).

Fantastic!

To top the whole thing off, on the Saturday, The Fifty Fund had arranged to get D444 rededicated by the Royal Navy. The honours fell to Lt Cdr Scott Sellers who unveiled new (1970’s BR Western Region style) nameplates. See this link for more details.

Guided tours of the inside of the specially cleaned out loco were then available to all.Well done to The Fifty Fund lads (and lasses on the sales stand) for showing how a diesel group can compliment the activities of a steam railway.

Photos from the Fifty Fund and Preserved Diesels Websites (Thanks!).

RSG With a Leg Out

2006-10-07T16:43:00.000+01:00

It is with great sorrow that I received the news that 55022 has suffered a major engine failure while working a railtour this weekend. It is especially galling considering the amount of effort that has been put into her rebuild since being bought by its new owner.

It is my hope that she is repaired and can be returned to the mainline in the near future.

Health and Safety

2006-09-26T13:24:00.000+01:00

Lots of chatter about this recently, particularly on the Preserved Diesels Forum (a great facility, which is five years old this month). Now the froth is settling, lets look at the whole issue dispassionately. However as I am not a H&S specialist please don’t consider any of this as advice or criticism.

As I understand it, the current H&S rules apply anywhere in the UK except in the resident’s own home. So they apply in all public spaces, at work (the rules still apply whether you get paid for it or not), and in someone else’s home. The only loop hole I can see is that if you are lucky enough to work on your own in a railway workshop that is part of your home. They would however apply to anyone who doesn’t live there working with you.

No one wants an accident to occur and no one in their right mind would plan to undertake a job where the risks of an accident were known to be high. However through ignorance of the risks many people think activities are completely safe when they are not. In the railway preservation world people from all walks of life get involved (brilliant, this is to be encouraged), and in many cases this is the first time they have set eyes on many of the tools they are about to use. Consequently they have no basis on which to assess risk, and frequently end up learning the hard way.

I know of two incidents that illustrate this from my railway preservation experience:
1) A bank clerk was given the task of washing out a set of paint brushes. This he completed, but left the top off the tin he’d filled with white spirit on the work bench. A hospital porter had a rusty hinge to repaint, so he had set it in the vice on the same bench and set to work with a grinder. The sparks from the grinder set the fluid in the can alight. Fortunately no real damage done.

On enquiry, neither had considered the use another might put the same work space to. The porter hadn’t checked what else was on the bench before he’d started and the bank clerk wasn’t aware that white spirit was flammable.

However before you start writing both off as idiots, both understood the importance of segregation of work areas from their employment. The porter knew about isolation ward procedures and which medicinal chemicals could be carried together and which needed to be kept apart, both in transit and storage. The clerk knew how to keep segregation of monies and understood why the best practice approach would prevent confusion and potential damage his employers reputation.

2) A group was trying to get their diesel loco started, but it just wouldn’t take. Eventually the freshly charged batteries were flat. So they rigged up jump start from another loco using some wire they found in the yard. The distance between the locos was around 20 feet across a road access, and the cables were around 40 feet long, so they coiled the cables down and put a rubber mat over them to remove a trip hazard.

When they tried to start the errant loco, the cables between the engines thrashed around like live snakes tied at head and tail. The rubber mat was sent hurtling through the air and landed on the roof of a workshop building. Within 10 seconds one cable fell apart through metal fatigue, and the free-end smashed a shed a window before coming to rest.

No one was hurt but a few were quite shocked.

The group involved included a number of quite well respected professional railway engineers, but they were mechanical specialists and had not understood the action of high levels of DC current (amps) passing in adjacent cables that were not securely clamped down. The fact that they had picked a pair of welding cables up from scavenging around the yard was both fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate, in as much as although not fully rated for the current being passed, it was at least capable for the relatively short term it was exposed to. Unfortunate, as they are highly flexible, and the magnetic fields generated by the current sent the cables unwinding at a huge rate of knots. If they had not fallen apart through fatigue and had melted (fuse like), through overload, other serious side effects could have occurred.

So in both cases mistakes were made through ignorance. But ignorance that could have been overcome through a bit of thought by the individuals concerned, and consultation with other people within both organisations. As we have just seen, even a group of seasoned professional railway engineers didn’t know everything there is to know about the work being undertaken, so I think it is safe to assume that no one can have all the knowledge they need to undertake every task safely.

I will point out the incident 1 was with a group I am directly involved with and 2 was with a group I was not involved with, but shared a facility with over 10 years ago.

Education is part of the answer. New volunteers need to be mentored, that is to work with more experienced people until they can be trusted to be let loose on their own. The point they realise their own limitations and you can trust them to come and ask for guidance is the time you can let them work less supervised.

Another part of the answer is to consider the risks in an open way with your fellow preservationists before starting work (especially if the task is a new one to you and your group). There is a huge wealth of experience out there and most people who work on one type of loco will gladly advise another even for the price of pint, or some other returned favour. Apart from the most serious of tasks, formal risk assessments are not probably not necessary (but can be demanded by the HSE, or even your host railway’s safety officer), common sense can be applied, but the discipline of thinking the issues through and get a range of opinions before work starts can only be a good thing.

Why is this important?

To answer that I’m going to be totally selfish:

From time to time all preservation groups need to undertake work that has by its very nature built in risks. Predominantly but by no means uniquely, these involve powered machinery or lifting equipment. If we do the work using sensible precautions (learned from the professionals in that field) we will be left alone by the HSE. If we don’t, and a number of accidents occur or even just one serious injury results from carelessness (or recklessness), then the HSE will start to take a great deal of interest in our activities. This will mean we will;
a) spend far more time on paperwork and much less on the work that really matters. Result; slower restoration.
b) in some cases we will be forced to get in professional help, as the HSE will prevent certain types of activities. Result; costlier restoration.
Both of the above will put off new recruits joining in with railway preservation activities and seriously frustrate the rest of us.

In addition I don’t want someone else’s lack of thinking resulting in me getting injured (or worse). Neither do I want that injury to be on their conscience for the rest of their lives. There, I told you I was going to be self centred about it!

H&S is everybody’s responsibility, and a lot of the work we do requires everyone to be sensible. If any one group isn’t sensible and an accident happens, we will all end up loosing a freedom and I fear we will end up having to pay professionals at full rates to do that job for us. Taking money we can ill afford away from our hobby to pay their salaries and let them make a profit.

In, Out, In, Out.

2006-09-22T14:25:00.000+01:00

No, not a reminder to breath! But a simple saga:

One of the locos had been operating with a fault ever since a major overhaul had been completed. At the time the pressure was on to use the loco for a gala so the errant system was isolated and as she was driven carefully, all was well. But she couldn’t stay like that, so a few weeks later Shaun and I were tasked with replacing one of the regulator modules to see if that cured the fault.

A freshly overhauled regulator module was duly dispatched from our stores (a suite of high class containers which sit gently rusting in a farmers field miles from anywhere) and arrived bound up in industrial cling film.

Now the regulator module is mounted under the section of roof that isn’t removable, it fits a hole just too small to allow finger (or tool) room to disconnect the wiring and pipework, and although you can get at both sides of it, it is mounted just too low for it to be lifted cleanly out of the cubicle.

It also weighs nearly 30Kg and therefore requires two people to lift it.

Shaun set to work dismantling the equipment around the regulator, while I started drawing a diagram of which cable went to which stud before removing the cables themselves.

40 minutes later we were able to edge the unit out of its resting place and by use of couple of handy lumps of timber, lift it out into the corridor. We tried manhandling it trough the nearest cab door. But after twisting it this way and that we found that whatever angle it was in, it wouldn’t go through.

At this point we put it on the floor and went for a mug of tea.

During the break it dawned on us that there was another route to the outside world, through another door at the other end of loco, but this was only accessible through the labyrinth that is the inside of the locomotive (All modern i.e. non-steam locos are like this. The class 71 is a notable exception to this rule, as it is beautifully uncluttered internally . . . I digress). After a debate of several minutes we elected to try that route instead.

Initially we lifted the regulator over the clean air intake frame, and past the brake compressor control gear and vacuum exhauster. This allowed us to place the regulator on the floor and relieve our arms. Next we negotiated the main generator and lifted it over the oil filters alongside the power unit, carefully twisted the unit so it didn’t hit the overspeed switch. Then after another rest using the floor plates under the governor to take the weight of the unit, we carefully manhandled it (tautology alert!) under the governor, through the radiator compartment door, and straight through the door in to the No 1 end cab. The whole exercise took over thirty minutes to traverse the 12 metres or so from one cab door to the other. But the regulator was out of the engine room.

From here to the ground was easy, with two extra strong fellows from the crew of the steam loco who’d come down the yard for a breather between service trains. They also helped get the other regulator into the cab. Thanks guys.

As the Haynes manual says, reassembly is the reverse of disassembly, and a two hours later the new regulator was in place. Hurray! Job done.

Our instructions were to phone Tim when we got to this point. Tim is one of a small number of the team passed out as driver on the railway. On arrival he undertook the static duties (inspections and check prior to using a locomotive), started the loco, let the air pressure build up to the prerequisite level, selected forward, selected notch 1 for power, and off we went down the yard. Ok so far.

Having stopped the loco we de-isolated the regulator system. Selected forward, plus notch 1 again and nothing happened…. The fault was still present. Ahhhhh!

A few phone calls to other members of the engineering team and we were advised to replace the regulator again with the original, and try again.

So, with reservations we removed the new regulator, wriggled it through the loco, lifted it to the floor, picked up the old one, and bought it back through the engine-room with increasing numbers of rest periods to let the blood flow back into our arms and calm the complaining muscles. Two hours later it was getting dark as we finished making up the connections by torchlight.

Tim ran the test again. No change. Well, we hadn’t expected one!

A pint sounded nice, and so we abandoned the job, disposed of the locomotive (performed the shut down routines) and made our way to The Wheel Tappers Arms.

The following morning Dzus (who’s real name is Simon), arrived with some specialist electrical test equipment. He and Tim spent the morning trying to test run the loco, for each test they put monitoring equipment on different parts of the regulator circuit. As time progressed they started looking increasing puzzled and there was a gentle rise in the volume and quality of the swearing.

While this was going on Shaun and I started on the job of replacing the filters in the body side air intakes. Not a heavy job, but very dusty if you don’t manage to trap the dust in the filter as you remove it to the rubbish bag.

Eventually a very sheepish looking Dzus appeared and started checking the cable identities on the brake frame. He quickly found one and swapped it for its neighbour the other side of a relay coil. Ten minutes later with the regulator in service the loco was moving off down the yard under its own power.

After much probing, Shaun and I got them to admit that when the overhaul was nearing completion Tim and Dzus had wired it up wrong.

Now it was fixed, Tim asked if Shaun and I could replace the regulator with the new one so the old one could go for overhaul. We advised them that after yesterday’s performance we wouldn’t, and left them to it.

My last sight of Tim and Dzus on that day was a few hours later, still in the engine-room trying to get the regulator under the governor……

The Big Grind

2006-09-18T13:32:00.000+01:00

Rolling the story forward a decade and a bit. I now part own over 600 tonnes of railway hardware. Different locomotives and other rolling stock are stored, operated, or under repair at a range of different railway centres around the UK.

Just before this summer got into full swing, I attended a working party to advance the repair of one of the locos. On arrival I found the working party consisted of me, and a young chap we’ll call Steve. Two of us, so much for a working party!

We set to work on the bodyside that needed rubbing down where some over enthusiastic soul had used filler like he had shares in the company. In places it looked like the Wallace and Gromit film set of the moon; all jagged lumps and nodules set on an undulating background. Nothing like the smooth, contour free base our painters insist on working with!

So, set up with power sanders, spare sand paper, overalls, goggles, and dust masks (you have to keep the Health and Safety man happy even on preserved railways), we set to work at opposite ends of the same side of the loco (around 12 metres apart).

Two hours later when we stopped for a break and a cup of tea, my arms and back ached, my head was thumping, my mask was just a sodden mess from my heavy breathing, and I had progressed around half a metre from my start position. Steve on the other hand had made a metre’s worth of progress, still looked bright as a daisy, and rushed off to collect water to make tea. I just settled groaning into a plastic chair in the mess room next to the yard.

Twenty minutes later, refreshed and ready to go again, we reconvene with fresh dust masks. After another hour I have progressed a whole metre (getting better with practice!). Steve has progressed more too, a whole three meters more, so he has only another two metres to finish his half!

At lunch I start suggesting that the Rail Preservation Anti-Doping Agency will be round for a sample later. However Steve has the last laugh as I find that during lunch my joints have locked up, and it takes a huge effort to straighten me up again!

During the afternoon the railway’s Perminant Way (PW, track and infrastructure repair) team turned up and started working on removing chairs from old sleepers for reuse or recycling. They appear to run on tea, (I’m convinced that if they reduced the interval between brews any further it would be more efficient to provide it intravenously…..) and when they sounded the tea’s up klaxon we had completed another metre and half of bodyside. Steve had finished just over a metre….

An hour later Steve was working on my half and clocking up the pints I owed him. I was by now a ball of sweat, it was dripping off me in gallons, not helped by the sun that had burnt of the clouds and cycled round to provide us with perfect illumination. My completed areas started to show up numerous imperfections. Where as Steve’s bit was dead straight and even. As the afternoon wore on my arms turned to jelly, and I found I could only just raise the sander above waist height (I’m sure it got heavier through the day).

By sundown the job was finished, and Steve and I retired to the pub via the washrooms. Once settled in at the Wheel Tappers Arms, Steve was making good progress through my debt, when Andy, the group’s technical officer turned up. He listened to our story without comment, and then helpfully suggested that Steve might want to consider his liver, and take his earnings over a few days.

When he was about to leave he produced a new power sander from his bag, “I knew that old one was useless so I bought this replacement last week. My misses changed my plans for today and sent me shopping, so I couldn’t bring it down this morning” With that he dropped it on the table and legged it.

Steve burst out laughing, finished his pint and then left to go clubbing. I eventually finished my re-hydration therapy (orange juice and lemonade) and made my weary way home.

Remind me, why do I do this?

Origins

2006-09-14T13:13:00.000+01:00

This blog, which will be very occasional, looks at the world of diesel traction railway preservation (that’s Diesel Railway Engine Preservation to most normal people). It’s a varied world with many participants, who are as widely different as the rest of the population, some normal, others are anything but. We are however a fairly friendly bunch, sharing a common aim, but with a fair amount of inter-group rivalry to spice it up.

I got involved over 15 years ago, following a long and largely undistinguished career as a basher. A little explanation is called for perhaps: Where as train spotting involves the recording of train numbers as you see them. Bashing involves recording the numbers of the trains you are pulled (hauled) by. Yes both disciplines keep note books and some participants are both spotters and bashers. I digress….

Bashing is a fairly social activity, you meet like minded souls (mostly in the front coach), and at every station some will leave or join the train as they make their moves to pick up other trains. Through this network, gen (information) about which locomotives were being used on which services is passed around. Accurate gen combined with an all line timetable (Bible) allows the basher to plan his day and obtain the most mileage out of his favourite locos, and position himself to be in the right place at the right time to pick up those he needs. Consequently bashing and the opportunity to partake of a beer or three while waiting for the next train, creates a close knit community with its own language and customs.

In the late 1980s, much to my consternation, my favourite type (class in the jargon) of locos, were considered life expired by British Rail, and they started to disappear from service to be recycled into razor blades and Sony walkmen (is that the plural of walkman?). So when one of my fellow bashers, with similar tastes in locomotives (we’ll call him Will), suggested we should club together with a few others and buy one, I did the obvious thing, and told him he was potty and there was no way I was wasting my money on his silly idea………

Will didn’t give up, along with Sonning, B&H, Glassy, Twyford and Newbury Donkey (ah yes, many of the bashers have nick names, some with more obvious origins than others), he raised enough to out bid the scrappers. Then he went and put a bid in for a nearly complete example, that was being kept at Strongbridge depot near London.

BR accepted the bid and gave him 7 days to hand over the money plus the VAT…….

He hadn’t reckoned on the VAT (purchase tax for those living outside the UK), so Will was just a little short. Needless to say his desperate appeals to save him from a fate worse than a long interview his bank manager and eternal debt, soften my resolve and along with a few other original doubters the short fall was covered.

Three weeks later we met up at Strongbridge for the first working party, and started to realise the size of the task we had before us……….