Of leapfrog and batteries

13th November 2022

Google is infallible. Discuss.

It's been back to something resembling normal this week, that's if anything that happens here at the Briddon Country Pile can be considered normal. On Monday we were graced by the visit of Andy Salmon of Rocks By Rail, who arrived in a very large van conveying some small parts for repair. First thing Tuesday it was back on the road though. Our job was to take Chris Theaker's Avonside 0-6-0ST Cranford from Scunthorpe to Dereham, and as Adam was still working on the 8x4 (its gearbox having been removed and sent away for a full overhaul) it was Phil G's turn with the trailer. Phil, like myself has been in the AFRPS in the past so the appearance of the pair of us with tractor and trailer resulted in considerable conversation with Chris, Simon and Dennis but did little to get us on the road promptly. My normal target of 90 minutes loaded was never going to happen with just two us anyway, but it was half twelve before I got going, and I knew Phil was waiting for a confirmed route from the office before setting off.

Thus I was several miles down the A15 to Lincoln when Phil rang to advise that Sutton Bridge - where the old M&GN railway swing bridge now only carries the A17, was still closed to abnormal loads and thus he must swing south around Wisbech- a slower run even when balanced by encountering tractors on the A17. I reached Dereham not long after 3pm and sized up the arrangements. Last time we went in to Dereham we unloaded in a building entrance, a temporary arrangement. Now a nice long length of siding had been ballasted almost to rail level, and would have been a doddle except that the MNR specifically needed the loco facing chimney towards Fakenham, which meant we would have to back in to site and unlooad facing the buffers, and move the loco sufficiently clear to get the tractor back on the front.

Whereas I had hoped we would both be at Dereham about 3pm, it was almost a quarter to five when Phil finally made it. Dereham station is close to the town centre and this was near enough 'rush hour' as Phil and trailer struggled to negotiate the traffic lights with its traffic islands and then back through the line of waiting cars to get into the yard, but a Police patrol car in the queue neither assisted nor intervened. It was of course effectively dark, and MNR staff seemed surprised when we assured them, after I'd steered the trailer past the goods shed and round on to their unloading track, that we intended to unload and get off back home. I lit the scene with the van headlamps and we carefully built the ramp, winched the loco down (unlike most it was sufficiently free-running that it made all six wheels down onto the siding when we ran out of gravity) and the MNR staff appeared from their cabin and dragged it clear with a telehandler.

With unit and trailer reassembled, it was about 6.40 as we set off back. I was a few minutes later setting off, but caught up wth Phil just before the Swaffham by-pass. There I overtoook, but before I had gone another mile we were all stopped by a Police car with a 'Do Not Pass' illuminated message in his back window. This section of dual carriageway has a sizable hedge between the two lanes but a Peugeot saloon had nonetheless attempted to pass through it. Up ahead a recovery crew were seperating it from the undergrowth and winching it on to their truck. We had almost a front row view, though had to shuffle a bit when an Ambulance, with blue lights brightening the night sky, eased its way between the two lines of waiting vehicles and around the obstruction.

Then we were off again, half an hour or so the later. Through Kings Lynn and on to Sutton Bridge, I was getting a little peckish so pulled over at Sutterton (the roundabout is right next to the old station) to pick up a sandwich. As I came out of the Budgens, Phil roared by (Sutton Brige not barred to him empty). As I got back on the road behind him, a nasty thought came in to my mind. Adam had texted me to say that the 8x4 was nearly fixed and could we schedule a job to collect Thursday afternoon. I was busy Thursday but Adam said he'd be OK without me. But when Phil had transferred various bits from the Doll trailer to my King, he had forgotten the snatch block, and I had made the 80 mile round trip to Adam's yard Monday night to retrieve it. We hadn't used it with Cranford, but Adam would need it Thursday, and it was still in the back of my van. I phoned Phil, who found a layby, put his worklights on as a marker and I pulled up alongside to sling the snatchblock back on.

'Bad news' he said 'The A17 is closed between Sleaford and Newark. I'm not taking this through Grantham - I'll turn right at Sleaford back up to Lincoln and go down the A46 back to Newark.' It said so on Google, and Google is never wrong, is it?

Back on the road, now in front of Phil, it occured to me that if I was going to have to detour as well (my route home was A17 to Newark and then still west to Mansfield) I might need a smidge more diesel. The cheapest around there was East Heckington, so I pulled over and as I came out of the kiosk after paying, Phil leapfrogged me again. I caught him up on the Sleaford by-pass, and was close behind him at the roundabout as true to his word he turned right back on to the A15 for Lincoln. On a whim I stuck to the A17 concluding that if it was closed, I could find my way on minor roads that the big trailer could not. Yet here was traffic coming the other way, and as I passed RAF Cranwell (where incidentally my father met my mother - he an instructor on radio and electronics, she a WAAF) I began to wonder just where it was closed.

Somewhere beyond Leadenham I did see bollards and crash barriers, but workers and plant - not a sausage. In the end, as I reached the outskirts of Newark, I couldn't resist ringing Phil one last time 'I hate to spoil your day, but the A17 is open all the way to Newark...' His reply is not printable.

Wednesday was a recovery day and Thursday, as I said, was busy, not least because Tony S was over working on his Baguley railcar, though I also had a couple of suppliers to visit. If I felt guilty at not being out to assist Adam and Ian with loading, it was assauged when I learned that Phil had joined them and the loco loaded before daylight expired.

But it was back to me on Friday and I was heading down on the A42, leapfrogging Adam and Ian to get to Shackerstone in front of them. By 10.15 we were lining up and I took several photos specifically because I was in touch with a firm from where we are due to move a loco shortly, where the site management was asking dumb questions like 'What do you mean by a ramp?'

Anyway off came the loco, we packed away and headed back home.

Saturday and as usual it was back to the shed. Not only was Matt there early but Andy M was joining us for the day, so I set them tasks and disappeared down to Matlock to collect some nuts and bolts. When Andrew got down it was time to do some shunting, but RS8 was reluctant to start and having pulled some locos clear, I opened up the electrical cabinet and confirmed what I suspected that the charge circuit wasn't functioning. Andy M had just finished a few new AVR's for me, so I shut the engine down and changed the board, but RS8's batteries weren't able to start the engine again, and as RS8 was well out of extension cable range there was nothing for it but to remove the batteries and take them back to the shed for a longer boost, which occupied a large part of my afternoon. When I did get them back on and the loco restarted, there was again no voltage rise, so I fear I may have to change the alternator.

Late on after the others had departed, we mounted the bracket for the hydraulic pump on the S&D Stephenson and to my relief the belts I had purchased were the correct length. (Despite calculating the belts outside length from the CAD drawings, somehow along the way of converting them to available sizes they frequently end up too short.)

We also installed the hydraulic filter and agreed where and how the valve the driver will use effectively to switch off the exhauster when not required could go. The switch for this I had located in the control panel earlier.

Sunday: Andrew had a bad night so it was just me and Matt first thing and I was getting a conduit run into place with a pair of wires threaded through to energise the aforementioned valve once it is installed. Matt, meanwhile, was continuing reassembling bits of Janus even down to refilling coolant and as we are close to starting the loco up again I was asked to check the batteries. Although we have given them a bit of charging from time to time, they haven't done much of late and according to the inscription on the battery box door, and the marks on them, they were installed by the late Dave Hartley in January 2014. At coming up nine years old this didn't auger well when initial checks showed one bank down to 10 volts instead of 24+ and the other at 14. Nonetheless we put them on charge and though, after an hour, the metered voltage rose, you could see the volts drift steadily away once the charger went off.

At one point I was convinced I could hear a train. Peak Rail finished 'normal' passenger services at the end of October and resumes with Santa trains after a month's rest. Yet here was D8 with four coaches, creeping along to clear the level crossing gates and stopping outside.

Mark Sealey explained that Network Rail have agreed to push-pull working into Platform 2 at Matlock and as the end vehicle had been appropriately modified. he was running a training train to familiarise operating staff with the new procedures. Once propelled back out of Matlock (NR) trains will return into Matlock (Riverside-PR) to run-round in the usual way. I can see passengers becoming mightily confused!

I'm afraid the work during the afternoon was scarcely photogenic - I painted a set of brake carriers and secured the check valve for the fuel return line on the Hudswell. Matt shortened the dipstick and its mounting. I made up some exhaust pipe joints: it's a laminate material with aluminium as its middle layer, a bastard to cut/punch holes in and one for handling with thick gloves as the aluminium will slice through latex and skin easily. My handiwork will be almost invisible as the exhaust pipes are rejoined.

And that's about it. No time to tell you of the next 7 days plans for world domination. You'll just have to return next week to see what's actually happened. See ya then.