Of a reputation tarnished?
27th September 2025
Into our lives a little rain must fall, they say, and I'm not referring to the weather. No, the 03 has tried our patience and tarnished its reputation by failing not once but twice in service. You really want to know? Read on...
So, the day after I let the last edition loose Andrew and I were back up at Rowsley putting the exhauster drive together ready for the next day in service. As is usually the case, these things take longer than you expect. Most of it ends up as a largely one-man job, that is, only one person can get head and shoulders in through the casing door so man no.2 (i.e me) becomes the gofer for tools, dropped nuts etc. Replacing the main drive shaft, now with all 4 screws in the torsional coupling, was straightforward, though Andrew muttered that the pulley that drives the compressor wasn't quite aligned correctly and attempted to slew the compressor to the limit of its mounting slots to reduce the angle.As the drive pulley is a taper lock, i.e it can be seperated from the drive shaft, repositioned and clamped up again, it would have been ideal if we could have done so there and then, but we were up against it on time so judged it would be OK for now.
One thing did strike me, which I will mention now for chronological accuracy although its significance didn't strike me at the time, was that the support bearing for the front of the shaft, which should have been mounted on the column provided for it, had been re-mounted by somebody with a flat plate so that it was now further forward (nearer the radiator). I commented to Andrew that 'we didn't make it like that' and hoped that whoever did it had ensured that the shaft was still in the horizontal and not angled up by the thickness of their plate..
On to the exhauster drive, where the stub shaft (see picture of Andrew machining it after welding it up) had to be fitted back in to its bearings and the fabrication that supports it. I don't know what I was on when I came up with this, but I am still quietly satisfied with it. I had tried earlier ideas of using plummer blocks and such, and have designed higher power drives using substantial shafts and bearings able to hold their own against a load (the belt-drive) which is all one-sided. The idea here though was to have two discs, which carry the bearings off-centre, clamped in two sides. Thus turn the discs in tandem and the shaft is brought around eccentrically - with the belts on the pulley pulled away from the drive shaft creating the required tension, then the discs are clamped in to their sides. The discs are rotated by two matching C spanners, so that you can easily see that both discs swivel in step, keeping the shaft true in its bearings (the wear had been because somebody had not ensured the discs were snug in the end plates, so the shaft had had end float and twisted). OK, it is a bit of a faff to get the belts in first time, but after that it was plain sailing.
The drive from the stub shaft to the exhauster had therefore to be prop-shaft - the stub driving it is moving through an arc so aligning a rigid shaft would be mechanically flawed - and to drive that the stub shaft had a flange which is held on with 5 small capscrews. By the time we reached this (final) stage of reassembly it was late in the afternoon and for better or worse, we re-assembled the plate with the capscrews that had come out, making a mental note that longer ones would be better when the loco returned to Darley. With that and a brief run to test we left the loco and I returned to it the following day.
We had used so little fuel last week that I was happy to go out without that hassle and after doing the oilings, the loco was ready to go. I had Greg as secondman-cum-pilot (my competency having expired in the years or so since the 03 was last out much) and after taking the first run to assure myself that all was well I passed over the throttle and he took it for the second.
Certainly there were fewer bangs and other unwelcome mechanical noises up front and I was feeling a little more confident as the day went on. As we drove up the hill into Matlock station on the final run of the day though, I saw the vac gauge starting to fall. My first thought was 'someone's pulled a cord' but that was silly as all the vac would go, not just the needle gradually falling from 21 inch towards 16 and then 15 where the brakes start to apply. No, that could only mean that either a significant leak had developed or that the exhauster was no longer sucking.
We came to a stand with the 03 a few feet short of the platform ramp. I climbed out and went to the front casing door to be greeted by a stationary propshaft disconnected from the stub shaft that was still going round and round.
I sent my two colleagues back to pull the strings on the carriages and then crept forwards until the train was in the platform so the passengers could detrain rather than admire the activity in Sainsbury's car park. In due course the steam loco chuffed down after finishing its duties on the dining service and towed us back to Rowsley.
The next day by way of a complete change I surveyed the roof of the hut next to the shed and wondered how easy it would be to dismantle a bit of it. Well, no, really I wanted to try out Andrew's big electric reciprocating saw. There's a series on tv called 'Salvage Dogs' featuring a firm in Roanoke (USA) that recover all manner of architectural and industrial stuff and 're-purpose' it as domestic furnishings - so maybe the front pointy bit of a launch becomes the marine-themed bar for your living room. I wouldn't give half of it house-room but they happily use these big electric recipriocating saws to chew through structures or around window and door frames. They make it look so-macho and I didn't see why Jagger and Clayton should have all the fun. And yes, armed with that, a hammer and a pry-bar I was able to demolish the rear-most two roofing sections but the weather turned a bit wet so I moved back inside.
Monday the 15th I had down in my diary, to go down to Derby for a meeting of Rail Group Alexander. You may recall I did a talk there a year or so ago, now they were advertising a talk on the 'Wilsthorpe Light Railway' of Long Eaton. I did not know the person presenting it and planned to sit quietly at the back ready to heckle if they started making comments that were patently ill-informed, but somebody recognised me and introduced me to the speaker who then assured me we had corresponded but never met. As it was he was familiar with the early history of the line but had parted before I got involved. Some of the photos he had had been culled from articles and a few were actually mine, and he had one photo wherein I recognised myself driving. It was an interesting trip down memory lane, and afterwards I dug out some of my b&ws and almost felt impressed at the 10.25 inch 4wheeled loco I built, some 50 years ago.
Jagger and Clayton had been down that Monday and again on the Wednesday, with the result that the remainder of the hut roof had been broken down, and finally the floor cut into sections.
That revealed the timber and breeze block supports it had been on and I had visions of the railway asking for the timbers back!
The unoccupied ex MoD bogie well wagon was loaded with the skips and as much of the shed timber as we could, ready to go up to Rowsley.
Friday afternoon we returned to Rowsley and the 03. It was fairly obvious what had happened. Two of the 5 capscrews had wound themselves out: so far so good, the torque could be taken by the remaining 3. But No.3 then unwound and as it was about to launch itself, the remaining two were overloaded and sheared. We could see this because one tapped hole was damaged where the 3rd screw had still been clinging on but ripped off as the other two snapped.
We removed the two broken parts and fitted 5 new (longer) capscrews. What was also disconcerting was that one of the 12mm capscrews that we had fitted in the main torsional coupling last week was now residing on a cross-stretcher under the radiator. Andrew replaced and loctited it, tightening it so hard that he broke a 3/8 ratchet handle. Confident the loco could fulfill its part in the weekend gala event, we returned to Darley to do a bit of tidying up. You see, I was effectively double-booked. Earlier in the year I had agreed to open our side of the road to tours as part of the 'Heritage Open Day' at Darley Dale: actually two days which had been broadcast in the PRA AGM and the press. In essence at 2.30 Ben R would deliver a 30 minute lecture on the achitectural wonders of Darley Dale station and then I'd get them to do 30 minutes on the architectural blandness of the Geoffrey Briddon Building - well no, I'd try to introduce them to the curiousities of locomotives that didn't have either boilers or BR numbers all over them.
But I had agreed to this about March, and I was unaware that the same weekend was the railway's planned gala or that the 03 would be wanted for it. In an ideal world, we would have got all our planned improvements completed, enthusiastic volunteers trained up and signed off and I could have done my lecture while the 03 trundled by in someone else's capable hands. But instead Jacob S planned a timetable where the 03 took a ballast train down to Matlock and came back on a passenger run with sufficient time for me to park up and drive back to Darley before Ben could run out of puff.
The day didn't start well. The Notice for the weekend asked all volunteers to be at the shed for a meeting at 09.00. I arrived just in time and after a few minutes was told 'everyone was here so we had it' before I had arrived. I had a blocked sink back at the Briddon Country Pile so returned to priorities. By 10.30 the sink was flowing and I was back at the 03, prepping it ready for 11.30 off shed. We picked up our wagons and put them in the platform, but by now I was very worried. For the first few minutes eveything had been fine, then a banging noise began, the pattern and intensity of which was unprecedented. I texted Andrew. Really I should have failed the loco there and then, but I was reluctant to screw up the gala program and if it could make one return run I could investigate the problem that evening. So, very nervously and with as little throttle as I could get away with, I took the loco out, and to be fair, with revs on, the banging seemed to recede, or maybe just couldn't be heard above everything else.
The timetable had me stop at Matlock Riverside to gain the 09 on my tail, but as I came to a stand the engine almost stopped dead and I knew that it was terminal. I shut it down and the 09 towed us back to Rowsley, where the Barclay took us over to the shed. The torsional coupling was in about 3 pieces, the shaft free and the belt drives all over the place. The charge pump belt was on the track at Matlock.
On the plus side. I had plenty of time to head down to Darley Dale for my Heritage Day tour. Ben and I stood around before the news came through that the 3 booked participants had emailed earlier in the week that they couldn't make it. All in all it hadn't been much of a day. That evening I went back to my CAD drawings of the 03's power unit installation. These go back to 2011 and are like a sketchbook with the main assembly surrounded by all sorts of individual parts, sub-assemblies, alternatives, etc on the same drawing sheet. There were my alternative ideas for driving the exhauster, or duplicated drawings of individual parts for the profilers. You remember back at the beginning I mentioned that someone had relocated the support bearing farther out toward the radiator? Yes, the significance hadn't struck me then, but as I looked back at my drawings now, it was all too obvious.
There is a step in the drive shaft, and the plummer block bearing was intended to butt up to this step so that the shaft was trapped between the front of the crankshaft and the plummer block. With the latter now 2 inches or so farther away that restraint was missing - the drive shaft could float with only the drive belts and the torsional coupling to keep it in place. That would place a load on the rubber which it was not intended to experience, and a shuttling action that would help snap or unwind the bolts. The plummer block in its original position had enabled me to keep the location at the engine end simple but effective: now it seems I must re-design it to be bomb-proof.
Sunday I didn't head down until nearly half-two and this time our compliment of 11 were present and correct. I felt somewhat relieved to hear that the 03 had not had a monopoly of the mechanical issues the previous day, not that I wished the event any bad luck, but that it made me feel a little less guilty for letting them down. I took over my group and kept them spellbound for about 55 minutes (well actually one woman managed to escape as she had a train to catch) and had my hand shaken at the end. One visitor wanted to know about workshop accidents - I pointed to a blood blister I gave myself a week or so before but assured him we had not (yet) had any broken bones or hospitalisations! There has, apparently, been favourable feedback.
The following day Tony S was across. Andrew was down and the crane in action, lifting first the 30ft container out of the way and then Tony's 20ft over to where the hut had once been. This is not its final resting place, but an interim one where Jagger and Clayton can access it for painting. The 30fter was then returned near to where it was before, but the nett result was a significant increase in car parking space and a better view for Mark over his garden fence. I had to pop off for a while but when I returned it was just in time to see the MoD bogie well wagon doing a 'revenue earning' run on the back of the works train with much shed timber etc for disposal at Rowsley.
On the negative side, one of the crane hoses started leaking (the container at its weight and radius had been the most significant load it had handled with us) and so a programme of replacements will get under way.
This practice of transferring loads at Darley may become a fashion. Whilst we really don't want the well wagon back too soon, (we'll fill it again when it does) an exchange occurred again on Friday night. Peak Rail's 'flagship' loco, D8, hasn't been home since the Great Gathering, having had a holiday at Butterley. Its return had been expected in time for the gala, but kept being deferred. It was finally due in to Matlock at 23.59 last night, and as it would be towed up the branch between two class 20s it needed the Barclay 0-6-0DH (873, aka Bagnall the Barclay, aka John Boy) to meet it and escort it back home. Thus, the Barclay would bring the 03 along and drop it off at Darley, but we didn't want it just pushed in, so I agreed to go down and bring it in with RS8. The plan was that Mark S and Tom D were leaving at about 23.00, so all through the evening I was glancing at my phone in case Andrew sent me an update. About 10.15 I assumed that 23.00 was set in stone so stopped checking and instead watched the clock. It must have been about then that Andrew texted to say Mark was just departing...Anyway about quarter to eleven I discovered this to my horror and raced down to find the Barclay and the 03 waiting just on the Matlock side of the level crossing. I dashed into the shed for RS8's key, to turn the far side external lights on and grab a hivi jacket, before cranking up RS8, turning on its lights and as soon as the air pressure had built, heading down to the access track. Tom had set the road and waved me on, and signalled me back up to the 03 and soon I was propelling it back into the yard, using my torch to sight the end of the train on 3B and just pull up before it. RS8's lights are good but the 03 was in the way, and I can lean far farther out of RS8's cab to see 'round'. By 11.15 I was on my way home again, with 873 on its way to Matlock and its triste with D8.
And that about brings you up-to-date, and I've achieved a second instalment in September. Next month has a couple of minorly important days in, not that that will influence what or when I next write this all up. See ya then.