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3rd May 2010
The Elsecar Heritage Railway Gala is over. Trains have been top'n'tailed by Hunslet "Louise", the Yorkshire, the Class 31, and two trains operated with an Andrew Briddon Loco at each end, that is to say, 14 901 at one end and Drewry 72229 at the other, but I digress....
Work on painting the Class 14 ran almost up to the wire, but the result we all think was well worth it. Sadly two of the casing doors were not back from fabrication, (in fact one arrived back, but too late to paint, and would have looked more out of place than running without, so was left off). The painting team (primarily Andrew and Terry, with help from others as came available) denied the electrical department (i.e. Pete) the opportunity to fit the BMAC lights until all painting was finished, so these are, for the moment, cosmetic, but will be cabled up shortly.
By the morning of May 2nd, however, all was in readiness, and the 14 was waiting for action and looking, although we say it ourselves, very smart. Yes, we had hoped to give the chassis and running gear a quick once-over and finish the side rods off in red, and the fan grille, though reassembled, was only dropped in to place, but the overall result was pleasing. The tacho head from the Brush at Peak Rail had been borrowed to see if it was the right calibration for the 14's new tacho genny and opinions vary - Terry thinks it about right, Pete that it indicates a little slow, but gave us a much better feel than hitherto.
Saturday was relatively uneventful - Pete was driving and "gentle" with the throttle, though from all accounts, and from those snippets that have been, or will be, uploaded to You-tube the loco looked and sounded well. We topped up the coolant after the first run, and with the engine up to temperature and staying there, we were a little concerned about a 'lack' of performance which might be attributable to low oil level in the Voith, so Andrew tore off to Peak Rail to collect a part-used 45 gallon drum of Tegula which came with Coronation. It was topped up after the service finished that evening.
Sunday was slightly more eventful - after the first run, we came back into Elsecar seeing steam(?) from the right hand side of the casings and found fuel on the left hand running plate. An injector spill return line had snapped and (although we didn't twig immediately) some of the overflow from the header tank was finding its way down and out. (The steam was in fact, just vapour). While EHR staff scratched their heads over what to substitute, Pete and Terry went into action and within minutes a plastic line was substituted, and the 14 continued in traffic. Later in the afternoon, two more lines on that bank also snapped - don't you just love old copper pipes? - and were similarly substituted without any change to rostered timetable.
All too soon, the last train of the Gala was heading to Hemingfield, and the day had one of its lighter moments - just as the 14 started up to head back to Elsecar, an emergency stop was called for. One of the two volunteer guards had dropped his green flag out the window!
The 14 moves to Butterley in a couple of weeks time, so we have a few jobs to get done in the interim (like vinyls - Terry recounts a young "spotter" on Elsecar platform, notebook raised and pencil ready to jot down the 14's number, only to look mightily confused when he found no number on it) and we look forward to meeting old friends, and making new, on the MR-B.
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