Living In Fragile Times

The beginning of July has not been a particularly illustrious time for fans of the Brighton Terriers on the K&ESR with both engines finding themselves on the easy list.

But before all that, a quick re-wind back to May…

As previously recorded, Neil Rose passed away on 12th May just a week after the Gala.  His cremation was followed on the 21st by a Memorial/Thanksgiving service in Wadhurst Parish Church.  TTT Chair Tom White attended and reported that the sizeable edifice was filled for the occasion, reflecting Neil’s standing not only on the railway but also in the local community.

No.3 “Bodiam” was kept busy, notably for the 1940s weekend, a fortnight after the Gala.  It certainly makes a change seeing the engine the ‘right’ way round in an historic sense and, as TTT Trustee and K&ESR Driver Ian Scarlett pointed out, gives the crews a different perspective of the railway.

Though as someone else expressed (perhaps enlightened might be more appropriate), it somehow doesn’t look quite right seeing engines – that is 3 and 753 at the moment – working hard up the Bank from Rolvenden bunker first…

32678 was seen doing its bit during the Late Spring Bank Holiday when the rare three-train service was being operated.  The predominately cloudy skies of the morning gave way to harsh early summer sunshine in the afternoon then almost wintry darkness as a weather front moved in with the last run of the day.

Therefore, having been kept reasonably busy on public trains thru the springtime months, the emphasis changed completely in June with the three functioning small engines laid aside except for RXD duty, to be substituted by the DMMU on second-trains other than the full-strength Vintage trains worked for the CAMRA/Cider festival at the end of June.

Then with the return of the trial Vintage service for July Thursdays, No.3 was laid low on the 2nd with a failure of the regulator linkage.  There have been comments in the recent past that the regulator was rather stiff on “Bodiam” – not withstanding this inherent fault; fortunately the driver was immediately able to bring the engine safely to a stand.

“The intermediate mechanism which failed transmits movement of the regulator rod to the regulator itself” explained Ian.  “This, in turn, was consequential due to failed components that normally hold the mechanism in place.”

So a week later, early on the 9th, for the umpteenth time in K&ESR history, a railway observer would have been able to report that (3)2678 was functioning at the head of the main service train with No.3 on shed/under repair/spare engine/washout at Rolvenden.

One of the reasons steam engines remain so resolutely endearing are their human-like characteristics of being so resilient under a string of maladies yet being capable of being knocked off their perches by seemingly the most minor and trivial of problems.

And so it proved for 32678.  Having successfully completed two round trips in the care of Driver Adrian Landi and Fireman Dave Roberts, the little star was laid low with a failure of the right hand clack valve prior to the 3.30pm TNT departure.

Actually, there’s not a lot published about clack valves; a Google search wasn’t exactly helpful and therefore a bit of research and investigating was required.

William Stroudley was a great fan of motion-driven hot water feed pumps over live steam injectors, which came much later to the class and generally when reboilered as A1X.  The main problem with the former was the motion element, which resulted in occasional running up and down light-engine purely to work the pumps to replenish the boiler.

Whether hot water pump-driven or cold water injector-worked, the end principal is the same – to provide the feed water with sufficient momentum to overcome the pressure in the boiler via the non-return clack valve.

These are readily seen at the top of the feed pipe, on both sides of the engine, in front of the tanks, at the diameter of the boiler in a horizontal plane.

Good injector practice involves using them on an alternate basis to ensure satisfactory performance of the feed system.  Occasionally, like all things mechanical, clack valves may not work properly and allow egress of water and steam from the boiler.  In section the simple rule of supply and demand may apply and allow the train to proceed, if sufficient water may be sourced via the other injector.  The solution that usually works is to apply some straightforward “Victorian engineering” – that is, a good clout – but in spite of Driver Landi’s best efforts, assisted by Matt Green, the clack valve refused to close and he had no alternative but to fail the engine; rapid exit stage left for Rolvenden.

Class 03 D2023 worked the 3.30pm departure with a late start.

Materials are on order to effect repairs to No.3 and at the time of writing it is not known how long either engine will be out of use.  The Big Plan changes regularly but the most recent available information is that 32678 will see some daily running in the first half of August.

HN-14/07/2009