Friday 27th - Maintenance

Report by Graham

The usual suspects back at a cold and foggy Toddington this week for door and brake exams to the maroon rake in platform 2 as part of their Type-A exams (internal & external).

It was a cold and foggy day so we prioritized doors and brakes in case we ran out of time or enthusiasm for the conditions. The whole Type-A schedule is rarely all done in the same session. Things like pad and buckeye exams often get a separate mission!

In the morning it was doors, doors, doors, and the afternoon brakes, brakes, brakes.

We walk down the inside of the rake checking all the doors, at least all those that are not marked as “Out-of-Use” with a notice or red ribbon wrapped round the handle. Those with a notice are likely to be semi-permanently out of use and waiting workshop attention. Those with a red ribbon have been marked recently by train staff and we will give these a check and see if we can get them functioning again. Sometimes we can, sometimes they too get a permanent notice and are put on the list for workshop attention.

We check the internal condition of the door trim and make sure nothing is loose or likely to cause a problem in operation. We open the window and make sure it opens/closes and stays where it is moved to without just dropping to its lowest position. We lean out the window and unlock the “budget” lock with a carriage key…

We then open the door using the exterior twist handle and check that it swings freely, the hinges are ok, any door retaining straps work ok. If the door is binding on the frame some Vaseline will be applied where the scuff marks are to prevent it sticking.

The operation of the door lock is checked…

When the door is opened the bolt (LH image) stays semi-retracted and the handle is in a near “vertical” position (this is important, pay attention for later). The ram at the bottom (RH image) is pushed in when the door closes on the frame striker plate and releases the bolt…

…we push it in with a thumb and then release the handle to check that the bolt springs out fully and the handle sits in a position obviously not “vertical”. 

The “vertical” vs “non-vertical” position of the handles is an important visual indication that the door locks are engaged. When a train is waved away from the station the station master might be waving to all the happy travellers on board, but he is also checking every door handle as the train moves by to make sure they are not “vertical”. Any that are near “vertical” means the bolt is not fully engaged in the frame and a signal must be given to stop the train and get the door closed properly by the guard.

Unfortunately, due to the wear of the mechanism the “vertical” and “non-vertical” positions of the handles are often not absolutely perpendicular or absolutely level, and the station master has to use a certain amount of discretion in interpreting the handle positions. The advantage at our railway is that the same carriages will be going by all day and a station master can check a suspicious door handle (as above) whilst the train is stationary and make a mental note of where it’s “good” and “bad” positions lie in order to avoid confusion later. On this particular door “vertical” was approx 7:05 and “non-vertical” 9:15.

We also check the door safety catch, which catches the door if the main bolt fails to engage…

…this is spring loaded and should pop out whenever the door is opened. The main bolt should catch behind this and prevent the door opening even if the bolt fails to engage in the main rebate at the back of the striker plate…

John wouldn’t let me shut his finger in the door to act as a pointer so I’ve had to use the screen snip marker pen!

We check that once this catch has engaged it will stop the door opening even with someone’s weight thrown behind it. John tries to mime this in the next image, but it needs a video really… (Videos can be accommodated! Ed.)

 BANG!

You put enough weight behind it several times to be reasonably sure its not going to give if anyone did fall against the door…BANG…BANG…BANG…BANG! But at the same time if it does give you don’t want to go head first out the door, so one doesn’t take a run at it from the other side of the carriage.

Finally the door is swung too firmly and it should shut and latch with an appropriately pleasing sound and action…

…leaving the handle in the “non-vertical” bolt fully engaged position. 

The door is then locked via the “budget” lock, the window raised, and we move on to the next and the next. BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… …. BANG… BANG… BANG… ………. BANG… BANG… BANG… 

The door checks are a bit noisy!

In the afternoon it was time to get down and dirty under the carriages…

Having made sure the rake wasn’t going anywhere…

With scotches (chocks), hand-brake, and NOT-TO-BE-MOVED board all deployed.

We always have a good look round whilst we are down there…

Finding things like manky vacuum hoses…

[spiders web in the extreme foreground…is that arty? I cant make my mind up. Perhaps if I hadn’t drawn a dirty big red arrow on it!]

…and this one we made a note of for replacement.

We were there to focus on brakes though.

We check that the block is located centrally on the rim and is not wearing due to any overlap on the outside lip of the wheel or up the shoulder of the flange. We check that split pins are there and the brake rigging is free to move. We check the block is not worn down into the wear marker recesses cast into the outer edge, if it is it has to be replaced. We also look at the marking on the rim. Above looks a bit “chattery” but we are mostly looking for flats, which will only get worse if left and mean even more tyre has to be turned down to remove it.

We release the bogie brakes by pulling the string on the cylinder valve…at the same time announcing “STRINGS!” to warn anyone under to keep clear in case of any vehicle movement that might occur as the brakes release.

The arm under the vacuum cylinder relaxes as any remaining vacuum is lost and frees it’s grip on the brake rigging which then allows us to check the adjustment…

One finger is too tight, two fingers is about right, three fingers is too slack. The one on the right is about where you’d add it to the jobs list.

The slack, or otherwise is adjusted via the horizontal adjustment bar that hangs between the wheels under the axle…just where it gets covered in cack from the toilet outlet…

Any found in this state would stay on the list until we had any opportunity to hose it all down first and let it dry. The above is a big contributor to why toilets are locked out-of-use on the trains at the moment.

Such fertilizer may also help the fungus eat away at the sleepers too. We noticed this one while we were between the platforms…

…another job for the P-Way gang!

As usual, the last job of the day is to tidy up tools and materials, and collate and make sure all the paperwork is filled out and signed so John can take it back to the office at Winchcombe for filing.