|
|
|
|
||
37114 + 37165
1Z36 1047 Elign - Kyle
1Z37 1605 Kyle - Aberdeen
15th August 1999, A day of Failures
Due to engineering works on the Inverness -Aberdeen line the tour started from Elgin with the stock coming up from Motherwell the previous day and stabled @Elgin overnight. Standing on the platform @Elgin I thought they would be 2x37\4's but when 37114 &37165 came trundling in I said to my wife I dont fancy our chances today in getting there. So off we went about 15mins later the brakes came on and we came to a resounding halt ,with a guy sitting across spilling his coffee all over him.
Initially I thought we just had some hard braking for Forres ,but then I noticed we were nowhere near Forres initial worries started to surface . From what I can remember it was fairly uneventful from there to Inverness where we were 30 mins down according to our timetable. I later found out because of the problems with the loco's the crew were wanting to swap 37114 with 37419 which was stabled in Millburn yard but control @ Doncaster were unwilling to do so as they were requiring 37419 @18-00 for a freight to Georgemas Junc.
So onward to Kyle we went as I was reading the paper I was'nt paying to much attention at this time we slowed at Muir of Ord to pass a Scotrail sprinter, then we had the same incident as before brakes on and stop. On leaving Dingwall about 45 mins late I guess, there is a steep incline to Raven Rock my commented we are not going very fast I answered "it is a steep incline " she answered "I could walk faster and right enough we were crawling at that point I stuck my head out of the window to hear 37165 shut down and the brakes going on and silence!
I sat back down and said "There's nothing running " my wife then said do you think you should offer your services. To let you understand, at that time it was 15 yrs since I left the railway so I was'nt sure what I was letting myself in for !
The offer was accepted by both the train organiser and the guard so we coasted into Garve after 37165 was restarted it had shut down on high water temp no wonder pulling 10 coaches up a 1 in 40 climb and pushing 37114 which was dead. I entered the cab and spoke to the driver he explained that the control circuit breaker kept tripping out .As the control cct c/b is pretty important piece of kit and without any drawings I asked if he tried swapping the jumper cables over or disconnect one jumper and try with one loco he said no and I got the impression he was'nt keen on my ideas.
I offered to drive the back loco 37165 but that got short shrift after a few minutes talking about various ideas we started 37114 and he said we would plod on. Well no sooner than we left Garve the same happened again and carried on with 37165 doing all the work 37114 shut down. I was fairly convinced that the problem lay in the jumpers maybe a bad earth or something As we were way behind time it was decided to terminate @Strathcarron as it was fairly pointless going on to Kyle .
On arrival @Strathcarron I asked the guard when uncoupling the train to swap the jumpers between the locos this he did and yes you've guessed it no problems all the way back in fact the two locos we rocking especially from Elgin to Inverurie which we covered in quick time . I suppose the driver maybe thought I was a "crank" who knows, but I remember when working with the railway we always coupled up both jumpers between locos and look for the simple faults first. It would'nt have made much difference as we were very late and to get back to Aberdeen on time we did'nt get to Kyle I still enjoyed the day out and the following year made it to Kyle with no problems.
Steve Dunn