火车修复 P5 - Francis Bourgeois and Chris Harris We Saved A Train S01E05 12 Tonne Jigsaw 1080p

I'm Francis Bourgeois, and I love trains. Oh, my God! Oh, God, it's soot in my mouth! I've roped in my petrolhead pal, Chris Harris, for an epic project. That's impressive. Rescuing a dilapidated locomotive. This isn't a quick fix. Oh, ----, Sherlock, look at the size of it. Francis hooked me with engineering. That is the coolest phenomena ever fitted to a machine. Look at that. Then blew me away with weapons-grade enthusiasm. Nice one, Danny! I'm all in for a restoration race against time. She just rolls beautifully. Yeah, seven tonnes. We've just six months to fix this loco to replace her failing sister. We have to get this locomotive ready for when she needs to come off this race against time. Yeah! This is British industry! My dream is to see her back on the railway. I feel like an infant reattaching to its mother's teat. Mine, I can live precariously through you, is to witness that moment. Absolutely brilliant. It's a huge moment in our restoration. With the wheels finally fixed and back at the depot, it's bogie assembly day. As 37025's bogies are so ginormous, a much easier way to visualise their functionality is to see them in miniature. It's 37 heaven here. These people know their chisel. Are these all yours, guys? Yeah, club locals, yeah. Lovely to meet you. Chris, Cliff and Colin run the biggest little attraction at Bowness. Their stunning O gauge model railway even has a 37025 with sound. I thought that was the loco doing some horns then, but it was actually Chris. I want one of these. This model railway was actually subject to quite a significant bout of vandalism. It was a break-in and then they set fires in this part here. It just seemed so disheartening that they want to take out their anger on such a lovely hobby. We had a brilliant public response to that. An online campaign raised £35,000 and unlike our restoration, this revival is almost complete. So how did you all get into the model railway? Just rekindling some memories from your childhood, really. You guys might have actually seen these in their heyday. We did, that's it. I met some of the youth group here. The memories they're making with diesel locomotives are in a heritage sense. They've just existed in a different timescale in someone else's lifelong enthusiasm. You see it in the present, but actually you see the equivalently aged human being and they're all wrinkly. Oi! Look at Ogier. I could talk about the longevity of 37s all day, but we are here to discuss bogies. We have our wheel sets, but then on the flip side is where the traction motors would be situated. And you have your brake blocks here and these are the little brake cylinders. When you're hearing the... That's that pressure. And then it's articulated by this central point. But yes, this is wonderfully detailed. It's very compact, isn't it? It's a cassette and it contains all of the components and then it bolts into the train. Back in the day, they wouldn't be stripping it apart and rebuilding it. They've got a set of bogies ready to go. The local would come in, disconnect it, lift it off, new bogies in and out the door. Like a pit stop. Basically a pit stop, yeah, a Formula One pit stop, but maybe slightly longer. I can tell Chris's fascination is developing. He's drawing similarities from his world to mine. I can see the merits in both. I love it. With our little hors d'oeuvre out the way, it's time for our main course of giant engineering. Hi, Stuart. Hiya. So this is the big day, the day of bogie assembly. Yep. Stuart, aka God, is all-knowing when it comes to bogies. So we've got to get this frame lifted up, put the crane in place, onto the three wheelsets. Before we can put the wheelsets under, we need to assemble the equalising beams that go between each wheelset and put the springs on top of the beams. And then the whole lot rolls under here and we have to get the six axle boxes into the six guides all at the same time. Did you capture that? Sort of. Come, where do we start? Our first job is to install equalising beams between the wheelsets. Swing it right across. Well, that's pleasing. That is pleasing. Leave that suspended and roll this wheel down. Have you ever done this before? No. This is like me building a Ferrari V12. I'm not saying it isn't meaningful for me, but for you, this is life-affirming stuff. The multi-stage assembly starts with us guiding the beams into the hangers on the axle boxes. Down a bit more. In she goes. Right, perfect. It's just Meccano, but for really heavy bits, isn't it? 3D jigsaw. You can see why everyone comes here after a long working week. It is just a bit of play, in a way. The next rolling component is the wheelset that caused us so much trouble in Devon. Our two-wheeled problem child holds the other end of the respective beams. That needs to be halfway there, because the other equalising beam is going to meet it in the middle? Yes. It's showing off now, Francis. I'm loving this. What is actually the purpose of the equalising beam? The weight gets transferred from the bogie to the wheelsets across the four springs. It spreads the weight from the four springs across the six wheels. It means you don't have to have a spring mounted where the axle is as well. There's a spring per axle on Class 56s. Which is another way of doing it. That's why they look so pornographic. That's... Yeah. What's your favourite bogie? It's definitely not a 56 bogie. Definitely not? No. Don't you just love how it sounds like metallic maracas? No. There must be a middle ground that we can come to in the depot about favourite bogies. Anyone? Finished bogie. I think that means get on with it. Come on, Francis. We didn't really reach a bogie consensus. Maybe next time. We'll get the other wheel up. You got it. There she goes. Now look at that. That starts to look like a locomotive now. Next stage, fit four spring carriers for 16 suspension springs to sit on. We're in. Spot on. It's a model kit, isn't it? It's a model kit. Now the springs. Now put the biggie on top. Oh, crikey. Look at that. Much easier than a car. Suspension, done. Next job, get this up in the air. We'll get the wheels rolled underneath. That is a proper crane, Stuart. Yeah, that's a big old piece of kit. That's massive. I wouldn't fancy being in control of that beast when we lower four tons onto some springs, but I know a man who would. Come on, crane man. Up, down. Great life. That echo sound is a bit like when they're in the compactor in Star Wars. I can't say I know that one. You don't know Star Wars? Well, I do, but I don't know what you're referencing. You know when they're in a compactor and the walls are coming together and there's that massive worm thing that's trying to eat them? Oh, my God. Stuart, help me here. I don't remember. Oh, come on. Different field of interest. How old is that lift? No idea. We bought that off eBay. There's a guy selling a load of them. Right, shall we push the wheels under? Yes, please. Ready? Okay. Oh, look at that. She just rolls beautifully. Yeah. This just exemplifies why the railway is just so efficient. This weight with this little friction is amazing. About five tonnes. Six or seven. Six or seven tonnes. And we're just rolling it. That was beautiful. And now for something completely different. The only thing that holds these suspension springs in place is a frame that weighs four tonnes. Bring it there. Lower it too fast, damaging the springs, and we're in big trouble. Over to you, Francis. Crikey, okay. Right. Coming down. I'm lowering a four-tonne frame towards our bogie's suspension springs. Okay with that? Lining it up perfectly is a delicate operation. Stop, stop, stop. How far out is that? It's nowhere near. It's like the way that Stuart basically roams around with a massive iron bar. Claude's come down. Coming down. Bloody hell. Take it up slightly. Yeah. The sensitivity of the buttons is... I'm very glad that you're doing this lift work, not me. Right, okay. Wheel problems set our restoration back weeks. If this drops too fast, I could set us back months. Everyone clear? Like it? Look at that. A bit more. Yes. Hallelujah. Honestly, when I did the bit too much, I saw so many faces looking at me in a way that I didn't want to see. That was a risky move. You look as if you've seen a ghost. That was fine. It was all right. But we're not finished. Get all those packing plates in. Job done. The spring's assembly isn't complete until metal packing plates have been installed, which means someone has to lift the frame again. Do you want to do the controls next? I would absolutely rather go outside, take my boot off, my sock off and kick a wall. I think that's a no. Maybe not then. Fine. Let's get in there. Use that to line it up and drop it down. Here we go again. Job done. Well done. Amazing. No bolts, no fittings, just four tonnes of frame holding everything in place. Very clever design. A Class 37 sits on two bogies. While Chris and I were wrangling wheels and raising funds, Team Bowness were busy completing Bogey 1. Bogey 2 is well behind schedule, so to come so far in a morning is a blessed relief. Let's get a group picture. Bogeys! One, two, three! Bogeys. In three months, Arloco's sister engine 37403 comes off the rails. We're playing catch-up to finish its replacement. What does that weigh all in now? 11 or 12 tonnes. So far. Still got the motors to go in. Traction motors, the spider. And then the brakes. They're quite handy. And brakes are the one aspect of bogey assembly that I can't wrap my head around. If only I knew someone with a whiteboard and a ponchon for long-winded lectures about railways. I'm especially excited about this one because braking doesn't make sense to me in this train. In heavy goods vehicles and buses, the default position for the brakes is that the caliper is locked against the wheel. When you hear all that hissing, that's actually trying to keep the caliper off the brake disc. And if anything fails, everything just automatically returns to a default lock position. I would have thought this would mirror a heavy goods vehicle system by being constantly on and requiring pressure to release, but that's not the case. No. Whilst vacuum braking has been used on the railway, a pressurised air brake system is more responsive, applies greater braking force and maintains the fail-safe of the brakes applying if there are pressure issues. When we have started 37403 for example before, one of the noises that you hear straight away is the compressor. This is what compresses the air, obviously. It feeds in to the main air reservoir. French? Potentially. Not unlike your name. Réservoir bourgeois. Then this feeds into where the driver applies the brake. He's on the throttle lever there. Nice seat. Pedestal. I like it. The driver is applying the brake here which is ultimately controlling the pressure in the main air reservoir. This feeds down into a control valve here. Before that there's an aux air tank. This is crucially the control valve and this is the brake. The control valve regulates the pressure on one side and equates it proportionally to the amount of braking force required to go into the brake cylinder. Very simply, this is attached to a little thing here and then the shoe that is in contact with the edge of the wheel. This is easily your most succinct piece of teaching so far. This is all very complicated. Well, with a load of pulverised chickpea fuel, I know a way to physically demonstrate how the brakes work. That was a third of a tub in my mouthful. So good! Very good. What's left of it. A practical brake demo is out of the question in the depot. Where are we going? Right. Outside, on the other hand, I present to you this is Wee Inver. Because it's Inver. Ness, TMD, but Wee. I like it. I'm hoping it's a static object. No. This moves. Yes. Is the expectation that I'll be moving with it? Yes. So, I know I've explained how the braking system works on a whiteboard, but we can see it here in practice. There's no substitute for seeing things move. Exactly. Come on, let's see it. So, just like the real Class 37, we have a compressor that feeds air into a main air reservoir and when actuated it's really good. That piston coming out like that is just everyone, every young kid needs to see this so they understand how it works. Yeah. Shall we have a go? How quickly will it stop? That's what we're here to find out. Are you okay being on second man duties? Yes, you tell me what I have to do. Chris, please may you check the tail lamp for me? Tail lamp flashing. Do you mind checking the headlights as well for me, please? Headlights on, but not impressive. Okay. Can you just check the horns working as well, please? Now we've done all the testing, we can get this puppy fired up. I can do this, but... We'll turn the feed to the fuel. Have you driven it before? No, I haven't. Okay. You've not had a little go at practice? Nope. Have you ever started it before? Just turn the compressor on. Do you want us to do a horn? Woo! Right. I've brought us to a halt at this location as there's a home signal and if the home signal is displaying a stop aspect we would need to guide our rail vehicle to a halt before the signal. I think it would be fun to maybe imagine that we have a red or a stop aspect here and we need to bring our vehicle to a stationary position as close to the signal as possible. Okay. Brake! Brake! Brake! Brake! Brake! Okay. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine sleepers from the signal. Happy with that? Happy. Now it's your turn. Let's go. Somehow, this is more nerve-wracking than stopping a Valkyrie AMR Pro from 200 miles per hour. It's metal on metal. Eight, nine, ten, eleven. Eleven! Nine, ten, eleven. It's the same on this side as well. Anyway, Chris. Fine. I may have overcompensated for the total absence of rubber. If you're going to beat me at anything, a braking challenge is the one to be beaten at. I'll take that. Not quite supercar stopping, but 12 miles per hour to zero in six seconds is a world best in the crazy railway go-kart category. I've enjoyed that. Yeah. Now what? We can reverse back to the depot, maybe. We have to reverse all the way back. Can't we turn it round up there? Er, no. What? I can't see. It'll take many hands a week to assemble the brakes in Bogie 2. And we're mucking in, stripping brake lines for repainting. With around six metres of steel brake lines in each bogie, we have a lot of old paint and rust to grind before reaching bare metal. But it's therapeutic work. Let's have a look. That looks not bad. You can come again, lads. We can then turn it over and get the underside done. We're looking at 45 minutes of noisy graft to get these lines ready for primer and paint. And I'm aiming to be top of the podium for coverage. So I would say in the Grand Prix of grinding, I think you've actually come first. Ah, you see! At the end of the day, it's a team effort. It certainly is. Every grain counts. And crucially, our effort means these pipes are ready to paint. Get some primer on that. In colour-coded white. So white is air. Orange is electricity. Blue is... Water. Oh, water. Pipes, hoses and cables are colour-coded to speed up maintenance, fault-finding and safety checks. Speaking of which, our next job is a brake test on bogie one. The white means air. Yeah. Where we'll be willing support for Isla and Stuart. So we get it up to the maximum pressure, plug in the pressure gauge and see if it's holding pressure. You're only allowed a certain amount of pressure drop. This started at 72. It's now at 63 PSI. There's a leak somewhere. Finding an air leak in all this pipe needs specialist tools. Did you ever know that that existed? Leak detection spray. What is it exactly? It's soapy water. Is it really? That's all it is, yes. Armed with soapy water, sorry, leak detection spray, the hunt is on. Anything with a nut, we test. Nope, nothing there. We're looking for soap bubbles caused by escaping air. Nope. You can see the thread on this one, I wonder. Ooh. There, look, bubble underneath. Spanner. Go on, give it a crank. Yep, that's definitely a bit loose. Let's check numbers. It's a lot slower. It's a lot slower, but it's still leaking. It's still leaking, yeah. There's another one somewhere. Is there a chance it's one of the inside nuts? Could be. When not volunteering here, Isla is at uni studying mechanical engineering with aeronautics. You're going to have to see if this bubbles. Which might prove handy. Anything on that one? Can't see anything there. Ooh, there we go, there we go. Oh, big bubble. Bingo. How do we tighten that up? Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. There could still be multiple leaks, so we don't want to risk over-torquing individual nuts and damaging pipes. 84, it's going slower. Which means an ongoing game of gauge checking. It's slowing down. And bubble hunting. Ooh, ooh. And careful tightening. Do you want a bigger spanner that's got more leverage on it? Er, yeah. A leak could cause the brakes to lock on, so the tolerance is tiny. One PSI in 15 minutes. A drop more than one PSI in 15 minutes and it fails. 15 minutes? Ooh. Oh, that's miles off. We're dropping 4.5. If we can't fix that today, it'll be a week before enough volunteers are available to try again. Is there a way we can isolate this? No. We need to know if this is the last leak. We could maybe calculate the volume of the bubble. Go for it. Try and measure the diameter. 4 pi r squared. No, 4 pi r cubed, is it? 4 over 3 pi r cubed, I thought. 4 over 3 pi r cubed. Anyone else know? But I think you're correct. I graduated from my degree three years ago. For you, it's a little fresher in the mind, I suppose. Just a little bit. Calculate bubble volume, work out flow rate, confirm this against our measured pressure change, and determine if this is our last leak. We've got to close this off. Are you going to start measuring bubbles now? Yep, he is. Right, but I need to time the moment from the bubble's inception. That was 15 seconds of a bubble, and we're looking at 2 centimetres. 2.5 centimetres. So 2.5 centimetres in diameter in 15 seconds. Whilst the bubble whisperer is over there doing his maths homework, you're actually getting this done. I like this. Go on, go on, go! Now that's moved. How are you getting on, bubbles? So I've worked out the flow rate of the bubble leak is 5.45 times 10 to the minus 7 metres cubed per second. Great. But then how do we go from pressure change to flow rate? Mass equals density speed area. Are you two related? Because you actually sound like him. I'm going to take that as a compliment. Oh, you've actually got your calculations. You've done your work as well. And I've done my assumption at the top as well. The assumption bubble is an un-intruded sphere. But I've worked out the flow rate of the leak which is 5.45 times 10 to the minus 7 metres cubed per second. Great. What does that mean to you? It means it's not leaking, doesn't it? Big spanner. The data points towards this being our last and only leak. There's literally no more bubbles under here. Good. OK. The moment of truth. Are we below max tolerance of 1 psi drop every 15 minutes? OK. Calculations. So, 0.05 psi in one minute. So... 0.75 every 15 minutes. Do you want me to go in and get that? No, let's just relish in the moment. I'm really sorry. Well done. Thank you very much. You too. What an end to the day. Bogey two, ready for the rails. It's just a shame that I launched Frances's phone into it. Was it already cracked like that? Ooh! It smashed quite badly. Can you see these slightly ferrous filings? It's got Class 37 DNA embedded in it now, so is it more valuable to you now? I think it has another story, another chink in its armour, so thank you, Chris. Such positivity, I like that. I've got something else planned that Chris should like. A treat that's perfect for lovers of road and rail. Right, I'd recommend getting to bed soon-ish. I know you don't like surprises, but I've got something arranged for us tomorrow morning. OK. It won't be a tickle fight. Again. Night, Frances. Tickle fight. I've chased trains to some wonderfully picturesque locations. The emus are making a racket, as are the 97s. And to celebrate a successful bogey assembly and brake test, this morning I'm taking Chris to one of the most stunning locations of all. Right. So, welcome to Loch Eel. Looks like the set of deliverance to me at the moment, mate, I have to say. Well, it's about to get better as we're putting on high-vis. I used to have a man deliver me sushi to Dunfall, to the top of the test track. I'm now lacing up a safety steel toe-cap boot, clearly bought at a service station last night by the crew, on the passenger seat of a Renault van. Hashtag fallen. Do you notice I'm not even asking what we're going to be doing today? Because it's going to be something so random. The reason why I thought this experience would function better as a surprise is that, you know, we've involved ourselves so much in my sort of vehicle. I thought that we'd go more into your kind of vehicle. Okay, you've got me. Yeah. I'm thinking something Scottish, an Argyle GT Turbo, a Raptor, maybe a cute little Hilman Imp. Chris. What? Ta-da! Good Lord. This is an Isuzu network rail response unit. Well, consider me underwhelmed. You can barely see what's underneath it. There's an Isuzu under there somewhere, isn't there? And inside it is our driver. I'm Chris. Hi, Chris. Gary. What on earth are we doing? Right, so, a real network rail vehicle. So we're going to go off-roading and look at a railhead? I think you're on the right track in saying we're going off-road. Is this normal? We're about to drive on the railway. Have you done this before? Never. This is cool. This is cool as. Go on, Gary. Oh, and he locks his steering wheel off. This is ridiculous. Steering-less. Elon Musk, eat your heart out. Zero-nine, bound to be north going, Max. No deal. No on-track. I have done most things in a car, but I've never done this. Oh, this is wild. This is wild. This is making me have a mental misfire at the minute. Wow. Network rail has hundreds of road rail vehicles. Most are propelled by the tyres directly touching the track. The tyres are only just in contact with the rail. Enough friction to drive and enough friction to brake. So the braking is still done through the road wheels. They're still in contact with the railhead, so you still brake and accelerate like a normal car, but obviously the rail wheels guide you along the track, so you're just maintaining the speed, Max, when there's 20. You don't want to go any more than 20, do you? No. You really don't? 20's plenty. I've never seen one of these driving on the tracks from a car. This type of vehicle I've only seen operate in the Highlands. West Highland line, there's a lot of where the track goes, there's no road access. We can access incidents far easier, and we also use it for patrolling, so after like a storm, we'll go out with chainsaws, clear the line of any trees that have fallen. To keep trains running in tough terrain areas like the Highlands, Network Rail's road rail vehicles include excavators, cranes, and mobile platforms. I've chased many Class 37s down this way. There's one kicking the boat, did he? He's happy now. That makes two of us. Oh, this is beautiful. Look how old that is. Fabulous. This is a very, very, very special treat. Well, I feel very, very spoiled. Look at that. Oh, wow. So you may know this bridge, Chris, from Harry Potter. This is stunning. But even the boy wizard didn't get to walk on it. This is absolutely mag-bloody-nificent. Well done, you. Oh, thank you. One day, I'll have to reciprocate and take you on a car journey which will never match this. Best spot I've ever been to for a selfie in my life. It's not too bad, is it? Isn't this just bonkers? I've done some things in my time. I've been so lucky, but this is right up there. Look at it down there. See those people up there? They've come to see the Glenfinnan Viaduct due to its feature in the Harry Potter films. And they've got a double whammy because they're also seeing a network rail response unit. Or are we just ruining their photograph? You sure? Hello! Look at that view down there, down the loch. This is just stunning. Now, let's have a look up close at these railheads. So that's for your expansion and contraction when the weather. Each one has that gap. How do they keep it so accurate? It's just the distance. 1435mm between here and here. That's the standard gauge. 145 is a significant number for you, isn't it? Absolutely. Is it like pi for you? Now you've got me going. 3.1415926535 89793238462 That's as much as I can remember. OK, that's... I need to retire now. He's just recited pi to about 13 decimal places and then did an accidental blow-off and walked away because he knew he'd done it. I guarantee no-one has ever done that. No-one's ever done that before. Accidental flabby woof-woof after... How many decimal points was it? 21. Quick, change the subject. No-one noticed. I've stood there numerous times waiting to see 37409 37676 and 45407. Those are the occasions that I've seen locomotives pass over here. Would you rather see a Class 37 or a steam engine come over here? A Class 37. Would you? The tourists want to see the steam engine. I want to see the 37. I don't know how I'm going to repay you for all this. The last few months have been back-to-back special moments. Well, that's the thing, Chris. This is, er... You know, it's a bit of fun, really, for us because we've been working hard, you know? I finally understand Francis' love of the railway. I've fallen for it too. Extraordinary. You're distracted by the fact there is one lurking, isn't there? Yeah. We're on our way back to Bowness, but the Boy Wonder can't get over a possible Class 37 in the wild and an undercover 37 at that. The fact that it's on a VSTP path, which needs very short-term planning, as soon as it runs out onto the line on line-proving duties, it doesn't go on a publicly advertised headcode. Ah. Called in last minute to test the line after snow, this loco is for eagle-eyes only. If this particular Class 37 was in a Bourne movie, would it have gone dark? Yeah. It's flying below 50 feet. Is it? A dark 37. No intel. What hope is there? Thankfully, I'm sitting behind a gentleman called Gary who works for Network Rail. Good point, Agent Orange. He does. Gary knows. Gary gave up everything under interrogation. Activate the asset. I like this game. I hear it. Do you? Yeah. How far away is it? Half a mile. I can't hear a thing. Yeah. Here it comes. Freshly painted as well. Go on, give it a bit of welling. Yeah. Lovely colours. That was very, very lovely. It's on a line-proving run in anticipation of poor weather. The Class 37s are perfect for working highland routes like these. The treacherous conditions, the trees, the slippery rails. It's what the Class 37s are built to overcome. For the first time since we started this project, that's the first time I've seen one working. Yeah. On the mainline. Because that's a working train there, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Network Rail have paid for that locomotive to go on the mainline and to just prove, make sure that the line is safe to run. 025 might well be in that position in the future. Precise.