Page 63 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

Ministry Log Books were still the method of keeping journey records so timings were
‘flexible’.

NOT WITHOUT INCIDENT
Dundee was my first stop with the billiard tables and then I was back in Perth before the
end of that first day to deliver the original ‘Georgian’ pattern lead sash weights. At the
prescribed building site some of the huge classic Perth residential buildings were being
faithfully restored.
A brief stop here to choose my best route to find myself in Inverness by 8am the next
morning.
I really did stop for the night on top of the Cairngorm Mountains. It was very cold I
remember and while wrapped in my sleeping bag stretched across the bench seat of the
lorry cab, gave due thought to old Jack Rundle and what he would have made of the
journey.

At daybreak I began the last lap north allowing sufficient time for the blacksmith at
Inverness to open his shop, but fate was to take a hand and not long after I started, one of
the diesel injector pipes on the engine broke clean in half just above the injector itself.
There was nothing I could do, the engine ran on three cylinders and the remaining now
unconnected pipe pumped measured amounts of diesel everywhere except into the
engine.
These older engines were very simple in design and not sufficient allowance had been
made for excessive vibration and different engine speeds between the tractor where the
engine was first used and the lorry.
From time to time I was to learn, these pipes just broke off fairly regularly. Each of the four
pipes was totally different in length and shape, they were quite strong in themselves but
needed more bracing where their longer lengths passed over the top of the engine.

The lorry being an early 1960’s model and very basic, it had no sound deadening material
in the engine bay or anything else to prevent the very strong smell from the diesel fuel that
was being sprayed liberally over the entire engine.
From the first public telephone box I could find, ( no mobile phones around yet ) I phoned
ahead and explained my problem.
Bit by bit I pressed on and managed to arrive at the Blacksmiths shop only half an hour or
so later than expected. Forewarned, he surveyed the damage and quickly stripped the

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