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Excerpt from Titan Chapter

Maintenance Monkeys

Wally and I did most of the maintenance work. Prime mover servicing went to Steer Diesel. Mick did help when pressed but he had to do everything at 100mph and didn’t have the patience, the concentration, or the inclination - even after we got the pay situation sorted out. Neither did Mick admit to owning any form of tool kit; he didn’t carry so much as a screwdriver or shifter. Instead, he ‘borrowed’ tools from his luckless workmates, leaving our gear wherever he finished with it.

 

Tools he dropped on the ground at least got left behind when the repaired truck/ trailer moved away. More often Mick left them on a chassis rail, drawbar or trailer deck to later fall off down the road, forever lost. I’ve seen him finish adjusting the brakes on a trailer and leave the 9/16 spanner on the last slack adjuster and walk away. Job done!

 

I have an enduring memory of Wally asking Mick why he was such a plonker (not really the word Wally used!), and why did he need to run around like his arse is on fire? Mick replied, “Everyone treats me like a dickhead, so I might as well act like one”. I reckon the bloke deserved an Oscar.

 

 

One less than enjoyable task befalling the Alice crew was internal tank cleaning. The ISO tanks, for example, came up from SA loaded with cement of one grade or another. While in the NT they frequently backloaded Mataranka lime within the Territory, sometimes just a single load, sometimes more. Regardless, having contained lime the tanks needed cleaning out before being returned to SA for reloading with fly ash or cement.

 

Under no circumstances can lime be allowed to contaminate cement. To activate cement when making concrete, it is mixed with tightly controlled quantities of water. Too little or too much water defines the quality of the mix. Being totally dehydrated, lime sucks up the water faster and generates way too much heat.  Contamination doesn’t usually become obvious until the concrete has been poured; the mix is a write-off and is torn up and the whole thing done again. Any containers, delivery tankers or batching plant silos containing the contaminated product must be cleaned out and the contents dumped. Much bad feeling ensues, with many cross words exchanged among the affected parties, at least one of whom - usually the tanker driver – is invited to seek other employment.

 

An internal clean required someone (guess who?) to get inside the tank. There were no internal ladders in early ISOs or road tankers, so we used a rope ladder. The clean involved sweeping the entire surface area with a soft broom. We scooped the resulting pile of lime into a 20L bucket, hoisted the bucket out of the hatch by rope, and tipped the lime into a larger container for disposal, usually at the town dump.

 

The operator wore a disposable full body suit with hood, boots, gloves and goggles. Because these suits stopped dust ingress it felt like wearing a plastic bag. Just great with an outside temperature rarely below 30°C and regularly above 40°, and you’re inside a tank with three hatches open but no real airflow. With no undercover area for the tankers, cleaning took place in the open yard. I found the trick was to start work at 4am, finishing around 7am.

 

 

End of Titan Excerpt