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The Ruston 88DS class - a rivet counter's guide.


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Following on from the topic on 48DS locos and with news of the 7mm Judith Edge kit posted today, I thought it's time to do the same for the 88DS class.

 

I have more photos of 88s but most of them are copyright of various photographers, so I'll have to stick to the few official RH photos that I have.

 

As with the 48DS, this class began life under Ruston's old classification scheme and were known as 80/88HP Diesel Shunters. The first was w/n 192325, which left the works in June 1938.

 

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201980 of 1940 at the War Department's Inchterf gun ranges with a very strange piece of rolling stock. On the front is a Vortex spark arrester and flameproofed lighting. Engine starting on most 88DS was by admitting compressed air into the cylinders but later flameproof locos had electric starting. The battery for this would have been on the other side so we can't tell if this was the case but we can see the hole in the top front of the frame plate for hand-starting gear. Hand-starting gear was deleted from sometime around when the classification changed to 88DS.

 

88DSw1.jpg.8d7a5cf70494f96910cd179b649967d5.jpg

242868 of 1946, about to depart Boultham Works, destined for the Gas Light & Coke Co. at Southall. Note the bulge on the rearmost engine cover side panel - this covered part of the donkey engine that was used for initially charging the main engine starting air receiver. On these early locos this small engine would have been one of Rustons' own PT 1 1/2HP petrol engines.

 

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254036 of 1947 at West Midlands Joint Electricity Authority's Ocker Hill power station. A year on from the previous loco and the cab had been redesigned to be fully enclosed.

 

88DSw3.jpg.5cb6cca30fdf67b9b849d8c34484e54f.jpg

262997 and 275886, both of 1949, at WMJEA Birchills power station with what would have been BR ex-private owner wagons.

 

88DSw5.jpg.393382a8de1cd0eaaf19afb22f5b2c78.jpg

299107 of 1951. This was Rustons own works shunter and was fitted with smaller diameter wheels and had no buffer beam weights. Note that the bulge for the donkey engine has grown larger and has moved to the middle panel.This was to accommodate the diesel engines that replaced the petrol PT engine.

 

88Dsw8.jpg.757318f261de8f3fd1fb2b78aac9fd0d.jpg

This one is taken from a later publication so I have no details but it shows a late loco with the rubber seals around the windows. The rear cab windows were also enlarged on these later locos.

 

88DSw6.jpg.b4590441e7757d23ad6a6f032234b845.jpg

We're going back chronologically with 242870 of 1947 to show a loco with a special feature. This loco was supplied to Wallasey Corporation Gas & Water Dept. and was fitted to run on coal gas. I don't know the details or whether it was in addition to diesel, or as a complete replacement.

 

88DSw7.jpg.c7309d0714d12ed8bf0fa6fb8438817b.jpg

Another one from a sales leaflet and unidentified but was probably for the Air Ministry. This shows a fully-flameproofed loco with a shortened cab (looking again it's probably a lengthened frame) and two exhaust conditioners behind it. On the running plate is the box for the starting battery and note the lack of bulge in the side panels as there is no need for a donkey engine.

Edited by Ruston
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The  strange  piece  of  rolling  stock  in  the  WD  photo  is  for  testing  gun  barrels,  these  could  be mounted  on  it  and  fired  on  the  ranges.  Not  however  a  true  railway  gun.    (No  gun  barrel   is  fitted  in  this  photo).

 

One  of  these still  exists  carrying  an  18"  gun  barrel  and  is  preserved  at  the  Royal  Armouries  Museum  at  Fort  Nelson  near  Portsmouth.

 

Pete 

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Always good to see photos of these versatile little locos in their habitat, most of which is long disappeared.

 

Dava

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

299107 of 1951. This was Rustons own works shunter and was fitted with smaller diameter wheels and had no buffer beam weights. Note that the bulge for the donkey engine has grown larger and has moved to the middle panel.This was to accomodate the diesel engines that replaced the petrol PT engine.

I recently got hold of the IRS book on Lincolnshire, and it seems that 299107 worked at Ruston's Grantham factory (the Hornsby part of Ruston and Hornsby) until it closed in the early 1960s. I vaguely remember the factory building behind the loco (off South Parade) before it got knocked down in the 1980s.  

 

There's another shot of it here along with the other loco at the site, a 48DS: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/jasrowlands/ruston/48ds3.htm

Edited by Ruston
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  • 2 weeks later...

And one of those inevitable 'found whilst looking for something else' posts. Here's a photo of the North Eastern Region's 88DS shunters in the roundhouse at York in 1969.

 

http://www.railblue.com/pages/Photo%20Galleries/David%20Mant%20Collection/DMC_86_YK_011169.htm

 

Photos of these seem to be quite rare (unlike the WR one at Reading) and the plain yellow end is definitely not in the BR corporate livery manual!

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Hi,

 

I attach a scan of the 4mm scale drawing of one of these prepared by my friend the late Ian Addison copies of  which I sold in the late 70s.  Ian was a helpful soul so I am sure that he would have had no objection to me posting this here. At that time one of these locomotives was on the Lochty Private railway and the measurements for the drawing came from that.  This loco had come from the North British distillery in Edinburgh and We, the helpers on the railway, named it "North British".  My Children (now in early 40s) claim to have driven it. My memories are more of them holding the throttle and blowing the horn!  It is now in the care of the Kingdom of Fife Preservation Society at their base in Kirkland Yard and has recently been refurbished (rusty panels copied and replaced) and returned to working order.  To continue the North British theme it is currently painted and lined out  in North British Railway Drummond period livery.  Wrong of course but it has been in preservation for a lot longer than it was in industrial use. 

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

post-15427-0-27384100-1471806870_thumb.jpg

Edited by Ian Kirk
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  • 2 weeks later...

There's something not right about drawing. The frame looks different from the usual 88DS and on the front view the bonnet looks to be too low and the cab windows don't look right.

 

I don't like the way that site forces you to look through a tiny window at detail or view a very small and indistict view of the overall picture. All that wasted screen space!

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There's something not right about drawing. The frame looks different from the usual 88DS and on the front view the bonnet looks to be too low and the cab windows don't look right.

 

I've now found the dates in the bottom right hand corner - I can't make out when it was drawn, but the 'traced' date is 15/6/36. That's a couple of years before the date you've given for the first 80/88HP.

 

So presumably this is an unbuilt design study - it's shorter than an 88DS even allowing for no weights on the buffer beams (comparing the overall length of 18' to the 20'6" given in the previous drawing) and a few inches lower (9'11"). The cab also has a single arc roof. 

 

I don't like the way that site forces you to look through a tiny window at detail or view a very small and indistict view of the overall picture. All that wasted screen space!

In their defence, you can at least zoom in and see the detail, unlike some of these online copies of drawings (the Beyer-Peacock ones for example). 

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  • 3 months later...

As I'm currently building the new 7mm Judith Edge kit I have been looking again at 88DS locos in detail.

 

Apart from the cab styles and windows there are other small details that differ.

 

Some 20-ton locos have weights that take up almost all the length of the frame sides - [Link no longer exists]

 

Whereas others have slightly shorter weights with lifting eyes at the frame ends (this is not the real BR No.20) - https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7498/15198273904_762f46181e_b.jpg

 

The majority of locos with the lifting eyes appear to be later ones, with the larger windows, but the small window-cabbed locos did have them - https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5712/22927403305_241d89afdc_b.jpg

 

Other links to 88DS photos.

 

Where is this? http://davesrailphots.weebly.com/uploads/8/4/8/1/8481551/2316469_orig.jpg

 

Vauxhall Motors, Dunstable - https://c7.staticflickr.com/5/4097/4796643214_053282b79d_b.jpg

 

Vauxhall Motors, Dunstable - https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4077/4796046640_5a348f25f0_b.jpg

 

T.W. Ward, Tinlsey Junction - https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8484/8205978078_1753a96f62_b.jpg

 

? https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3481/3255305399_bb1c26aecc_b.jpg

 

Ex-British Gas, with flametrap exhaust, Quainton Road - http://www.brc-stockbook.co.uk/hilseaL.jpg

 

Rowntrees - https://roundtreessidings.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/rowntrees-shunter-neville-stead-03.jpg

 

BR No.20 - https://photos.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/BRITISH-DIESEL-AND-ELECTRIC/PRE-TOPS-DIESEL-LOCOMOTIVES/i-MSJ8Dpt/1/XL/20-XL.jpg

 

Bolton Gasworks - https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7171/6587753101_167824969a_b.jpg

 

Wensleydale - https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7339/9987566273_8b47b951f6_b.jpg

 

? https://c7.staticflickr.com/4/3628/3434208694_3733de47b0_b.jpg

 

? - https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8502/8389357685_1d81e5e098_b.jpg

 

GCR(N) - https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7082/7381862366_eeee98094d_b.jpg

 

Rutland RM - [Link no longer exists]

 

Telford - https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3728/8864756351_2d89ba4194_b.jpg

Edited by Ruston
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I suspect this may be preserved Wks. 394014, formerly with the Metal Box Co. Ltd. Neath. 

.

http://www.llanellirailway.co.uk/rollingstock.htm

.

Brian R

 

 

The photo is definitely taken alongside the loco shed at Wansford, Nene Valley Railway.

 

The 88DS is 321734, taken in 1980s.  the coach is a Leyland National 'remanufactured' coach - presumably first built as a railcar?

Edited by Osgood
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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

I spent an enjoyable day, today, at the Derwent Valley Light Railway at Murton, near York. The purpose of the visit was for the recording of an 88DS by Paul Chetter in order to make a DCC sound project. As I had put Paul in touch with the owners of the loco, Tony and Glynis Frith, I was invited along for the ride...

 

6thMay2017-034.jpg.844bcb445b6f566d3c85bdae80f29f30.jpg

 

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Rowntrees No.2, RH 441934 of 1960, with external microphones attached and one engine panel removed.

 

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No, he's not sweeping the floor, or strangling a cat, but is taking recordings of various internal sounds.

 

 

Other sounds, such as priming the engine oil pump, compressors and other preparation were recorded and then runs were made light engine and with a train.

 

 

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Driver's eye view.

 

 

The DVLR also has two more 88DS locos...

 

Rowntrees No.2, RH 412419 of 1958, which is obviously out of use and requires extensive restoration work if it is ever to run again.

 

6thMay2017-036.jpg.0cc14e75df26fc6538809e931d491cca.jpg

And 466630 of 1962, which is out of service but is runnable.

 

 

Additionally there is also 48DS 417892 of 1959, which is currently not in working order...

6thMay2017-015.jpg.385bbaaec87e11ec6aa33a017edcdabf.jpg

 

...and 165DS 327964 of 1953, which is serviceable and runs passenger trains with Rowntrees No.3 and an ex-BR class 03.

6thMay2017-024.jpg.4ff7591bd55c0e9743d5c402fd03ffe3.jpg

 

 

A big thank you to Tony, Glynis and the rest of the DVLR staff for making us so welcome.

Edited by Ruston
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I also took some detail shots for extreme rivet counting.

 

A different style of buffer on Rowntree No.2. I have never seen another 88DS like this. Step plate cast into the top and those strange lugs and nuts/bolts on the sides.

88DSdetail2.jpg.b8d664b14eded62755e6a510b84e174b.jpg

 

Also a different window surround. The earlier locos have squared-off corners and the late locos had radiused corners with rubber seals holding the glass in, and larger rear windows but on this one the windows are the same size on the rear as the front but have external aluminium surrounds, with radiused corners.

88DSdetail1.jpg.8f7795f2904774924354ca345531556d.jpg

 

The 4VPH engine in Rowntree No.3.

88DSdetail3.jpg.f56a89b6888ac4f06b3c8c91c37268fe.jpg

 

Engine, radiator cowl. fan and oil filters.

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Air compressors. On the left is the compressor for the loco air brakes and to top up the engine start reservoir (and also provides compressed air to the transmission to pressurize the oil within), which is driven from the engine and is continually running as long as the engine is running. On the right is the compressor for the engine start reservoir. On the majority of 88DS locos this was driven by a small petrol engine and would be used if the loco had been out of service or if failed starts had depleted the reservoir but on the Rowntrees locos an electric motor was specified and this is what No. 3 still has. The motor is plugged into the mains to run it up.

88DSdetail7.jpg.055040375646cca2456e092932352cc2.jpg

 

Gauges.

88DSdetail6.jpg.138204ecdf150e95d06c418bda10b6e2.jpg

 

Inside the cab. This loco has the deluxe addition of a speedometer and a Clayton cab heater!

88DSdetail5.jpg.2f2141d6e5f91a862e4fe5f1e513de31.jpg

Edited by Ruston
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