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Little Muddle


KNP
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1 hour ago, John Besley said:

OK - a pep pipe is used for cleaning the footplate boards down, - bit like a pressure washer - this runs off the injector feed the firemans side and keeping the coal dust down essential when running bunker / tender first, also a supply of hot water in the bucket for cleaning yer hands before grub time when out on the road 

 

As can be seen this is the pipe hanging over the cab side - note how the metal end has chipped off the paint in an arc as it jiggles around when travelling.

 

45xx cabs are cramped as are 14xx with the side tanks extending into the cab side, these stop short of the cab doors, I always stood in the door way with my back to the scenery so I was looking over my shoulders in the direction if travel and more importantly could watch the pressure gauge and water level, when you knew the road you could second guess the driver where he would shut off and have the dampers dropped and the fire door open to control the fire ....

 

 

Excellent, John, thanks very much.

 

All fully explained now - off to find some fuse wire! :rolleyes:

 

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On 17/03/2019 at 14:05, The Johnster said:

Auto trailers being hauled by non auto fitted locos as ordinary coaches, as here, was not uncommon, and photos of my area and period, mostly of Abergwynfi in the 50s, show 57xx hauling trailers about as often as auto fitted 4575s.  This may have been because Tondu does not seem to have had the number of auto fitted locos it should have at any one time to work services on 5 separate branch lines (Porthcawl, Abergwynfi, Blaengarw until 1952, Ogmore Vale, and Gilfach Goch) even if two of them shared a train. but operating like this is definitely prototypical.  

 

A rarer situation is an auto fitted loco with auto stock working in non-auto mode, usually because of difficulty connecting the linkage

 

It can cause problems in the timetable if the auto service has a turnaround time at the terminus that does not allow for running around, and my WTT incorporates this for all trains, scheduled auto workings included.  10 minutes is standard; arrive, detrain passengers, shut doors, set back to clear run around move, uncouple, run around, couple up, perform brake continuity test (never shove the coaches back without stopping for this) and set back into platform so passengers don't have to walk far from the station entrance.  Place tail lamp on rear and loco lamp on front (now the bunker end). wait for the road, and right away Bridgend, on time!

 

Even an auto fitted loco could not be hauling that auto trailer in auto mode, though, as of course the van did not have the auto control linkage.  It is summer, obviously from the trees, so the van's lack of a steam heating through pipe is not an issue.

 

 

We did that on during a photo shoot with 1420 at Buckfast' .... it was timetabled for spearing coach trip to give the wrinkles a ride from Totnes Riverside to Buck' I was on the footplate as fireman and the driver was on the front end to operate the brake... seing as we was part way through the photo shoot we simply ran it that way... I did all the footplate jobs, firing, driving , creating the vacuum, linking up etc. He just had to operate the brake to slow / stop us... great fun just he one trip only

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6 hours ago, John Besley said:

 

As can be seen this is the pipe hanging over the cab side - note how the metal end has chipped off the paint in an arc as it jiggles around when travelling.

 

 

This is exactly why I don't hang my pep pipe out of the window! :nono:

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9 hours ago, John Besley said:

Spot on that man, this layout is the bees knees :D

 

Thanks for the information, John.

Looks like I need to look at my Panniers and 14xx's as well though not all pictures show loco's with one dangling out.

And the positions vary, especially on the Panniers!

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This photo and the following show pep pipes dangling from Pannier footplates in different ways:

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/steam-gwr/5700-class-0-6-0pt/hB934CD29#hb934f906

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/steam-gwr/5700-class-0-6-0pt/hB934CD29#hb934f9a5

 

But the majority of photos of working locos don't show them at all. I wonder if it was only when they leaked that they needed to dangle outside the cab?

 

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1 hour ago, KNP said:

Railcar No.8 arrives at its destination and to prove it adopts a nice pose by the signal box....

 

3314.jpg.756a9637337ddc9153c07c0ee15bdcdc.jpg

 

It's ok Kevin, I'm pretty sure the railcar didn't have a pep pipe. Well certainly

not hanging out of the door/window.

 

All the best, for a better New Year.

 

TONY

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Looking through my Pannier Papers 2,3 & 4 I would say there is more that don't than do.

What do, have them either on the floor sticking out with a few rapped around the saddle tank grab rail by the cab. There are others so no one position would be wrong.

One thing I was wandering did this mainly happen when shunting or in the yard as pictures of them working on a line don't seem to have them? Might a coincidence.

 

So I surmise that not all my loco's need one and certainly not in the same position.

 

Edited by KNP
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7 minutes ago, Mulgabill said:

 

It's ok Kevin, I'm pretty sure the railcar didn't have a pep pipe. Well certainly

not hanging out of the door/window.

 

All the best, for a better New Year.

 

TONY

Thanks

And no that is not a PEP pipe on the roof!!!

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On 17/07/2019 at 02:39, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

 

Not unrealistic - many pics I've seen show coal in very big lumps in the tenders and bunkers. The hard working fireman was forced to smash them into bits so that they could be shovelled into the firebox and spread around to achieve the desired even burning. A fireman's job really was a filthy grimy back breaking one. 

South Wales steam coal came in huge lumps, I well remember picking up lumps as big as a cement sack in my teens in the early days of the Paignton line .... difference was they where very light turn them over to find the seam on the lump and you could split them with a coal pick no bother.... these days coal is much smaller in size generally and hard coal burns differently to soft Welsh steam coal

 

Before we left shed we had a 'knob up' - finding the biggest lumps you could and piled them on the footplate to build up the fire once we've coupled up.

 

Interestingly when we built up the fire we piled up big lumps that you just get through the fire hole door in the back corners leaving the front fairly shallow until you could only just see inside the door as the cooked they swelled like a cabbage.

 

By the time you got to the start of the bank at Goodrington open the door and push them forward with the shovel and  they fell apart then you start firing all the way until Broardsands viaduct.... happy days on 4588, 6412 & 7827 

Edited by John Besley
Correction
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1 hour ago, Dragonboy said:

Well like many on here I’ve now been hedgucumcated all about pep pipes, but before we move away from this, does anyone know why were they called peps?

 

Could it be, that over time, with the effects of accents and laziness,

it's been shortened and corrupted from prep (preparation) pipe?

It is, after all, used to 'prep' the dusty coal and dirty footplate!

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Some more info on PEP pipes, also known as a slacker pipe and according to this thread

 

https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/on-heathers-workbench-prairie-ago-go.8390/page-11

 

about a 1/3 of the way down Phil O quotes the pipe to be 1 inch O/D rubber pipe and on a 45xx to be 11 foot long. I seem to remember they had wire loosely wrapped around them, but I may be wrong.

 

 

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On 28/08/2019 at 18:25, KNP said:

 

When I brought the figure when first released I an sure it was of a driver reversing a loco to which I turned him around, added a shovel to turn him into a fireman looking out the side for a signal!!!!

Now having a look on the Modelu site he is their but now the opposite way around.

I'm wandering if my configuration has been changed to the current one - number 903

 

This is my crew

 

P1110194.JPG.96bf1d665e7cdf0ff2c821d4ab3c513a.JPG

 

This a picture of the 8 GWR crew when first released

(Third from right)

 

IMG_0141.jpg.85358e56727d60206d45863337b73a25.jpg

 

Looks like Alan handed it so the driver is now seated, facing forward whilst on the regulator!!!!!

 

Am I one of only a few with a 'special edition collectors issue'.....

 

Those fire irons should have their handles dropped over the U shaped ring... otherwise they could slide out and brain the fireman ...

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1 minute ago, John Besley said:

Kevin,

How do you get a gap between your photos, Mine always merge into one...

I had to be told as well, back at the beginning....

Curser to RH side and bottom of picture and then hit return and gap will appear, more you press return, more spaces appear

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