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Diesel Hydraulics a colour retrospective


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33 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Great to hear that Ian and hopefully you're now back to something like full working order and won't be making any further in-patient visits. 


There are follow up appointments and a proverbial cocktail of medication.Full working order won’t be for a while.But I’m home which is the main event. Thanks.

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And indeed it doesn’t disappoint. Beautifully produced on quality paper and speedily and securely delivered. .The reproduction of the images is of an amazingly high standard,especially considering that colour photography was in its relatively early ( and sometimes awkward ) stages when most of these were taken.. For me,a reminder that the up Bristolian in the early 1960’s was 1A92 and not 98 as I previously posted .So.much for my recollection. 
 

Many  thanks Andrew and Simon.

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There have been many pictorial hydraulic books of course but I would put this one at the top of the list. And that's just after a quick browse of part of it. I shall enjoy this weekend with it.

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Looking at a variety of Hymek images reminds me of their introduction in 1961 when the first examples were allocated to Bath Road and spent their time on secondary duties such as the Weymouth turns. Contrast this a year later when Canton received an allocation…I believe its  first mainline diesel allocation. As Mike Stationmaster  knows the General Manager of the WR couldn’t wait to get rid of express passenger steam haulage .The  South Wales main line from Swansea to Paddington had up to then been the province of Castles,Britannias and latterly Kings displaced from Paddington West Country duties..The South Wales trains were comprised of portions from Fishguard,Pembroke Dock with RC and set etc.added at Swansea. This made a load of c13 Mk with occasional strengthener added. In late spring of 1962, Canton’s new Hymeks were entrusted with these duties At a modest 1700 hp they were worked to over capacity,flat out.,,and excellent performers though they were,the strain began to take its toll with component failure. I believe at one point the power plant had to be derated. 
 

Next year cometh the Westerns. 

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17 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

Looking at a variety of Hymek images reminds me of their introduction in 1961 when the first examples were allocated to Bath Road and spent their time on secondary duties such as the Weymouth turns. Contrast this a year later when Canton received an allocation…I believe its  first mainline diesel allocation. As Mike Stationmaster  knows the General Manager of the WR couldn’t wait to get rid of express passenger steam haulage .The  South Wales main line from Swansea to Paddington had up to then been the province of Castles,Britannias and latterly Kings displaced from Paddington West Country duties..The South Wales trains were comprised of portions from Fishguard,Pembroke Dock with RC and set etc.added at Swansea. This made a load of c13 Mk with occasional strengthener added. In late spring of 1962, Canton’s new Hymeks were entrusted with these duties At a modest 1700 hp they were worked to over capacity,flat out.,,and excellent performers though they were,the strain began to take its toll with component failure. I believe at one point the power plant had to be derated. 
 

Next year cometh the Westerns. 

The Hymek problems weren't necessarily related to the very heavy work they did on South Wales trains although the loads certainly didn't help.  There were wider problems which were in act centred mainly round the gearbox and two courses of action were tried - half the locos the engines temporarily de-rated and the other half temporarily had 2nd gear locked out (all done by painted number although I forget whether it was the odd or even numbered locos which had each of the relevant temporary mods.

 

Strange to relate the first loco I was riding on (officially) to suffer a failure was a Hymek and it was a failure to change gear just after leaving Maidenhead on an Up commuter train one morning.  The Driver sent the Secondman back to change gear manually but he got nowhere so he Driver asked me a few questions about my understanding of signals and where they were (very good in that area as it happened) and sat me in the chair while he went back to try to change gear manually leaving me to 'drive' the loco (if it could actually be got out of first gear).  It was the only diesel hydraulic I ever drove - for barely a couple of hundred yards before the Driver had no option but to fail it.

 

Hymeks were superb riding locos and even the nasty bit of adverse cant in the I Up main at Friars Jcn didn't worry them in the slightest whereas on a Brush Type 4 went you went over it you seriously wondered in the loco was going to come back up out of it, rather alarming the first time you experienced it.  D10XX weren't bad but they never had the 'bounce' at about 50mph cured and it could get very uncomfortable whereas on D8XX you could be forgiven for thinking art of the transmission was fighting to get up through the cab floor because of its vibration and noise at certain speed ranges.  That was the reason why it was quickly found that it was necessary to bolt down the floorboards in the raised centre area of the cab because the vibration caused the loose boards to rise and levitate.  Fascinating things the diesel hydraulics and excellent locos on the work they were suited for notwithstanding their foibles.

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The main 'achilles heel' of the Hymek's Mekydro transmission were the oil coolers which leaked oil resulting in overheating of the coolant in the main radiators which caused engine shutdowns. I can well remember having an 'unofficial'cab ride back from Worcester with my Uncle who was an Oxford driver and ascending Campden Bank, after a Honeybourne stop, the loco would not change down to 3rd speed and stayed stuck in 4th. We made the summit but glided silently into Moreton in Marsh where we waited for at least 20 minutes before the engine would restart. I remember also being told that when upward gear changes were about to commence, from first, second and third speeds, that the instruction was for drivers to reduce power to enable the two speeds to synchronise with each other to avoid a 'surge' in the transmission which was often felt throughout the train. I don't think that this instruction was adhered to rigidly owing to the numerous different types of WR traction at the time. 

But as has been mentioned the Hymeks were made to work hard during their early years and most of the railwaymen I know from that era thought they were probably the best. Certailnly Beyer Peacock built a good comfortable cab with adequate ventilation. Now to order a copy of the book!

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On 25/11/2021 at 14:19, The Stationmaster said:

The desert sand wore particularly badly although the golden ochre didn't seem to me to be much worse wearing that the dreadfully dreary maroon colour.

 

That's a bit harsh. As is well recorded the WR used something in their carriage washing plants that was very abrasive. Carriages working into Paddington had steel on the waist band where no paint adhered, so the locos going through a similar process suffered. 

 

As to desert sand, I felt physically sick when I walked past a nearly new one in Paddington, it was a horrible finish. Like the Warships, the Westerns looked nice in maroon. 

 

Paul

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9 minutes ago, hmrspaul said:

That's a bit harsh. As is well recorded the WR used something in their carriage washing plants that was very abrasive. Carriages working into Paddington had steel on the waist band where no paint adhered, so the locos going through a similar process suffered. 

 

As to desert sand, I felt physically sick when I walked past a nearly new one in Paddington, it was a horrible finish. Like the Warships, the Westerns looked nice in maroon. 

 

Paul


Which one would that be then ? :jester:   

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1 hour ago, hmrspaul said:

That's a bit harsh. As is well recorded the WR used something in their carriage washing plants that was very abrasive. Carriages working into Paddington had steel on the waist band where no paint adhered, so the locos going through a similar process suffered. 

 

As to desert sand, I felt physically sick when I walked past a nearly new one in Paddington, it was a horrible finish. Like the Warships, the Westerns looked nice in maroon. 

 

Paul

D1000 weathered far more badly than any other diesel hydraulic I saw with the exception of one side of a Hymek which lost all its paint.  Shortly before its repaint there was almost none of the original desert sand colour left anywhere on the body of D1000.

 

The stuff used in WR CWMs was not particularly abrasive, in fact it was exactly the chemical  that was used for hand washing of coaching stock - ordinary Exmover (which had a base constituent of, I believe, oxalic acid, and was the only thing known to be capable of removing brake block dust from vehicle sides  The problem with using Exmover is that in the first place it has to be correctly mixed in the right proportion with water, secondly it has to be applied in the correct way (not so easy with a CWM as with a hand brush, and finally, of critical importance, it has to be very thoroughly rinsed off at the correct interval of time after it has been applied.  Get any of that wrong and it can, and did, damage paintwork. 

 

The big problems with using it in CWMs were mixing it to the right level of solution in water - mixing could be erratic mainly down to people rushing the job - but, far more importantly, not rinsing it sufficiently thoroughly at the right interval after application.  This could be caused by going through a CWM at the wrong speed (usually a tad too quickly) or by trains of the wrong length being washed on a 'through & back' CWM.  The result was that 'Ex' was left on the paintwork as a white deposit and once it had 'gone off' it was extremely difficult to remove.   In fact the only way to really get it off was to hand wash with Exmover but even that wouldn't shift the most stubborn deposits and it just sat on a loco eating its way into the paint.

 

Loco depots didn't have any staff provided for hand cleaning locos and if they had had any they wouldn't necessarily know how to get it off.  What my Carriage Cleaning Supervisors did was hand clean any coaches that were beginning to show staining (f they didn't do them as a matter of course - all the LH coaching sets at out depot were scheduled for a full exterior hand clean (a No.1 Exterior Clean) once every four weeks including the backs (i.e. the coach ends) which the CWMs couldn't do properly.  In my RHQ days my Carriage Cleaning Inspector went round all the major Carriage Cleaning Depots and spenta lot of time chasing the M&EE people to get CWMs working properly.

 

Ideally with a No1 exterior hand clean what could then be done to get any remaining soluble Exmover solution off was to retreat the vehicle with BR GIC (General Interior Cleaner) which seemed to be very similar to Fairy Liquid.  Used properly (which wasn't difficult)this was excellent stuff and could be brought up to a really shining finish but no time was allowed for using it in exterior cleans and it wasn't officially an exterior cleaner but my Supervisors had tried it and found it gave a really good finish so the right Carriage Cleaners could do a good job with it.  Super stuff inside and during an unofficial strike even I could get a good, streak free,  finish on the mirrors in HST toilets using a tiny quantity diluted with water.

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On 25/11/2021 at 15:41, 5050 said:

Just ordered a copy from James Hudson (along with another book I couldn't resist!) so I expect to get a knock on the door from the postie next week.

The books arrived a couple of days later, excellent service.  Trouble is that Mrs 5050 appropriated them, muttering somethin g about there being a 'special day' coming soon.  Well, my birthday arrived - no books.  Christmas arrived - no books. Boxing day - "Oh, your books?  They're in the wardrobe in the spare bedroom".  You just can't get the staff these days.........................:dontknow:

 

Now I've had a read through it I echo all the comments above, an excellent tome.  I just wish I'd made the effort to get around the railways a bit more back in the late 60's and 70's.:rolleyes:

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A bit late the party I know but just wanted to add to the comments above and say this is utterly superb! Great array of photo's beautifully reproduced on top quality paper. Detailed captions that expand on anything unusual and not just with the loco but with the train, the background or the event. Very competitively priced as well - highly recommended :)

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