61.5 foot Gresley Full Brake... What's the sticky out bit and why does no model have it on?

[Michael Hodgson]

8 hours ago, DayReturn said:

We can only imagine.  Perhaps there is a loading gauge for train crew, but my mind's eye has the northbound guard and his southbound counterpart peering through their lookouts as the trains approach each other somewhere about 10 miles north of Birmingham, followed by a splintering crash and draughts of fresh air filling their respective vehicles.  My concern was for their heads rather than their waistlines.

 

Probably not as great a risk as one might think. 

 

Despite rules about guards supposedly observing signals they didn't spend much time gawping out of their duckets once the train was moving at normal speed.  HMRI accident reports involving missed signals invariably put nearly all the blame on the driver - the guard was "writing his journal" or "sorting parcels" at the time whilst the fireman was fiddling with a sticky injector, shovelling coal or raking it forward.  Not that the risk from the incursion of flying debris was absent of course, but he would be unlucky if he suffered from anything worse than shock as a sudden gust of air tore the Daily Mirror from his grasp.

[5050]

I remember that, during a trainspotting trip between Chester and Crewe when I was a lad (late 50's), I spent the journey sat in a ducket in an empty guards compartment.  Certainly made spotting the number of approaching locos much easier without having to stick my head out of the window. They were also more visible from a longer way out too.