Wright writes.....

[Jesse Sim]

5 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

Jesse,

 

it was in MRJ 180.

 

There is an excellent online searchable index for MRJ.

 

https://www.modelrailwayjournal.com/

 

Jol

I do believe a certain western region modeller not far from me could have it sitting in his layout room......

 

Might have to ask to pop over to read it.....

 

I hope he see’s this. 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, 30368 said:

 

Very good selection of O4 variants Tony and they all look just as I (and you) remember them very workstained. They must have been very sound locomotives to have survived so long (although being a large class helps) and to some extent their career mirrors the NE Q6. Both survivors.

 

Happily the GWR bought some that lasted into the 1950s so I have one for my Basingstoke shed layout to work turn and turn about with my 28XX. Any excuse!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

I saw the ex-GC 2-8-0s (in all their varieties) in two very different locations; To begin with, mainly from my bedroom window in Chester as they plodded along the GC to and from Dee Marsh, north west of Chester (though too far away to read their numbers, but most would have been seen), also on the CLC/GC parallel with Brook Lane and from the train to Manchester Central on trainspotting trips to that city.

 

The second place was between Sheffield and Retford, where many were shedded. 

 

From memory, all were universally dirty, but they kept going. I think it's fair to say that they were among the very best heavy freight locos ever built in this country. As you say, some even ended up on the GWR/WR, though I never saw any of those. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[LNER4479]

1 hour ago, Jesse Sim said:

If I what sorry? Mither?

 

Normal it’s Tony who throws the new words at me....... 

Bloomin' convicts...

 

mither

/ˈmʌɪðə/

 

verb

NORTHERN ENGLISH

make a fuss; moan.

"oh men—don't they mither?"

pester or irritate (someone).

"the pile of bills would mither her whenever she felt good"

 

 

[Tony Wright]

7 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

Bloomin' convicts...

 

mither

/ˈmʌɪðə/

 

verb

NORTHERN ENGLISH

make a fuss; moan.

"oh men—don't they mither?"

pester or irritate (someone).

"the pile of bills would mither her whenever she felt good"

 

 

Enough to make someone mardy? 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

I do believe a certain western region modeller not far from me could have it sitting in his layout room......

 

Might have to ask to pop over to read it.....

 

I hope he see’s this. 

If you ask nicely and bring some cake. I should have the New Model Railways issue that Graham mentioned as well.

Edited March 25, 2021 by St Enodoc

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, LNER4479 said:

Bloomin' convicts...

 

mither

/ˈmʌɪðə/

 

verb

NORTHERN ENGLISH

make a fuss; moan.

"oh men—don't they mither?"

pester or irritate (someone).

"the pile of bills would mither her whenever she felt good"

 

 

Loose translation: Whinge.

[Bulwell Hall]

All this talk of O4s encourages me to show this ROD.  I completed it recently and is an upgrade of the Bachmann model.  Converted to EM by Philip Hall it is a very satisfactory runner.  Bachmann claimed to have altered the O4 to represent the RODs taken over by the GWR - well they did and they didn't.  The boiler was altered with new fittings and smokebox door but the tender received fewer alterations and I had to rebuild the coal space and add new tool boxes.  All the replacement fittings for engine and tender came from Brassmasters.  It was only whilst working on this model that I fully realised how many alterations the GWR made to the engines which they kept.  I discovered after the model was completed that the boiler back head was altered quite significantly from the original so that the fittings conformed to GWR specifications but have not done anything about this on my model.

 

Gerry

 

P.S.  Since the photos were taken the track in the foreground has been completed and the engine has received additional weathering and coal in the tender.

 

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by Bulwell Hall

[Steamport Southport]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Loose translation: Whinge.

 

Not quite. More an equivalent of bother.

 

"Don't mither your grandad. It's his Sunday afternoon nap time".

 

 

Jason

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Not quite. More an equivalent of bother.

 

"Don't mither your grandad. It's his Sunday afternoon nap time".

 

 

Jason

I think it is used in both senses.

 

"Stop mithering about the weather and go and mither your dad".

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, Bulwell Hall said:

All this talk of O4s encourages me to show this ROD.  I completed it recently and is an upgrade of the Bachmann model.  Converted to EM by Philip Hall it is a very satisfactory runner.  Bachmann claimed to have altered the O4 to represent the RODs taken over by the GWR - well they did and they didn't.  The boiler was altered with new fittings and smokebox door but the tender received fewer alterations and I had to rebuild the coal space and add new tool boxes.  All the replacement fittings for engine and tender came from Brassmasters.  It was only whilst working on this model that I fully realised how many alterations the GWR made to the engines which they kept.  I discovered after the model was completed that the boiler back head was altered quite significantly from the original so that the fittings conformed to GWR specifications but have not done anything about this on my model.

 

Gerry

 

P.S.  Since the photos were taken the track in the foreground has been completed and the engine has received additional weathering and coal in the tender.

 

 

A lovely conversion.

 

Thanks for showing us.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[LNER4479]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

I think it is used in both senses.

 

"Stop mithering about the weather and go and mither your dad".

You can also use 'hassle' as a verb, as in:

 

"Don't hassle me, man".

 

Maybe Jesse would understand that?

 

Coming to you from a dreich morning here in the north of England ...

[St Enodoc]

Just now, LNER4479 said:

dreich

Now you're just stirring it!

[The Fatadder]

8 hours ago, Bulwell Hall said:

All this talk of O4s encourages me to show this ROD.  I completed it recently and is an upgrade of the Bachmann model.  Converted to EM by Philip Hall it is a very satisfactory runner.  Bachmann claimed to have altered the O4 to represent the RODs taken over by the GWR - well they did and they didn't.  The boiler was altered with new fittings and smokebox door but the tender received fewer alterations and I had to rebuild the coal space and add new tool boxes.  All the replacement fittings for engine and tender came from Brassmasters.  It was only whilst working on this model that I fully realised how many alterations the GWR made to the engines which they kept.  I discovered after the model was completed that the boiler back head was altered quite significantly from the original so that the fittings conformed to GWR specifications but have not done anything about this on my model.

 

Gerry

 

P.S.  Since the photos were taken the track in the foreground has been completed and the engine has received additional weathering and coal in the tender.

 

 

 

Very nice, I love how hard it is to tell if it is green or black at first glance, very 1940s!  this is one of those models I keep thinking about buying, very helpful to know the issues which would need correcting when I eventually give in and purchase one.

[dibateg]

The first kit I built was a K's ROD, I recall sending a postal order off to Holts in Swansea when I was 13. It was stripped and rebuilt several times, the first time was easy as the Evo Stik dissolved easy in some noxious solvent.. Unfortunately no pictures.... I remember the keyhole frames and ineffectual motor. The Little Engines O4 was on of the last 4mm locos that I built. Still, my 7mm O4s are just as dirty - apologies, I've probably shown this before, an O4/7 built by Allen Hammet. I didn't have the heart to dirty up the cab...

 

[Northmoor]

55 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

You can also use 'hassle' as a verb, as in:

 

"Don't hassle me, man".

 

Maybe Jesse would understand that?

 

Coming to you from a dreich morning here in the north of England ...

"Dreich" is a great Scots word, almost as good as "Blethering", as "Och, hush ya bletherin', or there's mair comin' to ye!"

 

It approximates to talking too much without actually saying anything useful.

 

Rob

[gr.king]

12 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Enough to make someone mardy? 

An excellent word, in much more widespread use than I once thought. In my late 'teens for instance, at university, nobody seemed to know or use the word, so I imagined it might be peculiar to my home area, but it seems not.

The real locals here definitely don't use "mither", so in that respect we're apparently not Northern. Possibly something to do with never having been part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, unlike those funny folk across the river?

[Tony Wright]

12 minutes ago, gr.king said:

An excellent word, in much more widespread use than I once thought. In my late 'teens for instance, at university, nobody seemed to know or use the word, so I imagined it might be peculiar to my home area, but it seems not.

The real locals here definitely don't use "mither", so in that respect we're apparently not Northern. Possibly something to do with never having been part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, unlike those funny folk across the river?

Geoff Kent described Roy Jackson as 'mardy' at the great man's funeral.

 

Rather apposite, I thought...............................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[drmditch]

I grew up with the term 'mardy' in Essex.

(Although I don't admit the Essex connection too often!)

[Lemmy282]

With the class 91 electrics now being withdrawn from the ECML, I was wondering how their average mileage compared with the A4's as both had a working life of about thirty years. The Deltics averaged about 3 million miles over their twenty years, and the 91's have averaged about 8 million over thirty, so what did the A4's achieve?

 

Nigel L

[Dylan Sanderson]

1 hour ago, Lemmy282 said:

With the class 91 electrics now being withdrawn from the ECML

From what I understand, only a few are being withdrawn, those that are still owned by LNER are being overhauled and should re-enter service late 2021 or 2022. Could be wrong though...

 

Very interested to know what the A4's achieved!

Edited March 26, 2021 by Dylan Sanderson

[Ravenser]

3 hours ago, gr.king said:

An excellent word, in much more widespread use than I once thought. In my late 'teens for instance, at university, nobody seemed to know or use the word, so I imagined it might be peculiar to my home area, but it seems not.

The real locals here definitely don't use "mither", so in that respect we're apparently not Northern. Possibly something to do with never having been part of the Kingdom of Northumbria, unlike those funny folk across the river?

 

 

Haven't headrd it used in anger since my Lincolnshire primary school playground, longer ago than I care to admit

[Lemmy282]

43 minutes ago, Dylan Sanderson said:

From what I understand, only a few are being withdrawn, those that are still owned by LNER are being overhauled and should re-enter service late 2021 or 2022. Could be wrong though...

 

Very interested to know what the A4's achieved!

Yes there are some that are being overhauled, but some are being withdrawn and having component removal undertaken.

Interestingly 91132 was taken from service the other week, loaded onto a low loader, and taken to a scrapyard in Nottingham, without any components being removed. I wonder if it was because this was the loco involved in both the Hatfield and Great Heck disasters.

 

Nigel L

[Tony Wright]

4 hours ago, Lemmy282 said:

With the class 91 electrics now being withdrawn from the ECML, I was wondering how their average mileage compared with the A4's as both had a working life of about thirty years. The Deltics averaged about 3 million miles over their twenty years, and the 91's have averaged about 8 million over thirty, so what did the A4's achieve?

 

Nigel L

I think the A4s achieved an average of about one and a half million miles in a quarter of a century, and the first of the A3s (built as A1s) got to two and a half million in around forty years. Far less than their successors, but no steam loco could expect to match the mileages an electric loco (particularly) achieved. New technologies, of course.

 

In fairness, some of the working practices with steam did not give maximum utilisation; until the early diesels arrived, and weren't up to the job. Then, the Pacifics took over the diesel diagrams with aplomb - out and back to Newcastle in a day, with a run down to Peterborough or Grantham as well; unheard of before. 

 

There's no doubt the Class 91s carried on the ECML tradition of high speeds and long distances. I wonder what the HSTs have achieved in over 40 years?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[simontaylor484]

Snip

I wonder what the HSTs have achieved in over 40 years?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

And considering many are still going that is going to be a hefty figure especially those that ran Scotland to the South West Cross country routes

[Northmoor]

16 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

I think the A4s achieved an average of about one and a half million miles in a quarter of a century, and the first of the A3s (built as A1s) got to two and a half million in around forty years. Far less than their successors, but no steam loco could expect to match the mileages an electric loco (particularly) achieved. New technologies, of course.

 

In fairness, some of the working practices with steam did not give maximum utilisation; until the early diesels arrived, and weren't up to the job. Then, the Pacifics took over the diesel diagrams with aplomb - out and back to Newcastle in a day, with a run down to Peterborough or Grantham as well; unheard of before. 

 

There's no doubt the Class 91s carried on the ECML tradition of high speeds and long distances. I wonder what the HSTs have achieved in over 40 years?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

There used to be several HST diagrams which required more than 1000 miles/day.  I expect the new units to be exceeding this level of utilisation.

 

Thinking about how hard trains are worked, I was recently in a work (LU) discussion about public perception of the unreliability of trains, compared to the perceived reliability of cars.  The point was made that most cars are used for less than one hour a day and at no more than 30% of their design performance.  A lot of trains are active for 12-18 hours, at least six days a week and operated to at least 80% of their design performance.  If I drove my car like that It would need a lot more maintenance than it gets.....

 

Also during the discussion was an anecdote about a company providing actuators for power doors; at an industry event their agent was very proudly quoting their reliability figures to a Senior LU Engineer.  Congratulating him, he said that unfortunately the failure rate he quoted would create as many door failures in Underground trains in a single rush hour, as the entire network experiences in a typical week.  I know it's not the ECML, but consider that the Bakerloo Line stock has now been operating continuously for 48 years.  That's a lot of stops and starts.