Prototype for everything corner.

[talisman56]

6 hours ago, keefer said:

Had time to do a quick search. The articulated one was the UAC TurboTrain:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UAC_TurboTrain

The RTG units in N.America were built in France, the subsequent RTL units were built in the US:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turboliner

 

Let's not forget of course the APT-E , or the earlier designs which showed a very sleek gas-turbine train. Always thirsty when not at full chat, the oil crisis in the early '70s effectively finished the idea off in the UK.

 

...and these that UP used in the 50s and 60s - one of the lads had a HO model of one of the third generation batch at the club last night - with sound...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_GTELs

Edited October 16, 2019 by talisman56
correction of dates

[keefer]

From the Google search i did to find the UAC trains, it seems Rapido do them in N:

https://www.rapidotrains.com/n-turbo-2

[The Stationmaster]

On 14/10/2019 at 17:20, The Johnster said:

As has Stationmaster, with more authority and experience than me.  It was an occult art as not only did each train behave slightly differently, so did each guard and so did each driver.  The driver had to make the judgement call on when he had sufficient brakes to control the train, and some places had brakemen to assist the guard.  A cabin at the top of Penrhos incline between Aber Jc and Walnut Tree Jc was a good place to get a cup of tea and possibly a brake van ride and a cab ride back up the bank on the banker for a 13 year old Johnster in 1965, the last year of steam in the area, and I once rode down to the Dolomite works on a brake van with a 37, over the Walnut Tree viaduct.

 

The 40mph run Mike refers to is probably in reference to fully fitted MGR traffic with disc air brakes that were not really up to the rigours of South Wales, from Cwmbargoed, where if you were 'only' doing 40 at Nelson (not the one in Lancashire, the Glamorgan one) you were 'probably' going to be able to stop at Ystrad Mynach before being let out on to the Rhymney main line.  Nerves of steel...

 

The known black spots had sand drags at the bottom which gave you a fighting chance, but the pile of shattered wagonry usually found at the ends of them showed that they were not completely effective.  The coal had a habit of disappearing as soon as the local heard the bang!  Of course, once things got beyond a certain point the brakes you have applied and the loco's brakes have worn down to useless anyway, and the brake van won't be far behind.  Once this situation had been reached, you had to make a call as to whether to bail out or stay with the ship and cross your fingers.  We used to reckon that you could survive a jump at 40mph if you tucked and rolled but after that the best thing for the loco crew on a diesel was to hide in the engine room and hang on; the guard just hoped that the crash absorbed enough of the energy of the crash before the van got to it, or at least slowed enough to make jumping viable. 

 

Part and parcel of daily life at depots like Radyr, Aberbeeg, Tondu Llanelli, or Margam, which provided the hapless D95xx in the photo; this incident was, as Mike correctly suggests, a trap point error with the loco being pushed by the train while shunting at North Rhondda (actually not in the Rhondda Valley, it's named after the coal seam it worked and accessed from the Afan valley).  A similar incident in the 70s at Cwm in the Ebbw Valley left a 37 abandoned in the river for some time while the very awkward recovery operation was worked out (the crew had bailed, fortunately).  The wrecked loco was at Canton after the recovery for a while and actually had dead fishes in one of the cabs along with a good bit of river silt.

 

We were not immune at Canton, despite the main line nature of the work, and I had more than one fright coming down Llanfigangel and some nail biting stops coming off the Hereford road and being stopped at Maindee.  I set fire to a brake van on one occasion with 'enthusiastic' braking.  Lickey was always a bit of a worry of course, but you had a good run of fairly level track to recover on at the bottom.

No, definitely not an MGR train - nobody in their right mind would pin down brakes on an HAA or others of that ilk.  It was in fact a train of 21 tonners.  And of course it was dead easy to know when you had sufficient brakes pinned down - you released the loco brake and the train didn't move if you had enough brakes pinned down - if it started to move you banged the loco brake on hard to stop it before it got away.  The whole principle was that the engine had to power to be able to move the train once brakes had pinned down.  The experience bit came in with the blokes pinning down brakes as they would judge how many needed to be done based on the weight of the train (they could see if it looked heavy) and how the brakes felt as they were pinned down - if the handle dropped towards the bottom of the guide you knew it wouldn't stop anything because the brakes were either badly adjusted or worn, or both.

 

As for going through Nelson at 40 mph you'd be lucky to crawl away from that after it ran off the road at Nelson Bog with a heavy train pushing the engine as it would have been shoved for a very long way after it ran out of railway - no chance even to nip off and change the points to ge on the branch down to Ystrad Mynach.  There was a case of a brakevan, fortunately without a Guard in it, which ran away at Cwmbargoed after receiving 'a gentle tap' from the loco which was shunting.  Even when the gradient eased down towards Nelson it doesn't seem to have slowed particularly so it would still have been going pretty fast when it carried on past Nelson and ran off the end of the railway.  Local legend had it that nobody ever found all of it but that might of course have been down to the nefarious activities of the locals who might well have pinched whatever they could find for firewood or to flog as scrap.

 

MGRs were far better at running away because they had continuous brakes (which weren't much use when really put to it) and were totally useless as far as pinning down was concerned.  Working  down 'the Big Hill' from Penrhos to Walnot Tree Jcn didn't last for long after one ran all the way to Radyr Quarry before it eventually came to a stand.

[96701]

And then you get the one where the driver of the Sulzer Type 2 at the back the train setting off from Rose Grove thinks he's been given the right away by the leading EE Type 4 heading the train over Copy Pit.

 

Unfortunately, the Type 2 driver got it wrong, set off with the signal on and the points set against the train.

 

 

 

[leopardml2341]

Lima, Bachmann or Hornby? ^^^^

 

Edit; must be Bachmann - you can see the slot in the battery box for the non DCC lights switch.

Edited October 16, 2019 by leopardml2341

[Wickham Green]

15 hours ago, melmerby said:

 

So that's where the idea of leaf-blowers came from ?!?? ............ it's that time of year when my local Council' starts spending lots of my Poll Council Tax on puffing leaves into corners for no obvious reason. : a guy with a broom would be a far more environmentally friendly way to do it anyway !

[leopardml2341]

12 hours ago, Wickham Green said:

So that's where the idea of leaf-blowers came from ?!?? ............ it's that time of year when my local Council' starts spending lots of my Poll Council Tax on puffing leaves into corners for no obvious reason. : a guy with a broom would be a far more environmentally friendly way to do it anyway !

.....and more healthy for (s)he and the planet.

[keefer]

never understood the point of blowing leaves about - why not have the motor running the other way and suck them into a bag?

[Mark Saunders]

4 minutes ago, keefer said:

never understood the point of blowing leaves about - why not have the motor running the other way and suck them into a bag?

 

Keeps you in a job, as you have to go back and do it again!

[melmerby]

19 minutes ago, keefer said:

never understood the point of blowing leaves about - why not have the motor running the other way and suck them into a bag?

Blow into a heap, then suck 'em into a bag:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/mac-allister-yt623105x-2800w-230-240v-corded-blower-vac/404fg

[Porkscratching]

Of course good old BR not to be outdone, in 1970 took out a patent for a flying saucer...

[Porkscratching]

 

[russ p]

I'd forgotten about the BR flying saucer. 

Can yo imagine the meeting for that, 'well it seems we are losing money on just about everything,  freight is down passenger numbers are alo down, any suggestions to turn this around? '

' Should we design a flying saucer? '

'Absolutely,  that will really turn things around! '

 

Wonder if who ever suggested it moved to BL they had no shortage of light bulb moments right to then when there appeared to be no way back, 'I know let's turn the rover 75 to rear wheel drive and put a huge engine in it!'

[Porkscratching]

Of course if aliens eventually turn up in something similar, among the welcoming committee will be a Lawyer to serve them a summons for copywrite infringement....

[eastwestdivide]

5 hours ago, Porkscratching said:

Of course good old BR not to be outdone, in 1970 took out a patent for a flying saucer...

Won't get very far on a single button battery, surely. Obviously item 21 is one of those battery covers that you open with a coin.

[Porkscratching]

2 hours ago, eastwestdivide said:

Won't get very far on a single button battery, surely. Obviously item 21 is one of those battery covers that you open with a coin.

..you never know..it might take two stacked together like an old Chinon camera...

( i thought it looked like a No Entry sign meself..)

[Metr0Land]

Not as odd as some things on here but I've only ever seen the Sealink branded stock on the Glasgow-Stranraer route as intended.  Clearly though, some escaped onto the WCML

 

BR-81009-E3011-Carlisle-260786a by Michael Wadman, on Flickr

[hexagon789]

5 minutes ago, Metr0Land said:

Not as odd as some things on here but I've only ever seen the Sealink branded stock on the Glasgow-Stranraer route as intended.  Clearly though, some escaped onto the WCML

 

BR-81009-E3011-Carlisle-260786a by Michael Wadman, on Flickr

 

In one of the Model Rail formations articles, Perfectly Formed - 2, there is a picture a rake of Sealink Mk1s at Poulton-le-Flyde behind a 47/4 on a Blackpool-Glasgow relief in 1986. A full kitchen car (Mk1 RKB) was also in the formation between the 47 and the Sealink coaches.

[Wickham Green]

On 19/10/2019 at 15:29, Metr0Land said:

Not as odd as some things on here but I've only ever seen the Sealink branded stock on the Glasgow-Stranraer route as intended.  Clearly though, some escaped onto the WCML

 

BR-81009-E3011-Carlisle-260786a by Michael Wadman, on Flickr

I think I prefer the waves on the side of the loco to the Seasick coaches.

[david.hill64]

On 18/10/2019 at 18:30, Porkscratching said:

Of course good old BR not to be outdone, in 1970 took out a patent for a flying saucer...

Ah! The work of one Dr Charles Frederick, a veritable brain box and a real gentleman. IIRC he joined BR Research from the CEGB where he had managed to work out why some cooling towers had collapsed when nobody else could. I was interviewed by him once for a promotion. Knowing that I had some knowledge of magnetism, he started to outline some hare-brained scheme involving magnets. As he stopped to draw breath, I asked him how he envisaged such a scheme being made practicable. He looked aghast and replied: 'but David, I am about to ask you that!'. At which point the interview panel collapsed in laughter. I didn't get the promotion........... Happy days.

[Wickham Green]

On 18/10/2019 at 19:23, Porkscratching said:

( i thought it looked like a No Entry sign meself..)

This is a railway site, don't forget ........ it's a banner repeater !

[brushman47544]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green said:

This is a railway site, don't forget ........ it's a banner repeater !

 

That makes much more sense. I thought at first it was a slot for a giant screwdriver to open the battery compartment.

[Mel_H]

What to do with that new Warwell you just bought? Load it with a wagon! [Salisbury 1988, grab from video, 7mins in, here 

]

[flapland]

Does anyone know why the mk1 brake in the above video at 8:10 has a white stripe along its length. 

[Welly]

53 minutes ago, flapland said:

Does anyone know why the mk1 brake in the above video at 8:10 has a white stripe along its length. 

I think that carriage is part of the exhibition train rake - they would be painted in whatever they are being used to promote at the time.