SOS Junction. If anything happens would someone wake me up please..

[St Enodoc]

12 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

Tripe

Bless you!

[Captain Kernow]

15 hours ago, brianusa said:

Serious question - is Hon Algenon Cuthbertson a Captain, or a First Lieutenant ?  And is he retired or not ?

 

In truth, it depends on which stage of his time line we are considering.

 

He did later become a Captain, but only by default when (still as First Lieutenant) he inadvertently ordered HMS Kernow to sail out of the harbour in Montego Bay in June 1804, leaving the captain marooned (although the captain didn't really mind, as he eventually married his girlfriend there and set up a very nice little cake shop in Kingston).

 

Cuthbertson was reduced back to Second Lieutenant upon the frigate's return to London.

 

One of his descendants also became a Royal Navy captain, who upon the outbreak of WW2 was commanding HMS Aga, one of the navy's latest destroyers, only to lose the ship and all of the crew (as prisoners) when the Reich's latest pocket battleship Graf von Wunderschatz suddenly appeared out of the fog and caused Cuthbertson to panic and make off, with just his second-in-command, in a rowing boat.

 

It seems, though, that Cuthbertson later exacted revenge, when later in the war, as commander of the armed dredger and sludge carrier HMS Ferret, he is rumoured to have caused said ship to ram and sink the Graf von Wunderschatz off the Lizard. At least that was what the locals said, when Cuthbertson and his crew turned up in mysterious circumstances on Gunwalloe beach in a number of rowing boats.

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Was that not HMS Fullers Height? I'm sure its in Jane's Fighting Ships as such, having run away from the Pizmark?

[ian]

11 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

Pheasant plucker. 

 

Not the pheasant plucker's mate - who does the pheasant plucking when the pheasant plucker's late?

[Mallard60022]

I have been mainly avoiding doing anything exciting by completing a third section to my pesky SS. It records the passenger services, other than expresses, that ignored or stopped for a chat at The Junction circa 1961. I suppose I should complete noting the Loco Diagram Numbers for the Up trains' locos (done the Express downs as far as I can identify) as they were often seen on the route disc(s), however maybe not today.

I CBA to do the same for goods services at the moment and there were hardly any worthy of note that ran in daylight on Summer Saturdays. 

When I get really bored I might construct a Summer Weekday Timetable, including goods, as that will allow for lovely ballasts and meaty stuff.

Ar$£

Edited February 10, 2019 by Mallard60022
Bored, so have done this!

[81C]

Yo Duckmate.

How the devil are you dear boy I've been having trouble with this new forum malarkey to the point of I can't be @rsed the stupid thing has just given me a list of members beginning with D half way through a sentence 

I know it needed updating but this  

I've been messing with something that resembles a timetable for some time now I found it easier if you do all your named trains you want then add others a couple at a time, going at it with trains morning till night you end up in a mess and add freights first and last thing of the day slipping in a milk & a perishables train mid afternoon don't forget the odd light engine movement maybe an assist loco returning to shed..    

Anyway I hope you are keeping well, enjoy your trains. 

[bigwordsmith]

Clearly the new forum format is confusing the troops - I'm getting withdrawal symptoms from the lack of input

 

Not to mention being up to my ar£e in crocodiles as a result of my soon-to-be-ex son-in-law throwing away all the backups for my company's four websites! I've spent the last few days alternately threatening violence to him and learning how to build websites for myself.

 

`i'd like to say it is therapeutic, but it's actually blooming hard work! Mind you I suppose it is another skill to take to market.

 

The things we found ourselves having to do because of the stupidity of others! 

 

And this was supposed to be the year I started to ease into some form of semi-retirement. Hah!

 

In the meantime I've also succumbed to the blandishments of Mr & Mrs Hatton and their wee bairns, and parcels containing miscellaneous lumps of plastic have started arriving. FFS I don't even have a railway at the moment!

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I'm spending much less time on rmweb since the reboot.  Finding other things to do, although I do miss the bantz here and in Morty's place.  It all seems to have died rather.

 

Still, at least I am making progress in disposing of all my stock on the bay of e and replacing it with new toys.

[Mallard60022]

2 hours ago, 81C said:

Yo Duckmate.

How the devil are you dear boy I've been having trouble with this new forum malarkey to the point of I can't be @rsed the stupid thing has just given me a list of members beginning with D half way through a sentence 

I know it needed updating but this  

I've been messing with something that resembles a timetable for some time now I found it easier if you do all your named trains you want then add others a couple at a time, going at it with trains morning till night you end up in a mess and add freights first and last thing of the day slipping in a milk & a perishables train mid afternoon don't forget the odd light engine movement maybe an assist loco returning to shed..    

Anyway I hope you are keeping well, enjoy your trains. 

OK thanks apart from the wooden leg that appears to be warping (not speed but twist) and I am mobility impaired at the moment and that is truly 'orrid. I have opened your box of goodies, looked at the contents a few times and then had a lie down. However, I do have 3 X Jocko bodies sitting up the Junction awaiting the call.

The new format is designed to ensure more muddling takes place, however in my case it isn't working that well so far. 

Tomorrow, if said leg allows, I shall be visiting Sheffield Exchange for inspiration and a lot of book perusing, owner permitting!

I have actually completed another part to the SS wot I wuz compiling and that shows the passenger workings other than the expresses. I only have one named one of those, but sometimes there were two that carried the famous headboard and one or two more 'extras'. It also includes a couple of Newspaper and Milk trains that included passenger accommodation, usually in a 3 Set L.

Hope u OK too after your poor old back situation.

ATB

P

[Clive Mortimore]

49 minutes ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

I'm spending much less time on rmweb since the reboot.  Finding other things to do, although I do miss the bantz here and in Morty's place.  It all seems to have died rather.

 

Still, at least I am making progress in disposing of all my stock on the bay of e and replacing it with new toys.

Yo Doc

 

Pop over to the Exchange.....I nearly went DCC today, seriously.

[Mallard60022]

Just thinking, I really ought to do a weekday Summer TT SS and maybe a Sundays one just for fun (that will be short and sweet).

Then, of course, there could be the Winter TTs...….Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz  At least there would be some decent goods workings on these (not Sundays). I might just do and Appendix to the original(s) and add in the trains that ran in darkness/early/late hours as they were quite interesting.

Otherwise I really ought to take some drugs and do some proper job work up The Junction....ouch.

P 

[Mallard60022]

2 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Yo Doc

 

Pop over to the Exchange.....I nearly went DCC today, seriously.

Just two wires should do it.

Plug em in and off it goes.

[Clive Mortimore]

38 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

Just two wires should do it.

Plug em in and off it goes.

Don't I posted on Upside Down John's thread a track plan for two wire DC branch terminus, with run round and yard.

 

I have operated a layout, my mate Stu's St Jude. It is DCC, with one point , in the fiddle yard. None on the single line modern branch terminus which was prototypically modeled without any sidings etc. He had 3 bubble cars, each had their own magic code I had to type in to the controller. Only two digit. One was programed to go backwards not forwards so that was fun remembering which one that was. He also had a 08 shunter. Now with the bubbly cars being 01, 02  and 03 you would have thought the shunter to be 04, no. It wasn't 05, 06 , 07, not even 08, or 09 well I gave up at 15. Stu came back to the layout it had the same address as one of the bubble cars. Possibly the simplest track plan you can have with only one point, and four items of motive power but it was complicated to operate.

 

Saying that I did enjoy driving it as I was supposed to be helping Andi Dell with Dagworth and on that day his operating crew had quite a few guys from MERG and they were getting to techy for me.

[Stubby47]

I've been privileged to operate on BCB a few times. Calling a train from the far fiddle yard,  some 30+ feet away, you couldn't see the loco number. The team created a set of boards with the various loco numbers on, which were put up when each was ready to depart. The driver would then dial in the appropriate 4 digits then drive.

It worked, but is a simple use of DCC. Apart from the sound fitted locos, it could just as easily done with DC.

[Mallard60022]

On ‎27‎/‎01‎/‎2019 at 12:37, Tim Dubya said:

afternoon, pair of Bulleid's, Exezeceter 1958

 

 

all three of them

Right I have probably found the answer to this little mystery of the two tins of Spam working down to St D's.

Whilst resting my knackered wing and beak as I sat in the lounge window bay, in the beautiful mid afternoon sun, I was reading the excellent Irwell Press volume "The Okehampton Line" the Southern Railway Route between Exeter, Tavistock and Plymouth; by John Nicholas and George Reeve, and found the  information that could explain the DHeading.

"In the 1950s, on Summer Saturdays there were some more movements at Yeoford".  "On some peak Saturdays ……...this operation" (double heading through St D's)…" enabled the SR to just use one train path through the congestion at St David's to provide stopping trains to both Ilfracombe and Friary".

There was even a triple headed train, the 11.39 from Exeter, a T9 leading ready for Bude, and then a T9 and Spam on the Plymouth section as far as Okehampton.

The leading engine in the picture (twin vertical discs for Plymouth Friary) would have probably shunted off at Yeoford, the train engine then proceeding west (note what seems very much as if it has twin horizontal discs for the Barnstable/Okehampton/Padstow line?); the leading engine then taking the other part of the train onwards to Friary via Okehampton. 

Until now I had no idea that Yeoford was that busy with passenger arrangements at certain times, although I was aware it was an important Goods marshalling place for joining stuff going east and splitting stuff going west and south west. Of course this could all be bo##ocks and it is just a heavy train needing assistance as far as Okehampton

Every time I open this book I seem to find something I had missed or not really noted previously; well worth getting it if you are on the same planet as Spams or me.

P

[81C]

Do they sell Spam on Mars. 

[Stubby47]

That's actually quite a clever solution to a busy route - we've all seen the images of large SR pacific locos pulling one or two coaches - perhaps this is partly the reason.

[Clive Mortimore]

28 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

That's actually quite a clever solution to a busy route - we've all seen the images of large SR pacific locos pulling one or two coaches - perhaps this is partly the reason.

My experience of being hauled by Spams and the ones not in their tins is one or two coaches was all they could pull away with without slipping. Waterloo was great seeing that smoke and steam bellowing out of a stationary loco with its wheels going hell for leather and the carriages sat there as if they are not part of the same song and dance. The poor little class 3 tank at the buffer end of the platform then had to give the whole ensemble a shove so the crew could go back to Clapham and have a cuppa.

[Mallard60022]

1 hour ago, Stubby47 said:

That's actually quite a clever solution to a busy route - we've all seen the images of large SR pacific locos pulling one or two coaches - perhaps this is partly the reason.

People often joke about the LP's hauling short rains, however it was the case that a few did just hang around the west country beyond Exeter, but in the main, they were hauling big stuff on the main routes and east of Exeter they were on the racetrack as they were on the Weymouth route. The rapid electrification of the SR in Kent released many eastern section Spam LP's and so the western division and especially 72A, got a load of Spams in exchange for modified engines and yes, then there was a bit of a surplus but by then but that was typical of the race to get rid of stem in a short sighted management race to be seen as being modern! Almost as bad as the wasted resource that was the BR Standards; criminal actions all.

P

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

"In the 1950s, on Summer Saturdays there were some more movements at Yeoford".

I'd blame the fish.

[jazzer]

2 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

People often joke about the LP's hauling short rains, however it was the case that a few did just hang around the west country beyond Exeter, but in the main, they were hauling big stuff on the main routes and east of Exeter they were on the racetrack as they were on the Weymouth route. The rapid electrification of the SR in Kent released many eastern section Spam LP's and so the western division and especially 72A, got a load of Spams in exchange for modified engines and yes, then there was a bit of a surplus but by then but that was typical of the race to get rid of stem in a short sighted management race to be seen as being modern! Almost as bad as the wasted resource that was the BR Standards; criminal actions all.

P

Ain’t that the truth ! 

 

Five coaches Exeter -Bude seems from the ACE seems a light load but that was tough terrain, even though the loload was reduced to three once the Bude and Plymouth portions came off.  One coach Padstow - Wadebridge seems a waste of a pacific, but as it had just arrived with the ACE and had to go back to Wadebridge anyway for servicing it was the obvious choice. It’s a pity photographers forget these things in there captions. An under utilised LP still represented less capital under used than an eqivilent Diesel electric on the same job. However with all those surplus Pacifics it always amazes me that the SR still persisted in using standard class 4’s 2-6-0’s on the Bournemouth line for quite heavy trains even though the Pacifics were said to have made hard work of the stoppers.

 

Yep, as you say, criminal actions all. People have been sent to the gallows for less serious crimes !

[brianusa]

Slippage is often the main criticism of the WC/BB locos.  It seems a minor problem in the great scheme of things when talking trains as they were the backbone of the SR West of Exeter.  Sure they were on the Tavvy local or Brentor or wherever and it must have been embarrassing travelling in reverse with just a couple of carriages especially when at North Road and the GW were there with long express trains.  But they had their moment of glory with the Brighton and Portsmouth trains when they slipped West with nine or ten on; even had restaurant cars!

 

Brian.

[Ashley Bridge]

Regarding the slippage, I’ve always understood that crews were told to avoid sanding at the London Termini because of the complicated pointwork at the station throat.

The double header out of Central would be to save a movement , very often they would attach the bankers (no sniggering) to return them down the incline.

Yeoford is an interesting junction , not terribly photogenic especially after they demolished the island platform building, so you don’t see many shots of it.

Rich

[Mallard60022]

12 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I'd blame the fish.

More likely the Scrumpy and or mushrooms!

Hick Dreamer

[Mallard60022]

12 hours ago, jazzer said:

Ain’t that the truth ! 

 

Five coaches Exeter -Bude seems from the ACE seems a light load but that was tough terrain, even though the loload was reduced to three once the Bude and Plymouth portions came off.  One coach Padstow - Wadebridge seems a waste of a pacific, but as it had just arrived with the ACE and had to go back to Wadebridge anyway for servicing it was the obvious choice. It’s a pity photographers forget these things in there captions. An under utilised LP still represented less capital under used than an eqivilent Diesel electric on the same job. However with all those surplus Pacifics it always amazes me that the SR still persisted in using standard class 4’s 2-6-0’s on the Bournemouth line for quite heavy trains even though the Pacifics were said to have made hard work of the stoppers.

 

Yep, as you say, criminal actions all. People have been sent to the gallows for less serious crimes !

 

36 minutes ago, Ashley Bridge said:

Regarding the slippage, I’ve always understood that crews were told to avoid sanding at the London Termini because of the complicated pointwork at the station throat.

The double header out of Central would be to save a movement , very often they would attach the bankers (no sniggering) to return them down the incline.     Yup. I used to see multiple loco's going 'down', but the stuff coming up when it was a Ballast was just explosive; most often an N or Pacific on the train with a Z Pilot and then two Zs as bankers. I saw that once when the loco proceeding from Central was actually King Arthur itself, almost certainly on a return working to Salisbury.

Yeoford is an interesting junction , not terribly photogenic especially after they demolished the island platform building, so you don’t see many shots of it.

Rich

I reckon the Bournemouth line was a little more reluctant to replace their smaller loco policy for goods, however they were happy to use Nelsons on perishables! Something to do with the Eastleigh Control gang (perfectly respectable mob I am sure).

Sanding on leaving Waterloo was, as you say, partly to do with the track complexity, however it was also to do with the steam sanders squirting hot grit all over the track circuiting.  The truth is that the real problem was these Pacifics were notorious for shedding lubricant, even when they were modified it was still a problem. The mixture of oil and boiling water/steam dripping from various areas around the cylinders and gear created a lovely greasy film on the tracks at the end of each Platform departure area and that was the main cause from reports from the crews that have written about their lives on the rails. It wasn't that different at Kings Cross and 'even' at Euston they used the pilots, that had brought in the coaching stock, as useful bankers on departure of the heavy trains. However, negotiating Gas Works Tunnel(s) was a true art of engine handling but they could use sand freely in there! Probably the most sure footed Pacifics I saw departing London were Corries.

Such wonderful days (OK quite polluting as we now know) and those sights remain with me still, even though I witnessed them just a few times compared to watching the stuff blasting east out of North Road.

Incidentally, when reading some of my operational books for the WOEML yesterday I noted that there were regular passes through The Junction at well into the upper 80s and even lower 90s. Being at Axminster was even better I believe....wow!

Phil

 

Edited February 15, 2019 by Mallard60022
Can't spill Gaz and carp grmmaa