Sheffield Exchange, Toy trains, music and fun!

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

It is hot. I spent an hour or two doing some wiring. After connecting two wires I ended up sending a five coach train out of the station as far as the staging yard, followed by a light engine move. All accompanied by the soothing ying ying of a pair of EMD prime movers. To hot for anything else now.

[30368]

I can understand the draw of the and nostalgia for the steam locomotive and the work ethic that surrounded these machines. I joined the SR in the late Summer of 1963 as a fitting apprentice. I didn't really work on steam but did work in steam depots (Basingstoke and Eastleigh.) to recover failed Cromptons as it happens.

 

The mess rooms in these places were filthy smoky holes but at the same time funny - some really filthy jokes were heard which for a 17 year old year old were also "educational" we were a bit more innocent then despite the swinging sixties which was largely a myth for working class lads and lasses.

 

Steam engine inspection pits were disgusting to work in and you had to marvel at the ability of steam fitters to keep those beasts going. Based at Eastleigh Diesel Depot I soon learnt that assisting the "Call Out Fitter" meant if there was any really dirty work then the apprentice did it - under supervision naturally!

 

I spent some time footplate riding on Bulleid Pacifics and Standard Fives as well as Cromptons. Whilst it is difficult to compare given the differing duties (Cromptons were rarely on passenger turns before electrification) I would say that it is unlikely that any pacific could accelerate as quickly as a Crompton. I'm afraid that change is what happens in life and in the railway industry and long may that continue!

 

Now I have retired I spend most of my railway modelling time building little steam engines!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

I am sure the books written by railwaymen, not those by the senior managers as many are, wouldn't sell if they read like it was the worse job that person ever had. I sure we all know of Joe Brown's story. He was a fireman at Plaistow, didn't like the job. He went on holiday, discovered Rock and Roll and never went back, he didn't even hand in his notice.

 

This afternoon's tune

 

 

Unsure about Jimmy's dress sense, do those tights really go with that pink skirt?

[jazzer]

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I knew a chap who had been a fireman, his regular driver would say two or three words to him if he was lucky. The driver also hung his cap on pressure gauge, and told my acquaintance that he would learn how to regulate boiler pressure not by looking at the gauge but by listening to the safety valves. My friend was so pleased when he got his call up papers and after coming out the army with a driving licence went and got a job as a lorry driver. How many other railway workers were like old Jock.

 Yes , I have lost count of the number of tiles I have heard and read  that story  told by different people in different books and magazines over the years, together with the one about the grumpy old drivers that drew a chalk line down the middle of the cab and told the fireman to keep over his side, plus different variations on the theme, most of which I take with a pinch of salt. 

 

Certainly, many writers glamorise the job for the purpose of selling books and magazines.  I certainly don't take the sort of stuff that Harold  Glasson writes seriously , for example nor some of the nonsense that appears in Steam World and similar publications , from time to time, but your point was why inanimate things  i.e. locomotives are referred to as if they were living things. . My take on it is that yes it was a hard and often dirty job (which many others were until the 1960's) and you had to be a certain type to take to it. Cleaning out smoke box ash on a windy day was no joke nor climbing up to oil up while the fire box is getting hotter and hotter ( Ive tried that one) but for those that took to the job, the onest hat Clive Groome referred to as rough undisciplined rogues the job bred a certain camaraderie, and a certain affection for the machines that led them to refer to them as living things. You must have experienced a similar bond with your mates in the Army. In fact there is still a website where all the old Nine Elms Steam men keep in tough, the bond is that strong. 

 

EDIT. Just as an afterthought on the point about drivers covering the pressure gauge with their caps (Bill Hoole was apparently one who occasionally did this) ,the reason might well have been to get the fireman to look at the chimney. The fireman would put a round on the fire and the exhaust from the chimney would turn dark grey/black then gradually turn lighter and clear completely over the next tw0- three minutes and once it was clear it would be time to fire again. Of course it would also mean the fireman had to learn the road. The pressure gauge would nt tell him when gradients or speed restrictions were coming up but he would still have to build the fire or run it down a bit in advance. Somewhere on youtube there is an LMS instruction video explaining all this.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2019 by jazzer

[30368]

Clive,

 

Like today's band, I think the top is all wrong, something lighter in shade I think?

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

 

I really like the fast walking rhythm of this one, plus the piano part.  Smashing stuff from Scotland,home of great 80s bands.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I need to press the 'buy' button on Hattons website and get the bits I need to finish the staging yard for the ol' train set.  Bit cooler today, so might do some modelling.  Got some Cambrian Turbots I might finish, although I've noticed I've 'mislaid' one of the bolsters on one of them.  Now I recall starting these a while ago and getting so cross at the stupid way the bogies go together I must have thrown the thing in a rage.  Serves me right, I've now got 2 and a half Turbots.

 

Stupid Boy.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Good grief, now one of these bloody pieces has pinged off into the ether.

 

 

At the current rate of attrition it will take three kits to complete a single Turbot.  And I still have to buy wheels. 

 

This is how far I've got, and it's not worth the effort. 

[Clive Mortimore]

5 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

Good grief, now one of these bloody pieces has pinged off into the ether.

 

 

At the current rate of attrition it will take three kits to complete a single Turbot.  And I still have to buy wheels. 

 

This is how far I've got, and it's not worth the effort. 

Slap the body on a Lima Bogie Bolster E. Well that is what BR done....no they never used LIma ones but real Bogie Bolster Es were converted to Turbots.

 

Today's song was written 2days ago, and 5 minutes before the video was shot. I like it.

 

Edited July 24, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Gibbo675]

2 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

Good grief, now one of these bloody pieces has pinged off into the ether.

 

 

At the current rate of attrition it will take three kits to complete a single Turbot.  And I still have to buy wheels. 

 

This is how far I've got, and it's not worth the effort. 

Hi Dr GF,

 

I have had the very same trouble with the very same piece when building a batch of BAA steel wagons I jut adapted some Slater's plastic rod. Serious faffing about for what it is but I got there in the end with the bonus that I feel home made is always more satisfying in the end !

 

The one thing I don't like about Cambrian kits is that the components locate on a bevel which can be a bit tricky as it would seem you are also aware of.

 

Gibbo.

[Clive Mortimore]

10 hours ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

I really like the fast walking rhythm of this one, plus the piano part.  Smashing stuff from Scotland,home of great 80s bands.

Thanks for that I haven't listened to Belle and Sebastian for yonks.

 

When I had my dog walking business I turned up at a customer's house where the access was from the back and there were two shifty look chaps by the back gate. I asked what they were doing there and they said they were friends of the owners. So I said "Oh you know Belle and Sebastian?" "Yes" they answered. I promptly went inside, told Fido to be quiet and rang 101. They didn't clear off straight away so I was able to give a reasonable description. A little later I had a call form PC Plod thanking me and he went on to say other people had rang about the same two chaps. He didn't say if they had been caught. 

Edited July 24, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

No running, the carriage works were shut. The blinking signalling engineer has gone and blocked the lines with all his equipment. I have made the cable form (wiring loom) for the platform and loco yard exit signals this evening.

 

Edit, I forgot

 

I bet young Mr Peters and George T can't play like Misa and Kanami

 

Edited July 25, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[St Enodoc]

38 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I bet young Mr Peters and George T can't play like Misa and Kanami

 

I bet they don't look much like them either.

[Andrew P]

7 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

No running, the carriage works were shut. The blinking signalling engineer has gone and blocked the lines with all his equipment. I have made the cable form (wiring loom) for the platform and loco yard exit signals this evening.

 

Edit, I forgot

 

I bet young Mr Peters and George T can't play like Misa and Kanami

 

I do like that Clive, a good driving song but I ain't got the legs mate, 

[Enterprisingwestern]

7 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I bet young Mr Peters and George T can't play like Misa and Kanami

 

Maybe not, but not knowing them personally, I sincerely hope they have better dress sense!

 

Mike.

[Andrew P]

7 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Maybe not, but not knowing them personally, I sincerely hope they have better dress sense!

 

Mike.

Only slightly better Mike, especially when it's hot and the Shorts go on and the legs come out to play. haha

[Clive Mortimore]

32 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Only slightly better Mike, especially when it's hot and the Shorts go on and the legs come out to play. haha

[Ravenser]

On 22/07/2019 at 12:25, Clive Mortimore said:

OK LNER experts, before I go on to Sir's thread and look a pillock. Coach battery boxes. I have reached the point where I am reading the destructions of the Kirk kits I am building and Ian says that the battery boxes go on one side only. Photos of gangwayed carriages in me books show they are on both sides except on full brakes. I am correct in thinking they go on both sides and I need to make some more (there isn't enough to go round other wise). I know I need to make more for the Hornby cut and shuts.

 

Right - this is not definitive, but here goes.

 

I've looked at Historic Carriage Drawings vol 1 LNER.

 

There's no detailed plan-view underframe drawing. However in a few cases photographs  both corridor and non-corridor sides of a type of vehicle are provided - and both sides display battery boxes.

 

Harris' LNER carriages is no real help - there is a very reduced works drawing of a 51' underframe which may or may not be showing unplated/battery box  and plated /?glimpse of battery box?? .

 

Not conclusive, but it does look very much as if Gresley corridor compartment stock had battery boxes on each side.

 

P.S. It appears from Historic Carriage Drawings that pre-grouping coaches normally had battery boxes on one side only . That may well include Gresley's GNR coaches. Though I think by 1960 all pre-grouping coaching stock had more or less gone

Edited July 25, 2019 by Ravenser
to add P.S clarification

[richard i]

Then later ones got them on both sides. More use or so electric should last longer?

[Clive Mortimore]

I have been accused of scaremongering, all I have done is repeated what the bloke who designed Gaugemaster controllers said not to do. If that is scaring people then it is worth it. 

 

As for the experts who are telling me I am wrong, one does have a layout of which there are pictures on the internet. The others who are keen on  sharing their experience on RMweb they are 'king shy of sharing their layouts , model locos , model failures , but happy to tell me I am wrong when all I was doing was repeating what my former employer advised not to do.  Come back to me with a working example where you are saying I am wrong. 

 

I have some modelling to do. 

[Satan's Goldfish]

Not sure if step up or down from DCC trolling...

[Stubby47]

Carry on as you are Clive.

[john new]

2 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I have been accused of scaremongering, all I have done is repeated what the bloke who designed Gaugemaster controllers said not to do. If that is scaring people then it is worth it. 

 

As for the experts who are telling me I am wrong, one does have a layout of which there are pictures on the internet. The others who are keen on  sharing their experience on RMweb they are 'king shy of sharing their layouts , model locos , model failures , but happy to tell me I am wrong when all I was doing was repeating what my former employer advised not to do.  Come back to me with a working example where you are saying I am wrong. 

 

I have some modelling to do. 

Can you add a link, not clear what it is we are not supposed to do - would like to read the advice from Gaugemaster on what to avoid doing. (Hopefully not already done it - but nothing has gone bang yet!)

Edited July 26, 2019 by john new

[Clive Mortimore]

42 minutes ago, john new said:

Can you add a link, not clear what it is we are not supposed to do - would like to read the advice from Gaugemaster on what to avoid doing. (Hopefully not already done it - but nothing has gone bang yet!)

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/146009-common-return-using-two-different-types-of-controllers/#comments

[Clive Mortimore]

Cayetana have been helping me as I wire up the signal cable form. My sure method of knowing what I am doing, you know the labels on the end of the wires has failed , half the labels fell off in this heat. I now have the cable form for the platform ends in place. I may have the signals working when I get the royal visit from Swadlincote on Monday. Or I may not. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrRoog3S_TI&list=PLz2w1rQjXBxEN4VfRaS68T46Kh1Dl7G4F&index=10