Imaginary Locomotives

[LNWR18901910]

Would one want to be in that carriage in the event of a high speed derailment?

Probably not me as chances are we'd all be dead.

[Suzie]

Hopefully the new wagon chassis for the super-pacer will only be viewable by members

 

 

 

[844fan]

Hmm you know all this talk on electric locos made me remember a thought I had a while ago due to my railway not having any Electric powered lines. How feasible would it be to convert a Electric to Diesel Electric? I mean a couple Generators, a good power plant engine and you already have the motors why not?  

[Compound2632]

Hmm you know all this talk on electric locos made me remember a thought I had a while ago due to my railway not having any Electric powered lines. How feasible would it be to convert a Electric to Diesel Electric? I mean a couple Generators, a good power plant engine and you already have the motors why not?  

 

But the diesel electric throws away the great advantage of the electric locomotive - the ability to remove the power generation plant from the train, so that it is not constrained bin size or efficiency by the limitations of the loading gauge. Brunel understood this fundamental limitation of the "locomotive" - hence the atmospheric railway - and I believe even George Stephenson prophesied that one day the railway would be electrically powered. (He rubbed shoulders with Michael Faraday - no jokes about static, please.)

 

As modellers, we are even more constrained by the loading gauge - certainly in anything below O gauge - so we've nearly universally taken the logical step. In this respect, the vogue for battery-powered remote controlled engines is a retrograde step!

[Trains4U]

You mean like these?  Class 74

Edited October 2, 2017 by Trains4U

[Budgie]

Found this note online:

"The Leyland coach still exists today at the Llanelli and Mynnydd Mawr Railway in Morfa Camarthenshire. It is now safely stored at Cynhidre where it is to be restored to its original condition for use on the former Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway with the Gwendraeth Railway Society"

 

Not on their stock list.

 

Keith

Maybe they tossed it down the shaft at Cynheidre colliery.

[melmerby]

PS

Is the hybrid coach really likely to reach 100mph regularly on such duties?

dh

 

It certainly did when on WCML duties.

I assume the ride was no worse than a MK1 coach although the seating IIRC was a bit more basic.

I think I have actually been on a train with it marshalled in the formation but definitely didn't sit in it!

 

As regards the integrity of the body, I think the construction was little different to how modern units are constructed although it sat on an Mk1 underframe.

 

Keith

[Pacific231G]

Hmm you know all this talk on electric locos made me remember a thought I had a while ago due to my railway not having any Electric powered lines. How feasible would it be to convert a Electric to Diesel Electric? I mean a couple Generators, a good power plant engine and you already have the motors why not?  

 

Like this for example?

 

Only one genny AFAIK and a mercifully quiet one, 

It is of course vitally important in circumstances like this ensure that the frotteurs are isolé

 

To avoid embarrassment It is also very important to know the difference between the railway technical defintion of the word frotteur and any other.

 

This is what we're talking about here

 

 

 

Preserved Paris Metro Sprague-Thomson set "on vacation" at the seaside on the S.G. line from St. Valery-Port to Noyelles-sur-Mer during the Baie de Somme's Festival a Vapeur in 2013

Edited October 2, 2017 by Pacific231G

[brack]

Hmm you know all this talk on electric locos made me remember a thought I had a while ago due to my railway not having any Electric powered lines. How feasible would it be to convert a Electric to Diesel Electric? I mean a couple Generators, a good power plant engine and you already have the motors why not?

I think that SRJ 55 on the lennakatten line in Sweden is having this happen - I heard it might be a Russian tank engine or something similar they plan on using (I try to translate Swedish but I'm not great with it and online translations aren't much better sometimes). Not sure anyone in the country would have the guts to do that to a 1946 built electric (though it's sister survives too and is to be restored in original condition). I doubt whether people would be ok with this happening to one of the EM2s or the EM1...

[Ramblin Rich]

I believe there's coaches with auxillary water tanks for steam engines, so why not have a coach with a diesel generator connected to a preserved electric loco? Oh hang on, isn't that basically a Thumper unit...?

[Coryton]

You commute 4 miles by train? Is there a river in between?

 

No.

 

But while walking 8 miles a day would probably be good for me, it would take rather too much out of the day.

 

And it does rain a bit here.

 

I didn't think it was an odd thing to do. The people crammed into the trains (this morning they couldn't all get on) don't seem to think so either.

[Coryton]

Seems a bit wasteful, I mean you could shove a single axle at each end and single axles under the corridor connections to make it articulated, have a special exhaust system so it smells a bit fumy if you've sat in the wrong place, make sure a couple of the small windows are a bit rattly in their frames, leave a 2" gap below the doors with some heavy duty fake eyelashes to 'seal' it, drill a few holes to let it drip from the ceiling when it rains heavily, put a special leg burning device along the side walls but not bother with any other heat source and I wouldn't waste money on any springs. People on 70 odd mile train journeys always want the condemned school bus experience.

 

The pacer I came home on today appeared to have moss growing in one of the window frames.

 

(Driver's window where it extends into the passenger area. I think possibly the other half of the window used to be able to slide that far but the cab walls have been sealed all the way across leaving the groove redundant).

[Coryton]

Note-I have always found the bus derived trains (pacers and the 155/153) as having a big advantage, in that you get narrow pillars and big windows. How much of the critisisms leveled at these trains is based on the actual body design, or the cheap bits BR used to make them cheap enough to sell the idea of new trains to the treasury?

 

Yes - and for that reason I prefer Pacers to Sprinters - especially when the Sprinters are laid out with facing seats so that they all line up perfectly with the window pillars. 

 

However the windows are rather high for some people.

 

That bus body was on a Mk1 underframe, as the Mk2 was a unibdy construction. It was thought up by the RTC as a cheap way to replace the body. 

 

 

Having said that, the latest Hornby Mk2's have a rather nice solebar.

 

Odd to see something with a departmental number in passenger service. I don't think I've seen that anywhere else.

[runs as required]

I believe there's coaches with auxillary water tanks for steam engines, so why not have a coach with a diesel generator connected to a preserved electric loco? Oh hang on, isn't that basically a Thumper unit...?

And before that - the  Armstrong Whitworth concept of a 'pre-electric' train with 'mobile power station' that they tried to sell to Sir Herbert Walker.

They could have had more success with Chris Grayling for cut price GWML and Northern Power House traction

dh

[Compound2632]

Like this for example?

P1030404.JPG

 

P1030403.JPG

Only one genny AFAIK and a mercifully quiet one, 

It is of course vitally important in circumstances like this ensure that the frotteurs are isolé

 

To avoid embarrassment It is also very important to know the difference between the railway technical defintion of the word frotteur and any other.

 

This is what we're talking about here

 

Sprague frotteur.jpg

 

 

Preserved Paris Metro Sprague-Thomson set "on vacation" at the seaside on the S.G. line from St. Valery-Port to Noyelles-sur-Mer during the Baie de Somme's Festival a Vapeur in 2013

 

I really daren't make any further observation on the way the French language comes by its technical terms. All I can say is, it seems very apt.

[The Johnster]

Isole or not, I would advise full connais de le location precis de votre frotteurs a tout le temps; you don't want the little divils sneaking up on you...

Edited October 2, 2017 by The Johnster

[scots region]

BR rebuilt a Mk2 coach with Leyland bus parts, not sure what it was for though.image.jpeg

 

Someone in the complaints department must have done a naughty, and this was there punishment. 

[runs as required]

I'm impressed with the post-electric technology but left behind with all the Frenchy lingo. Does friotteure refer to the pick-up or the rustic "isolation" joint in the rails?

[Pacific231G]

I'm impressed with the post-electric technology but left behind with all the Frenchy lingo. Does friotteure refer to the pick-up or the rustic "isolation" joint in the rails?

Frenchy? The Napoleonic wars really were quite some time ago now. In any case rather a lot of French railway "lingo" came from us. In return we got aviation, aeronautics, aeroplane, aerodrome, hangar, aileron, fuselage, longeron, amongst much other lingo (Americans may have invented the "airplane" but a great deal of its subsequent early development before the First World War happened in France)  

 

The frotteur is the pick up shoe and you obviously wouldn't want 750V DC on it when the set is being powered by the genny, especially not on a public quayside, It comes from the verb frotter  "to rub" which is of course what it does on the third rail. The word has though acquired a less innocent meaning that I wouldn't dream of explaining here.

 

The "rustic isolation joint" is easily explained by this wider picture.

 

 

A friend who is particularly interested in  the Paris Metro wasn't able to be at the Fete Vapeur  and the morning after the three day event, when the visiting stock was heading home, was a good opportunity to capture some underbody detail.

Edited October 2, 2017 by Pacific231G

[runs as required]

.. The word has though acquired a less innocent meaning that I wouldn't dream of explaining here.

I do believe I know what you are referring to.

I was having to teach a bunch of hard bitten engineering post grads about 20 or 30 years ago on a 'cross over' course about some painterly techniques such as chiaroscuro, sfumato, frottage forshortening etc. and it seemed that they regarded the whole lot as rude. 

Edited October 2, 2017 by runs as required

[LNWR18901910]

Hopefully the new wagon chassis for the super-pacer will only be viewable by members

 

Lima long car wagon.jpg

How would that fit along the curves?

[Corbs]

Like this for example?

P1030404.JPG

 

P1030403.JPG

Only one genny AFAIK and a mercifully quiet one, 

It is of course vitally important in circumstances like this ensure that the frotteurs are isolé

 

To avoid embarrassment It is also very important to know the difference between the railway technical defintion of the word frotteur and any other.

 

This is what we're talking about here

 

Sprague frotteur.jpg

 

 

Preserved Paris Metro Sprague-Thomson set "on vacation" at the seaside on the S.G. line from St. Valery-Port to Noyelles-sur-Mer during the Baie de Somme's Festival a Vapeur in 2013

 

Non-fictional-ness aside, that's a very pretty train.

[Pacific231G]

Non-fictional-ness aside, that's a very pretty train.

Seeing it running along the side of the bay certainly looked very fictional - a bit like the Central Line to Ongar used to only more so. Definite shades of Roland Emett

[Suzie]

How would that fit along the curves?

 

It is articulated, so would make a 3-car unit, or the original prototype wagon would make a 2-car unit on three axles.

 

 

 

But that would be boring.

[Budgie]

The frotteur is the pick up shoe and you obviously wouldn't want 750V DC on it when the set is being powered by the genny, especially not on a public quayside, It comes from the verb frotter  "to rub" which is of course what it does on the third rail. The word has though acquired a less innocent meaning that I wouldn't dream of explaining here.

  

I do believe I know what you are referring to.

I was having to teach a bunch of hard bitten engineering post grads about 20 or 30 years ago on a 'cross over' course about some painterly techniques such as chiaroscuro, sfumato, frottage forshortening etc. and it seemed that they regarded the whole lot as rude.

I am disgusted. I have the latest edition of the Collins-Robert French Dictionary, and neither frottage nor frotteur appears in it. (Actually a lot of French railway technical terms do not appear in it, so I've had to make my own list thereof).