"Evening Star"

[31A Driver]

Hi All, 2 points.

 

1, Andi, nice one, it made me laugh.

 

2, Why is 92220 banned from NR?

 

Andy

[br2975]

Sure, the 9F has its accidental place in history and yes, it looks pretty in green. But it is still a 9F. .......

 

Not just 'any' 9F

BUT

The first loco I ever recorded when I started spotting, trundling a fitted van train 'up' the South Wales main line thro' "Ely (Main Line)" station as Cardiff East Dock 8750 pannier 3790 shunted the sidings on the down side of the station. 3790 met its' maker about a year later at T.W.Ward's 'Giants Grave' scrapyard, Briton Ferry, whereas "ES" lives on because it can claim to be - my first 'cop' !!!!

.

Brian R

[Redkiterail]

Hi All, 2 points.

2, Why is 92220 banned from NR?

 

Andy

 

No flange on the centre wheels yes it was fine for BR but NR wont allowed as its a possable delraiment risk

[The Stationmaster]

 

Why is 92220 banned from NR?

 

Andy

 

 

Because of the flangeless centre drivers it is prone to derail on a certain (possibly more than one?) modern design of crossing. And it reportedly did exactly that - which was what led to the ban in the first place as nothing else could be found to explain the derailment.

[great central]

Sure, the 9F has its accidental place in history and yes, it looks pretty in green. But it is still a 9F. In steam days, a 9F was like finding a Derby Type 2.... Ughhh.They simply hadnt been around long enough to be regarded as interestingly historical. Besides, I doubt anyone wanted to see their favourite class of engines replaced by the new boy on the block.

I suppose with the passing of time all steam locos are viewed on a level playing field because they are all old and historical now.

 

 

I must be some kind of 'new kid on the block' then (if only!)

The header photo on this link:

 

http://www.annesleyfireman.com/id4.html

 

shows perfectly what 9Fs were about and how I remember them storming out of Sherwood Rise tunnel on the climb out of Nottingham Vic, next stop Annesley yard and home for the crew. The first picture under the '9F revolution' heading, about half way down the page is just north of where I spent many hours, the plume of smoke and steam in the background is the mouth of Sherwood Rise tunnel.

[jamie92208]

Having had the good fortune to grow up being able to see 2 miles of the long drag from our kitchen window and being able to watch 9F's on the Long Meg Plaster trains as well as double headed 9F's on thr Heysham Leeds tanks (but only from my brothers bedroom window as it faced thr Morecambe line, they were my favourite class of steam locos, a preference which was confirmed when a friendly driver gave me a can ride on one from Blea Moor to Settle, hence my moniker above. Yes they were new but they l;ooked and sounded great to me. Somewhere I've got a shot of Evening Star hauling a dead Crab from York to Keighley ona transfer move.

 

Jamie

[coachmann]

My view of the 9F's is probably coloured by the fact that Lancs had plenty of freight locos, as I grew up with 0-8-0's and 'Austerity' 2-8-0's. Only when the latter were on their way out did we get Stanier 2-8-0's and a few 9F 2-10-0's, the latter usually on the Stanlow oil tanks.

 

Funnily enough my last steam loco sighting in steam days was a 9F. It had worked the Mold Junction-Llandudno Junction-BlaenauFfestiniog freight. Only last -minute panic on the telegraph prevented it from setting off along the branch for Blaenau.

[darrel]

Sure, the 9F has its accidental place in history and yes, it looks pretty in green. But it is still a 9F. In steam days, a 9F was like finding a Derby Type 2.... Ughhh.They simply hadnt been around long enough to be regarded as interestingly historical. Besides, I doubt anyone wanted to see their favourite class of engines replaced by the new boy on the block.

I suppose with the passing of time all steam locos are viewed on a level playing field because they are all old and historical now.

does that mean in 40 years time I will be getting nostalgic about class 66's oh god no

[coachmann]

darrel said :

does that mean in 40 years time I will be getting nostalgic about class 66's oh god no

Could be worse. You might be cyling along the WCML getting nostalgic about mainline railways.

[Lord of the Badgers]

For me, in terms of UK steam locos, not much beats the 9F as a pure expression of power and the might of steam traction - they've always been a fav of mine. They lack the beauty of a [pic your fav grouping era etc loco] but I don't think I'll ever tire of the beasts. This time next year Rodney we'll be (multi)millionaires, and I'll buy one, ta.

 

[Chameleon]

darrel said : Could be worse. You might be cyling along the WCML getting nostalgic about mainline railways.

 

Ahem, Waverley route springs to mind...

[Oldddudders]

does that mean in 40 years time I will be getting nostalgic about class 66's oh god no

It's all a question of era. Yesterday's tat is tomorrow's antique. In 1968 I went to the Manchester celebration of the end of steam. Returning via Waterloo, my former-schoolchum joked about a society for preserving the 4-REP EMU we'd just watched arrive from Bournemouth. Now slam-door EMUs are gone, and sober-minded souls are putting time and money into their preservation. When Deltics supplanted steam from ECML, they were no doubt disliked by many - but now they command much effort and adulation (not to mention money and damned hard work from their owners!) as icons of their time.

 

That 66 remark could come back to haunt you......

[WR Tim]

That 66 remark could come back to haunt you......

 

By 2030 or 2040 the 66 will inveitably become the icon image of freight in the 2010s because there's going to be nothing else in the way of loco classes to get nostalgic about. The real question is where the preserved lines are going to store their rake of 23 HAAs for demonstration freight trains.

[coachmann]

Nostalgia takes some getting used to as one gets older.

 

What I find weard is watching video I took on British Rail starting in 1989. Was it really 20 years ago? Thats the equivalent of 1948, the start of BR, and 1968 the end of steam....

[Martino]

When my Father gave me his copy of 'The Cheltenham Flyer' in 1965 or thereabouts, I thought 30 years ago was the dark ages. 30 years ago is now 1980. That's even newer than 'modern image' was back in '65.

 

Arrgh!

[Oldddudders]

When my Father gave me his copy of 'The Cheltenham Flyer' in 1965 or thereabouts, I thought 30 years ago was the dark ages. 30 years ago is now 1980. That's even newer than 'modern image' was back in '65.

 

Arrgh!

Exactly. I left school in 1966, by which time steam had already been wiped off most of the British railway map. That's 44 years ago, and 44 years before that was 1922, i.e Pre-Grouping!

 

Deffo "Arrgh!"

[coachmann]

When we first moved to Wales in 1965 we lived in a flat for a time and the landlord, knowing my interest in railways, talked about the 'Irish Mail' always being double headed with an 'Elephant'. It look a bit of lateral thinking to discover he really meant a 'Jumbo'. The thing is I was fascinated as he was a link with a railway I wished I seen for myself some 45 years before. In fact the year I was born was a mere 19 years after the Big Four was created.

[The Stationmaster]

Exactly. I left school in 1966, by which time steam had already been wiped off most of the British railway map. That's 44 years ago, and 44 years before that was 1922, i.e Pre-Grouping!

 

Deffo "Arrgh!"

 

 

Yes, same time band for me Ian and it is always salutary to do that bit of back-dating. I can remember a trip from York back to london which was worked by 60700 from, I think, Grantham and I cabbed it at the Cross after arrival; my dad then told me how he had cabbed it at pre-war LNER exhibition when its number was 10000, strange how things link through history.

 

Another one was the chance purchase of a bound year volume of the GW Magazine from 1927. Reading through I found mention of the retirement in that year of a great-grandfather I had never known who had done something over 40 years on the PWay dept - which meant he worked have worked, literally, on the broad gauge. It is fascinating to look back and realise just how close some of these things are to us.