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HUNSLET YARDMASTER LOCOMOTIVE


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As a relative newcomer to this site and currently rather bravely posting images in kitbuilding section of my shoddy attempt to construct a NBR 0-4-2 tank in 7mm. I  decided to take a break and while looking through the site I came a across a mention in this topic thread about the Hunslet Yardmaster. As she lives down the road from me at Ludborough I decided to add these images from Autum 2012.

 

I do have earlier images on 35mm camera while on a siding in Ciba-Geigy works but these scan very poorly so are not worth posting.

 

She does still run and is a fascinating little locomotive. What must Health and Safety thought of the idea of one man operation and driving from either side the footplate well.

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Thanks for posting those. I don't suppose you took any measurements? I quite fancy building one sometime. I'm interested in how the controls are laid out to allow it to be driven from the platform and also, presumably, from stood inside the cab.

 

I saw that particular loco at Ciba Geigy a few times but it either stabled in the same spot or was out of use. IIRC there was a scrapyard in the West Midlands that had a Yardmaster but I never got to see it.

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I do have earlier images on 35mm camera while on a siding in Ciba-Geigy works but these scan very poorly so are not worth posting.

 

They have to be pretty awful to be rejected by this site's membership! Almost anything of any quality is accepted particularly where it is of the unusual/controversial/simply interesting subject matter.

 

Thanks for posting.

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Comment required from Mr Edge .... Hint Hint!

We are interested in this loco, it would make an ideal beginners kit. I know Andy Morris has the Hunslet GA and he also did a CAD drawing of it but neither of us can find it.

Michael Edge

Judith Edge kits

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Possibly this one was the one at Morden - I've never been sure how many of these Hunslet produced - but here's a shot of the one which was at Morden (where it replaced a Ruston 48DS) via Flickr:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/5373989780/

 

Adam

 

Thanks Adam - I had seen that photo, but I just couldn't remember where! I've got a 2mm 48DS, though I need to convert it to the earlier open door cab type.

 

There were 3 built 5806-8 and 5808 was also at Morden.

 

Mike I can point you in the right directions for some drawings if you want some.

 

That would be great!

 

Thanks

 

Mike

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is something you don't see every day. A problem with the 08 shunter at North Thoresby meant the "yardmaster" was required for some shunting. Here you get some idea of relative size, but don't be deceived as she moved 4 BR Mark 1 coaches and a Blue Spot Fish van unaided.

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Not too disasterous as one of my scans confirms they has tractive effort of 8,800 lbs and were nominally rated to start maximally 477 tons on level. I assume this should more accurately read start and stop? The additional good news is the tack is pretty level through Ludborough, remember this is Lincolnshire!

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The more I've thought about this, It does ring alarm bells in my head I'm afraid.


Presumably the brake system on the coaches is non-operational, as the locomotive has neither air of vacuum capability - so essentially the movement is unfitted.

The locomotive weighs roughly half that of a coach.

 

Being a lifelong volunteer at a heritage railway, I really should point out that:

 

If an accident were to occur (not thinking in terms of loco failure or damage, but volunteers or public harm) then as an organization you would legally wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

 

Something to think about hopefully, no offense meant

 

Paul A.

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This locomotive would make either a very good beginner's kit or a good first-attempt at a scratch-build. With hidden wheels, you can dispense with connecting rods (if the prototype had any) and just use a delrin chain drive to couple the axles. If you are lucky in 7mm scale you could get the motor under one of the hoods, but it might have to go in the cab in smaller scales.

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Paul, I would assume that the guys there know what they're doing, but I understand what you mean having had plenty of experience of moving big heavy loads with a small loco on some of the photo charters Foxfield have done in industrial locations. The best was using a 22 ton loco with negligible brakes to move a 400 ton steel train, it's all in knowing the route and where you can use the curves and gradients to stop it. In fact the guys in the steelworks made it clear that brakes were to be used sparingly, the favourite quote from the first Shelton Steelworks charter being 'let it run out in the curve'. :)

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  • 3 years later...
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  • 2 weeks later...

Is this the same loco?

 

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Photographed from the bus stop at the North end of the Tees Transporter Bridge, sometime in the seventies.  I forget exactly when, having used that bus stop regularly for about 4 years, September 1973 to May 1977.

 

Les

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In answer to my own question it probably isn't the loco (HE5308) now at Ludborough, though its appearance is as the preserved one may well have been before its 1981 rebuild.

 

This might have been Port Clarence distillation works, in which case it could have been Hunslet 4630 of 1956, except that the IRS give that as an 0-4-0.  The clue to what the works was is given by the Sulphuric Acid labels all over the loco.

 

If not HE4630 then it had gone by 1976.  My Existing Locomotives 1973 book disintegrated years ago, otherwise I might have had a chance of identifying it. 

 

Les

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  • 1 year later...

Probably a cast white metal kit body running on say a Tenshodo SPUD would give the desired weight to ensure a small locomotive like this would have the guts to pull.

 

Cab could be an etching so as to enable the finer details to be modelled.

 

For O a reasonable mechanism and motor could be easy to build.

 

Would be an interesting prototype for shunting the Inglenook.

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  • 10 months later...

Couple of newer images, especially of the drive mechanism as her skirts are currently off

I don't know why, but I have just discovered this thread.

This looks like a perfect candidate for a reality TV challenge. Given a set of wheels and a boxfile full of scrap, who can make the best representation in five hours?

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