Mike 84C

9 F rocking grates, the dogs b---- saved my skin/reputation a few times!

AS an ex driver of HGV's and driving a desk as a manager, road haulage in this country is far to cut throat and far to cheap. If you do not like the price offered for a job someone else will do it for less. Our company used to send malting barley from Northampton to Scotland by rail in 70's in those Polybulk wagons. Road hauliers undercut the rail price. Government legislation and pricing diesel fueled vehicles off the road may help rail freight in the long term.

Just to go back to steam days. I fired from Banbury and I think the hardest/worst job was the Handsworth- Hoo jct; cement empties and ret; from OOC yd; with loaded CemFlows. Relieve the Oxley (I think) crew at Ban Sta; to OOC, leave train, LE to Greenford/ turn on the triangle/ back to OOC wait for the loads to appear/shovel a lot of coal forward/ Knock the clinker off the bars & pull any big bits out the fire or up the side of the firebox/build up the fire/ take water OH! yes make the tea and have a bit of scoff. Southern men roll up on their diesel (we look with envy) they swan off we hook on and the hard work begins. It takes a lot of energy to get a train of CemFlows rolling and they always seemed reluctant to roll even down hill! But before you were back at Banbury more visits into the tender and a final load of coal shovelled forward for the Oxley crew who relived you at Banbury South. Never been so happy to get off an engine be it Cl 5, Cl 8, Cl 9. your hands felt they were round your ankles! Then push bike 5 miles home! I wuz 9st wringing wet. The return empties from Llanwern/Port Talbot to Ban/OIC could be a rough turn depending where the engine had been before you got on it at Glos/Chetenham. We used to wonder why there was often so little coal in the tender, lots of coal in Wales, unless it was those awful large ovoids, always lots of them! And blue /pink flames on the fire = lots of clinker. I dont think Banbury men had a high opinion about Severn Tunnel Jct; Shed!

Love the going away shot in last few seconds, Kirley. And the repaint has improved the set, looks very good.

Interesting thread, but nobody has mentioned that the brick arch and deflector, also known as the flame scoop, provided protection to the tubeplate from the direct passage of cold air. Another combustion device was the flap plate which sat in the firehole when the doors were open. One could observe the flame change shape when the flap was in position, tending to "stand up". On LMS engines easy enough to fire over the top of the flap for that sudden puff of smoke that=ignition! Not so on GW engines they had a big flap to control the secondary air but a good smoke effect could be made with a good shovel full of slack and let the blast suck it off the shovel. Been there done all that when I was a yoof back in the 60's,

We lived in rural N.Oxfordshire with no bath, no flushing toilet or electricity, just a mains water tap in the kitchen, that was in 1966. well do I remember coming home from work and having to get stuck into digging the septic tank helped by my younger when he got back from school. And my father was the local public health inspector!!! We had a very big septic tank!

Hey Tracko, your photies are making me feel homesick! Much better than Derby eh!

I always thought the ease with which the bottom end can prime was/is a real pain. And it washes the lubrication straight up the chimney.

I look at Raven Pacifics and think wow! what a lot of boiler.

Your ballasting gang is highly skilled but where is the little ash path that usually ran each side of the ballast for our friendly local lengths man to walk along ? This layout is coming to fruition and 111 pages! brilliant.

The area under the fall plate may look empty/naked because there was always a heap of slack coal there. Right from the tender framing up to the footplate extension. Never seen it modeled!

Reading "Locomotives of the GSR" much of the work involved was conversion from 4-8 1/2" to 5-3". As regards Sulzer diesels I remember them as being pretty reliable it was the cooling systems that let them down. But I was only a traction trainee and not party to the invisible faults of their innards. Were they not designed as submarine prime mover? that would be an easy life compared to a Brush type 4. Tick over to full power in a few hundred yds on acceleration then full power to tick over when coasting. Horses for courses?

That must have been the last one then 376. I have models of 3 of them 2 green ones and a lined black 388.

The ones bought by the GSR & MGWR in Ireland were an absolute bargain. Bought at an average price of £2200 for 26 locos as kits of parts. £1800 was allowed by Inchicore for erection and finishing. The boilers alone cost an average of £3375 in 1921.

Driving steam engines the only job I really ever wanted to do. But I did love firing, some trips were more of an achievement than others!

To be serious? the canvas part of the roof on the L&Y van is I believe a canvas part that would be rolled over, swiss roll fashion. In Ireland they were called convertibles used for anything from bagged grain to livestock. Maybe on the L&Y used for loading baled cotton ex ship or warehouse storage? Single ply tissue works very well as a canvas roof.

Well, Steamport Southport thanks for posting that photo, every days a school day! But it does look a bit strange! And 1956 hardly their twilight years. Love to see some more like it.

Re; tenders behind Western 38's, fired quite a few in their twilight years in the 60's. Never met one with a 4000 gal tender. Not saying it never happened just I never saw it. Neither do I believe that the LMR did tender swaps to keep 38's running, they had loads of class 8's for which they had easy access to spares. I think that is railfan myth. A 38 was a brilliant freight loco but coming from 84C I would say that would'nt I. Now the 47's did run with 4000 gal tenders. And some were shedded up in the north of the old WR territory.

Jonathan and Steve thanks for such prompt replies and sound advice. I know which route I shall take. Steve I was in Accrington 6 weeks ago if I had known you live there I would have contacted you for advice. My grandparents lived in Ozzy and Clayton-le-Moors so a bit of a nostalgia trip for me. Drove over from the caravan club site in Bury.

Steve, a question. Is there any particular reason why you use the servo motor that you do? As there are others that appear similar which seem much cheaper. I ask as I'm building some signals for our club layout and this is virgin territory for me, one done three to go! Mic

Or was it payday at Eastleigh? It reminded me of queuing for that little tin on a Thursday at Banbury. I thought it odd that your booking on number, mine was 381 was different to your paycheck number, 157. When I went to Bescot my booking on Number was 157! £20/24 and we thought we were rich!

Those look rather good, like the weathering. You can sort of see why the prototype had a reputation for being unsteady when empty.

Johnster, I think that is a very well reasoned post from a man who had his feet on the ground whilst all that stuff was going on. What makes me cross is the huge amount of tax payers money that was wasted by government pulling in so many different directions at the same time.

Low power type 2 class 25. Unstressed 1250hp Sulzer, need more power? Two in multiple, 90mph ! I never went quite that fast on one! but I bounced my way, as a second man from Crewe to Banbury and around the West Midlands. Brilliant bit of kit, full power from 20mph and they just got down and pulled. Not that I'm biased!

Interesting idea using GM prime movers for re-engining BR diesels. From what I have read it took quite a while for GM to be persuaded to sell 567's to CIE, I got the impression it was a reputational thing, they wanted to sell the complete package, new loco plus back up. Which of course would make GM more profit. As regards the WAGR X class didn't they make something like 1200+ mod's to the Crosley prime mover?