Mike 84C

Was the Three Tuns in BC the one at the top of the hill that brewed its own beer? If so I can remember some of the night 'cos a gang of us thought a good plan would be to hire a minibus and drive down from Festiniog have some beers at the "brew" pub. A very moreish beer that whacked you around the head! I am talking the late 70's Next thing we are in Welshpool having currys & fish & chips. After that I woke up going down Oakley Drive. The rashness of youth!! Nice little caravan site, Hurst Mill Fm going from Craven Arms, been twice and may still do cottages to rent . No connection only a happy customer. Clun a lovely little village one I could live in if I could afford it! Clun Castle 7029 the best one I ever fired, on the last steam hauled TRPS special from Salop to Banbury. Happy days! 10/- each for me and the driver from Pat Whitehouse.

Thank you Steve, I shall deffo; follow your advice in future. It seems obvious when you read your sequence but when the soldering iron is in ones hand and that eagerness to see the finished signal, sense can go out the window. So far I have used Glue an Glaze for the spectacles coloured with "Derwent" Inktense paint, just because it was in the house. My first attempt at signals, I shamelessly admit to stealing your ideas! and thank you for the inspiration.

Steve, do you paint your 4mm signals as sub assemblies/units then do a touch up after final assembly ? Because that's how I shall do the next signals I build, all this holding your breath with the very fine brush, reckon I could be a pearl diver now!

Chapelon was a genius, it was he that seems to be the first to understand about high temperature steam and smoothing of steam passages. For an understanding of his ideas I recommend "la Vapeor" mine is an English Language one.

I cannot really see where a 9f was developed from a 8f WD 2-10-0 apart from the wheel arrangement and wide firebox, to me as different as chalk and cheese. 9f was a far more sophisticated machine. 9f's had very good steam passages so the engine could breath very easily, small wheels do not inhibit speed if the steam can get in and out of the cylinders quickly. Look at the N&W J1. The 9f was good on the S&D because the S&D has a roller coaster gradient profile, which does not encourage high speed but the loco has power enough to overcome this. It was "wire drawing" at the throttle which increased wear on the valves and pistons which put paid to regular 9f high speed exploits. Think of piston speeds, stopping and restarting at each end of the stroke, at speeds in the 70/80 mph mark. Its a wonder the gudgeon pins in the little ends took that kind of strain. Annesley 9f's on the runners were up in 60+ mark, I knew men that worked them.

I sometimes watch a 66 pounding along at 60mph,on the GN/GE Joint,which runs past our village. With 40 or so containers on the drawbar and wonder how busy would I be with the shovel on a 9f. Bet I'd be lighter than 14st!

Ray Buckton did nothing to help raise the morale of his members, I was an ASLEF member and as far as he was concerned Firemen/Secondmen were totally disposable. He was an oaf. if moderators wish to remove this post or edit please feel free but it wont change my view. I was at Bescot for a while and that was a mixed NUR/ASLEF footplate grade depot,things could be a little unpleasant with an influx of ASLEF men from all over the midlands and beyond right up into the Manchester area. I lived for a few years in the hostel in Wolverhampton and by heck there was a real variety of men there! And all of the above for £14.40 for a 42 hr week. Sorry gone a bit off subject 😎

That G&D 4-8-0 looks sort of N&W but like lots of J. Allens things you can never quite pin them down. I always thought a 9f would have been better with a deeper firebox but how do you do that with a driving wheel under it? Smaller driving wheels, or a firebox out to full loading gauge like the Reading RR? that might need two fireholes like on the Wooten fireboxes that Baldwin built. Belpair firebox with a Wooten grate and two fireholes, what would ASLEF have made of that? Maybe a BR 10f? but it would have allowed the burning of very poor quality coal and dross.

And I thought cromulent was in the same vein as hovertate, invented by my stepdaughter to describe Christmas lights that looked as if they were floating in trees. Do feel free to encourage the use of "hovertate" !

Not being a nitpicker, because you are doing something I cannot, 3d printing , but if the pointy axle ends were filed off your chaldrons they would look so much better 'cos they are the DB's now!

Until the mid late 1960's Midland Marts at Banbury received large numbers of Irish cattle from Holyhead. Unloading was just one siding of about 20 pens and the cattle were driven up the street to the market.

That lining is really clever and I like very much the Brizzle based themes.

You would not want to go far at anything approaching fast on a 7200t. The in cab din would defeat ear defenders! and the fore & aft motion from the long cylinder stroke would be very uncomfortable. I would think they would have very quickly worn themselves out. A 3800, a little better but I'm not sure 60 mph would be very pleasant. One has to remember the condition of yesterday's engines, in the main they were dreadful, worn out. I did on one occasion fire an Austerity at about 45 mph, two things I remember from that trip was having to shut off ever time we needed to know how much water was in the boiler and the small coal trying to escape the tender shovel plate, the fore and aft movement was so violent the coal was just shaken out the tender

Andy, thanks for all your hard work getting RM back up and running. And the explanation of the problems, me I'd just want to go and get a big gun and resolve the b------t. 😎 Mick

Normal oiling of the motion was done from underneath the loco via a pit. Only the oil pots for the valve and piston glands slide bars/crosshead and little ends were easier to fill "over the top". Plus that really foul firemans duty fo tightening the spindle glands or repacking them. I know how b. filthy and awkward it was.

Been browsing some oldish MRJ's. In No 170 from 2006, photographs of Maindee East engine Shed taken by Mr Tony Wright, who created such atmosphere that I had to look more than twice, is it the real thing or a model!? Brilliant!, a layout I never saw wish, I had!

I used to load out of Total and Texaco at Colwick and they both supplied class A & B fuels. I worked for a Total distributor ( Chandlers Oil & Gas in Grantham) from about 2000 till 2006/7 and the Total terminal carried on for a number of years after I left.

When she buys you very expensive railway books for your birthday and found a quite rare Colorado Midland 0-6-0 switcher for a wedding present. I was humbled!

I believe silicon sealant for mounting motors was an American idea. I seem to remember the Narrow gauge & Short line Gazette advocated it a lot 20 plus years ago.

5972 Olton Hall rather a good engine back in the day, as was 6990 Witherslack Hall. I speak from experience of those days!

The point about offset arms to work the valves, visulise two valve rods in parallel, one connected to the motion and one connected to the valve, connected to each other by a clamp block. Only place I have seen it used is under a Festiniog Double Fairlie because room is very limited under a 1-113/4" gauge bogie. They are slide valve operation and the "dummy" valve rod was needed to transfer the movement to the centre of the cylinder block. The valves are side by side in the vertical plane. Hope this helps.

The man is a guard, look at the large leather shoulder bag and the lamp he is carrying ,he is wearing a dark serge cloth uniform, locomen had a serge jacket and overalls which washed to a pale colour. . lamps stayed with the loco from start to finish of trip. And I think you can just see a crewmans head in the cab over the top of the tender. Good to see a clean 28 a really excellent freight loco. I hope the rest of the photos are as good, please keep posting.

JImC you are far more computer literate than I but please lift the water scoop when you do your amazing what ifs. My eye now go's straight to it!

On those El ofa Mess things or Standards you only shut the rear cab windows when stood in loops mainly when it was very cold and windy. Of course on those splendid ex GW machines an upturned bucket in the front corner of the cab was good to sit on.

As a person who fired Granges and Hall's I would agree with Johnster that most Western locomen would prefer a good Grange to a good Hall but I think the improved draughting of the 69's & 79's made a good engine much, much better.