Mike 84C

It was good to meet Grahame's friends, I can only wish the circumstances had been different. but I can now get my head around him not ringing me up for a chat and going for a meal when I'm next in Devon. It was slightly strange to meet members of his family whom I worked with back in the 1980's and never made that connection. Life is full of strange happenings!

A bit of advice please Steve, I am building a home signal with a subsidiary signal below the home on the same post . Lower quadrant with the weights at the post bottom. I have or had! got it all working but the wire I'm using to operate the arms is quite fine and has a tendency to bow. Would you fashion a small bracket to fit the post and stop the bowing? By the by did you finish all the Woodford Halse signals? I used to go there when I was a fireman, ye gods! its 60 yrs ago!!! Thanks if you can throw light on my problem. Mick

Wow! lot of years since I have seen one of those, used to have them for 350's type 1,2 &4's.

I remember the Stones -Vapor as being the most reliable, Spanner Swirliflow could need a lot of face to face attention just to keep it going and the Clayton was dreadful to keep the water balanced in the separator. No wonder I got b--- tinitus!

I thought post war currency restrictions were a limiting factor for BR in importing prime movers and complete locos. Britain had to export in the post war era. Was'nt our war debt to the US only paid off during Gordon Browns premiership?

Thats very sad news, I enjoyed visiting Caistor Loco to talk models with Pete, buy stuff and talk about the old days on BR, him being a KX man and me being a WR man from 84C we had some great discussions! We both agreed Austerties were not of the best! The hobby has lost a very passionate supporter. Mick

I like the shot of Mike Wild smiling as he videos on LB. He looks as if he was having a fun day.

Last night I watched a Hornby Hush Hush pulling 10 Hornby Gresley coaches gliding around our club test track. All very impressive, I could see the flangeless trailing wheels not going round but I did know where to look.

My Cie P1 class was built from photographs On a Bachmann V3 chassis with Airfix praire bits spliced in.

Hows this look as a shoo in for a projected Southern 2-6-2t? GSR J class only one built but still lasted into the late 1950's

Your output is prolific Darius, big improvement on the "face"

I'll add to my previous post. I was introduced to family friends on a couple of occasions as "our Mike, he shovels coal in a moving hole" parents then wonder why children loose respect for them. The remark didn't happen often but once said its said. But those post war days were different and so were ex military families.

I worked on the railway in the 1960's, I was Beeching in our village pub and to lots of my "friends". Did'nt shout about model railway interests. Times have changed, my stepdaughter is a track Engineer for Network Rail, both sons of a longtime pal work on the railway. No mickey taking of those three young people. They only have to wave a pay slip!

About 57 yrs! But its the only job I really wanted to do, of course I found other employment which I was happy with but rolling down to Cheltenham / Gloucester via the SMJ and Honeybourne on a summer afternoon with a 9f on an ironstone train from Banbury what could have been better? Not so much fun with a 7200t on the way back with 50 empties!! Happy days.

Well I also missed this thread! Please mention that the memsahib have him in our thoughts. BG man and I go back a long way, Parties at the Wheatsheaf pub in Banbury, North Oxon Car Club starlight rallys he navigated for my brother, very brave! I was the rescue squad! Top man all round. Regards Mick & Sheila

BR days Phill, its quite a few years ago now which some times makes you doubt your memory!

Nobody has mentioned the hopper ashpan modification that some had. Put a very large handle through the hole in the step on firemans side pull handle down,release safety catch, then push handle forward to ety ashpan. Brilliant idea, pity the rocking great bit didnt happen! The big square spigot behind the step looked like a key hole to wind the loco up! Castles had the same modification I believe.

Western Region locos had a flat red oxide colour inside the frames to include the axles,motion and stretchers. I went underneath quite a few. And yes I also shot out from under a 3800 I was cleaning when the motion moved 'cos the driver did not see a b' great not to be moved board on the lamp brackets!

I also have a bit of a funny coal story, very large lump of hard coal working its way to the shoveling plate, cannot break it with coal pick or turn it to get the grain. climb over it into 9f tender and start to attack the very large lump, which was so hard, it was after all hard coal! Coal pick bounces off lump, spike end strikes my head! Next blow breaks very large lump and I had defeated it, Victory! Few minutes later I'm firing away and my driver says "you ok? there's blood running down your face", fired engine back to Banbury and booked on for the rest of the week. Still got the depression in my skull! but the coal pick didn't rip my cap! Welsh coal could come in even bigger lumps but were more easily dealt with. I'm with Roy34f, coal in tenders was always wet/damp from the slacker pipe, the name of the game was to go home clean not look as if you had dug the stuff yourself. My overall's were washed pale blue and I aimed to keep them that way, shiney cap, polished badge, polished boots, polished leather snap bag. Pride in the job definately.

Fabulous work Mol, easily good enough to be on display in a museum. You have been on enough industrial's to know what controls are in the cab, as little as possible!

Just to drift back to Moguls, I would think that Churchward saw the Pennsylvania F classes of 2-6-0 at work. The F3 was a very capable loco built before the 43's and although bigger than a 43/53 was not large by American standards. US short lines seem to have favoured the small 2-8-0 as a very flexible machine. Inside cylinder Moguls were just an engineering development that allowed the use ever larger and front end heavy design 0-6-0's and when the fog had cleared were not pursued. For a real oddity look at Coey's GS&WR 4-6-0, high pitched boiler, small wheels, poor performance and very rough riding, did not have a long life by Irish standards.

I stripped an unknown paint from a white metal tender with Dettol just lay the model in a suitable container and cover with Dettol. Soak for a few days then scrub off with a tooth brush and water. Warning, it works well, is inexpensive, easy to use but it will reduce glued items to kit form. I know this!

A few 9f points. I fired 9 f's from Banbury in the 60's. Never had one driver say you are driving today on a 9f several did on Class 5's &.8's Never let my regular mate touch the shovel he was b, useless as a fireman and kept the fire very bright as a driver! The downside of western pan shovels on wide fireboxes was a short handle, got one hiding in the garage, midland shovels had a much longer handle which meant fewer roasted knuckles, but I have fired l/handed till the overalls were quite a bit warm then turned round and carried on r/handed till scorchio! You could not sit down for quite a while! Pop valves only blew off it the fireman was not on top of the job, perfectly easy to run with the exhaust injector set at no1 water level in the top of the glass and 245psi on the clock flying a feather. All this on a fitted at 45/55 mph. The western regulator was a beautiful thing to use, precise,smooth and accurate and a great pity that it was designed into the BR standards, it would have stopped most of that bloody slipping!

A 47 2-8-0, a fantastic looking engine, are you anticipating very dark running sessions? 'cos I only saw them run at night. The up Birkenhead was in Banbury yd about 1.0 am if I remember correctly.

You need an Austerity 2-8-0 or two, damn things were all over the GC and escaped down the Western lines! And of course 9f's.