Holmesfeldian
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Posts posted by Holmesfeldian
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North British only having Imperial spanners and being one strep away from being blacksmiths probably didn’t help with the reliability of precision metric German equipment built under licence.
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Mine hasn’t been out of the brown box.
I opened it very carefully to make sure it was in there. Then carefully closed it again.
One day my layout WILL be built.
One day.
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My parents were on a "disco train" c1975 which was chartered by Sheffield Round Table for an evening jolly to Cleethorpes and back.
They have the ticket somewhere in a scrapbook - I'll try to find it.
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As I understand it, that was a really "human" moment, as they actually separated the boy from his mother and then reunited them on camera for authenticity!
It was director John Schlesinger (who had a cameo as a city gent earlier in the film) who asked a family member if he could "borrow" her son Matthew for this scene. She hid from Matthew during filming so the tears were real.
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If you want to know about TOPS, I uploaded the 1974 British Transport Film explaining the subject to youtube about a year ago..
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With the peaks I always found it strange that random 45s were ETH fitted (as and when works overhauls came up) rather than just the entire Class 46 series (plus you got 6 extra ETH fitted machines!).
Perhaps even in the early 1970s the 45s were deemed to be "better" machines. Anecdotal evidence suggests Crompton Parkinson electrics was more highly regarded than Brush.
Toton and Tinsley had 47 experience so maintenance shouldn't have been that much of an issue.
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Warships and Westerns carried them also
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Yes, but in TOPS (and similar systems) the first two digits describe the basic type of the vehicle, so 47 000 would be Class 47, number nought.
There were, of course, various subsequent renumberings involving the creation of sub-classes but (for instance) Class 47/4 still started at 47 401 and 47 500 was a 47/4 because the sub-class included more than 100 locos.
As the numbers of 47/4s increased, the heavy freight test-bed loco had to be renumbered from 47 601 to 47 901 to avoid confusion, though the number was not re-used.
47601 was renumbered 47901 because its power plant was changed from the class 56 prototype to the class 58.
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rLMR006 Metro-Vick D5716 Driver Training Midland Lines.jpgAround 1957/8. My late father third from right. I'm afraid the identities of the others remains a mystery.Andy.
The inspector in the middle was seen in the cab in the Blue Pullman film.
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Hopefully Dave is secretly working on a Class 28.
With wraparound windows !!!!!
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Seeing as we're having a brief diversion into pairs of D800s in the West of England, British Transport Films had this to say in 1968 for their Ninth Rail Report - "Top Levels of Transport".
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Our company does metal cutting and milling on CNC machines and I'm happy to investigate the economics of producing new chassis blocks.
We can cut steel and phosphor bronze quite easily and are our regular materials.
I note on the interweb that the density of mazak is roughly 6.6 g/cm3 whereas steel is 7.8/cm3, brass is 8.5g/cm3 and phosphor bronze is 8.8gcm/3
I would imagine phosphor bronze would more desirable due to its higher density but steel or brass would obviously be cheaper to buy
If someone can supply a CAD drawing of the Hornby chassis block (or a pattern) - or even an accurate dimension drawing, I can cost the production to see if it's economical to offer high quality CNC engineered replacement blocks.
Clearly the more produced, the cheaper the uint cost.
Would there be a demand for this (and other affected loco types if successful) ?
And are the Hornby chassis blocks the same for super detailed and RR models ?
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After several years hoping for a quality RTR Co-Bo model to be produced I have held off buying these as my (still unbuilt!) Derbyshire Peak District based layout would require models featuring the original wraparound windows - and I would buy 3 or 4 of them !
I even asked the chap at Extreme Etchings if there was a case for him to produce a "de-furbishment" modification pack but he suggested it would be too difficult because of the curves in the design.
Would there be any interest in crowd-funding a new bodyshell ?
As an aside, I was always under the impression that the window mods were part of the major rebuilds c.1961, but there are pictures of class members in store at Trafford Park shed awaiting works entry (in all over green) all having the revised window design which I found to be a revelation (see separate Trafford Park MPD diesels thread for links)
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Here is correspondence I had with a certain individual whilst working on the Co-Bo World website in 2005...
"During my last few months working in the BRB Procurement Department, as well as reviewing a file about sending Claytons to Cuba in exchange for their class 47 clones I also reviewed one about the purchase of twenty diesel engines from English Electric - for re-engining the Metro-Vick Co-Bos!
These engines were actually purchased, but instead of being used for the class 28s they were used to re-engine the first twenty Brush type 2s to be converted from class 30s to 31s.For a file to have been in the BRB Procurement Dept records, the purchase must have been carried out by the British Railways Board, not the British Transport Commission. Consequently, because of the way the BRB worked, there would have been both Investment Committee and Supply Committee submissions seeking approval, initially for the investment in the engines and then for their purchase. BRB's investment procedures would have required - as part of the investment submission - a financial appraisal of the project, and this would have required a "pay-back" period for the investment. I believe, therefore, that at the time the replacement engines were purchased, a reasonable further life for the Co-Bos must have been anticipated - if it hadn't been, investment in replacement engines wouldn't have been forthcoming."- 3
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I have heard from (elderly!) railway colleagues that the Co-Bos were actually a very good engine, i.e. very strong for a Type 2, I can't vouch for this one way or the other as they were taken out of traffic around the time I was conceived...
Geoffrey Freeman Allen wrote, "Whether it was in response to a BR specification or whether the builders off their own bat decided to go for a 50,000lb maximum tractive effort I can't discover. No other entrant in the Type B, mixed traffic category of BR's original 1955 Pilot Scheme had such starting punch. Despite the slight rating superiority of its original 1,250 hp Mirrlees engie, the Brush Type 2 could muster only 42,000lb.
That high peak effort and its corollary of a continuous 25,000lb were the primary reason for the type's quaint, though not worldwide unique, arrangement of odd bogies. Only by resorting to five powered axles, with no idle wheels, could the designers achieve their target and at the same time keep the locomotive within BR's Type B parameters. The 97 ton Co-Bo was in fact markedly lighter than the 104 ton Brush effort. Another distinguishing feature of the high tractive effort was the small diameter of its wheels - 3ft 3.5" against a Brush Type 2's 3ft 7".
BR invited the Co-Bo's candidacy in the Pilot Scheme chiefly to evaluate a two-stroke diesel engine against the four stroke models adopted for all the other types. Theoretically, a two-stroke promised higher output per pound of engine weight because in the two-stroke cycle, each cylinder generates power at every revolution of its crankshaft, whereas in a four-stroke, the power comes from alternate revolutions. The difference also minimises temperature variations within a two-stroke engine's cylinders. The two-stroke also dispenses with cylinder head valves and their operating gear, but on the other hand, the means by which a two-stoke "scavenges", or scours the burnt gasses of each ignition from a cylinder by injected air fom a blower are less efficient than the processes in a four-stroke cycle.
On the face of it, the Crossley HSTVee 8 cylinder power unit looked an engagingly simple alternative to four-stroke engines. The power on offer from each of its eight cylinders was high, yet was obtained without turbo-charging or the many other mechanical complications of four-stroke engines. This itself was the source of much mechanical problems in traffic. Spring metal air inlet 'reed' valves were a constant source of problems as the brittle metal soon shattered under load.
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The 'Condor' itself continued after the Co-Bos with Class 24 haulage then Peaks before Freightliner swept it away.
Class 24s were used on the ConDor train from Aston in Birmingham to Glasgow
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To muddy the waters further, David N Clough in his book "Diesel Pioneers" comments....
10201
First trial run Ashford to Ramsgate and back, December 1950
Final adjustments and painting into black and silver livery followed by more trial runs to Rye and London Victoria, between Christmas and New Year.
Handed over to LMR based at Derby, 4th January 1951 for 2 weeks of trials over 1:100 peak line on London-Manchesters (traction motor overheating encountered).
Return to Ashford 17th January 1951 for repainting and sending to Festival of Britain for a year
Back to service February 1952.
10202
Entered revenue earning service on 25th September 1951 working 11.54 Waterloo-Salisbury
Subsequently worked Waterloo to Bournemouth and Exeter (3,400 to 4,120 miles per week).
No doubt based on experience with 10201 the LMR did NOT commandeer 10202!
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My modelling interest is Derbyshire and I have seen at least one photo of these machines in the Peak District (Millers Dale).
The BR Loco Dataabase site confirms that 10202 was delivered new to 17A (Derby) where it was shedded for 6 about months before heading to the Southern.
If this was indeed the cae and neither 10201 nor 10203 made it up to Derby for testing or whatever, can anyone suggest what trains 10202 would have worked on a regular basis? I've never seen any evidence of it reaching St. Pancras so maybe it ws just test workings and Derby to Manchester stoppers.
ANy suggestions welcome.
And I look forward to buying 10202 from Kernow in due course !
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To be fair, the Deltics didn't cover anything like all ECML trains out of KX.
A more comparable fleet might be the 50 "Peak" ETH conversions, which by the early 80s were covering basically all trains out of St Pancras, and relatively little else. And St Pancras had only 2 main line departures an hour in the off peak, for essentially a 160-mile stretch to Sheffield. Crewe-Glasgow is somewhat further than that.
Rubbish - Peaks were very common on NE-SW axis trains plus trans pennine (NW-NE) services in the early 80s at the very least.
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Colour image of D15 on Flickr...
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I'm happy I've got a d5016 on the way (well eventually as they've graciously allowed a payment plan to allow me to spread the cost, very helpful! Also means that I could order a sound fitted one rather than just a normal one which would have been the case if I had to pay all in one go).
I haven't bought one yet as £290 for an all singing all dancing version is rather expensive at the moment - I can't find any details about a 'payment plan' on the website - can you advise the details please ?
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I'd like to see an as built Metro-Vick Co-Bo with wraparound windows.
And a Fell.
There can't be too many Fell diesels on layouts
Failing that, a decent Trans-Pennine and 123/124 hybrid must be a good shout
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Inspection Saloon
in Bachmann
Posted
Proposed but never built DMUs in 1959 :
Diesel Inspection Saloon
Unknown vehicles
General Manager's Inspection Coach
Could be a good little conversion project for someone.