Class O

I have the Ken Hoole Illustrated History which gives a couple of pages of photos of 2400 and 2401 but not so much as a weight diagram - and also no hint of the three LNER-built engines of which I was therefore unaware. I looked up the first Gresley pacifics - 16" shorter overall wheelbase but that includes the 8-wheel tender. Even so, the difference in engine wheelbase (i.e. w/ tender) is about the same: Raven: 37'2" ; Gresley: 35'9". Same grate area too. Yet the Raven engines look so enormous. I think the inverse taper illusion is also due to one being conditioned to seeing a taper boiler on such a large engine.

 

Humungous.

Often heard it said (by railwaymen) that a Raven boiler on a Gresley chassis would have been better

If you want to see a real waddler then have a ride behind a USA Tank (not that sort of tank  ) Hilarious and must be quite interesting on the footplate.

P

To watch Q6s climbing Redhuegh bank when working hard they lurched from side to side with each piston stroke, unless the front coupling was hung up on the hook it performed a jig dancing all over the place..........

I fully agree with your sentiment but conversely I have a mate that builds superb stock in P4. With the quality of most of the latest RTR offerings being so high, he takes it as a compliment when some one asks if his latest scratch-built masterpiece is Ready to Run.

 

P

You turn out some good stuff yourself Porcy :0)

They have a lot of outer clothing on at this time of year though. The spaniels, that is.

Great news about you eye, have problems myself so I know how worrying it is,,,:0)

Re: soldering iron stands, the plastic bit isn't there for cost saving, it's to reduce the chance of damaging the plating on the tip. I've been using Weller irons for years, with that type of stand - I've never had any burning or melting of that plastic bit.

Its made of thermo setting plastic

I tend to agree with this, watching old film of trains gives some idea of the kind of speed we should be looking for on models in my opinion. Far too often I see layouts seemingly operating to show how slow their trains can go.

This is often the case with post steam era layouts I think. One I watched a while ago I wanted to tell the operators to get a move on. Their trains approached a station along a main line at snails pace, and left the same way. In my experience that is not always the way it happens, braking is left almost as late as possible, allowing for speed limits obviously, and acceleration is usually pretty smart as well, especially some of the most modern powerful units.

Lots of peoples only experience of steam locos are preserved ones, not run how the regular ones were......

The back end has been revised slightly, the drawing I'm using isn't very detailed, it's just the diagram, so a lot of detail is being taken from photos, the problem I have is the only one of the back is in the distance, partly behind a loco and at a funny angle as it's derailed. 

http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/Snow%201.JPG

Careful study of this photo has revealed end stanchions that are not on the drawing and that there is a window by the left corner rather than the middle as on the larger ploughs, I'm assuming there's one on the other side too. The roof has been made up and the stove chimney made from brass tube with a washer soldered on.

 

IMGP9690-001.JPG

 

The top of the prow has been roughly filled with pieces of plasticard followed by Squadron filler, it will need a bit more when dry and filed back.

 

IMGP9691-001.JPG

I built one in the 70s using the bows from a Airfix battleship 

I was unaware until recently about how much time Gresley and Bulleid spent exchanging visits with the French and then Mr Townend and Co. of course. Some of those French loco's were top rate and really beautifully designed, however back in the day I was not interested in 'foreign stuff' at all; all pipes and domes with weird wheel arrangements. It was not until I did the Wolsztyn Experience a few times that I realised what I should have been doing in the late 60s and the 70s rather than  wasting my time playing footy and being a complete ar~e! (That is, going to Europe to look at some real steam in action).

I did buy a SNCF 141 ages ago and then used the chassis for a WD (was it a Bristol Kit.....can't remember)? It is upstairs in the loft somewhere.

Phil 

I had a Cornard kit that used a 1.4.1R chassis, it was rubbish  scrapped it but 1.4 .1 Rs, got 2 cheap from Guy Norris

This 'patch' was added to many NER locos (some were built with it). It was removed to provide access during visits to the works although sometimes removed at the shed for local maintenance.

 

ArthurK

Also to protect the canvas on the cab roof when taking coal

Now ready to go for painting. Arthur has decided that this loco is to be 8680 as it was in LNER days, when it worked as one of the pilots at Newcastle Central.

 

Arthur will have to fit the couplings which, despte the loco being vacuum fitted, were 3-link.

 

Now to build another of these short bunker J72's and the longer bunker version, as a pair. Though, perhaps before those two are built I'll get around to doing a P4 chassis for the Bachmann Jubilee, at long last!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Some had a square vent on the cab roof and a patch of thin steel on the rear of the cab roof, I represented this with a patch of Scotch Magic adhesive tape

What do you mean by that Barry. Do you mean the bottom of the boiler was painted black? OK I don't know much about the NER

Derek

Yes, you can even see it in some photos, like some Midland locos had a yellow patch, known as yellow bellies, I think it was Kentish Town that did this,.....OWEN not Barry

Nothing done over the weekend but progress with painting tonight. The splasher beading has had the paint scraped off but the safety valve cover and chimney top has had to be painted as they wouldn't clean up well enough. 

 

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Don't forget there was a black strip on the bottom of the boiler the same width as the frames,

Yes! These locos were paired with the NER standard 3940 gallon tenders. The two that lasted into BR (only just) ended there days with the smaller 3038 gallon tenders.

 

ArthurK

And lost the clerestory on their cabs to....

The Stanier mogul looks like a Millholme one ?

Crane?? The last thing you wanted on most derailment sites was a crane - awful, time consuming, expensive things.  I only ever once worked directly with a crane on a derailment job and it was an absolute nightmare trying to do it safely and run traffic on nearby lines.  The best re-railing device I ever saw was two NCB blokes using a bullwinch - quick & cheap but the wagons involved were only locked together so it was an ideal way of doing it.

 

I used to have a habit of taking the cotters out of the back end of wagon buffers before pulling them apart and trusting they would drop back on the road (never had one fail to do so) -  and that was far simpler than those blasted OLEO buffers which need someone with burning gear to get rid of the securing bolts.

 

Short of calling out the MFD gear (super stuff) the best answer for many re-railing problems was some timber, ideally some bits of steel plate, and a few fishplates.

My Dad was in the breakdown gang here at West Hartlepool, he said the crane was only used if essential, when they got MFD gear they travelled far and wide, I remember once they went to Horton in Ribblesdale.....

Though not a P2, anecdotal (first-hand) evidence at Little Bytham tells of an A4 getting 'stuck' on one of the tight roads in the goods yard. It was just out-of-shops, and was being used on no more than the daily pick-up to Grantham, indulging in some shunting. Apparently, because everything was so 'tight', the drivers locked on the sharp leads (welcome to model railways!). An engine had to be sent to pull it off the point.

 

Sadly, the witness has died but the story's true. And, the A4 had 'spread the road'! 

On similar lines Dad told me about  an A3 being used to collect some fish vans off the docks using a route that was totally  unsuitable for anything but pilots, they had to send the fitters to get it back to the shed. He told me many stories of locos going where they shouldn't......

Excellent video of the high octane action that can be found on Blackgill. You need to put some kind of funky soundtrack on it, Porce. I'm sure you could come up with something from your extensive record collection. And what do you mean about "the operators battling with each other"?! Surely it would be "the soothing tones of a model railway being run calmly and efficiently"?

 

When do we get to see the video you took of the ore train looking down from the bridge at the other end?

 

Arp

 

p.s. I've been informed by the gaffer that the porter's name isn't Stan, it's Percy. It's important that we get these details right.

Something by The Animals or Lindisfarne ?

Blandford

You are right the mechanical lubricator did not feed oil to the slide bars. They used the oil pots (3 on each) on the upper slide bars for that. The only areas to get oil via mechanical lubrication were the pistons and valves. Other NER 4-4-0s used a similar arrangement.

As a general rule only NER superheated engines had any form of mechanical lubrication. The horn blocks were lubricated from oil boxes which were usually fitted near to axles being lubricated.

 

Do you have a drawing reference for the D20/2? So far I haven't found one.

 

ArthurK

I wish dad was still here, he kept me right about loco matters, it was like having an endless source of information.......

The first of the two chassis now has all twelve pot lubricators, the slide bars/crossheads/con rods fitted and painted 'shiny steel'. I still have the weighshaft, counter weights and drop links to fit and the Stephensons gear eccentrics to make but that's a fairly simple task. Then the second chassis must be done in exactly the same way.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

Did they keep those oil pots after superheating and mechanical lubricators oiled the slidebars ?

Ah ha. The almost complete restoration of the RTR J39 by RMwebs shyest member makes an appearance. Quite a lot of detail added, replacement cab and the backhead among other things still to complete.

Originally available as a ready to run model, the factory that produced it was overlooked from the Tyne Dock Consett line.

Anyone want to take a guess at the manufacturer? No prizes, just a bit of fun.

Here's a front view.

 

Bgill-MRS-2106-43-EditSm.jpg

 

Is it Micro-Metalsmiths, they made one ?

 

 

In Sept 1963 two Scottish Claytons  (Three actually but one never managed to get out of the shed so a substitute was summoned.) were trialed on the iron ore trains as part of a time & motion study. After the first runs it was realized they were inadequate. One went of to Wakefield for further "trials" and one remained working from Tyne Yard for a few more weeks when they were returned to Scotland. There is a well known photo of them on their journey home in a triple header on the ECML.

Once the North East region got their own allocation, they became the regular locos on  pick up and trip workings all over the NE and across to Carlisle.

See this pic: http://southpelawjunction.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/24andclaytons-@southpelaw1.jpg

 

and here's another. Note there is an Ale (Ex insulated) van probably carrying empty barrels back to Park Royal in the rake.

 

 

 

 

One of these road/rail tankers was a regular at West Hartlepool delivering Guinness to Cameron's brewery ...

Have a good Christmas and just chill :0)

I built a green willie for Tom Harland's Bramblwick layout :0)

A well thought out post, looking beyond the enthusiasts partisan views

Often condensation makes clean tenders appear dirty .....