LMS2968

Many British engines used test cocks and a single gauge glass, the GWR especially, but they aren't easy to read, especially at night. Water tends to flash into steam at atmospheric pressure so making the distinction can be difficult.

Those engines loaned to the Big Four railways were worked as common user by there own men, same as all other types of engine. The first thing a crew had to do on reaching an S160 footplate for the first time was to figure out what the controls did as these were often very different to usual British custom. It helped if they were relieving another crew who had already been through this process and could drop a few hints.

Possibly, but you also need to bear in mind that the L&YR Coal Engines weren't tried either, although one of those would probably have scoured the roof of most Midland tunnels. The S&D 2-8-0, the G2 and the Austin Seven all weighed in about the 60 to 65 ton mark, the ROD was between 72 and 74 tons., which seems a more likely explanation.

That was all after the Grouping and under the management of a different - and more lenient - CCE. It could not have happened in Midland Railway days. Of course, there were several RODs on the LMS in the mid-1920s but I don't think they were used over the Midland Division. The trials for the basis for the new goods engine, which became the G3 a.k.a. Austin Seven, was between a Super D and an S&DJR 2-8-0; they did not involve an ROD, which must tell us something.

Ted Talbot in 'The LNWR Eight-Coupled Goods Engines' Edward Talbot (2002) Published by the author ISBN 0-9542787-0-4 has a bit to say on those engines taken into LNWR service, sometimes purchased but sometimes loaned and returned later. He suggests they were more popular with enginemen than is commonly suggested; despite the left hand drive and however comfortable or otherwise their footplates might have been, they would be palaces in comparison to a Super D! They had steel fireboxes, cheap to build but needing high maintenance and repair work in a time without adequate water treatment. Many did or soon would need inner firebox replacement, and then it was a case of do you replace a steel firebox with another expensive steel firebox or with a much more expensive copper one? The railways probably ran them until repairs were needed and then either withdrew or returned them. Being non-standard to the owning / borrowing railway hardly helped. In 1927, the LMS purchased 75 still unsold engines. Of these, twenty were put into traffic, but the remainder had been bought for their tenders alone, of which there was then a shortage. Repairs to the tenders cost £400 each - less than the LMS paid for the engine and tender together! The rest were dismantled to provide spares, including boilers, for the twenty purchased and the thirty already on the books but it was unlikely that this happened due to early withdrawal. Incidentally, they were known as 'Military Marys' on the LNWR from their more official designation of MM for Ministry of Munitions.

'Suitable' comes in many forms. The Midland had severe weight restrictions over its infrastructure, especially bridges, and a heavy engine such as the R.O.D. would not have passed the Chief Civil Engineer's restrictions, however low the individual axle weights might be. The Midland already had its own design of 2-8-0 used on the S&DJR but wouldn't use that on its own lines; there was a list of parts needed to be removed whenever one had to make the journey to Derby Works. We're talking about a railway which referred to the 4F as the 'Big Goods'.

c1952 JVol2024 A double chimney Ivatt Class 4 blowing - a very rare photo indeed!

Probably, but LMS Pacifics from Scotland were used on locals to Salop in order to turn on the triangle there, Crewe's 60ft turntable was too small to take them. This applied to engines from Scotland to allow them to make the return journey while 6202 was almost always confined to the Euston - Lime Street services. Scot 6142 is on Edge Hill shed: that coaler is unmistakeable!

Not exactly. The brake and whistle were both fed from the same manifold but that would still have provided plenty of steam to supply the whistle. But what was the code for stop pushing? The broken steam pipe was directing a jet of steam across the firebox backplate so I rather doubt that John Axon could have got close enough to reach the whistle handle, high up in the roof, even from the fireman's side. But even had the banker been coupled up and applied the brakes, I suspect that a breakaway would be the most likely result.

When running with a banker with a loose-coupled train there a few things you had to bear in mind. The couplings at the front of the train would be stretched while the buffers to the rear would be compressed, so care was need in both applying steam and starting to brake. So you needed to bear this in mind as you were running and how you could forget there was a banker attached is not something I suggest is likely.

This was particularly so with vans, which might be labelled as 10T but usually carry about three. That then left an issue od distributing the weight evenly across the floor so that one wheel wasn't heavily loaded while its diagonally opposite number was very light and likely to derailment.

I've been over both those bridges so many times. The railway bridge was called Ethelfleda.

Hmm? Don't try it with a 600 ton train behind you!

Indeed, as far forward as the firebox backplate!

'Trimming' was usually done after taking on coal to level the top and ensure it wasn't foul of the loading gauge or likely to fall over the sides. 'Pulling forward' would be carried out during the journey, usually on the move, and was also sometimes necessary on so-called self-trimming tenders. It was necessary to know where the overbridges were when doing this.

That's what I said! The units were rejects from down south somewhere. I don't really know; my knowledge of Springs Branch allocations stops at Black Fives in December 1967!

Or Springs Branch, 20 July 2020, brand new!

A stall, quite simply, is when a loco comes to an involuntary stand and is unable to restart its train and move forward. It can be caused by a lack of adhesion between steel tyres on steel rails when conditions are poor, but other reasons can include shortage of steam, forcing the train to stop for a 'blow up'. If you can keep the train moving, even slowly, in poor adhesion conditions, this is easier than restarting once the stall has happened.

Cycles and cyclists aren't!

I see we're off on yet another non-railway related tangent.

One of those urban myths. Even a flimsy door would withstand the weight of a cast plate; it had to be sufficiently strong not to distort and had to remain air tight under thermal expansion. Many LNWR engines were fitted with smokebox plates in the mid-twenties, and look surprisingly strange with them!

Not so easy if you regularly move tenders around between engines, as did the LNWR among others.

And thereby allowing the buffer beam numbers to be read by the next crew, smokebox plates in the case of the Midland. The engine would then be turned to face the right direction as it was leaving its stall.

Which signals? If they were Starter (now Section) signals they would not be cleared as this would give permission to go as far as the next box, from which permission would need to be obtained anyway. For restricted movement within station limits there would need to be a dummy to control it , and these were not always provided.

Could I suggest 'The Engineering and History of Rocket' by Michael R Bailey and John B Clithero (2000), National Railway Museum, ISBN 1 900747 18 9. All the answers are in there, including a photo of a bronze axlebox with oil boxes cast in and oil holes into the box and lubrication grooves in the bearing surface. By the way, that drawing is totally wrong about the firebox shape so don't trust it for anything else either.