LMS2968

Really? I always thought it was to prevent the trains getting out and running amok on the farmers' land!

It was one of the variations of LMS Standard 3500 gallon type, often referred to wongly as 'Fowler' type, derived from Midland types. Almost certainly black below the grime.

No, Titan has already solved it. No need for an investigation.

David, I think JVol4126 is 8035. The highest numbered 8F was 8775 (or 48775 if you insist!).

That was a different situation; it was entirely to reduce the water consumption where none was otherwise available, and I believe the saving was between 60% and 80%. The feed water heaters were to improve loco efficiency and the condensers (in Britain) were to reduce fumes in tunnels. The condensing tenders were sometimes bigger and heavier than the engines they had to serve.

Condensers were usually fitted to engines regularly and frequently working through extended tunnels, e.g. the underground. The rise in water temperature in the tanks from their use was sufficient to demand the application of a feed pump in addition to the injectors which were used outside the tunnels.

It tended to improve loco, especially boiler, efficiency but if you had an engine which was already pretty efficient, as measured as a steam engine, it lost much of its effect. The standard 9Fs were already pretty good so the effect of the Crosti boiler were not very significant.

In BR days and earlier boilers generally had a working life of five years. This could be extended by a year after examination by a senior boiler inspection, and in exceptional circumstance by a further year, also after inspection. This formed the basis of the seven year main line ticket. Off the main line, the ticket became ten years, but cold and hot exams were required. The periods between boiler changes was often less with express engines which, because of their diagrams, accrued higher mileages and more wear to boilers. Shoppings were dependent on the loco condition and the type of overhaul on a 'what was needed' basis. On the LMS, a Black Five would need an Intermediate overhaul at around 55,000 to 65,000 miles, by which time axleboxes, motion and springs would be in poor condition but the boiler serviceable, and a Heavy at about twice that. The were criteria for deciding if a repair was 'Heavy' depending on what needed to be changed. A boiler lift, as an example although there were others, classed the repair as Heavy, but it might be a Heavy Intermediate. A Heavy General replaced or repaired almost everything.

Stokers on ships, firemen on locos.

Exhaust steam injectors were wonderful things - when they worked, which was a long way from always. Rather temperamental little bu@@ers!

In the very early days, feed water was supplied to tender tanks preheated. These are the watering facilities at Parkside on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway with the chimney for the water heater issuing smoke. In those days, the water was delivered to the boiler by feed pumps but Mons Giffard stopped all that when he invented the injector; the water must be cold for these to work.

They enginemen worked diagrams and engines were allocated to a different diagram. Sometimes these overlapped and the crew would have a home-based engine at the start of the day, but their diagram might take them part way into a working then return with a later part of a working the other way, their first engine continuing on its way. The engine now on the front could be from anywhere. Anthony J Robinson in Dad had an Engine Shed (2010) Oakwood Press ISBN 978 0 85361 707 5 Recalls a situation one of his father's Black Fives was found by coincidence: it had been missing for weeks but, was seen as they passed, I think, Bletchley on their way south. It had been commandeered by another shed. This wasn't uncommon and the victim often returned only when due for a washout and X Day exam.

It can vary by a lot. An engine starting its day with the cylinders cold will condense some of the steam back to liquid water. While gas has a variable volume depending on pressure (and temperature), a liquid has a constant volume. This means that with the cylinder full of steam - a gas - the steam will compress as the piston moves towards the cylinder cover; if there is water in there it cannot do this and simply piles up between the cylinder cover and piston. If the volume of the water is greater than the clearance volume between piston and cover, something has to give. So if starting from cold and the cylinder is at ambient temperature, some steam will condense but the incoming steam will gradually raise the cylinders' temperature until the point where condensation no longer occurs. It takes time to heat up a mass of cast iron such as a cylinder block so the taps might be open for several minutes. On the contrary, if the engine has been stopped for a few minutes at a signal, there will be condensate in the cylinders, which will still be hot, and a few revolutions of the wheels with the taps open will clear it. Another issue is priming. An overfilled boiler or one containing impure water is likely to carry water over with the steam. The driver will hear the change in the exhaust note and will immediately open the taps to avoid a hydraulic lock in the cylinders, even if moving at speed. There are no hard and fast rules; it all depends on circumstances.

So that's a bubblecar!

The Castle was unloaded head north, so unless it's visited KR Turntable . . . Don't know about the others.

You don't remember the Gerald Nabaro episode of 1970?

The SMF stand will be in the Nursery building at KR. I don't know about others.

It was in the 1830s. Henry Booth, Secretary and Treasurer of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, designed the first type, but I don't have an exact dat. The L&MR also had sprung buffers and drawgear.

Yes, when you tied a 40 down in the yard it was compulsory to scotch the wheels front and back. All that was then needed was for the driver to remember to remove the scotches before moving off!

No surprise there, then! The Class 40's braking ability was very poor: its 130 tons produced only 50 tons of brake force. As a guard in the early- to mid-1970s, I often had one at the front on a loose-coupled train; if memory serves the highest loading I had personally was a hardly exceptional 850 tons behind the 40. That brake van worked hard for its living as we came down the grade from Wigan through Prescot to Huyton and on to Edge Hill!

You'd be looking at about 400 tons, well within the constraints of a normal goods train. A brake wasn't necessary and Dallam Dave on Flickr has many photos of dead engines heading south. In one, there are three Black Fives with 8F 8006 bringing up the rear - no brake van. And the vacuum system would not be operable on an engine out of steam, except possibly as blow through..

The following is from the Ford Sidevalve Owners Club E83W Registrar: I first downloaded this photo from Facebook in May of 2020 but feel it has reappeared again since then. However the van is a railway built vehicle - body built and fitted to a chassis and skuttle (no doors) supplied by Fords at Dagenham, in one of British Railways' workshops. The reg according to my copy of Glass's is a London issue of likely 1954. I've attached a couple of photos of an identical 1951 van 884 FUF (originally OAR 2) kept at the Bluebell Railway which, as a Railway entrepreneur you may have likely already seen and may be familiar with. The railway hallmark of the body is the same. I do have a photo somewhere in our files but no can locate quickly and these are from an article published in the "Classic Van and Pickup" magazine of September 2004. I have to add this van is not on our Register as neither is OGT 606. So, origin is in any of the British Railways workshops and looking at the registration marks of both, somewhere in the London area. That's my best idea. Hope this is of use.

The sacked-up chimney was for engines in store, as The Johnster said, rather than those being moved to scrapyards. The were to prevent dirt, rain, etc. getting into the smokebox and, more especially, down the blastpipe into the cylinders; this wasn't a consideration if the engine was withdrawn and en route for scrapping. The connecting rods would certainly be removed but not always the coupling rods and there were several examples in Barry with these still in place. If the engine had been stored withdrawn on shed for some time, the fitters would almost certainly have helped themselves to some fittings to keep the still-in-service engines going; the faulty items might go to the scrapyard in the tender or bunker but would not have been refitted to the withdrawn engine. At first, all scrapping was performed at the BR works; it was only later when the supply of withdrawn engines overcame the works' ability to deal with them that private firms became involved in a big way. This started about 1963ish. The Pugs largely went earlier than this and, to the best of my knowledge and with the exception of those sold into industrial service years previously, were cut up at the works.

If you read Arthur Cook's Raising Steam on the LMS (1999) RCTS ISBN 0 901115 85 1, he goes into it very thoroughly. Basically, the boiler ratios were all over the place; the LMS D.O. was convinced that low resistance to gas flow gave better steaming and the tubes were simply too large in diameter for the boiler's length. That was probably the main issue but it wasn't the only one, and addressing any single one didn't necessarily provide an improvement, so that particular correction might then be abandoned. The final solution therefore took time to find. A.J. Powell in Stanier 4-6-0s at Work (1983) Ian Allan ISBN 0 7110 1342 X lists no less than seventeen variations of the Class 3A boiler. And even then, it wasn't the most reliable of steam raisers.

That appears to be the same one as used on the LMS right to the end, and possibly on the BR Standards too.