John-Miles

If you own a house in London you are close to being a millionaire. It's not unusual these days. If you want someone to splash the cash, it has a least to be a multi-millionaire.

The various Marquis's of Bute invested heavily in Cardiff Docks and complained bitterly that they didn't make a penny on what they spent but in the meantime the value of their possessions in places like the Rhondda valleys made them one of the richest people in the world. As an aside, the aristocracy still own around 30% of UK land.

Diesels in a thread about Midland Locos. Whatever next!!

The question of chimney height comes into the ream of how long is a piece of string. Summerson says the "standard"height was 3' 4" but he mentions this in connection with a 1823 class loco so whether it applies to the others is a moot point. The 1252 class is stated as having 3' 7" chimneys (slightly higher on condensing engines). The engines which had to comply with the Metropolitan loading gauge had 3' 1" chimneys. There are drawings of 1833 engines in the James, Hunt, Essery book which give 3' 7" in Johnson form. They also have a drawing by Fred James of a 1833 in Belpaire form which isn't well dimensioned but the chimney scales at 3' 1.5". This still leaves the mystery of what happened in between and in particular what about the 1532 class. Having looked at the Bachman images, I don't think the chimney on the Midland era loco is a very convincing representation of a Johnson chimney. The flair at the base looks to be incorrect.

IIRC the chimney height varied over the years, generally getting shorter with age, rather like us humans.

According to a former signalman, at Brynamman East, the train stopped short of the yard, the guard put on his handbrake (in reality it would already be on because of the gradient), the engine uncoupled and ran into the platform road and the train was then run into the goods yard by gravity. The engine then emerged and did the shunting. All ok provided the train wasn't too long I suppose in which case there were various options. The gradient was 1 in 50.

With care you can do a Johnson smokebox door on a mini drill. I did it many years ago. The chimney is a bit more of a challenge and you really do need a lathe.

I heard a rumour that the 37s plus carriages will work a Fishguard and return service between rush hours. If true, it's a good day out.

I would guess the film is somewhere in South Lancashire. The tall mills are for spinning which was largely concentrated in the south. Looms are heavy and so weaving sheds were all single story with north light roofs. Interesting to see the large number of horse drawn lurries (my parents were from Lancashire and always called them lurries). IIRC the Midland had 3000 locomotives in 1923 and 6000 horses. That's a lot of dung to get rid of.

Ok, I have now had a look at the diagram. The Up Down change I am not sure about. It may be because Brynamman Midland station (called East by BR) was from 1929 under the supervision of the station master at the GWR station. There again, it may be a mistake by Mike Christensen or the signalman from whom he copied the details. Lever 10 is spare in the Midland box but lever 10 in the GWR box works the catch points that are on the line between the GWR station and the Midland. So the Midland signalman has to phone the GWR station for lever 10 to be operated before there can be any exchange between the two stations.

Sorry I haven't been on RMWeb for a couple of days. I'll have a look at the diagram and get back to you.

As one of the authors of the book, I apologise for not including the information about this. We have a lot of information on private siding agreements which wasn't included, partly due to space constraints and partly because our market research told us that people prefer images to text. That said, it is not clear when the line to GCG closed. The private siding agreement was "deleted" in September 1964, the signal box was closed on 27/9/64. John Smith, aka Lens of Sutton did his National Service in the area and photographed many of the stations. They mostly look very neglected. From memory the last Jinties were moved elsewhere in 1957 and I presume the 57s took over although towards the end 08s were used to move traffic from Yniscedwyn. The bridge over the Twrch at Gurnos was in a bad condition. John Mann the former western region bridge engineer said there were plans to replace the timbers with prestressed concrete but this was never done. I suspect a 56 would have been too heavy. The track on the Swansea Vale was well maintained and so there would be no problem there. There was a railtour in the 1950s when a Jinty was clocked doing over 50 and it was reported that the riding quality was good. If you want information on how the track layout changed over time, Cooke's books, available from Lightmoor are invaluable.

The university (this is Cardiff University as opposed to Cardiff Met or the University of South Wales) has been very fortunate in that as the railway gave up land in the area, they were able to use it to extend the campus. In addition to The Johnster's contribution about, there are student flats on the site of Salisbury Road goods depot, the maths department is on the land south of the Students' Union and the western side of the Engineering Buildings which are on the North Side of Newport Road are where the Rhymney lines and Parade station were. Up until the late 1980s, next to the road bridge immediately north of Queen Street station, there was a BR Staff Club and a road alongside it called Rhymney Approach.

Lawley Street is still busy so there is a remnant of the Midland's goods activities in Brum. I suspect that a few years after they have got rid of Washwood Heath, they will find they need further siding capacity in the area.

Brynamman had a Midland cantilevered box.

We are due to be there with Ynysybwl. Preston is one of our favourite shows. Les always does a good job.