Ruston

A variant of the DE was the Tandem loco. These were designed to be used singly or in pairs and used electro-pneumatic multiple working. Another slight variation are the small lower windows in the front panel of the cab. Showing the safety chains, air piping and communicating rear cab door.

RH photo from 1963, at Colviles Ltd. A 165DE. Large rear windows, recessed steps but with different sides to the bonnet plus compressor housing. Note also the cabside badge - the electrical equipment being provided by AEI.

An unidentified 165DS at an unknown location. Ruston & Hornsby photo, taken in 1950.

I'm currently building a 7mm 0-4-0 165 Ruston and have got to this part. Putting the bends in the top cover of the bonnet has stopped me in my tracks. If I mess this up then the whole thing is scrap. I was wondering if annealing it would help? Also, I don't have any of those bars to put in a vice and bend the bonnet around to get the correct radius of curve. If I anneal it and then solder one edge to the bonnet sides will it just follow the curve of the formers, or will it just buckle?

I don't have anything like as many photo of 165s as I have of 48 and 88DS but I do have some sales literature so if people have photos of 165s, please add them. Ruston & Hornsby 165s come in three flavours - mechanical (DS), electric (DE) and hydraulic (DH). There external detail differences between the types as well as changes that are dependent on the age of the loco. Starting with the DS British Railways owned a few 165DS and this picture shows the arrangement of the jackshaft and rods on the BR locos. Some industrial locos used this arrangement, as shown here... Some 165DS had the rods arranged so there was one rod from the jackshaft to the front wheels and a connecting rod between the wheels, as shown here... Then there are oddities, such as this one with a different radiator grille. This loco also appears to have a longer frame and the part of the bonnet in front of the frame is longer, presumably to accommodate something uhder there - a compressor or an exhaust scrubber? https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8165/7275168032_e29998dd4c_b.jpg Then we have the 165DE. The traction motor on the DE locos drove straight to the rear axle so no jackshaft was used. Some (early?) DE looked the same as the DS but for the lack of jackshaft but some (later?) locos had recessed steps for shunters, at the front end. Another visual clue to a DE is the extra cast plates under the maker's name. These plates show the manufacturer of the electrical equipment - BTH. Early 165DE... https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7171/6686496985_9324c31a0c_b.jpg This loco has jacking points under the buffers. Some have a plate, held by 4 bolts and some have nothing. This one doesn't have the recessed steps but has larger cab rear windows... https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7028/6680871095_0d4b4b1b92_b.jpg This one has both large windows and recessed steps... https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8755/16768866530_2293c430b2_b.jpg Later locos also had a raked back front to the cab, as shown in the drawing below. Early 165DE. Later 165DE, also showing 0-6-0 version. And then the 165DH. The first DH looked exactly like an early DS and even had the jackshaft arrangement of the BR 165DS locos. Later DH locos had a jackshaft and rod arrangement that was different from the DS, as shown in this photo and in the drawing below... https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3947/15566846930_9ff29e4fdf_b.jpg The engine access doors are also different but I do not know if all DH locos were like this. I've had enough for now. If people are interested I can post some detail shots and specifications. It would be nice if we can get pictures we can post on screen instead of having to get around the copyright rules by linking to them, so if you have any please post them and I'll replace/add them.

Day Shift – NCB Royd Hall 1) RH1 = Royd Hall loco 1 RH2 = Royd Hall loco 2 RO1 = Royal Oak shunter. 2) RO1 - Collect 4x BR Mineral Wagons (Train A) at exch. sdg. Tip and return to exch. sdg. 3) RH1 - Light engine to collect manriding train at RO and then proceed with manriding train to RH. Return manriding train to RO [stock removed from track]. Wait for empties (Train A) 4) RH2 - Load 2x internal use wagons at screens Road 1. (Train B) 5) RH1 - Take Train A to RH, weigh empties and run-round. Place Train A under screens Road 3. 6) RH2 - Weigh loaded Train B and take to exchange sidings. 7) RO1 - Collect 2x empty internal use wagons (Train C) from RO and place in exchange sidings. Release train loco from Train B. Tip Train B and place empties in RO siding. 8) RH2 - Back onto Train C and take to RH. Weigh, run round and place wagons under screens Road 1 then go to shed for water. 9) RH1 - Load 4x BR mineral wagons at screens road 2. (Train D). 10) RH2 - Load tipping wagons at screens Road 4. 11) RH1 - Weigh Train D then go to shed for water. 12) RH2 - Take tipping wagons to spoil tip. 13) RH1 - Take loaded Train D to exch. sdg. 14) RO1 - Release train loco from Train D then shunt and tip Train D. 15) RH1 - Back on to tipping wagons and return to RH, run round and place wagons under screens, Road 4. 16) RH2 - To RH, screens Road 3 and load Train A. 17) RH1 - Light engine to RO, collect manriding train and return to RH.. 18) RH2 - Weigh Train A. 19) RH1 - Manriding train to RO. 20) RH2 - Train A to exch.sdg. 21) RO1 - Release train loco from Train A. 22) RH1 & RH2 - Return to RH, coal, water, ashpit and to shed. 23) RO1 - leave Train A in exch. sdg. To shed, water, coal etc. End of Shift.

5050 Paul came over yesterday evening and we had a running session. I had made up a list of moves for each of three locos in use to load, shunt, run and tip 3 coal trains, the paddy train and a waste train. It took around three hours to complete the whole shift, including a tea break, which the NUM insisted on. We did deviate from the script a little and forgot to run the waste train but other than that it mostly worked. I need to tweak the moves plan and Paul needs to practise the art of using a magentic shunter's pole.

To be pedantic, stone dust wasn't used in coal mines to combat firedamp, which of course is a mining term for methane gas. Stone dust was used to prevent coal dust explosions, which could be caused by firedamp explosions but were far more devastating than an explosion of firedamp alone.

Back to the trains. I have built up a large collection of O gauge industrial locomtives over the past 5 or 6 years and I've been sorting them out, taking them out of their storage boxes and testing them. Some will never run on Royd Hall, either because there is no way of fitting sound, or because they are very poor runners. Apart from one that is a good runner but is extremely heavy and would knock the track to pieces, not to mention that it's painted in a very distinctive colour scheme that really doesn't fit in with a colliery loco fleet. One loco that fortunately runs well and is to be sound-fitted, and added to the working fleet, is the old BT&S No.4. I have had new name plates made up by Narrow Planet and it has become Stringer & Jaggar No.4. The company so named were colliery owners in the area in which the layout is set. Although some sources show Jagger and there is a Jagger Lane very near the site of one of their collieries, I chose to spell it Jaggar because it was spelt this way on their private owner wagons.

National Coal Board Royd Hall. Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST Stringer & Jaggar No.4 heading for the landsale yard with an assortment of ancient internal use only wagons.

I think the first edition was 1825 so mine is a second edition. I have just had a search online and a first edtions are on sale from £100 to £2500! Mine cost precisely five pounds, which isn't bad at all when you consider that the modern reprint costs over £20.

Early railways and their locomotives are a subject that I find fascinating. The oldest book in my collection is the 1832 edition of Nicholas Wood's A Practical Treatise On Rail Roads and one of my most prized books is C.F. Dendy Marshall's 1953 publication of A History Of Railway Locomotives Down To The Year 1831. I don't remember ever having seen a model railway, other than a static model of the Stockton & Darlington, of a pre-1831 railway. The reason for the year 1831as a cut-off would be something to do with the Livepool & Manchester being the first "proper" locomotive-worked railway (but then that opened in 1830...) where the earliest were the original industrial railways. Are there any proper working layouts for this time period? If you have any models of early locos please share them here. P.S. If anyone from Bachmann, or Hornby is reading this, can we please have a RTR Steam Elephant, or Royal George? (more chance of me winning the lottery).

It's finished. Hydraulic lines and control fitted and as for the counterweight, I machined up some wheel weights.

There is an even easier solution, which doesn't need the same level of dexterity to catch hold of the links. I use a tiny torch that has a length of 1mm brass wire fixed to it, and to the other end, a tiny magnet. Pick up the links and slide them over the hook and pull the magnet down and away. Of course you need to use steel links. I made one and have another, which I believe is available from the HMRS.

Very informative, Arthur. I take it the hydraulic pump would be fitted to the rear PTO? I could model some simple representation of it. I guess it would probably be covered by the weight at the back though?

I've been thinking about the loco coaling facilities at Royd Hall shed and how a bloke with a couple of buckets isn't a very good way of coaling some of the larger locos, such as the 15-inch Hunslets. So I bought a die-cast Fordson Major, at Leeds exhibition, last week. I've scratched the hydraulics, arms and bucket from card and plasticard. I wonder if a tractor such as this, with a loader, ought to have a counterweight attached to the 3-point linkage at the rear?

It's the faffing around making multiples of things such as axleboxes and springs that are a pain when scratchbuilding. If I ever get started on one of these I may look at making one part and getting the others cast in resin.

I was recently given an old slide, taken at Royd Hall Drift Mine, in the early 1960s and featuring the E class Peckett that used to work there. The slide also came with an old picture of one of the loco drivers at the pit, dated 4th January 1947. So that would be just a few days after "vesting day" - the nationalisation of the coal industry.

Looks like a Hudswell Clarke to me, Arthur.

Since I posted the previous photo I felt there was something not quite right with my E class Peckett. It was that the cab steps and the valance under the running plate really ought to be green and not black. I have rectified that and have added more dirt to the frames, wheels and rods. It also has another oil can on the running plate, plus a wrench and a shovel for cleaning out the smokebox. Tamiya NATO green is also a pretty good match for the main colour. Hauling "dirt cans" on my Royd Hall Drift layout.

This is looking really good. Do you think it will be finished in time for Wakey exhibition? I'll bring along those whitemetal wagon frames for you...

This is really coming to life now that you've added people and junk lying around. I'm a real fan of having junk lying around.

Yesterday I built the final hopper to fit inside the screens building. The design of these has been evolving and on this latest one I did away with the springs, thinking that if it is fixed then the motor/weight would shake just the spout and so be more efficient. It does seem to work better but the downside is that it shakes the entire building and makes the next hopper discharge its load! It's firmly fixed in place and I can't be bothered to take it out now so it will have to be used to load wagons only when the adjacent hopper has been emptied. With the hopper for waste also operational I now have all four roads capable of loading wagons, and with all the buildings constructed and in place and the tippler fully working, the layout is in a state of near completion. There is still work to be done on details and additional greenery, and the possible construction of a low sleeper-built platform for the paddy train. The next big thing will be to build up a collection of private owner wagons so different time periods can be operated by switching BR stock for PO's, changing/removing road vehicles and by using the less modern steam locos and no diesels. I'm thinking Second World War so PO's can be used from any company and region.

It is in a bit of a state, isn't it? I too remember when it was freshly painted. 48DS always seem to get negelected at preserved railways. I suppose because their uses and opportunities to work are limited they don't get the attention, or undercover storage, that revenue-earning locos get. I first saw that particular loco when it was at Buxton. It had a broken gearbox, which was probably due to someone fitting a Gardner engine of over twice the horsepower of the original Ruston engine. I went to look at it with members of the GYRPS, who bought it and took it to Starbeck. I don't think it ever worked at Starbeck though. IIRC the Gardner engine was put to use in a Fowler there.

The sound definitely travels through the tunnel but it's difficult to tell how far the train has got. Sounding the horn (or whistle) helps.