JeremyC

6 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Don't the Americans ask why Windsor Castle was built so close to LHR?

Might be a true story or one of those [insert name here] tales 😀. A similar story is told in Edinburgh of Americans asking why the castle was built so near the railway that runs through Princes Street Gardens.

This is similar to what happened in Leith docks some years ago. New flats were built about a 300m from the berths at the corner of the entrance basin. As soon as they were occupied the port started to receive complaints about the noise of ship movements at night. The residents claimed they'd been told before buying the flats that the dock wasn't operational. Admittedly at that time it wasn't being used very much, but it was never closed and traffic increased. I don't know what the final outcome was, but the berths are still used!

(My ship made itself very unpopular one night as we had to leave one of our main propulsion generators running due to a failure of the Harbour genset!)

2 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Same class.

 

It was an order that wasn't fulfilled for some reason ( I have read that the GNoSR had ran out of money) and the builders sold them to the SECR.

 

 

Jason

The story of these locos can be found at

https://sremg.org.uk/steam/gclass.shtml

https://www.lner.info/locos/D/d40.php

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

At one time Hansa start devices using cellulose film were very common for emergency engines, the violence of the process meant the engines were only rated for a limited number of starts using them in many cases.

I couldn't remember the name of the unit, but Hansa rings a bell. The unit was kept in a box and could be fitted to any of the main generators which had Paxman 6RPH engines. Thankfully the ship was later fitted with an emergency diesel air compressor so we wouldn't have needed to use the Hansa unit.

I haven't voted because my interest is South East Scotland, mainly LNER with a little bit of LMS and no interest whatsoever in GWR or Southern.

20 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Similar to the recoil starter on a lawnmower?

No. It looked like an electric starter motor except it had a spindle onto which a crank handle fitted. You wound the spring up then pulled a lever which 'fired' it.

Its a different make (I think), but the principle is the same.

7 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I used to hate starting lifeboat engines (and emergency air compressor engines) with the starting handle. Fitting electric starters was great. I must admit I much prefer modern boat systems, I remember bowsing the boats in at embarkation level then lowering and letting go, with falls ready to decapitate the unwary when letting go. And even worse recovering the boat. 

The last Lister emergency air compressor I saw on a ship was fitted with a spring starter which had to be wound up first.

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

I also recall a 6 leg truck engine (may have been a Ford) as emergency generator on one ship, with a hopeful looking starting handle on the bulkhead.  As it had a hydraulic ram start and electric, thankfully we never had to try hand cranking it.

You were lucky then, we had a Gardener 6 cylinder emergency generator on one ship, on a few occasions surveyors insisted we hand started it, a real pain if it was cold. After the first time if we knew a surveyor was coming it would be given a test run before he arrived.

However that was an improvement on the ship  where the first start arrangement was a 'cartridge' starter that could be fitted to one of the main generators (it actually used a coil of cellulose film as the explosive).

5 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

I'm afraid caused by all the inbreeding in rural communities. 

 

 

Somewhere I read a claim that the one thing that stopped a genetic collapse in some rural communities was the invention of the bicycle.

I'm a bit puzzled why the LNER not using Belpaire fireboxes is a sign of its financial circumstances. As far as I am aware neither Doncaster or Darlington (which became the two main LNER design offices ) had ever used Belpaire fireboxes, so surely it's more a case of continuing existing practices which had been found to be satisfactory. 

This thread remined me of this short film that I found on Youtube:

On 05/12/2022 at 11:46, martin_wynne said:

 

Another effect of Tetraethyl Lead?

 

"Researchers calculate that exposure to car exhaust from leaded petrol during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from over 170 million Americans alive today, more than half of the population of the United States."

 

"Blood Lead Level measurements from developed countries decreased markedly beginning in the late 1970s, when restrictions were placed upon lead use in gasoline, petrol, paint, soldering material and other products. In the United States, average BLLs measured among tens of thousands of subjects declined from 12.8 to 2.8 μg/dL between 1976 and 1991."

12.8 to 2.8! That's a massive reduction.

 

Tetraethyl Lead is the big unmentioned scandal of our time:

 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220307162011.htm

 

Martin.

Thomas Midgley, the chemist who developed Tetraethyl Lead, was the same person who developed Chloroflurocarbons (CFCs). Not a person whose work was good for the environment then!

Pronunciation can be a strange thing. Marine Scotland (who I worked for) have a ship called the Minna. We all pronounced it Min-a with a short 'i' as in bit. All the Rolls Royce techs who came from the Portsmouth area to carry out repairs to the computer control system insisted in calling her the Meena.

17 hours ago, jwealleans said:

 

On the LNER I believe this became policy after one of the nastier 1930s accidents, to protect passengers.   On shorter and slower moving branch trains, the guard was often marshalled in the middle so as to be nearer station buildings for parcels and sundries work.  The low speeds meaning the risk to passengers in end compartments was much lower.

 

This is copied from the report into the into the Castlecary accident of 1937 ( see page 51) (https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Castlecary1937.pdf)

"Marshalling.-As stated above, it seems likely that five passengers were 
killed in the Edinburgh train because the leading brake compartment (third 
coach) was not marshalled next the engine, two passenger-carrying vehicles 
having intervened. An Instruction on this subject was issued in the Southern 
Scottish Area on 28th May, 1923, which read as follows:- 
(d) Brake Compartments next Engines.-All Passenger Trains which are provided with 
two Brake Vans or Brake Third Class Coaches should, when practicable, have one of these 
vehicles marshalled next the Engine. When, however, passenger carrying coaches are placed 
next the Engine, it will not be necessary to lock up two empty compartments of the leading 
vehicle. 
The previous practice of locking up compartments next the engine was dis-
continued by the Companies, owing to the inconvenience in working and to 
the impracticability of carrying out the instruction in the case of corridor stock. 
The present Instruction, which appears to be generally applicable, is contained 
on page 66 of the Southern Scottish Area Appendix dated 1st March, 1937, and 
reads as follows : - 
(g~) Brake Compartments next Engines.-All passenger trains should, when practicable, 
have a brake compartment next the engine. 
I was informed by the Company's Superintendent that this Instruction has 
been regarded as only imposing an obligation to marshal passenger-carrying 
vehicles inside the brake van when this could be done without inconvenience to 
the working or without causing delays, and the matter was referred to in my 
Report upon the accident at Shrivenham in 1936. 
With regard, however, to the marshalling of the Edinburgh express in future, 
the Superintendent has now arranged to roster one of the vehicles in question 
as part of the train set, thus allocating it permanently within the front brake 
van. He has also undertaken to marshal the second vehicle within the brake 
van under normal conditions; I understand that this arrangement will be prevented only when traffic conditions are exceptional. The attachment of the latter 
vehicle has to be effected at Edinburgh before the train departs, as it is only 
required for service between Edinburgh and Glasgow. 
I recommend that further consideration be given to this matter by the 
Companies generally, with a view, where necessary, to influencing the traffic 
Staff towards the attachment of all additional vehicles within a brake van, rather 
than to permit inconvenience to be urged as a reason for not applying this 
precaution in the marshalling of passenger trains."

On 06/11/2022 at 09:18, DenysW said:

The UK chose to make that statement true, but it was a choice. The grade (size) of coal for mechanical stokers is different from shovelling coal, so there's a direct cost of having two coaling stations, and a botheration factor of keeping the two separate. 

IIRC in his book 'Calling Carlisle Control' Peter Brock said that at Carlisle the stoker fitted 9fs were taken over to Canal shed for coaling because the size of coal supplied there was more suitable for them.

Another user of a piece of brass bar run down the line of the teeth.

Something I was taught many years ago was to keep a separate set of files for brass, once a file has been used on steel it won't cut brass properly.

On 21/09/2022 at 10:35, rmweb4468 said:

I have just reassembled a Hattons 7mm  A4 which I bought used from them The driving wheels had all come off and lots of parts were damaged or missing - Hattons were very help full in replacing these

After a few minutes of running in one of the driving wheels came off again which had been re attached using very strong araldite  The axles just push into a blind hole which is clearly not adequate Every wheel manufacturer I know of uses a screw.

.....

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with relying on a push fit, however a push fit into a blind hole raises the possibility of a compressed air pocket behind the axle trying to push the axle back out. I would suggest  drilling a small vent hole through the wheel centre (where it would look like the axle centres on the prototype) to release any trapped air.

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

The Sulzer RND was a very solid engine. The OCL/P&OCL Liverpool Bay class had two Mitsubishi built Sulzer 8RND90M engines after re-engining and they were pretty much bomb proof.

Neatest RND I sailed with was a little 5RND68 powering a SD14 general cargo ship.

Kytes lights 

https://www.kyteslights.com/index.php?cPath=24

4 hours ago, SHMD said:

...... 

This large gear was always referred to as the "bull gear".

Would such a term have been used instead of "turning gear" on board?

 

 

Kev.

 

On ships the term 'Bull Wheel' was often used to describe the largest driven gear wheel in a gearbox.

Today, 'Prince of Wales' lying off Rosyth in the Forth

Eileen's Emporium list valve gear rivets in 3 sizes ( stocked as 2 sizes for 4mm scale , 1 for 7mm Scale) (Note: search for rivet not rivets)

13 minutes ago, MarkC said:

I think that Matt was actually referring to my photo of Aidaprima, Jeremy.

 

Mark

Re-following the thread, I'd agree.

Jeremy

2 hours ago, drmditch said:

Interesting that a passenger ship should be so close to an LNG terminal.

Or is that just a trick of the photography?

 

(I also think that they look horrible - almost as bad as those big ro-ro car carriers!)

Braefoot Bay (the LPG terminal) is about 4.5Km (3 miles) away from Hound Point, which is an oil terminal.

The liner 'Emerald Princess' and the tanker 'Eagle Barcelona' at Hound Point on the Forth this morning.