Pandora

3600 bhp of Caterpilar diesel power for 5 coaches is "bullet-train adequate" for me!

A historian I knew had met with a direct descendent of Bulleid and the conversation turned towards an event in Bulleid's life, following the loss of a son, Bulleid went his own way, the Pacifics were e far more powerful than required and the original submission for the Leader very very different to the Leader he constructed

In mid-gear (locomotive coasting) the valve spindle, would it be stationary? At 90 mph with a short cut-off of say 15%, would the valve spindle simply be rocking forward and backward only 15% of the full cylinder stroke, ie about 3 inches of actual valve spindle movement. If that is the case then surely the forces and peak accelerations / decelerations on the valve spindle are not as high as we initial assume.

The message from the A1 Trust "the middle piston valve overheating and binding in the valve chest" " root cause not clear but inadequate lubrication likely.................... factors" Is it correct that the middle cylinder will run hotter than the outside cylinders?

Dieselisation was a disruptive technology to steam and a threat to the established manufacturers such as Alco, Baldwin, Lima, North British, who were faced with the cost and risk of writing off their long established knowledge of how to build steam locomotives, and then mastering the new technology of diesel and electricity. Some tried to compete by progressing and improving their technology and eventually ran into the ditch at the next turn of the road History is full of such examples , the Mainframe Computer manufacturers struggled with the Super-Mini computer and lost, and the Super-Mini makers in turn struggled with the IBM compatible PC and lost. The turmoil of Change is very hard to manage, I have been caught out more than once in my career by believing the "Old Guard" and their subjective thoughts and opinions and not thinking for myself.

I am guilty, as a boy I saw illustrations of USA steam, dismissed them as "absolutely hideous in appearance" and went back to my 36A favourites. I now realise that the USA was decades ahead, for example manufacturing techniques, the A1 pacifics frames were fabricated from short lengths of plate steel, bolt-on cylinders ( capable of working loose). The USA had mastered the technique of a casting a one-piece locomotive bed in high quality steel, some of the largest castinsg ever made, the casting was a chassis for a steam locomotive with the cylinders air tanks etc all in a single unit, a masterpiece of pattern making and the skills of the Foundry workers We also come to the speed and power, the uncomfortable thought that the one-off speed record of Mallard may very well have been surpassed a good number of occasions times by those USA giants during the running of timetabled service trains

The power output of British steam is modest, just look at the USA express passenger streamliners of the 1940'ssuch as the 130 mph Pennsy 4-4-4-4 T1 duplex drive or the S1 class 6-4-4-6 loco, 6000+ horsepower. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Railroad_class_S1 As per Tornado, there is a group building a T1 from scratch https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/

I tried to make an online purchase from Maplin yesterday but was not successful, I telephoned the shop and they told me the service had been withdrawn, you can no longer reserve or purchase goods on line, or pay over the telephone. The assistant siad it is first come first served sales from now , therefore they are not allowed to put goods aside when requested. Also he said the stock level computers are no longer accurate for quantities.

Tornado has accumulated 100,000 miles of running, a design fault in the lubrication system leading to abrupt failure is possible reason but surely low in probability, more likely to be a blockage, low oil level at preparation, fracture of a feed pipe in my estimation.

The licence is from the PRS, the Performing Right Society, many venues have the licence, pubs etc https://www.prsformusic.com/what-we-do/licensing-music/do-i-need-a-licence

If the shuttle valve seized with the port into the cylinder permanently open, thereby admitting steam into the middle cylinder non-stop, could that have blown the cylinder end away as the piston tried to compress a cylinder full of steam at full boiler pressure?

From the video 60163 was coasting (no exhaust steam) and blowing off from the safety valves, a loco transitioning from working hard to next to nothing has a lot of thermal inertia in the firebox and boiler so the steam has to be lost pretty quickly, the black smoke from the chimney, might that be the dampers having been closed to choke the firebox?

The Eurostars running the Chunnel to Waterloo via Tonbridge route were noted for shearing off of the 3rd rail shoes, I would not like to be hit by a flying shoe!. More recently a warning was issued about freight wagons loosing their parking brake wheels, again another hefty chuck of metal that could easily kill.

Is is true that during the early years of the ECML electric working, a Class 91 electric threw a cardan shaft while running at speed. The cardan shaft struck a motor car and caused such damage the car was a write off. It may have been at Peterborough.

I like your diorama, I work on the railway and such cuttings can be damp or water-logged with static water to contend with, a piece of mirror glass laid flat with ballast and earth glued on top makes a decent show of a puddle. i also like to see the visual appeal of of a drainage course running in the cess, either as an open man-made ditch or as a grid over a vertical shaft leading to a buried drain

Okehampton to Stratford-on-Avon on the 21st, matches the rumour of the HST working

Pheasants have an uncanny ability to perch upon the railhead, and sidestep just before the lifeguards do their utmost, not so the pigeon, the pigeon will fly and collide head first to the cab front

There is a rumour of an GW HST special working from Devon to Stratford-on-Avon on Saturday 14th. does anyone have any details to post?

The Grain branch has a reputation among P-way staff as "the place that time forgot", it is cold, all year round, the birds do not sing, and when OTM 's have to travel for miles in a possession at 5 mph,for drivers a penance!

I am told there is a 30 year contract to haul aviation fuel from the Port at the end of the Grain branch to Gatwick Airport, and that GB Railfreight intend to construct a depot for the class 66 locos at the Port Another quirk of the branchline, malairia-carrying mosquitos have bred in the waters, and the authorities have to take control measures, believed to be the only area of England where such action is required

In the case of CWR it is known as stressing. A P-Way Technician performs a number of readings and measuremenst, calculations are made, then a heavy motorised hydraulic clamping mechanism is attached across the rail gap and the rails are literally pulled together until the gap between rail faces are to a calculated specification The gap is then closed by the spectacular to observe Thermite welding process. It is a procedure which requires skill and experience and several hours of possession time

I have tried to find diagrams fir the workings of the 86's, please can you post the diagrams if you have them? The 86 workings over the North London line are the least travelling for me

The two tunnels were closed for a year and relined, the work was around 10 years ago, Higham station became a terminus for the duration.

I rode KIngs Cross to Kings Lynn and return on the Electrostars last week, on the return trip sitting in the coach with the pantograph, there were around seven incidences of major mechanical crashes and bangs from above, as if the pantograph had jammed and released, I went to find someone to report this to, but the train crew had gone, none of the passengers were the least bit bothered so I left it at that!.

Oh well , London to Swindon 75 miles, Swindon to Cardiff, the same, the mid-point is in sight