Classic British Flight Sim

My favoutite designs are the Merchant Navy/BoB/West Country's classes, LMS Coronation's and the Standard 9's.

fighterpilot wrote:Oliver Bulleid certainly used a unique design with these locos, the chain driven valve gear, Bulleid Firth Brown wheels, 'air smoothed casing' etc. Richard

Unfortunately the only thing that remained after the rebuild were the wheels!

The chain drive valve gear was not the first choice, Bullied wanted to use a prop-shaft with gears, but because of war time conditions the gears could not be fabricated. So, as there not being room to accommodate Walschaert valve gear, he opted for the chain driven valve gear that had corrosion problems because water leaked into the 'sealed' oil bath and, at the same time became a fire hazard because oil leaked out saturating the boiler lagging. The oil leaks also contributed to wheel slippage. After time, due to chain wear, the valve timing also went to cock.

The wheel design was chosen for it 10% reduction in weight over conventional designs, the ability to dispense with the Gibson retaining ring, no loose tyres and a better distribution of stresses. With no reciprocating balance weights were embodied which reduced track hammer blows, but weights were inseted into the wheel rims.

Here a couple of shots of Clan Line in her original guise, both illustrate the wheel design



Oliver Bullied designed two other locomotives for the Southern, both were unique

The Q1


The Leader.
While the driver has a reasonable ride the fireman was parboiled in the middle of the locomotive

After the unsucessful Leader he left BR, as it was then, and joined Irish Railway and built a similar looking peat burner

I'm old enough to have grown up with steam engines as a matter of routine. I was in my twenties when BR replaced steam and I had other things to think about then. In my teens, every train ride was steam and about half of the road rollers were still steam and some farmers still used ploughing engines. My brother was a spotter and I saw the Golden Arrow on several occasions when I went along with him for something to do.

But coloured engines just don't do it for me. They should be black. As most of you know, I work on the railways now and mainline steam is quite common in the summer. I'm based at Westbury depot in Wiltshire and a lot of steam hauled excursions stop here for a change from steam to diesel while the steam loco is watered. Clan Line is a frequent visitor en-route from Victoria to Bath or Bristol. It's a great place to view her because she uncouples on the platform, runs round along the adjacent platform line and sits in a freight siding next to the station approach for a few hours until the diesel brings the coaches back for her.

But speaking of black engines here are a couple of shots from work last year in Westbury station when I happened to have a camera with me.
The observant will note that this is a double-header!



Like so:



A Black Five - a loco that looks like a loco ought:



Not all steam runs on rails! Found this shot circa 1961. I'm the serious looking young man hanging off the side. I'd spent the whole of the summer holidays cleaning it (even inside the firebox!) and we were off on an all-day steam to a traction engine rally. My job was to direct the traffic round us while on the move. I got to drive it when we got to the rally. It always took all day to get there because we had to stop for a pint at every pub we passed



Ian

Thanks FighterPilot and VC10 for some nice shots of how I remember those locos :flying:

Nice to see some road steam as well Ian nice shot. Bulleids have always been my favorite locos but then I am biased by the fact that my Dad grew up in Eastleigh (right under the airport flightpath, there you see an aviation link ) where all the Merchant Navies were built and all the rebuilding took place. The Jarvis rebuilds were indeed very different to the originals, and were i guess easier to maintain although it made oiling up the loco more difficult i imagine having to climb between the frames. Long may steam run on the national network theres nothing quite like seeing one fly through a station at 75mph.

edit: and how about a little plug, a fotopics site where I have a few of my efforts of mostly mainline steam taken over the last few years. Might even have to add some more actually. http://steam-photos.fotopic.net/

Richard

speedbird591 thanks for the great pic of 76079 (Known as the Pocket Rocket to its fans) The guy with his head out of the firemans side window is an old colleague of mine. He was at Lostock Hall shed in the final days of BR steam and is still active on preserved and mainline steam. 76079 first came to "My" preserved line in the early 90s. When I signed on duty and saw the loco board I was pleased to have a different class of loco but when I went to prepare it (Oil it up) I thought it looked a dainty weak little engine. I could not have been more wrong about it and had one of the best days of my driving career, it is so strong it was very difficult to avoid going over the speed limit even with an 8 coach train on long steep gradients.

petermcleland wrote:...Outside Manor House tube station I boarded a lovely old Tram...This took me on quite a long journey to the Embankment via the Kingsway Subway (a very very long Tramway Tunnel which emerged back into the light of day on the Thames embankment near Cleopatra's Needle).
Happy Days

OFFTOPIC

Ah. Peter. you bring back the memories. That had to be before July 6, 1952. I remember the signs on the trams announcing that on that date "we say goodbye to London" I cried because I had always wanted to ride on a tram and my parents thought they were too uncomfortable and noisy, so i never did get my ride. Ok I was just a kid at the time, but I still haven't forgiven my parents.

Nigel²

Yes Nigel,

I estimate that it was about 1947...It was a great adventure riding that tramway...I liked to be on the top deck and preferably in a very front seat, so that I could look down at the approaching tracks. I remember being slightly surprised by the fact that the centre rail with the slot along it was not always in the middle...It waved slowly from side to side. It was also pretty exciting to sit in that high front seat through that Kingsway Tunnel with all the lights and dark spots and the clanging and whirring of the tram. I used to keep my punched tickets and I wonder where they went...I seem to remember the single fare from Manor House to the Embankment was 3d

Was that a run organised by "Steam Dreams"?

My wife and I have been on a couple of those. A wonderful steam ride with lunch and dinner from London to Winchester return and latterly from London to Taunton and then by WSR to Minehead. "My" railway is the GWR, particularly the line from Taunton to Minehead. There is a Class 34XXX 'Braunton' running there now but I am a great WSR fan and have been a member of the Association for 18 years. Steam, beautiful steam and clean engines - pride in the railway and its stations. Pity so many of our present 'real life' stations are stark and unkempt and often vandalised. My Grandpa kept his real life signal box neat and sparkling with an excellent 'assistant', his railway cat called Colin. (that's Colin not 'Coalin')

hobby wrote:Was that a run organised by "Steam Dreams"?

No, it was VSOE

http://www.orient-express.com/web/uktr/ ... rch%202009

Looking at the price of the trip, I think I'll stick to taking photo's.
To be honest I get more of a kick at being lineside taking in the sight and the sound.

Paul

At £295.00 per person one would expect the very best. I should love to travel on a first class train like the old fashioned 'Orient Express' the length of Europe but lack of funds will keep me from making such a trip. Letter in "The Times" today about the withdrawal of a dining car service - an excellent experience many years ago.

What do people from other parts of the world think of our far too expensive fares, vandalism, passengers putting their feet on seats as of right and very dirty trains? An absolute disgrace and does no credit to the UK.