Misc steam railway, traction, station and rail-related news
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A couple of my favourite Youtube steam-train clips:
70013 Oliver Cromwell belts through Doncaster in 2011 or thereabouts.
Compilation of clips of 70000 Britannia on the Torbay Express in 2012. Watch the small boy in the red top on the platform from 7:00 or thereabouts, and then again when the train's about to leave. There's something of that lad in everyone who likes steam engines, I think, no matter how old and cynical we get!
70013 Oliver Cromwell belts through Doncaster in 2011 or thereabouts.
Compilation of clips of 70000 Britannia on the Torbay Express in 2012. Watch the small boy in the red top on the platform from 7:00 or thereabouts, and then again when the train's about to leave. There's something of that lad in everyone who likes steam engines, I think, no matter how old and cynical we get!
mx wcfc
Well-Known Member
I've just joined that group! ThanksOnly slightly rail related but fabulously quirky
Fingerpost signs and antiquated street furniture | Facebook
A group created to document the many fingerpost signs in our countryside & towns, plus any other interesting street furniture you may see.www.facebook.com
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
I don't like this "less is more" style that has been becoming very fashionable in museums and galleries.Seeing all the old post boxes is tinged with sadness..they had dozens in the old post office museum when we went on a guided tour there. There are just one or two in the new improved museum
It makes me feel cheated and not likely to re-visit, even if the plan is to regularly refresh / redo the cases and what's on show.
I like to have plenty to look at, with lots of (accurate) interpretation - and informed guides to answer questions / chat to visitors.
hash tag
Books, not bombs
With the post office museum its not necessariy less is more its less geeky and more appealing to the younger generation and general, everyday tourist. Popularised.
I liked seeing all the different post boxes, telephone boxes, stamp machines etc. And getting them explained.
I liked seeing all the different post boxes, telephone boxes, stamp machines etc. And getting them explained.
Puddy_Tat
naturally fluffy
it's a difficult compromise.
there are museums out there that either intentionally or for lack of space / not wanting to thin the collection, stuff so much in that you can't really get close to some of the exhibits, and where (to the general public) some of the exhibits are very similar.
i think what the LT Museum have done is probably the best compromise, having a central site aimed at the general public (in their case covent garden) and a secondary site (in their case acton) that's aimed at the more dedicated enthusiast and is open a few times a year.
as with preserved railways, there's a need to get the general public through the door in reasonable numbers as well as catering for the enthusiast who might come once or twice a year for special events.
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Yep, it was ...
I did one such as a kid. My lasting memory was the number of dets the dmu exploded as it left on the last / return journey down the branch - and the clouds of smelly smoke that those bangs created..
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Oh I know, it is a real problem of how do you pitch the collection / railway etc - you need joe & joan public and their 2.4 (or 1.7) kids to provide the main income, but without alienating them or the enthusiast. The latter get some of the special events / galas (and galas are difficult, for other reasons). What you don't want are the characters who bring their own food n drink and only take photographs without paying and entering the event ...
Just been browsing RailUK forums and noticed a thread about The Badger, which has been under overhaul for ages and on which serious progress is now being made. Taken just after its repaint last month:
It hasn't run for nearly twenty years, since GNER days in the late 90s/early 00s:
I wonder what they're planning to do with it...
It hasn't run for nearly twenty years, since GNER days in the late 90s/early 00s:
I wonder what they're planning to do with it...
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
I gather the plan is for it to work railtours and the like. I'd certainly be up for it. Remember seeing it when it was working for GNER but never actually had a run on it.
Oh it'll certainly be railtours: the question is where. I'd love to see it on the ECML again.
Bus Honeygun
This week the score draws are plentiful
Oh it'll certainly be railtours: the question is where. I'd love to see it on the ECML again.
Ah yes. Fast run KX - Edinburgh and I'll be there!
Anyone else remember Steam Days, from the mid-80s?
All six episodes. The theme tune takes me back...
All six episodes.
The theme tune takes me back...
teuchter
je suis teuchter
I hope the preservation world doesn't just end up over-extending itself. I imagine that the newer the stuff, the more complex and expensive it is to keep it running. For something like this, it's not just the mechanical parts but a whole load of electronics as well, and because it's a one off, no reservoir of spares to be cannibalised from elsewhere.
I follow the 125 group and it's clear what a big undertaking that is. Not just the engines but the coaches as well - a whole plethora of systems that are more complicated to keep running than your typical preserved railway mk1.
The 125 project is worth it because it's such an important bit of history, and I think there will be lots of people who'll want to pay for railtours and so on. Something like the 89 is rather obscure though and I wouldn't be all that surprised if it ends up as a rusty half completed rebuild in 10 or 20 years time.
I suppose you can just run it until it becomes too expensive to keep going, and then put it in the NRM.
A lot of truth in all of that, but it's owned by the AC Locomotive Group, who do know what they're doing with main-line electric locos. Judging from some of their blogs and so on the electronics have been a problem but they've managed to overhaul or replace what they need to in the fifteen years or so they've been working on it. The 89 has a pretty big following in enthusiast circles too, so there should be a market for it, and I suppose it does also have the advantage that they can lease it out on a purely commercial basis if the opportunity arises.
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hiraethified
Love a signal box
Restoring the Princes Risborough railway signal box
The UK's largest surviving Great Western Railway signal box can be found just under an hour from central London, and occasionally, is open to the public to have a look inside.
www.ianvisits.co.uk
editor
hiraethified
Tondu station. It's still there and even has a signal box and semaphores but the station has been cut back to a single bus stop.
It was once a junction of six railway lines:
en.wikipedia.org
It was once a junction of six railway lines:
- The Duffryn Llynvi and Porthcawl Railway from Porthcawl to Maesteg and Abergwynfi
- The Maesteg Line to Bridgend, connecting to the South Wales Main Line
- The Ogmore Valley Railway to Brynmenyn & Nantymoel
- The Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company to Port Talbot docks and Pontyrhyl
- The Garw Valley Railway to Blaengarw and onwards to the Blaengarw and International collieries
Tondu railway station - Wikipedia
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
Its terrible, in fact I hadn't realised how far our museums had declined until visiting various French ones - even where there isn't that much in the way of exhibits to see (like the Palais des Papes) they provide you with things to do even if its just describe what you can see in terms of the architecture.
Surely the Jellicoe Specials must have been as big as that?
I don't know tbh. David Shepherd claimed it as the heaviest load started by a steam engine in the UK, and I can well believe it as long as he was referring to a single engine. Certainly there was nothing around in WWI with anything like the power of a 9F. But then, some of those Jellicoe Specials would probably have been double-headed.
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
I had known about that, back in the dim recesses of my memory.
Very nice to see a film.
Looks like everything but the firebars going out the chimney at one point.
IIRC correctly there were a pair of 9Fs that handled the Consett Ore trains ?
And a 9F holds the record for the unassisted load over the Mendips. Evening Star had 426 tons on her tender drawbar for the last up "Pines express" on 8th September 1962.
Tremendous engines. I've just reread David Shepherd's account of the record train in A Brush with Steam. He was on the footplate, but he was told to crouch down in the back corner with his jacket over his head, because there was a low bridge along the route and when they went under it the fire blew back so hard that flames forced their way out round the firehole doors and scorched the cab. He described the experience as 'like sitting on a volcano.'
Unfortunately 9Fs are near enough banned from the main line these days, so we'll probably never see anything like this again:
I believe Evening Star was timed at 80mph+ on a few of those railtours in the 80s, when BR was slacker about speed limits than the railway is now.
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
I once had a very short footplate ride on Evening Star (running round at Hexham). Lovely engine, but enormous when you are used to the 2ft and 15" gauges !
One of the reasons they saw so little work on winter passenger trains was that they were missing a small length of pipe that would have supplied heating steam to the carriages.
Given that they had steam to spare, and never seemed to be struggling, that lack seems short-sighted, even with an engine rated as a freight not passenger locomative.
One of the reasons they saw so little work on winter passenger trains was that they were missing a small length of pipe that would have supplied heating steam to the carriages.
Given that they had steam to spare, and never seemed to be struggling, that lack seems short-sighted, even with an engine rated as a freight not passenger locomative.
Two LNER pacifics at York, both starting heavy trains with no assistance and plenty of wheelspin and noise:
Flying Scotsman in 2016. Note the reaction of the woman on the left of the shot when the driver opens up...
Tornado in 2010. By chance I'd arrived from London a few minutes earlier on my way to a wedding, and must have been standing pretty much next to whoever filmed this.
Flying Scotsman in 2016. Note the reaction of the woman on the left of the shot when the driver opens up...
Tornado in 2010. By chance I'd arrived from London a few minutes earlier on my way to a wedding, and must have been standing pretty much next to whoever filmed this.
