Bulleid Pacifics - Past or Present

Tangmere is using some terrible dusty coal at the moment...I ended up with a Fireboxchaser-style black face after just 10 or so minutes with my head out the window on the Folkestone tour. You could see and feel great black lumps bouncing off your face and goggles, it was like being sandblasted! I'm sure it wasn't like this a few years ago.

 

Well at least with a Spam Can you don't need a razor!

 

Quite possibly, lol. Although I wonder if the rebuilts were better than the unrebuilts in terms of visibility problems brought about by the soft exhaust?

 

Sounds more like an indictment of the fireman's abilities.[/quote:2ndx5sui]

Bulleids do suffer from drifting steam and smoke but what colour was the smoke on this occasion? If it was black then definitely down to the fireman............
Some people forget that you need sufficient secondary air to burn off the gases.

34007 doesn't have dampers (original Bulleid design) so boiler control is by thoughtful firing. May have something to do with the valves being up?

By the way, 34028 is currently out of traffic for attention to piston-valves and inside big-end. Hoped to be back in service for high-season timetable.

 

I wouldn't have said it was black, more of a fairly dark grey, and there were bits in it (those were the days before I got a decent pair of goggles). Again, because I don't fire or drive them myself, I cannot really do anything but make observations.

 

Some years ago, I was talking with friends on the Watercress Line, who were telling what appeared to me to be rather tall tales. Trying to keep up, I made up a story that OVSB had designed the exhaust, blast pipes and chimney on his pacifics to produce a smoke "envelope" to shield the whole train from the view of enemy aircraft. I told them all about it in a matter-of-fact, authoritative voice, the way young men do, and they seemed to believe it. It is, of course, well recorded that during World War 2, the SR experimented with double and even triple chimneys in an effort to disrupt the tall, clearly visible, columns of smoke that their older locos produced, especially when working hard. There are photos of a couple of 4-6-0s (N15? S15?) with these strange arrangements. However, I had absolutely no evidence to back-up my "elaboration". Recently I heard what appeared to be my "yarn" being passed on from one lineside photographer to another. Some tales are worth passing on, regardless of their veracity!

 

I suppose the smokebox cowling would help spread the smoke as well as lift it, so its not beyond all bounds of reason. At least one of the N15s were treated with a triple chimney as an experiment in this vein. Whether it truly worked is really a point of conjecture, suffice to say the entire class was not fitted.

 

I remember reading that longer smoke deflectors were fitted to one West Country to try and stop drifting smoke.

 

There were many weird and wonderful variations in the length and shape of smoke deflectors on both Merchant Navy and Light Pacifics, and none of them really made much difference! 8-[

 

Early locos had very short deflectors. For experiments, various longer lengths were tried. There's a picture of 34006 Bude,at Marylebone station during the loco exchanges (i.e. 1948), wearing Malachite green, towing an LMS tender and a dynamometer car, on p49 of Bulleid Locomotives by Brian Haresnape. The deflectors are roughly double what became the standard length. I believe Bude kept her long deflectors right to the end of her life.

 

34049 Anti-Aircraft Command had a fairly ugly arrangement, no smoke deflectors except for a couple of holes in the extended casing. This occurred during BR ownership, and is found in Creer and Morrison, The Power of the Bulleid Pacifics.

 

Didn't one of the Light Pacific’s have its outer casing and its roof seal up together?

Ps Has anyone seen any footage of Leader in action if so what DVD/video was it on? I have a few B&R videotapes but haven’t seen Leader on a single copy.


Thanks

 

That was one of the problems with the Leader- the only known footage was of the sleeve valves and their complicated rotating mechanism that allowed efficient lubrication. There are plenty of photographs (see Leader: Triumph or Disaster?), but generally, its runs were made with great secrecy.

 

Can anyone remember what Leader sounds like?

 

Whilst searching You Tube, I discovered some superb nostalgic footage of Taw Valley on the SVR.

I will aways remember this 48773 / 34027 double header finale. I was in the first droplight (otherside!)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7bbrWvd5s ... re=related

The film is by shez5960, whom if you search his other films on You tube has some more cracking footage of Taw Valley and many more double headers on the Severn Valley.

Those were the days !!

 

34035 Shaftesbury

 

Driven as the top link drivers of old drove them there wouldn't be a soft exhaust!

Following on from an off Forum chat, it was well known the way to keep an original Bulleid running well and steaming well was with throttle well opened up. Watching 34067 and it's current poor coal just shows what driving it with low throttle does. The fire starts to clinker up and the loco runs short of steam. OK with poor coal it's never going to be a good experience, but a good dose of "Full and Thirty", used to work wonders in days gone by. But I imagine a modern day driver just doesn't want to risk a good spell at full throttle to see if that will sort out a potentially/actual bad fire. The consequences if that doesn't work and the loco becomes a failure being pretty horrendous these days. So NO criticism to them for the gentle way they mainly drive the loco.

Invloved in the friendly banter on the lineside near Dixton Cutting, (GWR), when 34007 performed magnificently away from the 10 mph slack at Gotherington hauling 92203, (hardly working at all), and a six car train reminds me of a run I had with 34002 once. (The banter by the way was of the order of "So that is what a Bulleid sounds like, never heard one actually working before!).

The 34002 run was on the up ACE, the SR's most demandingly scheduled train. A train ALWAYS booked for a MN in top condition from Exeter to Waterloo. Not in April 1964 when Fred Hoare, Salisbury top link driver and the nicest man you could ever hope to meet, along with fireman Wareham, took over an on time ACE at Salisbury with 34002 on a 400 ton plus load. So the Exmouth Junction crew had done very well to keep time over the demanding switch back route from Exeter. We actually ended up 8 late into Waterloo. Due to a long signal stand at "Stop All Junction" as Fred used to call the approach to Woking! We would have been on time apart from that, even with the long temporary slowing at Hurstbourne.

Just under 50 up Porton, 85 down the other side. A wonderful recovery from Hurstbourne to over 70 at the top of the climb to Oakley. Then well into the 80s until the sig stop. Super recovery with 80 at Byfleet and a rather fast run in through the suburbs. Net time almost 4 minutes under the 80 minute schedule. That's what an original Light Pacific can do with an experienced man at the controls.

At Waterlo that day Fred did tell me he had done the ton with the same loco, 34002. "Through Broad Clyst Bryan, went so fast I could see right through all the trees at the bottom of the dip!".

 

Hi just been on Hornby.com and I see that they are doing a unrebuilt BB with green wheels. Did a BB have green wheels or not. I have never seen a photo of a unrebuilt with green wheels.
http://www.hornby.com/locomotives-89/r2 ... oduct.html

Thanks

 

Only 34090, which wore a unique combination of SR malachite with yellow stripes, and the early BR crest. This was because its name "Sir Eustace Missenden - Southern Railway" was a tribute to all the railwaymen of the Southern who kept things running through the darkest days of WWII. Reports suggest the green wheels with yellow lining didn't wear well in service!

 

We were told on the MHR that, because of the way this thing is set up with regard to lubricator drive throw, we couldn't pull it up very tight. So - big chuffs =D>