S&D Railway Trust

Often Biblical quotations are posted on NP. Here is another:-

Matthew 10:14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.

 

No expert on religion, me, but isn't that quote germaine to the Catholic "Rite of Excommunication"?

 

Not sure, in context of the whole of Matthew 10, that quite applies to the WSR but there's a certain appropriateness that those supporting the WSR as a whole should think on

 

The Sevens were equipped with three 7.5" diameter steam brake cylinders, initially designed to operate on all wheels of the locomotive, though the clasp brakes on the pony truck were later removed. The GA drawing includes a calculation that reveals a designed brake power yield of 0.259 tons per lb of pressure in brake cylinder. This brake power was sufficient to maintain control of trains descending Mendip without the pinning down of wagon brakes, so it wasn't done. The Sevens' braking capabilities were exceptional, and unmatched by several possible candidates for their replacement.

 

So where would you stop on the S&D to pin down brakes (the middle of Coombe Down Tunnel perhaps?) and then where would you stop to release them again? Brakes were never pinned down as a matter of course nor was any attempt made to use a "fitted head" on S&D freight trains. Crews soon learnt to handle unfitted trains on the Mendip grades.

Peter

 

I had forgotten that the rest of the 'mobile' stock had sat over in the GWR yard for some while. Cooke records the last movement out of Radstock North as being on 16th October 1975, which might well be the date for my photo then.

 

Was there any reason why S15s didn't work over the S&D? (too big perhaps, at least in Urie incarnation?) I suspect they might have been one of relatively few locos contemporary with a 7F that could have matched them both in power and braking ability, particularly with the double-bogie tenders. They also would have been eminently well suited to the kinds of Summer Saturday passenger working on the line that the 7Fs covered. Maybe the Southern found them too useful on their own lines in those kinds of roles?

Tom

 

I shouldn't think it was because their too big over cylinders , the Urie S15 was no bigger than the 7f, not sure what the axle loading was though? I would think because the Southern needed them more , they were certainly kept busy with their bread and butter work, out of Feltham and elsewhere on the region and the S&D 7F'S were suited to their work, so no need for other engines, and of course, on summer Saturdays, the Southern needed every loco it could get its hands on for it's own services.

 

Pre-BR locomotive provision was the LMS's pigeon. Under BR I doubt whether the SR could spare any S15s. It occurs to me also that in their day-to-day work the low 7F axle loading may have been of use in the yards. Just a thought. In the end they were the engine that had the Mendips beaten - Monday to Friday, week in, week out, rain or shine.
Pat

 

Interesting discussion about the S15s, albeit a bit off-topic.

I've taken a look at my copy of the Southern Railways Group's reproduction of the Southern Region 1954 route availability tables. These draw a distinction between cases where a class is explicitly barred from a route and cases where no consideration has been given to the matter. The S15 class is marked as expressly prohibited from the Bath-Broadstone section, so plainly someone assessed whether the class might traverse the S&D and said “No”. Not altogether surprised by this, as route availability for the class seems to have been quite restricted. For example: Lymington Jc.-West Moors and Alderbury Jc.-West Moors: prohibited from both routes. But authorised between West Moors and Hamworthy Jc. – all that cased petrol and military traffic to shift...

 

The brakes on an S15 are not it's best attribute whatever other consideration might apply.

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk

 

I concur with that thought. A good loco otherwise.

 

Whilst Oscar Wilde is not in quite the same league as the writers of the Bible, I think a (paraphrased) quotation from his works is apposite here:
"To lose one locomotive ideal for the line may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose three looks like carelessness."

 

It is interesting to reflect that Lady Bracknell eventually came around the accept a more realistic, in her view, way forward. We can live in hope.

 

When would kilmersdon end up going to the mid hants. This is lots further for me to see it

 

Really? A group that has had a major upheaval, and your major concern is now the distance required to go see it? What if it went to Avimore?

 

Nothing has been agreed yet, so it's far too early to say.

Keith

 

It is concerning

 

They’ll probably shunt it at the back of a shed but there are lots of people out there that like to watch. They can at washford or Helston

 

...which is rather a long way for those who might be interested in it, but currently live to the east of the MHR