6619

What other "de-westernisation" has been done? The livery looks ok, early BR black.

 

Kylchap exhaust - a change not found in anyway necessary by any other 56xx owner!

 

A whistle debate, that make a refreshing change!!! 3 pages of waffle and it's not even pulled a train at Embsay yet...

Will

 

Could be worse, Will, could be yet another rant about paint colours... I wonder if some people actually have a clue about keeping a loco running...(!)

 

It did have a chime whistle for a time before moving into the ownership of the NYMR.

 

But no other preserved 56XX has had to produce the steam required of 6619 when on the NYMR. It certainly made a difference to it. How these locos ever came to merit a class 5 classification, I'll never know!

 

You might know more if you read a little. The Power Classificatiuon is related to Tractive Effort and a 56xx at 25,800lb is greater than a Stanier Black 5 at 25455lb. That's why they were quite common on Welsh Valley services where the tractive effort was used for adhesion and loads rather than speed. I have to say that my experiences of 6619 on NYMR duties are memorable - still - 20 years after sampling its prowess climbing to Goathland. I do hope it finds a suitable new home - and Embsay might just be the place for it.

 

The work on the NYMR is certainly no more onerous than that in the Welsh Valleys for which these locos were built & always appeared to operate satisfactorily. Welsh coal may have been a helpful factor though. The amount of grunt available from other members of the class does justify the 5 category though with an f to follow.

 

I claim to be no expert on Welsh Valleys' traffic but have always understood that the traffic was loaded downhill and then the locos had to take the empty wagons back up the Vallies to the pits. The same principle applied to the Lambton, Hetton & Joicey lines in County Durham, where the Lambton tanks worked - identical locos were the predecessors of the 56XX/66XX tanks and some were sold out of GWR ownership to the LHJC system when the new "standard" locos arrived - including the KWVR TVR example.

Ability to make steam, and to do so with currently available coal types, are key to loco overall performance and, as Steve says, would be the thinking behind the Klychap (which makes no external modification). I have guarded a train where one of the Lambton charged out of Grosmont in fine style, past the headshunt and Esk Valley cottages before coming to a graceful halt on the Viaduct for a blow-up!

Now where is the picture of 6619 with double chimney and Whit Smoke-deflectors when you need it!

Steven

 

................. but from what I've seen they weren't usually seven coach trains!

 

Cardiff Valleys services were formed of five coach sets in Winter and six or seven coach sets in Summer. They had no problems on the 1 in 40 Penarth Bank which included the awkward stop at Dingle Road.

They were, and are, a powerful design capable of a fair turn of speed.

Meic

 

Sorry if some find this irritating, but I think the chime whistle that 76079 had was a South African one which Ian Riley retained when the engine was sold on to the NYMR. The whistle it has now is the one which preceeded the chime but I think it too is incorrect for the class. All BR engines that didn't qualify for the BR version of the chime whistle (8P, 7P, 6 and the first fifty 5s) had the long GW whistle. 76079s hooter, which doesn't sound to me to be a 'Stanier hooter' ie a Caledonian hooter, is a bit of a mystery as to its provenance.

Regards

 

It was the smaller of the two GWR whistles that was used on the Standards.

 

75014 was co-owned by the present owners of 6619, and two other gentlemen. Bert Hitchen of "Taw Valley" fame was one, and I can't remember the name of the fourth owner.

 

So now let's start on all the other engines that have "wrong" whistles... All the Talyllyn locos to begin with...

Does it really matter? We have the locos to enjoy, in 6619's case, it is running well, and it is a heritage railway - along with liveries and nameplates, this seems incredibly frothworthy. I am toying with having no whistle at all on my steam roller in case I am told it is "wrong". Although I do like the chime on SLR 85...and so does my wife...

 

Thank you for that, I always thought it was the larger.

Regards

 

Thanks David - yes it DOES matter for a museum - should have made that clear (and Scotsman is a special case, I'm still writing the article); it matters less so for a heritage railway where the locomotive is private property. Out of interest, please tell me of another NRM abortion, and I'll look into it.

In their working days, many rollers, tractors, road locomotives and waggons had no whistle for fear of scaring horses. Aveling fitted their engines with bells instead and others had bulb horns.