Isle of Wight Steam Railway

Thanks for the helpful answers though annoyingly, I lost the Nat Pres pedant Bingo game with my son. I predicted the date of the design would be referenced in under half an hour, while my son said it would be later than that, so I'm a pint down!
I really like the IoW railway and I fully understand why railways use Austerities. As I said in my original post, it's not a question of my not going if an Austerity is working, but I certainly don't want any photos of it, and as I have taken photos of W11 very recently, I will now leave my kit at home.
I'm really excited about our jaunt over the Solent this weekend!

 

Very true, Tom. The last main line run I went on (before all the WCRC troubles) was Vintage Trains' trip to Cardiff on 1st March, which my wife and I joined at Gloucester. Motive power was No. 4965 Rood Ashton Hall and the performance was everything you would expect from a Tyseley engine. It's staggering to think that the oldest currently main-line registered loco (and one of the most reliable) is now older than Stepney was when the Bluebell acquired her.

 

Definitely worth the wait!

 

Looking forward to coming for a ride with the 'new' Ivatt....

 

Apparently the Ivatt did a couple of round trips with four bogies before the public services started this morning, hence before I arrived at Havenstreet. For much of the rest of the day she pottered about the site, testing out various sidings and prompting us museum types to dash out in order "to see exactly what was going on".

Looks great.

Paul H.

 

Must mean the brakes are working then! Good stuff

 

I think the military history of the two locos themselves makes them 'fit in' at the 40s weekend quite well, certainly Royal Engineer in its army green livery looks the part even if built a few years after. I hope you enjoy your visit whatever is running.

 

i would hope so, unles she took the Austerity along for the ride, , as the Ivatt needs vacuum to operate the loco brakes, unless she has been converted to the standard 82 xx set up, which used steam for the loco brakes, how have you managed to work it so you have vacuum availible on an air braked loco? or does it in effect have duel braking systems

 

The steam brake works off the vacuum and the air.

 

The Ivatt looks great. I'll look out for the next gala - I'm greedy and am hoping for W24 as well!

John

 

To see both side by side, both in the same livery, talk a bout a "what if" picture had the original plan to replace the 02's with standard 2 tanks actually had seen some 84xxx's arrive on the island.

 

In fact the Austerity did not work at the 40s event on Saturday.
It was W11 and W24 much to my delight, and annoyance of a friend.

 

As was the case today, in brilliant sunshine!

Paul H

 

if only someone had a camera on them at the time so to make it realistic i suppose that 24 would have to be "dirtied up " and made to look as if it had just been withdrawn

 

Sorry to be pedantic, but weren't the replacements for O2s meant to be the 84xxx (2MT) class, which were a bit smaller than the 82xxx (3MT) class? The 84xxx were similar to the Ivatt class 2MT tanks of which 41298 is an example.

John

 

Why would you deliberately make an engine dirty? Dirty engines are just a sign of a lack of care. Even for photographic purposes, I can't see the attraction: why would any railway lover in their right mind want to recreate the darkest days in railway history when everything was being run down and scrapped?

Tom

 

yes you are right, i got my classes mixed up i always thought the 82's were the 2MT, i will change my post to reflect this, thanks

 

The Ivatt Class 2s, both tender and tank types, were built with loco steam braking

 

oh, i was under the impresion that the loco brakes were vacuum activated on the ivatts, in a previous conversation i asked about that and was told the vacuum system needed to be retained because the engine would need a vacuum system as well as the air, otherwise why not just air brake only the engine.

 

With the normal LMS set up yes the vacuum controls the steam brake, but on 41298 it is set up so that either the vacuum or the air will control the loco steam brake. Rather clever!