Current and Proposed New-Builds

With a short life expectancy. No wonder so many accident reports say ‘the driver was found crushed about the head with coal’

 

I've not come across that. What sort of accidents?

 

If you go to http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/ they have a lot of accident reports available. Not just the major ones but minor ones where a report was produced. I can’t give you a specific example, but reading the reports, I remember that it seemed that quite often crew were crushed to death after an accident by the coal, or scaled to death. It is a good site for exploring the development of safety on the railways and also the changing working relations. Not perhaps everyone’s first choice for bedtime reading.

 

Huh. I'd never considered that before. All that coal stacked up behind when things come to a very sudden stop...nasty.

 

It has been recorded elsewhere that a practice at King's Cross of sneaking back to get more coal in the tender often led to lumps of it falling off as the engines rounded the curve at Hatfield, destroying wooden gates at the end of the platform. Now, if it can do that to your typical railway-constructed wooden gate, imagine what it could do to a human. AFAIK no-one ever did get in the way, but...

 

Looking at the recent updates on new build steam I came across this link to the Prince George new build and an interesting discussion about the Joy valve gear and thought it might be of interest

http://newprincegeorgesteam.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/The-George-the-Fifth-Motion-1.docx

Also draws on the accident report for a 1923 accident http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/eventsummary.php?eventID=316

(Talking about things that can kill you)

 

I remember reading a story in someone's footplate memories book of finding an absolutely almighty lump of coal, about 2 foot IIRC. On the route they were working it was common to drop some coal for the signalman as they went past, and the driver told his fireman not to break this lump of coal up. The crew decided it would be fun to give the signalman this huge lump of coal for his small cabin fire. they lugged it off in the usual manner, and they only found out much later that it half demolished the locking frame of the signal box as they whizzed by and offloaded it!

 

There are several variations on this theme: Jim Carter in one of his books recalls receiving a Form 1 when the oversized lump he ejected from the footplate went down the bank to demolish what is politely reverted to as an 'outhouse'. Another recalls chucking out - at speed - a similar example, aiming for the signal box's coal bunker. It was a good shot, but half way through the station the starter flew to Danger in his face. On going back, he discovered the same lump of coal in the middle of the platform, only slightly chipped, having demolished the coal bunker, signal box steps, both end walls of the locking room, and cut and bent much of the signal wires and point rodding therein!

 

A couple of years ago a lump falling off a steam special broke someones leg. The RAIB did an initial investigation but it wasn't taken forward as there were no new lessons to be learnt. I don't have any details of the event; I only know from talking to the RAIB inspector who was doing the initial investigation.

 

Trimming the coal correctly is clearly not a recent problem - the importance is highlighted in this LMS instructional film.



Tom

 

And someone was slightly injured by a lump from GBIII.

 

Big lumps of coal, yes, but if thats what they had , then it was just the norm for them. Ive heard it said that every seam in every pit was different in those days. Lovely those pre grouping engines, of whatever company!

 

Cross posting from the 71000 thread in a valiant vain attempt to avoid thread drift....

So, picking the good() bits out of @class8mikado 's post.....5'8" drivers, 2-8-0 with a deep firebox and you have 4709. I don't know if 4709 has mainline aspirations? But it had me wondering if it might have better modern day mainline manners than say the 8F - due to larger driving wheels.

Also had me wondering what other, (if any), 8 coupled locos have been mainline regulars in preservation?

 

48151 has been a regular on the mainline ever since it returned to traffic in the 1980's and 48773/8233 has had 2 mainline tickets other than that I can't think of anything else 8 coupled that has apart from 2857's one off run to Newport maybe?

 

It's not looking at all promising at present, with other GWR designs running into even more gauging problems than other locos. Also, if they're still planning to launch it with a spare no. 1 boiler disguised inside no.7 cladding that will restrict its sustainable power output.

Good question. I can't think of any but I wouldn't be surprised if someone pops up with an example.
Edit: someone has!

 

5

53809.

 

Good shout, knew I'd miss something out.

 

Didn't one of the NER 0-8-0s go to Shildon in 1980?

If 4709 is going to run with a Standard 1 boiler, I'd much rather see it look like a big-wheeled '28' or a 2-8-0 version of a Saint than have the boiler hidden in fake cladding to make it look bigger than it is! They just need to get the loco out and running while they build the bigger boiler...

As for gauging problems, why are GWR types having such trouble finding places to run on the GWR network they were designed for?! NR needs to get its arse into gear and sort it!

 

Thinking about what you might want to build these day if you have any hope of something big/ mainline you really need to pro active in redesign to minimize profile. County and Clan might need to look again as they are 'two big cylinder' locos. Believe that the County is using a 225lb boiler so they would want a bigger cylinder if anything, Clan are thinking of going for an increase in boiler pressure if poss which might facilitate a smaller cylinder diameter... but I haven't heard that any alterations to the design have been introduced to allow the slimming down of what is essentially a 20 inch cylinder block....

 

Looks like that post got chopped off short.