Isle of Wight Steam Railway

It's interesting that when Fenchurch was built, she didn't have air brakes at all - only a hand brake. (Think that was probably true for all of the first 6 as well).


(Source: Graces Guide. There is a contemporary photograph that confirms this drawing is accurate).

Tom

 

Just to flesh out @Jamessquared 's post a bit, the LSBC was indeed all air braked, but with time it became necessary to haul vac braked stock on occasions. Rather than converting all of the locos and rolling stock over to vac (which presumably would have cost a bomb) they fitted a vacuum ejector and brake control to the loco with a proportional valve; this valve means that when the vacuum brake is applied by the driver the drop in vacuum triggers a proportional drop in air pressure, applying the loco brake at the same time as the carriage brakes. Similar tech was applied to locos on other railways that were also air only, such as the LT&SR, the Caledonian and if memory servers the Great Eastern. Westinghouse themselves offered it as an option!

Similar proportional valves were commonly fitted to steam braked locos such as BR Standards and LMS engines where the vac brake triggers the loco steam brake to operate at the same time. The Ivatts when they came over had this altered so that the same kit work on a drop in air pressure instead of vacuum (and can be put back to original condition in under an hour), as well as the pipes etc to connect to the train and the reservoirs required. I guess what we call a 'dual braked loco' really ought to be a 'dual brake control loco' as there is only ever one set of brake blocks!

As an interesting aside, the LCDR was air and the South Eastern vacuum, with the SECR standardising over time on vacuum. They later built a batch of C Class locos fitted with air brakes and the vacuum proportional gear as described above for working ex LCDR stock. Presumably it was cheaper/simpler to do this rather than trying to add the pump, reservoirs etc yet keep the loco vacuum braked!

 

Is W8 fitted with the Westinghouse or the Stroudley pattern of air brake handle? The latter was noisier in operation as I understand

 

As we're on an IoW thread, this seems a good place to mention that the FYNR, with all of two locos and a smattering of second hand stock, managed to employ both air and vacuum brakes. This was more a question of penury than policy!

As an aside, preserved terrier W8 was formerly W2, as it was inherited from the FYN (as their No.2), coming thither via the LSWR, to whom it had been sold by the LBSCR.

 

L gather No 40 (now running as W11) was the first so equipped when new The journey to Paris with the trials was indeed notable

 

The Stroudley one, you can tell as it stands vertically, the Westinghouse one is horizontal, and has the equalising valve built into it. The noise depends on where the air comes out, Stroudley shoots it straight into the cab! The austerity locos discharge in different places, one much lower down than the other, which is odd to get used to as you are listening out for the noise to judge how much you have put on!

 

However presumably not the original one, as she had the air brakes removed and replaced with vacuum under LSWR ownership, and then refitted by the SR after grouping...

 

Historically, when locos were equipped to operate both air-braked or vacuum-braked stock, it seems to have been usual for the brakes on the loco itself to be air-operated. I think this is also the model followed today on "Tornado", not to mention many dual-braked diesels and electrics.

When the SR (mainland), LMS & LNER decided to standardize on train vacuum brakes, a lot of the air-braked locos changed to steam brake or (less commonly) vacuum. But some kept their loco air brakes into the BR era - particularly noticeable on ex-LBSC, Caledonian, GE & GNS engines.

A couple more potential candidates for a holiday in the IOW?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LNER_Class_N7.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bo'ness_Railway_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1072901.jpg

 

If it needs to be airbraked for the IOWSR what about this?

 

Be nice to see the Caley tank over, I'd personally love 828, but that has been converted to steam brakes - the air is just for show now!
I think similar for some of the North Norfolk locos as they so rarely work with air stock, so they simplified them some years ago!
I'd love to work on an S160 but I'll have to go elsewhere for it I think...somewhere far away from Paul Hitch

 

Interesting, I didn't know it had been removed. It certainly is the same kit in the same place on both.

 

The Caley tank would be an interesting comparison to Calbourne, Another is Met 1, again, a very interesting loco,
I don't understand why its not been duel brake fitted, Mostly everything that runs on the underground is Air braked now unless it runs with the Chesham set from the Bluebell ,

 

Indeed!!

 

Now you mention it 701 did have air brakes, ( takes cover as the incoming ICBM from Hayling Island takes my house out)

 

Certainly photos of it in both LSWR and FYN liveries show it without the pump on the cabside or any air pipes on the buffer beams - wheras I believe the Manning Wardle No1 was dual braked...

A couple of photos online:
http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/personal/mike-nichols/lswr_735_1.html
https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=153343

 

Bradley states that on both locos the air brakes were removed and vacuum ejectors fitted, along with painting in LSWR livery, at Nine Elms immediately on transfer to the LSWR. Interestingly, the price paid was £500 each against an initial agreement of £600; I suspect the difference probably represented a variation in how much preparation work was originally planned to take place at Brighton but actually occurred at Nine Elms. I wouldn't be surprised if the price included return of the valuable components (pump and brake application valve etc) back to the LBSCR as well.

As well as the photo above of 735, there is a later photo of it as E735 in SR livery also without Westinghouse pump, by which time it had Drummond boiler and a rather ugly Adams Stovepipe chimney. (Normally I rather like those, but not on a Terrier!).

There is also a photo of 734 in LSWR livery which unfortunately is from the left side, so doesn't show the (lack of) air pump, but does clearly show vacuum pipes and no air pipes on the buffer plank; it is however an earlier photo than that of 735 in that she still has the Stroudley boiler, not the later Drummond pattern one. Later, No. 734 had the vacuum ejectors removed, air brakes refitted, was painted into Maunsell livery as W2 in March 1924. There is photo of her in Bradley from a few years later, by which time she had the name 'Freshwater' and train heating equipment fitted (January 1927) but still retained a Drummond boiler.

Tom

 

Met 1...rocket ship.

Sent from my SM-A405FN using Tapatalk

 

I do remember back in 2011 we had Martello at the GCRN for 2 weekends (it was supposed to be 3, but the GCR(S) nabbed her a week early to give her a new coat of paint before their Golden Oldies Gala a few weeks later, thus denying me of a day's turn on her, which I was not pleased about...) but anyway, I do remember that Martello effectively had 3 brake controls. One which was air brakes when running light engine, one which was air brakes when moving air braked stock, and one which was vacuum for vacuum braked stock. Being only a lowly cleaner at the time with a grand total of 2 trainee turns under my belt when she first turned up, I never quite got my head around how the system worked, but I did find it interesting how this was a loco with 3 separate brake controls, and it wasn't a big complicated express engine, but a humble terrier!

Interestingly Martello seemed to have been rebuilt with an IoW style Bunker, but was never an IoW engine. Anybody know whether this was a preservation modification or whether it was done pre withdrawal from BR?

 

IIRC it got the bunker in BR days.


Sent from my SM-J610FN using Tapatalk

 

Interestingly enough Martello isn't the only Terrier to join in on the trend of receiving the IoW style extended bunker, 'Whitechapel' otherwise known nowadays as 'Sutton' on the Spa Valley Railway is also receiving one, having years before worked on the Isle of Wight as W9 'Fishbourne'.

Remarkable to think actually, that of the 10 survivors of the class, 4 of them are former Isle of Wight residents.