West Somerset Railway General Discussion

I guess with the length of the place names and therefore the size of the running in boards there has to be a fair length of line to fit them all in...

OK - I'll fetch me coat...

 

Good to see from the web that the PDG has met again recently.

However I'm puzzled by various mentions in the DRAFT Minutes to the 'Steam Heritage Trust' - who are they ? Hopefully the 'Secretariat' will get those corrected before formal publication <hint>.

 

Another good reason to only use the tank wagon to top up the onboard tanks (even if that is only possible in one direction, that should be enough.)

 

All this is very hypothetical and stems from a comment made that 419 probably didn't have the water capacity to do a full line trip and someone else suggesting a water tanker. If the loco hasn't enough to do the line trip, using the tanker in one direction wouldn't be sufficient and it would have to be attached to the tanker for the whole time. As you wouldn't want to propel the tanker that would involve additional pipework and shut off valves. It would also require running round it as well as the train, which would be a tad complicated with just a simple loop. Not impossible, though.

 

All this talk of water tanks etc is all very interesting, but, as has been mentioned, hypothetical.
As @SebWelsh has said, it's also irrelevant!

Steve B

 

Since when has that ever stopped anyone?

 

What livery is this hypothetical tanker meant to be in?

 

I think it is meant to be in "Pratt's Motor Spirit" livery - Pratt's became part of Esso ca. 1935 according to various internet sources. I don't know if they had tank wagons, though. Perhaps this one at Didcot is in a fictitious livery.

 

It was marketed as ''Pratts Perfection'' at one time..

 

Yes, definitely. I had an early twentieth century road map published by (or sponsored by) Pratts Perfection Motor Spirit.

It was fascinating to see the early road network, and many pages were devoted to gradient profiles.

Clearly as important for early motor vehicles as it still is on the iron road...

 

Ever come across the palaver involved in coaxing a Ford "Model T" up a steep hill? It needed to be accomplished in reverse gear .... I kid you not!

 

Never seen it, but heard of it. No fuel pump, just gravity feed from tank to carburettor, and tank could be lower than the carb on a steep hill

 

Also the ability to stop when descending hills was a bit important! It is arguable the advent of pneumatic tyres and servo brakes on buses presaged the decline of rural branches

 

Just yesterday, I was watching a clip on the evolution of the bus, from horse drawn days through to about 2000. The bit about the rise and fall of 'charabancs' was pretty leftfield.

I've books containing old photos of a couple ex-Corris alongside Llyn Myngul (Talyllyn Lake) before the first war. Quite how those contraptions, in the days of solid tyres, managed on the hilly (pre-tarmac?) roads in that area back then would be interesting to learn. Let's just say I'm guessing those in the cheaper seats got to enjoy a bit of unexpected exercise!

 

When I was in college I shared a house with someone who used a 1924 Lagonda (one of the smaller ones) as his day to day transport and that also needed to reverse up some hills for the same reason, particularly if the fuel level was low. Getting traction was also a problem, but putting passengers in the dickie seat at the back helped, not only in getting the power down (not that there was much of that), but also in stopping the thing as it was rear brakes only. Living in mountainous North Wales there were some "interesting" moments...

Steve B

 

Makes sense, I'd thought that it was because the gearing was lower in reverse.

An 'early cars climbing hills as a spectacle' diversion for you, Betjeman describes in 'Before MCMXIV' in Summoned by Bells:

"Once a Delaunay-Belleville crawling up
West Hill in bottom gear made such a noise
As drew me from my dream-world out to watch
That early motor-car attempt the steep…"

Velo gives West Hill in Highgate an average gradient 5.1% and a maximum 8.2%. Yet ~15 years later Model T's had to reverse.

 

As a young child (1950's) a "day out" often involved a trip to Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire on the A170. The road has a steepest gradient of 25%, which I think is 1 in 4 in old money, and a hairpin bend. The highlight was watching many a car coming up in reverse, and others giving up halfway if attempting the climb normally. To this day towed caravans are banned from this route.
Apologies for being a long way from West Somerset!

 

Not so different from Lynton/Lynmouth - there, almost back on topic...

Steve B