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Isle of Wight Steam Railway Loco updates

Discussion in 'Steam Traction' started by gwalkeriow, Feb 6, 2014.

  1. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    As the one who kicked off the E1/balance thing .... it merely started as a 'wondering aloud' concerning the scope of the IWSR work. My OP did question whether rebalancing was an issue at heritage speeds (as opposed to the breakneck 40mph max back in the day!). My understanding is that their use on 'The Tourist' was what occasioned the exercise.

    The reason for broaching the subject in the first place was historic comment concerning their effects on passengers, long before anyone thought of sending 'em over the Solent.

    Here's another spot of wondering aloud ..... Had these locos been better suited to passenger operations, might more of the class have survived to be allocated BR numbers?
     
  2. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    I doubt it - their close relatives (D tanks) were designed for passenger usage and were more or less extinct by 1950. Which suggests that there wasn’t suitable work to justify keeping them in significant numbers, or - rather - that there were more suitable, but newer, locos. The SR in 1947 was hardly short of 0-4-4T passenger tank engines.

    By the formation of BR, all the locos were already about 70 - 75 years old: they’d had a good innings without needing to be disfigured by a BR logo!

    Tom
     
  3. jma1009

    jma1009 Well-Known Member

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    From "Macleod's Other Island" p.43...

    "The increasing tonnage of coal handled at the rebuilt Medina Wharf demanded a more powerful locomotive which could haul heavier loads amongst the intensive passenger services on the single line between Newport and Cowes. Macleod suggested ex-LBSCR Class E1 0-6-0 tanks, being almost enlarged versions of the Terriers. Four were transferred, three in 1932, and the fourth in 1933. They were able to handle 40 loaded minerals compared to the smaller engines' limit of 25. These locomotives also found their way onto passenger trains including part of the prestigious The Tourist through train working. However, they were prone to a surging motion which was eventually partly negated by the addition of increased balance weights to the wheels."

    From "Rails in the Isle of Wight" Macleod wrote (p.57) that the Drummond chimneys were fitted by Eastleigh due to the Island's loading gauge of 12' 3 9/16". (No mention of the 'surging' when used on 'The Tourist').
     
  4. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    True .... it's easy to forget how much of an exception to pretty much everything their LBSC shed mates, Mr Stroudley's "Terriers", spent their (mostly) long lives being!
     
  5. jma1009

    jma1009 Well-Known Member

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    I might add that from my bookcase and review of pics I can find no discernible difference in the alteration to the balance weights of the IOW E1s, as quoted by Bradley. W4 Wroxall clearly had additional balance weights on all wheels by the 1950s, and I haven't done an online search of pics of the IOW E1s.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2022
  6. Cartman

    Cartman Well-Known Member Account Suspended

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    One D tank did, 32359
     
  7. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    According to SREMG list, no D1 actually carried it's allocated BR number, the last survivor being 2284, wdn Dec 1951 (2359 is listed as going in July 51). If you've evidence to the contrary, I'd be most interested in it.

    To the best of my knowledge, the very last survivor was ex-357 Riddlesdown, which having been sold in 1946, worked into 1955 as James Fryar at County Mental Hospital, Whittingham ... then sat around until being broken up then the line shut, a while later. Still, you can't win 'em all, eh? :(
     
  8. marshall5

    marshall5 Well-Known Member

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    D1 at Whittingham a.jpg
    Ray.
     
  9. ruddingtonrsh56

    ruddingtonrsh56 Member

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    Am I the only one surprised by a Mental Hospital having a sufficiently large private railway network to necessitate having its own locomotive?
     
  10. Jimc

    Jimc Part of the furniture

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    In the days before 'care' in the community the big hospitals were very large enterprises. I think the cluster of hospitals in Epsom could house something like 10,000 people.
    According to this paper https://eehe.org.uk/?p=29063 at its peak the private railway was handling 15,000 tons of coal and 4,000 tons of goods per year.
     
  11. 5944

    5944 Resident of Nat Pres

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  12. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Indeed. At Hellingly, despite some grotty bungalows mushrooming on the old tracked, once you passed the main entrance gate, the course alongside the 'main drive' was still very obvious when my work last took me there around 1992 (both the district supplies HQ and ambulance services were based there (if you ever wondered where pranged ambulances went to die, it was such places, away from the public eye).

    Now devoid of any healthcare function, I just looked at the site on Google Earth and can't honestly see a anything familiar beyond the long drive. There is a gaggle of particularly hideous buildings called the 'Hellingly Centre', which looks like a prison from above!

    I've been trying to establish the fate of the small, steeple cab loco, but as there are no references to it following a last 'enthusiasts special' in the dying years of the 1950s, I conclude it perished along with it's railway. If anyone can prove me wrong on this, please, please do so!

    The Hellingly wiki article references another similar installation at High Royd Hospital in Menston W.Yorks, now also gone .... but as that one seems to have an unfortunate connection to a certain well known dead blond kiddie fiddler, perhaps best draw a discrete veil.
     
  13. Cartman

    Cartman Well-Known Member Account Suspended

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    It was withdrawn by the Whittingham Hospital railway in 1956 due to boiler problems, the line lasted a bit longer, an 0-4-0 sentinel from Bolton Gas Works took over for the final 18 months
     
  14. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I was wondering what kept it going. Many thanks for that. So near and yet so far, eh?
     
  15. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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  16. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Rather early on, in point of fact. At the time the line closed, the loco was held to be the oldest in the land.

    Were any other S.G* electrified lines equipped with trolley-pole collectors classified as other than 'tramways'?

    *I can think of a couple of NG industrial lines
     
  17. Cartman

    Cartman Well-Known Member Account Suspended

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    The Whittingham Railway bought 2357 from the Southern in 1947, as there was a long lead time on new industrial locos then, and they wrote off to all four mainline railways asking about surplus locos for sale and the Southern was the only one which bothered to reply
     
  18. Cartman

    Cartman Well-Known Member Account Suspended

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    Kearsley power station had overhead electrics, don't know what the collectors were
     
  19. 30854

    30854 Resident of Nat Pres

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    A new one on me, so ta muchly. A quick Google just threw up some distinctly Alpine looking steeple cab locos on 4-wheel bogies, with roof mounted pantographs, looking a fair bit more butch than the wee Hellingly loco.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/goremirebob/9017525036

    A caption in the above mentions one loco survived to be preserved ..... at Coventry, so may we hope it is still with us
     
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  20. pmh_74

    pmh_74 Well-Known Member

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    The Coventry collection has been dispersed; no idea where that loco is now (sure the info is somewhere, can’t be bothered to check).

    But, am I correct in vaguely recalling that there is a similar loco at Tanfield? Or is memory playing tricks on me?
    EDIT: (nmp) https://www.flickriver.com/photos/jncarter1962/22897531823/
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2022

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