Industrial Loco Updates

Mardy Peckett

I see on the ELR forum that the Mardy Peckett (P2150) is going on hire to the East Lancs railway. That's quite a surprise!

 

"What luck - we have hoppers for it to play with!"

And we can't wait for her to play with them either.

Of course if one or two go missing at the end of the weekend we will deny all knowledge :0)

 

We now have a website for our locomotive Austerity 71515, www.mechnavviesltd.co.uk it is under construction but there are some good photos on there and the rest of the site will be developed fairly quickly. Go check it out!

Alex

 

That's a great website design ... but it takes ages to load, particularly the images. The excellent pan shot at the top took over 20 seconds to appear.

Richard

 

Aye I can't help noticing the file sizes on the images at around 4mb, not really necessary if it's going to be shown at 4" across!

 

I will talk to Tom (the webmaster) about it.

 

Foxfield Railway Victorian Stalwart "Bellerophon" made famous after it's stardom in BBC Drama "Cranford" will be in steam on Sunday, http://www.foxfieldrailway.co.uk/timetable.htm for more details...

(Copied from a message I received on facebook, so don't shoot the messenger, but should be reliable gen)

 

Re: Mardy Peckett

Looks like it may not work the midweek trains now as it only got as far as Ramsbottom from Bury last week on test and that was double heading with the jinty ! It consumes too much coal and water.
Not really built for a passenger train over seven miles, just for a short sharp heavy slog for just over a mile with several 16tonners behind it.
I hope the ELR steam it again just so we can see it and put the date on their website.

 

Bellerophon is indeed rostered for this coming weekend, just done the previous Sunday with her and nothing fell off! Hopefully there'll be some cameras around this weekend otherwise she might play the Diva after the brief stardom!

 

If I can find the cash to scape together for petrol (yes, things really are getting that bad!) I'll bring a camera up for the morning then see if there's anything to be done on that mythical crane tank ;-)...

 

Arh, the mythical Mr Denscombe !.

As for the crane tank the boiler was positioned on the saddle yesterday and the main steam pipes tested for position tonight. Plenty for you to do.

 

Duebs No.4101 now has its boiler and smokebox in the frames, 2 cylinders (or to be more precise, 2 cylinders, one on either side of the loco, rather than in different counties!) and its running boards. Some (pretty poor quality, but the best I could get with the light and space) photos below. Still looking a possibility for the gala (maybe even this year's gala!), especially if anyone fancies donating a day or two to help... (I wasn't told to say that, honest :lol. Failing that, its first steaming can be a joint celebration with Phil's 21st ;-)

EDIT: The photos seem to have disappeared... Links, therefore, are:

http://37255.webs.com/Image0079.jpg
http://37255.webs.com/Image0080.jpg
http://37255.webs.com/Image0082.jpg

 

A few pictures from Twizell as I fired her first coal train!

 

RSH7409 - Attachment doen't work for me.

Good to see crane tank Dübs 4101 coming back together. I think I was the last person to drive her at Cranmore. Is the crane fixture also ready for re-fitting? A very interesting machine.

 

You can show us how to drive it then !.

This weekend we fitted the last cylinder cover, slide bar assembly, leading brakes, fitted and welded the angle frame, fitted and made pins for the running boards - last job was the smoke box door.

Rods still away for machining, steam pipes test fitted. Crane ready to go - final painting underway. Chain passed inspection but hook failed - would be great if you found spare at Cranmore !!. There were lots of spares and your guys were great when we moved her all those years ago.

If anyone would like to help out with this or Whiston please PM or just turn up.

Next job is to position the smoke box ready for drilling - forwards and bit and rotate a bit. This will be fun, after that we need to lag, fit tank and cab - then fit the crane. Loads to do !!.

 

That is one cracking looking engine! Any idea what her tractive effort and water capacity are?

 

Not 100% sure on either if im perfectly honest! However she is a little lighter than an Austerity so I should expect that the figures would be very similar. Twizell is certainly smoother and louder than the austerities too!

 

Is that the chain that was fitted when 4101 was at Cranmore? We used to spend more time up the jib prizing it out of the pulley gap than we did actually lifting. I don't think there will be any spare hooks for her but I'll ask around just in case.

As for driving, the loco no problem other than solid/dumb buffers and very high axle loading, the crane - well - the slewing was a bit hit and miss with the slip eccentric valve gear. We normally had to give the flywheel a helping hand to get it going in the right direction and even then it might mis-behave. I seem to remember that there was no brake on the hoist engine and it had to be balanced with steam. The whole of the crane an H&S inspectors nightmare what with the slewing engine whizzing around more-or-less in the cab and all those unprotected gear trains!

I would love to come up and see her when you have her running.

 

Some good points, most in hand but not all. Operation of the slewing engine and lifting engine will ( only ) be carried out with one person on the footplate - all other persons well clear. The chain has been certified following off site inspection, as mentioned the original hook has failed as it was cross drilled on the thread. We will be load testing the jib when ready - no short cuts will be taken - I am very aware of HSE regs. Brake is via a double acting valve, as you say - Roker is the same. In other respects she is not unlike some of our larger 4 wheel loco's.

The Jockey wheel was rock solid when we got to it, I wonder if that had anything to do with the chain pinching ?. When you consider what we have done to date ( she was worn out top to tail ) we can work through as required - if new pully or jockey wheels are required we will replace as reqd, I dont want to get bored when its all in one lump !.

Look forward to meeting you in the near future - I hope that the "Lord Fisher" group are all still around - open invite to all three if you have any contacts.

 

Hello,

Hope you will not mind me jumping in here. I am a new member who came across this site while 'googling for 'industrial locomotive'. While I am not active in the preservation field, unless you count taking the occasional photo, it did strike me that I have photos of many now preserved industrial locomotives when they were active in their natural habitats. These date fom the 1960's and 70's. They include shots of locos such as 'Jacks Green', 'Ring Haw', Loddington No 2' and 'Respite'. In connection with the recent thread I found two shots of 'Toto' at Blaenavon Colliery. My main regret is that at that time I was relatively poor and film relatively expensive, hence I had to ration my shots! Also that I used cheap film that is deteriorating now.

I am currently reorganizing my collection, with better scans and more images, into specialist topics such as NCB and the ironstone industry. I have uploaded my oronstone and South and North Wales NCB collection and will be adding the Midlands, Lancashire, Cumbria, North East and Scotland.

You can find the photos at http://micksworldofbritishlocomotives.fotopic.net

Hope they are of interest