Bulleid Pacifics - Past or Present

Does anyone want to talk about Bulleids past or present or Merchants or even WC's? Well lets start it here! Either rubbish coal back in the days running in to Waterloo to firing a unconverted WC (34007) with 7 on. Or with rubbish coal and stopping for a blow-up! So whats harder a Merchant or a WC converteed or un-converted? My personal opinion and from experience - Converted! Lets talk gents!

Cheers

Andy

 

does anyone know which surviving MN bulleids made up the first batch? if so, which ones carried the grey and lined yellow livery, and which had the streamlining all the way over the cylinders, high tender and the horseshoe southern logo? i just think that channel packet looks way better in this pic than the surviving streamlined bulleids. not that there are any streamlined MN's in one piece atm
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... Packet.jpg

 

Not quite sure what your question is here Andy, " harder " in what way? In my experience the originals ("unrebuilts") are the better machine mainly because they run a lot more freely. When you shut off with an unrebuilt it will continue to run, but a rebuilt requires steam to be kept on for longer. The other advantage with the unrebuilts is the relatively few oiling points! The downside is the awkward access to the steam reverser fillers.

A Merchant Navy requires a lot more fire in the 'box; with a light pacific on a light train you can run with a relatively small fire but a MN still needs quite a thick fire. I liked 35027 but my preference is an unrebuilt WC/BB (34072 in particular!).

 

You are asking me?

OK. Hang on while I sort out many of my memories and a few timing logs!

Stand by to be deluged.................

 

On the other hand, both the availability and the running costs per mile in BR days were substantially better for the rebuilds.

 

OK. Time for me to join in!

Is it possible we could establish here where all the currently working Bulleids are?

And which ones are due back and when.

And which ones will go out of service soon.

A lot of this info is on the Forum, but is spread around a bit. It would be nice to have it all in one place.

Starting Off:-

34007 Working at the Gloucester and Warwick Railway until............?
34023 Working at the Bluebell Railway
34028 Back working on the Swanage Railway?
34059 Due back into service this year on the Bluebell Railway
34067 Based at Southall and working on the main line until sometime in 2009....?
35028 Based at Stewarts Lane and mainly working the VSOE.

And now a blast from the past!

November 1966 saw Gordon Porter on the 20.51 arrival ex Bournemouth, (circa 19.16 ex Southampton). I missed the run with 35028 that week, (I am fairly sure it was that week), when he got 103 -104 mph between Winchfield and Fleet with a "light" nine car train. Brother Don timed it and subsequent analysis by his peers reckoned the cylinder hp was over 3,000: very, very rare with a MN.

I did travel that week on the 18th. Gordon Porter had a badly steaming 35007 and 11 on, (the normal load). Ten late off Southampton and only 150 psi on the climb to Roundwood saw us get to 60, but drop off to 56 over the top. But pressure was soon up to 180 psi, and just as we passed Worting Junction the fun started. It was described as a sheet of flame coming out of the chimney as we accelerated from 64 at Worting to pass Basingstoke at 84: it was a surprise to see later that the station hadn't burned down! Full and 27% was being used to get us into the nineties but as the ton started to look somewhat distant Gordon wound the MN out to full and 32%. But 180 psi in the boiler just wasn't enough with 11 on and all 35007 could manage was a sustained 97 mph for one and a half miles after Winchfield. Severe signal checks including a stop at Woking saw a very fast recovery with 87 past Esher then another sigs stop and a slow run into Waterloo, where we were 9 late.

But that gave us timers enough time to pile onto the 21.20 Bournemouth train behind 34004 With Nine Elms Driver Rowe. Oh Dear. Not a good run. We stopped at Woking and Farnborough for blow ups and eventually got to Basingstoke in over 100 minutes from Waterloo! Where 34004 was failed and 73155 took over. I would love to have seen how Gordon Porter's style of driving would have dealt with 34004 that night. He would certainly have applied the "if it isn't steaming, then in the roof and 40%" principle he was so good at, to see if that livened the fire up etc first. The only time I saw him behave differently with a badly steaming Bulleid was once with 34034 Honiton. Where he had what he called a "green fire", with no life in it at all. So him and Tom Moult worked on it all the way from Waterloo to near Fleet while keeping the train running in the 40s. THEN he applied the "In the roof and 40%" principle which sounded fantastic and got a meteoric acceleration and some normal Gordon Porter speeds!

 

Having not fired an un-rebuilt, I wouldn't know aboutthem, but Taw Valley appeared to go ok last time I was on it, steamed like stink, but the cab isn't very well ventilated, or very comfortable.
To be honest, painting her red was the second best thing ever to happen to a Bullied loco. What was first? Go to York Museum and look at Ellerman lines! (Grabs the tin hat and runs like hell)

 

34046 Braunton should be in action on the West Somerset in a few months, all being well.

 

Updated list therefore reads:-

34007 Working at the Gloucester and Warwick Railway until............?
34023 Working at the Bluebell Railway
34028 Back working on the Swanage Railway?
34046 Expected to be back in service on the West Somerset railway in 2008
34059 Due back into service this year on the Bluebell Railway
34067 Based at Southall and working on the main line until sometime in 2009....?
35028 Based at Stewarts Lane and mainly working the VSOE.

 

34070 Manston is apparently expected to return to steam sometime this year, plus 34081 92 Squadron has had her boiler inspection and is awaiting the results.

 

34007 at G & WR until after to forthcoming steam festival (this weekend and the one after) working alongside 30850
34028 is at Swanage (I saw 'her' in steam in March)
34067 now at Carnforth?? before going to York for the Scarborough's??

 

Has anyone got an update on 35018 British India Line. I know she is at portland but is anyone working on her.

Thanks

 

As for 35018, according to the Mid-Hants blog, it is still a case of the owner not having much interest in restoring her. Nothing else is said, and I assume the situation has not changed in 2008.

I remember my first WC, 34101 'Hartland' in 2000. Seemed quite happy with the gradients on the NYMR, but I thought putting a chime whistle on it was a bit of sacrilege. Nothing beats the sound of the Bulleid whistle on the wind; its very tuneful. My first 'Spam Can' was 34072 '257 Squadron', and had some decent runs on the Swanage in 2002. I managed to get on the footplate of 34081 '92 Squadron' last year at Carrog, and couldn't get over the humidity in there! Finally, an enduring memory that was relived this year was 34007's smokescreen on the GWR! Seemed to send everything up the chimney, whilst the safety valves seemed keen to lift at least once a trip. Just shows how good a Bulleid Boiler is.

Out of the other Bulleids, I have also seen over the years, in various states of repair, 34016, 34023 (21C123), 34027 (complete with cracked LH cylinder and 34045 identity), 34028, 34046, 34051, 34059, 34092 and 34105.

In terms of MNs, I have managed to glimpse 35005, 6, 11, 22 (the Blue-painted wheels outside Southall shed), 27 and finally 29 at the NRM.

 

Understatement of the year?

Sounds more like an indictment of the fireman's abilities.

 

The MHR had a good selection of Bulleids on its books sometime ago.

34016 Bodmin
34067 Tangmere
34073 249 Squadron
34105 Swanage
35009 Shaw Saville
35018 British India Line

 

When?

 

On the contrary, its by no means an indictment of the fireman's abilities (the coal quality was probably poor anyway, but a year on means I can't be totally sure), and to think so is to misrender my words as negative. They are fairly well known for sending a fair amount up the chimney when starting from a stop, and photographic evidence bears this out. However, it all adds to the great Bulleid experience of locomotives being worked fairly hard! I wish I could upload a photograph of the event at Greet Tunnel to show you what I meant by 'smokescreen'.

 

I know she was out side a shopping centre at Swindon but the owner of the loco was a member of the MHR and the loco was on loan to the shopping centre. If I remember right it was owned by a chap from the USA and I think his name was Richard but I can’t remember his surname.

 

Oh yes.

What a problem original condition Bulleids can be to photograph, because of the smokescreen they can lay down!

Anyone who regularly tries to photo Tangmere will know this.

Clag everywhere if the wind is gusting and variable. Essential to photo from "up wind" regardless of where the sun is. Because of the smoke screen that gets laid down.

 

I must have done it wrong for all of those years then.