Flying Scotsman

I too had a Hornby-Dublo D8000. It was the only diesel that I had and I only had one Pullman Car, Car No79.

In April 2001 we had a Diesel Gala on the NYMR andI was rostered as second man on D8000 doing a two coach shuttle to Goathland and back. Alas after two trips it failed with a leaking coolant system so we parked it out of the way in Platform 4 at Grosmont, on top of the dining train, and finished the remaining shuttles with another visiting diesel, 37116. It was only some months later that I realised that we had parked it on top of Car No79. It certainly never occured to me when I took this picture. I think that this may have been the last time that D8000 worked.

And by-the-by I've kept seeing 37116 over this past month as it is now with Colas on the daily Yorkshire Coast RHTT circuit out of York.

Sorry none of this has anything to do with Flying Scotsman.

Peter

 

Back in the '80s the much loved John Belwood was the Museum's CME. Assisting him were a small team of general workshop staff, together with Kim Malyon and Pete Pickering, who were funded by the Friends of the NRM. Also involved were a team of support crew volunteers, of whom I was proud to be one. Museum locos, and indeed any steam loco, venturing out onto BR in those days was examined by Sam Foster, the chief Boiler Inspector and a Chief Mechanical examiner whose name escapes me. Both of these gentlemen could not have been more helpful and encouraging. Coordinating all steam activity on BR in those days was SLOA.

Happy Days

Peter

 

What a fascinating story (for me, anyway)

 

That would have been Colin Woods...

 

That would have been Colin Woods...[/QUOTE]
Of course - thats the name. Thanks. Colin looked saw to the locos up north and Keith Jackson the ones down south. Brian Penny was their overall boss as I recall. Sorry for the memory lapse but it was 35-40 years ago now. Must be getting old

Peter

 

I have it the other way round. Colin Woods was i/c of the unit, Brian Penny was the 'mechanical examiner'. Both Brian (left) and boiler examiner Sam Foster (right), usually, if not always, appeared together for the 'in steam' exam.

 

You could be right - it was a long time ago, but it was almost always Sam Foster and Colin Wood who came to York in the 1980's for exams. 46203 returned to steam in 1990, as I recall, at the time when I stepped away from main line stuff for a few years. I never really knew Brian Penny.

Peter

 

Photo taken 1994, I'm sure Brian made mention that he was to retire soon.

 

I believe Brian retired to the Cardiff area .. I met him and wife shopping in Brecon a good few years ago..... Still sharp and remembered our dealings...

 

Thanks very much Peter, this is the history lesson I was looking for. So did the end of this era at the NRM coincide with rail privatisation? I looked back at the early years of UK Steam, 1996 and 1997, but that point it just tells you the tour promoter, Past Times, Hertfordshire, Pathfinder etc, not the TOC.

Peter

 

I'm not too sure how things worked in the early days of privatisation. In the 1980s there was only one TOC, namely BR. I stepped away from support crew work in 1990 and didnt return until 1999 by which time there was a very different landscape on the railway. I didn't return to volunteering at the NRM until 2004.

Peter

 

Brian Penney

 

Just for info D8000 was used on Barrow Hill shuttles during a gala event on July 15 2007.

 

Some of the NRM locomotives at Bold Colliery in 1980 still had the same boiler tubes that they were withdrawn with, Cheltenham being one! Presumably a few sample tubes had been previously removed. Of course being NRM, they didn't have any issues with insurance. We kept well away!

 

Back in the seventies when I first became involved with boilers, inspectors weren't that bothered about small tubes. I can never remember an inspector asking for tubes to be renewed, only an observation on the report that they were getting thin or perhaps corroded. Boiler tube renewal on locomotives only really came in following the incidents at Didcot and Loughborough and the Railway Inspectorate publishing guidance note (PM18 from memory), later superseded by HSG29. That required a full internal examination at intervals and which could only be done by removing the tubes but was only guidance, not a requirement. Prior to that boiler tubes would only be renewed when necessary and could go well beyond 10 years. Even today it is not the norm to remove boiler tubes on land boilers and I've known gas fired boilers go 20-30 years on the same tubes. We now have the Pressure Systems Regulations and a requirement for a written scheme of maintenance. I have a written scheme for a locomotive in front of me and there is no specific requirement to remove tubes. However, it does require a full internal and external examination at 10 years which would require the tubes to be removed to undertake.

 

The Rocket 150 celebrations, based at Bold Colliery, were in 1980 rather than '85, but you are right about Cheltenham. As I recall it had an in frames hydralic test which satisfied the boiler inspector as did the in steam test. Alas it didn't last very long. It went from Bold to Dinting for the summer and while there the tubes started failing. After that it didn't steam again until overhauled at the Mid-Hants over a quarter of a century later.

Here it is being steam tested in the NRM's Annexe Yard on 10/4/80 - the poor painting contractors were having a hard time not knowing from one day to the next if they would be able to get at it or not.

Peter

 

Yes, of course it was 1980!

 

Bear in mind that at that point in time locomotive boilers were new territory for most insurance company inspectors as they were , almost to a man, ex merchant navy engineers. I remember the first one I dealt with telling me that he had learned a lot from the boilersmith at the Dart Valley who had come from Newton Abbot works. He also recounted his experience when it was, I think , 4588's boiler went to BREL Swindon for repairs. He went there and met one of the remaining BR boiler inspectors and they both carried out an inspection. When they compared notes the insurance company inspector had a list of the required repairs while the BR inspector raised his eyebrows and said that if it belonged to BR it would be scrapped! No doubt I will be corrected but I would be surprised if any locos in BR service got ten years out of a set of tubes this being due to erosion and burning at the firebox end rather than corrosion. If you read the repair records of preserved locos in their BR days they seemed to be in the shops every three years for significant boiler repairs.

 

Yes pity the painting contractors -- back at Dinting in 77 -- some people would call this 'patina'

 

Yes and no. I also stand to be corrected, but my understanding is that locos were shopped every three years or so based on mileage rather than boiler condition. It usually made sense to overhaul/change boilers while in works for a mechanical tone up. But I agree that it is doubtful that any boiler in regular use went anywhere near ten years without an overhaul.

Peter