Author Topic: Trainspotters. Why?  (Read 90809 times)

TheLurker

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #375 on: 06 June, 2021, 01:11:57 pm »
Quote from: Pingu
Is that going to run on branch lines?
Is this coat yours?  :)
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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #376 on: 06 June, 2021, 01:33:05 pm »
LNWR DX Goods.  Some lasted until 1930, which is remarkable given that they look distinctly Victorian.  101 more than the Black Five.

A reasonably well-known fact up here near Todmorden, where Ramsbottom (the designer) was born.  What's less well-known is that he invented the split piston ring - as used in cars - although he died before cars happened.  He was the real deal as an engineer and designer and should be up at the top of the Engineering ladder with Stephenson and ..... Stephenson.

rogerzilla

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #377 on: 16 July, 2021, 08:29:50 pm »
Ramsbottom was an absolute genius.  Up there with Frederick Lanchester, who invented most things on a modern car and is similarly forgotten.
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rogerzilla

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #378 on: 07 March, 2022, 08:28:25 am »
Walked up to the GWML on Saturday evening to see Flying Scotsman pass under the footbridge at Stratton.  It was accelerating, so there was a lot of steam.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #379 on: 23 March, 2022, 06:59:43 pm »
Apparently trainspotters are just frustrated rock stars.
Quote
Going back a bit, Frank Sinatra was said to own $1m worth of model trains and replicas of his native Hoboken, New Jersey, which he kept in a room called – but of course – All Aboard. Rock gods known to have private passions for tiny engines and carriages include Roger Daltrey, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins and Ringo Starr. But perhaps the music and railway modelling worlds aren’t as different as they might seem.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/mar/23/im-proud-to-be-called-a-nerd-the-pop-and-rock-greats-who-love-model-railways
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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #380 on: 23 March, 2022, 08:26:05 pm »
The most numerous locomotive of ANY type is, boringly, the Class 08 diesel shunter (996 made).

I have a strange affection for Gronks.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #381 on: 23 March, 2022, 08:33:38 pm »
Apparently trainspotters are just frustrated rock stars.
Quote
Going back a bit, Frank Sinatra was said to own $1m worth of model trains and replicas of his native Hoboken, New Jersey, which he kept in a room called – but of course – All Aboard. Rock gods known to have private passions for tiny engines and carriages include Roger Daltrey, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins and Ringo Starr. But perhaps the music and railway modelling worlds aren’t as different as they might seem.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/mar/23/im-proud-to-be-called-a-nerd-the-pop-and-rock-greats-who-love-model-railways

Pete Waterman, he of Stock, Market and Watermelon fame, is also a railway enthusiast, both model and full-size.
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rogerzilla

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #382 on: 23 March, 2022, 08:38:00 pm »
Yes, I've seen him pop up at a local exhibition.  He kept that quiet when he was filming The Hit Man And Her  ;D  Maybe Her also goes home from Springwatch and builds model coaling stages.
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bhoot

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #383 on: 23 March, 2022, 08:43:14 pm »

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #384 on: 23 March, 2022, 08:47:55 pm »
Watermelon and Stewpot both feature bigly in the article. Which it seems no one was nerdy enough to read.
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TheLurker

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #385 on: 25 March, 2022, 09:12:45 pm »
Quote from: Cudzoziemiec
... it seems no one was nerdy enough to read.
I did, but then I also watched (and enjoyed) all the recent documentaries about Hornby in one of which Mr. Waterman's Cathedral layout featured.  I still have the loco & coaches and a few lengths of track from my 1969 xmas pressie, a Tri-Ang train set. 


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Kim

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #386 on: 11 September, 2022, 10:24:53 pm »
I amused a couple of trainspotters by sprinting up to the bridge, jumping off my bike and whipping my phone out in time to capture this photo of something steamy (but I suspect not coal-fired) on the GWSR near Southam earlier:



I explained that I'd heard the whistle about half a km back, and reckoned if I gave it the beans, I might be able to make it to the bridge / level crossing by the time it arrived.


Interestingly, I caught up with the same train again after Winchcombe.  Without the aid of a tunnel.  That's a pretty slow train!

Wombat

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #387 on: 12 September, 2022, 10:59:10 am »
I amused a couple of trainspotters by sprinting up to the bridge, jumping off my bike and whipping my phone out in time to capture this photo of something steamy (but I suspect not coal-fired) on the GWSR near Southam earlier:



I explained that I'd heard the whistle about half a km back, and reckoned if I gave it the beans, I might be able to make it to the bridge / level crossing by the time it arrived.


Interestingly, I caught up with the same train again after Winchcombe.  Without the aid of a tunnel.  That's a pretty slow train!

Why do you suspect not coal fired, Kim?

Most heritage railways are trialling coal with added "stuff" to make it less ungreen.  The Government, of course, wants us all to import Russian coal, rather than use the absolutely perfect stuff that many railway locos were designed for, from Ffos Y Fran, near Merthyr.  Obviously far greener to import filthy low grade coal from across the world, than use our own much higher grade stuff...  The coal used by heritage steam is an absolutely tiny fraction of that used by the cement industry and the steel industry, but they'd rather destroy an entire tourism and heritage sector than insist those industries make a 5% reduction in coal use.  Grrr...
Wombat

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #388 on: 12 September, 2022, 11:04:47 am »
Isn't Winchcombe on the Severn Valley Railway? In which case the official reason given for running on diesel this summer has been lineside fire risk, but apparently – so I've heard from someone who lives nearby, who heard it from a driver (or fireman or similar) – the real reason is precisely that they were running on Russian coal and can therefore no longer get it.
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rogerzilla

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #389 on: 12 September, 2022, 11:38:19 am »
That's a steam engine running backwards.  AFAIK all UK preserved ones are coal-fired.  Oil firing is surprisingly disgusting as the lack of fly ash means the boiler tubes quickly soot up...then the fireman chucks sand in there to clear the tubes, and you get a black cloud like that from a burning Kuwaiti oil well.

One of the coal substitutes uses the byproduct of olive oil manufacture.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

rogerzilla

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #390 on: 12 September, 2022, 11:40:02 am »
Isn't Winchcombe on the Severn Valley Railway? In which case the official reason given for running on diesel this summer has been lineside fire risk, but apparently – so I've heard from someone who lives nearby, who heard it from a driver (or fireman or similar) – the real reason is precisely that they were running on Russian coal and can therefore no longer get it.
Winchcombe is on the GWSR.  They have run steam all summer because the line is very flat.  Steam engines only tend to throw sparks when being worked hard.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #391 on: 12 September, 2022, 11:51:07 am »
The Tallylyn Railway has been trying 'yellow coal', made from waste off rape seed oil production. Seems it works OK, but smells like a chip shop...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGaP3iCB_XM

Kim

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #392 on: 12 September, 2022, 12:19:13 pm »
Why do you suspect not coal fired, Kim?

Suspicious absence of smoke (I only saw the steam), though I was upwind and couldn't smell anything.  I thought it might be running on oil, as I've previously encountered on the Welsh Highland Railway, but it could equally be some newfangled solid fuel.

It was definitely a steam engine, though, and making all the right noises.

Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #393 on: 12 September, 2022, 05:49:28 pm »
On a visit to the IOW steam railway earlier this year, we heard that the coal washing plant at Merthyr had failed and wasn't worth their while repairing. So a notice said they expected to have to get coal from Russia or Columbia.

robgul

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #394 on: 12 September, 2022, 08:41:55 pm »
I amused a couple of trainspotters by sprinting up to the bridge, jumping off my bike and whipping my phone out in time to capture this photo of something steamy (but I suspect not coal-fired) on the GWSR near Southam earlier:



I explained that I'd heard the whistle about half a km back, and reckoned if I gave it the beans, I might be able to make it to the bridge / level crossing by the time it arrived.


Interestingly, I caught up with the same train again after Winchcombe.  Without the aid of a tunnel.  That's a pretty slow train!

Ah, you foxed me there for a minute with "Southam" - I forgot that there's a Southam just to the N of Cheltenham - rather than the one to the E of Leamington.

rogerzilla

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #395 on: 12 September, 2022, 10:35:46 pm »
On a visit to the IOW steam railway earlier this year, we heard that the coal washing plant at Merthyr had failed and wasn't worth their while repairing. So a notice said they expected to have to get coal from Russia or Columbia.
They fixed the plant, although the mine is still closing soon.

Kim - a steam loco emits nothing of note from the chimney if the regulator is closed, as it is when coasting.  There is some steam up the chimney from the brake vacuum ejector and possibly the blower, but this is invisible on a warm day.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.


Kim

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #397 on: 13 September, 2022, 12:11:00 am »
Kim - a steam loco emits nothing of note from the chimney if the regulator is closed, as it is when coasting.  There is some steam up the chimney from the brake vacuum ejector and possibly the blower, but this is invisible on a warm day.

Yes, the steam/smoke was more visible as it was accelerating out of the station.  It was all white though.

rogerzilla

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #398 on: 13 September, 2022, 07:08:01 am »
It generally is white (or close to white) as it's mostly steam (water vapour for pedants).  Dark smoke indicates too little air is getting through the firebed.  Firemen aim for light grey smoke, as this means the most efficient combustion, with air a little above stoichiometric.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Tim Hall

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Re: Trainspotters. Why?
« Reply #399 on: 13 September, 2022, 08:42:35 am »
In my collection of Very Intertesting old tat I have this booklet. All you need to know about fire, smoke and steam:

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