Recent content by steammemories

For me it would be the Queensbury lines from Bradford to Halifax and Keighley, Over the alps as the engine men used to say. There are lots of nostalgic pictures on the blog http://steammemories.blogspot.co.uk. I well remember it as a little lad before it closed.

Yes we are, do you have knowledge or a view? I am doing a bit of digging about these engines. They seem to have developed a very self sustaining thread of continuing development right through to the BR std class 4 tank we all know so well from many preserved railways.

I read an article some days ago which referred to the London Tilbury and Southend Railway Tank engines which stated that the valve gear used was a direct lift from the Somerset and Dorset 2-8-0's. It seems feasible as both engines were designed at Derby though of course the LTSR engines were...

Thanks for that. The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway is my local preserved line and as I am retired I can spend a good deal of time up there now. The event on Sunday was very good indeed, seeing Sir Berkeley, which is owned by the vintage carriage trust, in steam was great. I went up on a...

The Keighley and Worth Valley Railways Winter steam gala is on the weekend of 27th 28th of Feb and 1st of March inclusive. They had a bot of an event yesterday at Ingrow hosted by the Vintage Carriages Trust with Sir Berkeley running footplate rides in the yard and the little Lord Mayor with a...

I have just added two more wider views of Bradford showing Manningham loco sheds on http://steammemories.blogspot.co.uk/ The pictures show the relatively flat valley along Canal Rd. The Bradford canal was of course the first conduit of mass transport to the city of Bradford and was superseded...

I have to admit that I have never seen City of Wells slip leaving Keighley and it has a stiff grade out of the station. Could well be drivers who know the engine well. I remember in one of the British Steam Railway DVD's Richard Hardy talking of a trip on Wells when it was working the Golden...

Many thanks for that, as a marine engineer I have little experience of valve gears other than those on steam pumps, on turbines we adjust the nozzles to gain efficiency. I have heard of the problem of over travel and some seem to put that down to the Southern's steam reverser and other to the...

I joined the discussion on the West Country and BB Pacific's of the Southern Railway. The discussion rightly referred to the chain driven valve gear on the WC's and BB's and the tendency the engines had to slip. I have seen many different valve gears on steam engines and read much of the views...

As said here, the main reason was the cost to the government of returning the railways to their owners, after unified government use in WW2, was so great the cheapest way was to buy out the railway companies and nationalise them. The caveat on the government taking over in 1939/40 was that the...

For me it would be the Great Central and the Woodhead route which was all part of the same.

Possibly a subject for a new thread has emerged on the merits of different valve gear and the success or otherwise of them. I was at Bridgenorth earlier last year and had the pleasure of seeing BR Std 73129 with the Caprotti gear and did it slip when getting it's train underway.

I quite agree, many crews reported that the light Pacific's often performed just as well as their big brothers the MN's when handled by experienced crews. I have added a few pictures of the rebuilt WC 'Braunton' and you can see them on the aforementioned blog.

Indeed and it was those seals which resulted in oil loss and all the reports of fires and slipping. I believe oil leaked on to the wheels. There is a picture of the chain drive and oil bath on my blog at http://steammemories.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/bullied-light-pacific-city-of-wells-and.html. As...

All of the aforementioned is likely to be correct. I was told by members of the team that originally rebuilt Wells that the problem with the oil bath/valve geardrive, was the seals which as built were leather cup and were prone to leak. Replacing them was a major job and so was often left...