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Calthrop

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I recall that it was salvaged from the river bottom, and ran for many years thereafter: the locomen nicknamed it "The Diver" -- have no idea of the number, though.
 
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Gloster

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Peterthegreat said:
I remember something about Australia when I set a previous question. Unfortunately I can't remember the exact reason so I'll guess to find a job?
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Again, you have a bit of the answer.

I think that I had better answer this. He joined a syndicate intending to build locomotives in New South Wales, but this almost immediately ran into trouble and the project never came about: he does not appear to have ever left Britain.

Unless Peterthegreat has a question I declare Open Floor.
 
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Peterthegreat

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Gloster said:
Again, you have a bit of the answer.

I think that I had better answer this. He joined a syndicate intending to build locomotives in New South Wales, but this almost immediately ran into trouble and the project never came about: he does not appear to have ever left Britain.

Unless Peterthegreat has a question I declare Open Floor.
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I have no question so agree on open floor!
 
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EbbwJunction1

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Spamcan81 said:
A micro franchise?
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No, and again not that!

I hadn't heard of this before, so I'll give you the answer:

According to Mr W Pedia:

"GWR locomotives had been designed to take advantage of high quality Welsh steam coal. Following the end of World War II, coal supplies were scarce and of poor quality as the best coal was exported. GWR CME Hawksworth tried using oil as a fuel in steam locomotives. He modified a number of locomotives of different classes, and the results were successful enough that it was planned to turn Cornwall into an oil fired area (my bold). The Government decided that such a scheme should be extended across the country, and asked Hawksworth to provide details of the technology to other railway companies. Several million pounds were spent on the scheme before it foundered on the uneconomic cost of the imported fuel, which had to be purchased using scarce foreign exchange. All the locomotives involved were reconverted to burn coal."

I'll declare this an Open Floor!
 
DerekC

DerekC

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I think this has a sufficient railway connection. During the late 1930s the LNER steamers Accrington, Bury, Dewsbury, Stockport and Melrose Abbey operated regular services between Hull or Grimsby and various continental and Scandinavian ports. By mid 1940 they were obviously redundant in their normal roles. What task were they assigned to from 1941 to 1944?
 
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Gloster

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Were they convoy rescue ships? I know that the Stockport was lost with heavy loss of life, possibly all on board including those rescued.
 
DerekC

DerekC

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Gloster said:
Were they convoy rescue ships? I know that the Stockport was lost with heavy loss of life, possibly all on board including those rescued.
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That's exactly right - on the North Atlantic convoys. Also correct about the fate of Stockport. She stayed behind a convoy to rescue the survivors from a ship that was sinking and neither she nor any of her crew nor any survivors of the stricken ship were heard from again. It is presumed that she was torpedoed during the rescue. They were all real heroes - deliberately stopping to lift survivors from the water, when the convoy was in the middle of a U-boat area. O S Nock in his "Britain's Railways at War" only gives the bones of the story. I wonder if there is more elsewhere. It would be interesting to know, for example, whether their peacetime crews went with them.

Edit: Wiki says rather more about the fate of Stockport:
On 21 February 1943 she was part of convoy ON 166 and went to the assistance of Empire Trader which had straggled behind the convoy in the Atlantic Ocean north of the Azores, Portugal. After U-92 torpedoed and damaged Empire Trader, Stockport rescued all 106 crew men before HMCS Dauphin scuttled Empire Trader following orders received from the Admiralty.[5] However, Stockport had itself now fallen. She was attempting to regain the convoy when on 23 February U-604 torpedoed and sank her at (47°22′N 34°10′W) with the loss of all her crew and the survivors that she had rescued from other vessels.
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Your (peaceful) stretch of ocean.
 
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Gloster

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Another rail/maritime one. In 1916 the Great Eastern Railway’s steamer Brussels was captured by the Germans while sailing from The Hook of Holland to Harwich and her captain was later shot. What was his name?
 
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