Trains....

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I have did one train documentary uploaded on my autistic YouTube channel and it's so far successful.

Edit. Reply was in response to an earlier post by another member. I was replying to this as my tablet seemed to think it was the last post on this thread!

My reply:


That was built by British Railways and is what they called one of their "Standard class" locos.

British Railways inherited locos from all the previous companies, both from "The Big Four" and the smaller companies that existed before "Grouping" which took place in 1922-1923. British Railways (Formed in 1948 after the railways had taken a battering due to the 1930's depression and then the war) found themselves with an extreme locomotive shortage, so the "Big Four" companies they had taken over (British Railways (We shall call B.R.) was a UK government owned concern) had to be tested in what they called the "Locomotive Trials" which took place in 1948, as no one had really tested or compared each others locomotives against each other by trying them out on each others railway areas. (In other words, each of the past companies got to try each others locomotives to see what they thought of the design).
The idea was to try to take the est of the past locomotive designs and built all new locomotives which in theory should have been a success. These new locomotives were known as the B.R. "Standard Class" locomotives (There were several types of designs according to the weights, sizes and duties they designed them to do).
Now a few locomotive designs from the past were so successful, that they just continued making them. One of these designs was the Great Western Railway "Castle Class", and I believe the LMS "Black 5's" which themselves were designed by a designer who learned his trade on the GWR and went to work for the LMS after he became a qualified locomotive designer. Hence why the Black 5 locomotive design looks like a Castle Class, but with external rather than internal Walschaerts valve gear... The LMS prefering easy access to their valve gear and the GWR long havinga policy to protect their valve gear inside the frames incase those vital components could be damaged if they get bashed... The newly formed "Standard Class" designs, like most companies did before them, preferred their valve gear exposed for easier access for maintenence.

Thre problems were that these standard classes had to be rushed into production due to the shortages of railway locomotives, so certain design flaws had to be corrected when they realized they had made a mistake. I heard one story where the first batch of locos had no drain cocks and they had to be immediately sent back to the works to have this alteration made. Any railwayman would tell you that you need drain cocks, but obviously in the haste to try and rush new loco designs they had missed that bit! But generally the new standard classes ran extremely well, though a general criticism was that the cabs were so large and drafty, that firemen had to unofficially swap places and drive locomotives on cold winters days and drivers had to do firemans duties, and swap back and fore in these roles, as the drivers standing on one side of the cab would freeze on their outer cab side of their bodies and be warm on their firebox side of their bodies and the firemen, standing on the other side of the cab, would freeze on the opposite sides of their bodies! No one was supposed to swap jobs but it was the only way to survive the cold winters journeys in these Standard Class locomotive cabs on cold winters days!

The loco you showed in the photo was designed for heavy express passenger duties. Some designs were for heavy freight such as the well known class 9F (Which icidently, also during shortages pulled many a lengthy passenger train at speeds over 90mph!), and then there were lightweight standard classes designed to run on low weight restriction branch lines and everything inbetween!

Last edited by Mountain Goat on 21 Nov 2024, 7:14 am, edited 3 times in total.

Trains

Just edited my reply above to make sense.

[Hope people don't mind me keeping to train threads].

Regular size trains have never interested me, but I absolutely love model trains and cars. Nobody ever bought me one as a child, but I used to fawn over the model cars they sell at CVS, and the model train that we laid a track around the Christmas tree at my grandparents was always my favorite part of Christmas.
I can't think of a particular reason for my infatuation with them, but I'd blame Paddington, Coraline and Night at the Museum and their respective model train scenes.

My last purchase was these.

Lovely ...little vehicles ...is one a Citroen 2 CV. AND the other looks like a 1950s. Dodge Pick me up truck ?
Colours look right too !

Yes. They are kiddie toys that if I pull them backwards, they go! Citroen 2CV and a Cheverlet pick-up, and despite them being classed as toys, they are actually quite accurate and detailed.
They were £6 each. If they were in a model shop without the pull back and go mechanism, they would be more like £26 each as anything classed as "Model" is high priced for the exact same thing! Why I sometimes look to toy shops or other places to buy things if they are appropiate for my railway.
The things I make avoid me buying too much from highly priced model shops, and I don't blame the shops themselves. It is the manufacturers for shiftingfocus away from the masses and catering for limited exclusive wealthier segments of the market that will pay the high prices. My modelling bypasses some of this by making things myself.

You have an angle Mountaingoat, and you have the skills , from things ,I have seen in various sites and threads

Thank you Jakki!

Most Welcome Mountaingoat...have seen your work,on other threads .And it is a good skill to have in the Model RR business . And you could easily make Model RailRoding affordable again .