Railway World
Volume 41.(1980)
key file
No. 477 (January)
Weaver, Rodney. Double Fairlie celebration. 6-15.
Centenary of first locomotive to be built by the Festiniog Railway
in its own workshops at Boston Lodge: Mereddin Emrys and the entry
into traffic of a new double Fairlie Earl of Merioneth. The dimensions
of all Festiniog Fairlies are listted: Little Wonder, James Spooner, Taliesin,
Mereddin Emrys, Livingston Thompson and Earl of Merioneth.
One of the most interesting aspects of this account is that records of coal
consumption recored in the 1880s are included, plus some of the few remaining
records of the earliest pair of locomotives recorded in the 1870s..
Glenn, D. Fereday. Southern cross-country. 16-20.
Services from Brighton and Portsmouth to Bournemouth, Cardiff and
Plymouth and the varied motive power employed to work them.
Jarvis, A.E. Untwisting the Lion's tale. 21-4.
Work on the preparation of a booklet on the locomotive Lion
to mark the 150th anniversary of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway showed
that an account of the "rescue" of the locomotive in 1927 as told in J.
Stephenson Loco. Soc., 1957 (October) contains several errors, the most
notable of which is that C.W. Reed is given an utterly disproportionate role
in the preservation story. Reed was clearly a Strettonesque figure.
Lion was one of two (the other being Tiger) locomotives constructed
by Todd Kitson & Laird in 1838. In 1859 Lion was sold to the Mersey
Docks & Harbour Board and used to power a pump. Jarvis both shows the
true moving forces in the preservation of the locomotive and dismisses any
suggestion that Lion was about to be scrapped. The real moving
force to preserve Lion came from the Liverpool Engineering Society
and notably from Sterry B. Freeman and Richard Holt, both of whom were involved
in Liverpool shipping (Holt was also chairman of the Mersey Docks & Harbour
Board). The role of William M. Fletcher was especially energetic in the
activities of the Old Locomotive Committee..
Peter F. Winding. Historic locomotive depots: Longhedge. 620-70.
Opened by the London, Chatham & Dover Railway in Battersea as
its main locomotive works and depot. The buildings were designed by Joseph
Cubitt and may have reflected practice at Wolverton. They were constructed
by Peto & Betts. The works opened in about 1862. The original depot was
a roundhouse, but Kirtley replaced this by sixteen road straight road shed
in 1881. In 1934 the Southern Railway closed the Brighton's Battersea Park
engine shed and concentrated activity at what was known as Stewarts Lane.
It is the depot which Richard Hardy
managed and described in Steam in the blood. Lists locomotives
built at Longhedge and locomotives stationed there including the rather exotic
crane tank 0-4-0CT No. 1302 (photographed by author in 1947) when used to
shunt Co-op milk siding. Also includes drawings by the author and several
plans.
David Jackson and Owen Russell. Eason's Specials ex-Cleethorpes: G.C.
Section notebook. 73-7.
Regular trains from North Lincolnshire to King's Cross ran on thursdays
and Saturdays through the cooperation of J.W. Eason, a travel agent in Grimsby
and the Great Northern Railway, later the LNER. The return workings left
London at about midnight, but the up trains were photographed: Great Central
4-6-0s were th normal motive power. Photographs show classes B7 and B3 on
up excursions.
C.R.P. Ridgway. The Severn Valley Railway: locomotive maintenance at Bridgnorth. 78-83.
Colour quartet. 84-5.
Colour-Rail colour photo-feature: West Country No. 34027 in malachite
green on down Golden Arrow at Victotora in April 1949 (J.M. Jarvis);
Prince of Wales 4-6-0 No. 25648 Queen of the Belgians at Birmingham
New Street in 1938; N15 No. 742 Camelot at Oxford in April 1939; B3
No. 6166 Earl Haig at Aylesbury in December 1938
A.G.S. Davies. Steam and diesel on the Cornish main line. 86-90.
Some very fast short runs including one reckless run down the hill
to Par from St. Austell behind a County class 4-6-0.
No. 485 (September 1980)
Derek Cross. The 'Twins' and the 'Squib' 462-6.
Former Caledonian Railway 0-6-0s worked as pairs on the difficult
coal train workings for Polquhairn and Littlemill collieries on the Ayrshire
coalfield from Falkland Junction (Ayr) via Rankinston: tjis was known as
The Twins. The Squib was often perfomed by a diesel shunter,
but in the fianl days of steam was sometimes rorked by a Standard class 2
2-6-0 No. 78051. The Squib included shunting at Greenan Sidings and
Alloway sidings on the remains of the Maidens & Dunure Light Railway
and the branch to Glengall Hospital.
Angel Ferre. The twilight of steam on the Argentine Railways. 467-71.
Peter King. Reporting the Duke's progress. 472-3
Restoration of No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester including new Kylchap
blastpipe
Keith Beck. 'West to North and North to West'. 474-80.
New Books.. 481
Coloured views on the Liverpool and Machester Railway.
T.T. Bury. Introduction by George Ottley. Hugh Broadbent. 17pp
+ 16 coloured plates
Facsimile reprint of very high quality
Letters. 482
LNWR 'Coal Tanks'. G. Hayes.
The account of the restoration of LNWR 'Coal Tank' No 1054 has revived
many memories of these locomotives during the 1930s and 40s when writer knew
them well in the Manchester and North Wales areas. Having driven them
unofficially from time to time he could vouch for the feeble brakes. In the
rough and tumble of everyday work the brakes varied from very poor to completely
useless. How these locomotives could ever work an unbraked goods train must
remain a mystery. Even the handbrakes had little power. No 27654, a non-auto
fitted engine, was used occasionally to shunt Rhyl goods yard. From personal
experience it had rather better brakes than most.
Despite flimsy construction, the 'Coal Tanks' had a remarkably long and hard
working life, as indeed did all of the Webb six-coupled simple goods classes.
During the period in which he knew them much of the branch passenger work
in North Wales was in their hands including the Holywell, Denbigh and Blaenau
Ffestiniog lines. Plodder Lane mpd, Bolton, had a sizeable allocation, including
No 1054, then LMS No 7799, for the Manchester, Leigh and Kenyon Junction
services. Some fearsome gradients were involved, 1 in 27 on the Holywell
branch and on the Manchester-Bolton services four coaches were regularly
worked on the I in 60/62 from Roe Green Junction. Starting away from stations
on this gradient was by pulling the regulator handle in two heaves right
across the quadrant. He never saw one slip! A regular working during the
1940s was the 15.08 Manchester Exchange-Wigan stopper. For a time the Saturday
afternoon working was combined with ecs and could load to eleven bogie vehicles.
Getting away from Worsley on the 1 in 114 with a considerable curve approaching
Roe Green Junction was an inspiring sight and sound. Even more stirring in
the same locality was the occasion when one of the class appeared in full
cry working the combined Manchester-Barrow/Glasgow train, loaded to eleven
bogies.
Plodder Lane shed, Bolton was often the butt of humorous comment from local
railway staff and he had heard the 'Coal Tanks' referred to as 'Plodder Lane
Claughtons' - a joke which must have dated back to about 1913.
Hatfield. J.E. Brandon
I read with great interest the article on Hatfield (April) as until
1965, I lived in a railway house overlooking the down yard. The building
of the Great Northern Railway entailed use of the Marquis of Salisbury's
land for nearly two miles south of the town. At that time the Great North
Road (now the A 1000) ran through his estate. When the railway was built
a new road was also built alongside, together with a boundary wall for Lord
Salisbury. What is now the main gate to Hatfield House was built at the same
time as the railway and entailed the construction of a viaduct across a small
valley between the station and the House; this entrance did not exist before
the railway.
The waiting room shown in the photograph on page 174 was known as the Royal
Waiting Room, owing to its use by Queen Victoria. It was used as a signalling
school well into the 1960s. The observant reader may have noticed that the
footbridge shown on pages 179/ 80, although in the same position, is of three
different designs. The left-hand span on page 179 was demolished by a derailed
freight train in the early 1960s and was replaced by that shown at the bottom
of page 180. During rationalisation in 1972/3 the whole structure was replaced
by the bridge shown in the upper photograph on page 180. This is not,
incidentally, the station footbridge, but a public one not connected to the
platforms.
Mr Neve is, I regret to say, wrong when he states that the platforms are
now opposite each other and serve the slow lines only. They are in almost
the same positions as before 1973 and serve the up slow, down fast and down
slow lines. However, during the reconstruction a temporary down platform
was provided opposite the up platform. The photograph on page 177 is not
at Hadley Wood but at Greenwood, about half a mile to the south; Hadley Wood
station had, until 1958, only one running line in each direction
Number 487 (November)
Brookman, James. Gresley's mainline diesel.
587-9.
Proposal to convert the Shildon-Newport Bo-Bo electric locomotives
into diesel electric locomotives developed by Gresley in association with
English Electric, suppliers of the original electric locomotives and William
Beardmore proposed manufacturers of the diesel engines. This is a thorough
examination, including Gresley's detailed reports to the Locomotive Committee
and the LNER Board in the late 1920s: includes assessment as motive power
on Peterborough (New England) to Ferme Park coal trains..