Castle Aching

[Regularity]

Given the page number, and in a (probably) vain attempt to get back to railways:

The doyen herself.

[Nearholmer]

The very back of the loco, above the bunker, seems to be saying ‘Wot, no cab roof?’.

[Regularity]

And inevitably, because some idiot (me) made two separate posts instead of one, the picture appeared on page 518...

Still, we celebrate how many years we have already lived, not the year of our life in which we are living*, so I suppose it’s kind of appropriate.

 

* Fans of a certain James Bond theme song can add an extra “in” here.

[Regularity]

The very back of the loco, above the bunker, seems to be saying ‘Wot, no cab roof?’.

Thank you, Chad: you’re a brick!

 

I have looked at that photo many times (am I alone in thinking that the 517 class could make me a GWR modeller?) but never before noticed the lightening holes either side of the coupling hook on the rear buffer plank.

 

Also, note that there are two buckets. This one was obviously made by Tony Reynolds for himself.

Edit: correcting “computer knows best” error.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Regularity

[Edwardian]

Thank you, Simon

 

As Parishioners may know, I have a huge soft spot for the 517s, in all their variety and with all their considerable charm.

 

On a railway that is largely thought of as a projection of Swindon, they preserved something of Wolverhampton and the GW's old standard gauge Northern Division, though, of course, the 517 and their Wolverhampton wheel arrangement (Swindon built 2-4-0Ts) were eventually found everywhere. 

 

From the original saddle ranks, through every boiler, cab, bunker and frame change, through Wolverhampton and Swindon greens and schemes to match coaching stock, I love them all. Even before I was seduced by all things pre-Grouping, I loved them, choosing to date my project to 1935, when they ran autocoach services on the Ashburton Branch before finally giving way to 4800s in March 1936.

 

So here's to the humble 517, one of the best little engines ever produced.

 

 

Edited October 4, 2018 by Edwardian

[Owd Bob]

What this topic needs is a good cleaner to tidy it up now and again!

 

This was a very tram like looking petrol tractor thingy seen at Bury on the E.L.R. in April this year. WW1 era perhaps? I know nothing but at least i admit it.

[corneliuslundie]

And of the 156 built there were definitely at least 158 variants!

No 567 was sold to the Bishop's Castle Railway and is being re-created in 7 mm/ft by a fellow member of the local model railway club. I suspect that by the time the BCR had finished with it it was variant no 159.

Jonathan

[Edwardian]

What this topic needs is a good cleaner to tidy it up now and again!

2011-08-12 17.37.22.jpg

 

This was a very tram like looking petrol tractor thingy seen at Bury on the E.L.R. in April this year. WW1 era perhaps? I know nothing but at least i admit it.

DSC03330.JPG

 

The maker's plate says "Simplex", which were the chaps who made those Tin Turtles in the Great War.

 

According to the ELR dieseasel group (my wishes for a speedy recovery), it's a Motor Rail Simplex 4wDM, works no. 9009, 0-4-0 Diesel Mechanical, Chain Driven.

 

They seem to lack a suitable sense of history, in that they offer no details of when it was built or entered service, to whom it was supplied, subsequent history etc, though the site says it's currently preserved in a War Department guise.  That, of course, may mean very little, given the way Preservationalists often paint their locomotives!

 

EDIT: Well, I found a website, which suggests to me that, if 9009 is the works number, the loco dates from around 1948.  However, I have no confidence in that, or any conclusion I may draw on the subject.  I do not understand any of the blurb and, I confess, just a few pages in I started to lose the will to live.  Braver and better educated souls must take enquiries further, I fear: http://simplex.avlr.org.uk/

Edited October 4, 2018 by Edwardian

[Hroth]

Bur why are they dressed as nuns?

 

Cats purr, not wimple.

 

Are the hills alive with sound of meowsic

 

Taking your points in order:

1. To hide their jackboots
2. Only when pleased. You either get the evil stare (as illustrated) or a hiss.
3. Only during the mating season

 

One thing not mentioned was the green tint. Reminiscent of ahem 1909.

[Nearholmer]

Even I like 517s, and I especially like the picture that Regularity posted.

 

The petrol/diesel shunter is a ‘Simplex’, a product of the Motor Rail and Tram Car Company of Bedford. There were so many variants that I hesitate to guess a date, but i’d guess 1920s with a petrol engine. The ‘simplex’ name originated with the very clever gearbox, designed by James Dixon-Abbot, which was first applied in petrol trams, mostly for export. He then designed the locos around it, and it took him several years of pestering to convince WD to buy them, but once they started they couldn’t get enough. The basic design was still being built in the 1980s; I saw a brand new one in service at a Brickworks in Essex in 1983/4 [Edit: 1986 actually], which I think may have been the very last.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Hroth]

The maker's plate says "Simplex", which were the chaps who made those Tin Turtles in the Great War.

 

According to the ELR dieseasel group (my wishes for a speedy recovery), it's a Motor Rail Simplex 4wDM, works no. 9009, 0-4-0 Diesel Mechanical, Chain Driven.

 

They seem to lack a suitable sense of history, in that they offer no details of when it was built or entered service, to whom it was supplied, subsequent history etc, though the site says it's currently preserved in a War Department guise.  That, of course, may mean very little, given the way Preservationalists often paint their locomotives!

If its a genuine wartime issue vehicle, I should imagine that it was for UK only use, or rebodied after the war.  I wouldn't like to drive that greenhouse in a hostile environment!

 

I believe Preservationalists often paint their locomotives to preserve them.  Colours may be limited to whatever is available on the sale sheves at B&Q.

 

 

I do like the motley collection of 517s, a truely Useful Engine class!  Of course the Collett versions were built as replacements for life-expired 517s BECAUSE they were so Useful!

[Edwardian]

Taking your points in order:

1. To hide their jackboots
2. Only when pleased. You either get the evil stare (as illustrated) or a hiss.
3. Only during the mating season

 

One thing not mentioned was the green tint. Reminiscent of ahem 1909.

 

I confess, as a lapsed Anglican 9which is rather like lapsing from lapsing), my experience of nuns is limited to The Sound of Music, that one who talks about paintings and the occasional episode of Father Ted.

 

Nevertheless, I would venture to suggest that they probably don't hiss and certainly don't mate.

[Edwardian]

The petrol/diesel shunter is a ‘Simplex, . The ‘simplex’ name originated with the very clever gearbox, designed by James Dixon-Abbot,

 

He had wanted to call it the "Simples", but death threats from the Russian Meerkat Mafia put paid to that.

[Owd Bob]

I wonder if thats what a tin Turtle looks like underneath without its shell? From memory i think the plate said 1918, it stank to high heaven and made a right rattling noise when they fired it up. I built a five inch gauge Tin Turtle a few years ago using a mobility scooter motor  wish i had kept some pics' of it now....i sold it to 'Ossygobbin' of this Parish when i was so desperate for cash two years ago! 

[Edwardian]

I wonder if thats what a tin Turtle looks like underneath without its shell? From memory i think the plate said 1918, it stank to high heaven and made a right rattling noise when they fired it up. I built a five inch gauge Tin Turtle a few years ago using a mobility scooter motor  wish i had kept some pics' of it now....i sold it to 'Ossygobbin' of this Parish when i was so desperate for cash two years ago! 

 

'Cool', as the Young used to say.  I confess, I misread that at first and imagined a Tin Turtle Body fitted to a mobility scooter: 'Way cooler!' 

[wagonman]

Given the page number, and in a (probably) vain attempt to get back to railways:

The doyenne herself.

 

 

As a fully paid-up member of the 517 Appreciation Society, I confess those holes in the buffer plank are news to me too. But 517 herself is in classic Wolverhampton c1895 condition, so anything is possible.

Edited October 4, 2018 by wagonman

[Owd Bob]

 I misread that at first and imagined a Tin Turtle Body fitted to a mobility scooter: 'Way cooler!' 

What a great idea! I just happen to have a mobility scooter going for spares 

[Edwardian]

As a fully paid-up member of the 517 Appreciation Society, I confess those holes in the buffer plank are news to me too. But %17 herself is in classic Wolverhampton c1895 condition, so anything is possible.

 

Note also how the NEM coupling pocket is here blanked off.

[Guy Rixon]

517's are very nice with the round-topped boiler. Not so pretty after reboilering. It's very nice to be able to see the lining. Now what's going on with number 555? Smokebox wing plate? When where those fitted? Also, reversed corners in the lining.

[Hroth]

I confess, as a lapsed Anglican 9which is rather like lapsing from lapsing), my experience of nuns is limited to The Sound of Music, that one who talks about paintings and the occasional episode of Father Ted.

 

Nevertheless, I would venture to suggest that they probably don't hiss and certainly don't mate.

 

"Lapsed Anglicanism" is only one end of the scale that leads to full Anglo-Catholicism, which in some cases is so severe that even ordinary Catholics stand back and say "oh, come ON!"

 

The Nuns to beware of are the Anglican nuns....

[Tom Burnham]

One thing I have been wondering about steam trams is what happened to all the locos when the systems converted to electricity, many after less than ten years of steam operating. I would have thought that there would be a decent market in second-hand light locos, even if of limited power, for small industrial systems, but I cannot recall any examples. Given that Aveling Porter and McLaren et al were producing lightweight locos for a long time, and the Sentinel shunters were along similar lines. Was it that the steam trams were too underpowered, or were they just clapped out after a fairly intensive life in service, and fit only for scrapping? Was it just a case of the lines struggling with their steam trams until electrification saved the day, with little investment in new locos when the writing was already on the wall, running everything into the ground?

Four locos from the Plymouth, Devonport & District Tramways (built by Wilkinson in about 1884) are supposed to have been sold to the J. B. White & Co. cement works at Swanscombe, Kent, probably around 1886, following legal action to stop the tramway company using steam power.  They had been 3ft 6in gauge.  The original Swancombe cement works system (it was entirely torn up and rebuilt in 1929) was about the same gauge but used outside-flanged wheels* (which leads to arguments about exactly how you measure the gauge).  It had a weird and wonderful collection of locomotives, including six H. E. Taylor 0-4-0T engines built between 1879 and 1882.  The last two delivered were named "Iron Horse" and "Dead Horse", and I've always felt the last name derived from the loco foreman's opinion of what he was being expected to do...

 

*They filled in solid between the rails, and reputedly this made things easier for the horses who provided the traction in the earlier days.

[Martin S-C]

Bur why are they dressed as nuns?

They are not nuns, the contraptions on their heads are to hide their kitty-ears. So we don't realise they are cats and they can take over the world.

 

[Hair_Dave]

The war department tin turtles were around 2 foot gauge and came as armoured, protected and standard (read exposed) several of each survive in running order. Protected and standard pictured at "tracks to trenches" event by the wdlr society.

 

 

Returning to standard gauge, there are two simplex in a siding at swannick junction at the Midland Railway centre. My dad helped restore rs9 (one of the two) in the 70s and was most disappointed with the state it is currently in.

 

Edit: added picture

Edited October 4, 2018 by Hair_Dave

[Nearholmer]

Putting on my best trainspotting-nerd voice......

 

You do realise that the two MRs in the photo are different classes? The big one is a 40hp, and the small one a 20hp. The 40hp came in the three types, and I think the one shown is the unprotected. The protected had doors and light cover at the top, and the classic armoured one had a top that looks rather like a tank turret. The 20hp came only in the naked form illustrated.

 

This Simplex stuff is OT, unless we get back to the original tramcars, which would be 'in period', so I apologise for pursuing one of my obsessions ..... early internal combustion rail vehicles.

 

PS: Anyone else notice T E Lawrence sitting in one of the wagons?

Edited October 4, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Talltim]

The war department tin turtles were around 2 foot gauge and came as armoured, protected and standard (read exposed) several of each survive in running order. Protected and standard pictured at "tracks to trenches" event by the wdlr society.

 

image.jpg

 

Returning to standard gauge, there are two simplex in a siding at swannick junction at the Midland Railway centre. My dad helped restore rs9 (one of the two) in the 70s and was most disappointed with the state it is currently in.

 

Edit: added picture

Many years ago I built a Lego Simplex 20hp. With the advances in the Lego palette since then I could probably redo it in green

Edit: just realised that these photos were before it was completed, the boxes (sandboxes?) at each corner were later added

Edited October 4, 2018 by Talltim