Nearholmer Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 Not derelict, but having a longer-than-usual rest, like an actress of a certain age, we all hope. The Bachmann controllers are good: I got one in a G scale set that I bought because the set was cheaper than buying the loco alone, and the controller serves very well indeed when want to play trains all over the floor as part of one of my daughter's giant Playmobil set-ups (about the only good thing about the winter, really, making Playmobil set-ups on the floor). 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Buhar Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2019 9 volt battery temporarily removed from the smoke alarm? Alan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2019 The delay to Castle Aching is largely down to the contractor for the track not having had the space in which to carry out the work. The position has now eased and work is progressing. Don Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 Sorry James I posted you about a Duette before reading to the end of the thread dh Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Edwardian Posted September 30, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2019 9 minutes ago, Donw said: The delay to Castle Aching is largely down to the contractor for the track not having had the space in which to carry out the work. The position has now eased and work is progressing. Don For which, Don, I am more grateful than I can say. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 30, 2019 I understood the issue is with the bullhead pointwork - the flatbottomed sections are fine! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 2 hours ago, Edwardian said: For which, Don, I am more grateful than I can say. 2 hours ago, Compound2632 said: I understood the issue is with the bullhead pointwork - the flatbottomed sections are fine! Well shouldn't be an issue then - There's no Bullhead in that photo! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 (edited) Thank you for confirming (above) traditional timing methods for regulating tramway speeds. As I suspected, cumbersome. On a quayside, a policeman (or BOT official?) could not do a Rous-Marten counting rail joints or passing signal sections but from timing the passing of points of known (much shorter) distances apart - rather a difficult thing to do. When the grandchildren were still interested in our model railway, timing scale speed over a known length of the roundy-round was always a favourite activity. But we always had to average stopwatch times between at least 3 or 4 recordings. Alternatively might a quayside tram engine valve gear have struck a bell - so excess speed would have been much easier to perceive? dh Edited September 30, 2019 by runs as required Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
webbcompound Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 (edited) Looking at the photo, my analysis is that your tracklaying problem is that you are laying broad guage (there was a lot of it in the US before guage standardisation finally spread to the South in 1886, mostly 5', some 6', and the annoying Ohio at 4'10") Edited September 30, 2019 by webbcompound 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 (edited) RaR Some later tramway locos had combined speed indicators and governors, but if the originating date for Southampton is correct, at 1865, I doubt the locos had such refinements. It would have predated most ‘proper’ tramway legislation, and probably got tangled-up in the Locomotives on Highways Act 1861, and the Locomotive Act1865, which were really aimed at road traction engines, and which did indeed restrict to 2mph in town, relaxed to 4mph in the country. What the BoT Inspector probably pointed out was that the Tramways Act 1870 allowed the highway authority to set a higher speed limit, even before The Locomotive Act was repealed. They needed not only a chap with a stop-watch, but a person conversant with the 600 page legal guide! K Edited September 30, 2019 by Nearholmer 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Edwardian Posted September 30, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2019 1 hour ago, webbcompound said: Looking at the photo, my analysis is that your tracklaying problem is that you are laying broad guage (there was a lot of it in the US before guage standardisation finally spread to the South in 1886, mostly 5', some 6', and the annoying Ohio at 4'10") No doubt that is the problem. However, this train-set came with a free Claudia Cardinale, so I could hardly say "no" .... 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Edwardian Posted September 30, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2019 Twenty years ago, but the memory s still fresh .... "Waah! Steady your self by gripping the knee with the right hand, then slide the left up and squeeze!" 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 That is very worrying... I was wearing a very similar tie and jacket to our esteemed, illustrious, leader... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northroader Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 30, 2019 I’m sure you have much neater shirt cuffs than him, though, Sem anyhow, I’m sure our Claudia is 100% genuine, but I dunno bout that loco: 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 Definitely a faux loco. Look at where the pilot is fitted - appears to be fixed to the face of the buffers. Buffers? Hold on, a Wild West loco ought to have no buffers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 30, 2019 Spaghetti Baldwin? 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 By the lack of all-round delight, I'm assuming that this link got lost in my tram ramblings http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52019982/view;?partId=nla.obj-52020890#page/n9/mode/1up Charles Rous-Marten, giving an overview of railways in Britain, and what amounts to a very early version of "locomotive practice and performance" in the 1880s. Interesting in light of the 'City of Truro' debate to read him dismissing accounts of very high speeds, and talking about back-pressure being the limiting factor. I won't spoil it by saying which railway and locomotive type he'd credits as being the fastest to date, or what speed he cites. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 30, 2019 Ah, but Rous-Marten himself was to record 90 mph with a Johnson Spinner - No. 117 of the 115 Class of 1896 with piston valves - the fastest authenticated speed with a service train in the 19th Century and equal to the speed attained by one of T.W. Worsdell's Class J two-cylinder compound bogie singles No. 1517 under test conditions. Plus of course he got that 92 mph over two miles coming down Ribblesdale with No. 2632 on an up Scotch Express in 1902. (W.M. Smith is the common factor here.) Ahrons explained the increase in maximum speed from the 75 mph of the 1880s as being due to the introduction of harder steel rails and tyres. That 75 mph limit, translated as 120 kph, was institutionalised in France by a law of Napoleon III that remained in force throughout most of the Third Republic, only being increased to 130 kph in 1930. That, coupled with the geography of France (Paris in the middle, other principal cities at the periphery), had a big influence on French express passenger locomotive design - the need being for engines that could run with heavy loads at constant speed over long distances - ideal conditions for compound engines. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
runs as required Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 46 minutes ago, Nearholmer said: By the lack of all-round delight, I'm assuming that this link got lost in my tram ramblings http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52019982/view;?partId=nla.obj-52020890#page/n9/mode/1up You'll be pleased to hear I'm still with you K. The rambling tram link is something I've been promising myself to read at bedtime. Not like that other faction on the Parish Council all hot and sweaty and pawing at their collars. dh Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Hroth Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2019 6 hours ago, runs as required said: Alternatively might a quayside tram engine valve gear have struck a bell - so excess speed would have been much easier to perceive? I'm sure there should be a music hall song which includes the refrain "But 'tis the Drrring A Drrring A Drrring as catches the Tram Inspectors Ear" Of course, the verses describe how the inspectors other senses are attracted by the young lady singing the song.... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Annie Posted September 30, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 30, 2019 2 hours ago, Nearholmer said: By the lack of all-round delight, I'm assuming that this link got lost in my tram ramblings http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52019982/view;?partId=nla.obj-52020890#page/n9/mode/1up Charles Rous-Marten, giving an overview of railways in Britain, and what amounts to a very early version of "locomotive practice and performance" in the 1880s. Interesting in light of the 'City of Truro' debate to read him dismissing accounts of very high speeds, and talking about back-pressure being the limiting factor. I won't spoil it by saying which railway and locomotive type he'd credits as being the fastest to date, or what speed he cites. Fascinating reading. Thank you very much for posting the link Nearholmer. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted October 1, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 1, 2019 13 hours ago, webbcompound said: Looking at the photo, my analysis is that your tracklaying problem is that you are laying broad guage (there was a lot of it in the US before guage standardisation finally spread to the South in 1886, mostly 5', some 6', and the annoying Ohio at 4'10") Come to think of it (I am slow), given the provenance of the still, 5'5 1/2" or thereabouts - six Castillian feet, which fortuitously was within a few millimetres of five Portugese feet. Bother you all, I'm now reading up on Iberian customary units... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted October 1, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 1, 2019 2 hours ago, Compound2632 said: Come to think of it (I am slow), given the provenance of the still, 5'5 1/2" or thereabouts - six Castillian feet, which fortuitously was within a few millimetres of five Portugese feet. Bother you all, I'm now reading up on Iberian customary units... I had never noticed that Portuguese folk had size 15 feet. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted October 1, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 1, 2019 1 minute ago, Joseph_Pestell said: I had never noticed that Portuguese folk had size 15 feet. King Manuel I (reigned 1495-1521) was the fellow with the big feet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Joseph_Pestell Posted October 1, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 1, 2019 6 minutes ago, Compound2632 said: King Manuel I (reigned 1495-1521) was the fellow with the big feet. Yes, back then the toffs were much better fed and therefore taller than the hoi-palloi. We have a lovely letter from a Mr Whitbread to my grandfather saying how difficult he had found it to get round the cottage that my family lived in (rented from the Whitbreads who owned large swathes of Bedfordshire). 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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