Early Risers.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. I too had to collect paraffin and firewood, and coal! This was in the mid sixties and 'smokeless' zones had just been introduced. The 'smokeless' coal could best be described as semi-coke and would reduce to a very gritty dust. This was not helped by it coming in half hundredweight bags that tended to hole very easily. As the only way to easily carry these bags was to hoist them onto your shoulders you ended up with the gritty dust going down your neck and into your hair, sometimes your neck was red raw after carrying the bags. Thankfully we moved to a new house with gas fires in 1970 and moving wood/paraffin/coal became a thing of the past. When I moved to Burnham-on-Crouch fourteen years later the cottage I acquired had an open fireplace but by then the 'smokeless' coal was of far better quality and came in far better paper sacks that could be cut up and used as firelighters. The fireplace had a flat plate on the front which could hold a kettle which came in handy during a power cut. One Christmas the family was visiting and I obtained some chestnuts which after puncturing the shells were placed on the plate to roast, my nephew who was about seven years old at the time loved them, so much in fact that he decided to do some for himself. Problem was he didn't understand the need to puncture the shells and suddenly they started exploding.

[The Stationmaster]

Absolutely.  And I was just 4 years old at the time.  Sent down the road with a note from mother and a couple of bob from which she expected change.  Except on the days when she also needs firelighters which cost a bit extra so I got given half a crown.

 

You'd never get away with that now!  Even if you can find paraffin on sale it costs a bit more these days   That and the Elfin Safety mob have to justify their existence by not allowing sales of by-the-quart paraffin in open containers to 4 year-olds!

You can find paraffin on sale in those plastic containers which hold a couple of litres or so - and it costs a fortune, far more expensive than petrol or diesel.

[edcayton]

Surely you carried coal in a pram?

 

Ed

[gordon s]

Does anyone else recall being sent round to buy paraffin? That seemed to be pink or blue too.

Tony

 

Yup, from memory it was 2/- per gallon from the local garage on the North Circular Road.  Seem to recall petrol was 4/10 per gallon at that time.  That's about 23p per gallon compared to the £4.50 a gallon today.

 

Esso made the Blue stuff and Aladdin the pink....

[Ohmisterporter]

Surely you carried coal in a pram?

 

Ed

 

Remember when some half wit politician said the working classes would store coal in their baths? How did he find out, we tried to keep it quiet.

Stay safe all.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Ohmisterporter

[southern42]

I'm just doing my Christmas cards (two boxes, one religious, one secular) and noticed:

 

The religious ones, the ones with the Christmas Nativity scenes, say : SEASONS GREETINGS

 

It's the secular ones, the ones with animals in the sparkly snow, that say : MERRY CHRISTMAS.

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by southern42

[grandadbob]

Good afternoon all,

Weather is dull and dismal here and so am I. The trainset gremlins have struck big time and the whole bl##dy issue seems to have gone to pot!  Further testing needed but I think my controller may be dying.

Regarding paraffin, in the late Fifties when I was 9 or 10 I was put in charge of replenishing the two big heaters in the "games room" at my parents pub. This involved filling a large glass bottle and inverting it in the appliance and making sure that it was fitted correctly before lighting it. Also  i/c coal replenishment, making up fires in the bars and bottling up at weekends. All this was for my weekly pocket money of one shilling.     I suspect that all that would be frowned upon these days but I loved every minute of it.

Now off to the railway room to fiddle with my controller.

Have a good,

Bob.

Edited December 13, 2015 by grandadbob

[LisaP4]

Morning(?) all.

Caught up with everything, got distracted, caught up again, figured I'd better write something before it took a whole day to post it again.

A rather nice overcast day here today, spent most of it trying to cajole dad into the shower, without luck.

Shall have a bit more of a poke at the 16mm scale loco in a bit, still nibbling on some assorted left overs for a late dinner.

Also I need to stop looking at 2FS layouts, before I get sucked into doing something.

 

Enjoy your day all.

 

I suppose they would boil eventually without the air blowers, but some day next week probably.  I made working pressure in an hour and a half today, which is about perfect from cold for these little locos.  They both have 'marine' circular (tubular really, I suppose) fireboxes and these need a rather different technique from firing a conventional firebox.   Sea Lion was warm from yesterdays works trains so they didn't have to get out of bed so early!

Where is this, and what's the gauge? I don't think I've seen you mention it, or have but forgot!

I've seen air used quite a bit for steam raising on larger (4"/foot and larger scale) 7¼" gauge locos, but usually with a fitting on the blower pipe to attach the air line to. On the other hand, I know a couple of 11" gauge lines where they just stuff a length of drain pipe into the chimney to get a natural draft.

 

Great pics, Dom.  Do the passengers get Announcements before, and at, each stop?  I noticed it was introduced on the London Underground but I didn't expect it on our buses (so far, on the North Coast, Caernarfon-Llandudno route) - in Welsh then English.  It gets a bit much when you use the buses a lot but it probably helps the holiday visitors.  I prefer a (silent!) electronic display board.

A few years back here, the guards on the trains were first told to announce the stations, then told not to. There was apparently a number of complaints about the grumpy guards' voices. I also recall a guard once announcing the names of the stations, but calling out the names for the wrong line; it took five or six stations before he realised (or was told of) his mistake, and started calling out the right station names. Now there's recorded announcements, which are quite loud and bothersome, probably so as to be heard when wearing headphones; which are necessary to drown out the announcements.

 

The 5" gauge Sweet Pea loco I've had the privilege to drive this year has a marine boiler.  Advice I was given - keep the top of the fire towards the back of the firebox and below the tubes at the front so they don't block up, and add more coal little and often.  About half an hour to make working pressure - if you get it right.  Some coal (small lumps of anthracite) doesn't seem to do so well as others.  I guess it's the same with all scales.  Read performance articles in the Railway Magazine in the 1950s and the speed of the Castle class is synonymous with Welsh coal - it always seemed to get mentioned, anyway.

We tried anthracite once, and only once, it was horrible to burn. It took ages to catch alight, then burnt too hot, and too quickly. "Char" is popular here with miniature loco's, no idea what it actually is, but the draw card is not having to clean the firetubes if you use it exclusively; much like anthracite though it needs a lot of heat to get it burning, then burns too hot. It does last a while though, but burns to a fine sand, which naturally gets blasted straight up the chimney and into the driver's (and passengers') face(s).

I'm rather a fan of good steam coal, Blair Athol being the local coal of choice for loco's of all sizes. Many have to settle for Rosewood coal around here though, which is high in tar, resulting in black smoke, a black face, and blocked tubes.

Dad's Sweet Pea, btw, we used to get from cold to 100psi in about 20 minutes; though that had a Briggs steel boiler, and I imagine we wouldn't be starting from quite as cold as you would in the UK.

[Killybegs]

Woke up yesterday to snow on the hills. It hung around all day as the temperature hovered around freezing. The gritters were out in the afternoon and it was down to -3 when the taxi arrived to cart us off to a local restaurant. Can't remember what it was like when we got home an awful lot later and rather the worse from an excess of alcohol. Steph has had me outside putting up decorations this morning and it still bl***y cold, my fingers are still numb. The snow has gone but it is now raining. I don't think I would be very popular if I went back to bed!

 

More paperwork done for Steph today, I am finding this retirement business very time consuming! I think I shall have to give the workshop a miss today, otherwise I may end up doing something that will need undoing tomorrow. Perhaps I will light a fire and see if there's anything worth watching on the telly.

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

[southern42]

Morning(?) all.

Caught up with everything, got distracted, caught up again, figured I'd better write something before it took a whole day to post it again.

A rather nice overcast day here today, spent most of it trying to cajole dad into the shower, without luck.

Shall have a bit more of a poke at the 16mm scale loco in a bit, still nibbling on some assorted left overs for a late dinner.

Also I need to stop looking at 2FS layouts, before I get sucked into doing something.

 

Enjoy your day all.

 

Where is this, and what's the gauge? I don't think I've seen you mention it, or have but forgot!

I've seen air used quite a bit for steam raising on larger (4"/foot and larger scale) 7¼" gauge locos, but usually with a fitting on the blower pipe to attach the air line to. On the other hand, I know a couple of 11" gauge lines where they just stuff a length of drain pipe into the chimney to get a natural draft.

 

A few years back here, the guards on the trains were first told to announce the stations, then told not to. There was apparently a number of complaints about the grumpy guards' voices. I also recall a guard once announcing the names of the stations, but calling out the names for the wrong line; it took five or six stations before he realised (or was told of) his mistake, and started calling out the right station names. Now there's recorded announcements, which are quite loud and bothersome, probably so as to be heard when wearing headphones; which are necessary to drown out the announcements.

 

We tried anthracite once, and only once, it was horrible to burn. It took ages to catch alight, then burnt too hot, and too quickly. "Char" is popular here with miniature loco's, no idea what it actually is, but the draw card is not having to clean the firetubes if you use it exclusively; much like anthracite though it needs a lot of heat to get it burning, then burns too hot. It does last a while though, but burns to a fine sand, which naturally gets blasted straight up the chimney and into the driver's (and passengers') face(s).

I'm rather a fan of good steam coal, Blair Athol being the local coal of choice for loco's of all sizes. Many have to settle for Rosewood coal around here though, which is high in tar, resulting in black smoke, a black face, and blocked tubes.

Dad's Sweet Pea, btw, we used to get from cold to 100psi in about 20 minutes; though that had a Briggs steel boiler, and I imagine we wouldn't be starting from quite as cold as you would in the UK.

 

For the 5" locos, we start off with paraffin/other impregnated charcoal and put the anthracite on top (the shiny stuff tends to be much better than the dull and dusty variety we've come across), then switch on the electric blower in the top of the chimney to get it going.  Bought by mistake - it should have been Fluid - BBQ lighting Gel is dreadful - it's so sticky the lumps of charcoal not only stick to themselves, they stick to the shovel!  This means that while it's taking time to get the coal into the firebox, the door is open letting in all that cold sea air...Be warned...

[edcayton]

 they stick to the shovel!..Be warned...

 

 

Not like that other stuff then.

 

Ed

[roundhouse]

On our way home now.

 

Birmingham New Street is much better than it used to be at concourse level. Still a bit of a hole on the platforms and very cramped when trying to get off a full and standing train.

 

Has a few rather good brews in the city centre.

 

Back to the station but one unusual feature is that the ticket barriers and found that the platform areas are split in two. We went through the first set of barriers only to realise that we should not have gone through the other set as the lower platform numbers are a separate barrier end area. The ticket staff said that this wa due to a safety regulation due to the size of the concourse. Not too sure about that but it may be true.

 

On our way home so no more beer this weekend.

Edited December 13, 2015 by roundhouse

[Tony_S]

I was presented (it had just been "cleaned") with a shelf from the refrigerator door this morning. My task was to repair it. Aditi was most impressed with the new bracket/support piece I laminated from plasticard.

Today's only other task will be trying to tidy Robbie up. Fortunately we have a good supply of dog biscuits to keep him interested.

Tony

[BoD]

Esso made the Blue stuff and Aladdin the pink....

I was just about to say.....

 

Boom,boom,boom,boom, Esso Blue.

[Coombe Barton]

I was just about to say.....

 

Boom,boom,boom,boom, Esso Blue.

Old one - have groans ready.

 

That has four bums and keeps you warm?

 

Bum, bum, bum, bum Esso Blue.

[New Haven Neil]

A'noon.

 

OK, were to start? 

 

Ladies first......Lisa, this is the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man http://www.ggr.org.uk/ two foot gauge.  I'm a guard and almost passed out driver, and general volunteer dogsbody.  I need a couple more 'accompanied' turns and I will be passed out.  Or pass out.....

 

We burn anthracite, in fairly large lumps described as 'cobbles', in reality they vary from two inches to six!  Fire raising is via the air pipe hooked over the chimney, it goes down about two feet and turns upwards into a nozzle, so in fact almost the same as turning the blower on.  The 'boxes of both Bagnalls are marine type, and have a brick arch - more of a concrete wall in effect, at the end of the grate a couple of inches short of the tubes.  This stops what Polly mentioned, getting the fire too close to the tubeplate, but it's placement is crucial, if it's wrong they just will not steam and you struggle all day.

 

BoD, no, Sea Lion has only one whistle, an American 'Crosby' chime, which is loud but sweet, much like an A4 bit a little lower pitch.  I think it's actually off a boat as it is a 160 psi version.

 

Edited December 13, 2015 by New Haven Neil

[New Haven Neil]

PS for Lisa - do you know about Bagnall, and Bagnall-Price valve gears?  Interesting motion, we have one B-P and two Bagnalls!

[New Haven Neil]

PS for BoD - the brass hoojar on the dome is a regulator lubricator, not a whistle, in case you were wondering!

[LisaP4]

For the 5" locos, we start off with paraffin/other impregnated charcoal and put the anthracite on top (the shiny stuff tends to be much better than the dull and dusty variety we've come across), then switch on the electric blower in the top of the chimney to get it going.  Bought by mistake - it should have been Fluid - BBQ lighting Gel is dreadful - it's so sticky the lumps of charcoal not only stick to themselves, they stick to the shovel!  This means that while it's taking time to get the coal into the firebox, the door is open letting in all that cold sea air...Be warned...

We used to start with wood soaked in kerosene/paraffin with a little coal on top, plus the electric blower for draft. We had a jar that was slightly shorter than the length of the firebox (thus if it fit in the jar, it'd fit in the firebox), that we kept full of wood and kero. Said jar was found by wandering around the supermarket isles with a bit of wood in hand, I think it was some brand of peanut butter. None of us liked peanut butter, but ate it as we didn't want to waste it, and needed the jar.

 

Speaking of different fuels, we always carried wood, coal, and char with us, as each had its own uses.

When you need heat now, use wood, it won't last long, and it isn't the hottest, but if you're low on steam and blocking the line (or have long queues of waiting passengers) it'll give you the quick boost you need.

If you need a lot of heat, but aren't in a hurry for it (low on water, injector's packed it in, so have to pump in a lot of cold water) char is what you want, anthracite would probably do the job too.

For the rest of the time, when you just want a good constant fire, nothing beats coal. It's not the hottest, and it's not the fastest, but it does give the most even firebed, and you will burn less of it because of this, even compared to longer-burning fuels.

 

I've just discovered that paraffin and kerosene are the same thing; I always thought them to be different products of oil refining, but apparently not. Mind, I did learn this from wikipedia, which isn't the greatest for accuracy at times.

 

Also, Kerosene/paraffin is always blue here, methylated spirits is pink, or sometimes purple - probably depending on how much dye they add.

[BoD]

PS for BoD - the brass hoojar on the dome is a regulator lubricator, not a whistle, in case you were wondering!

 

Yes, I can see that now,

Due to the angle in the original photo it looked as though it could have been a second whistle alongside the ... erm .. whistle.

[LisaP4]

PS for Lisa - do you know about Bagnall, and Bagnall-Price valve gears?  Interesting motion, we have one B-P and two Bagnalls!

Vaguely, I think one is similar to walschaerts, but with no drop link, the union link back-facing, and the combination lever inline with the expansion link. While the other is kind of a mix of southern and baker gears.

Don't recall which is which though, assuming I'm anywhere near right.

[NGT6 1315]

One Christmas the family was visiting and I obtained some chestnuts which after puncturing the shells were placed on the plate to roast, my nephew who was about seven years old at the time loved them, so much in fact that he decided to do some for himself. Problem was he didn't understand the need to puncture the shells and suddenly they started exploding.

Ah, roasting chestnuts on the cooker plates with Grandma... Been a long time!

[roundhouse]

A good run down the West Coast mainline.

 

Back on Southern one of our trains cancelled so feel much back on home turf.

 

Luckily we knew this before arriving into Euston so made a dash for the underground and just made the earlier one.

 

Coincidentally the Southern staff near us on our train are talking about some poor decisions made and other cancelled services today.

 

Our train running late but fingers crossed we make the bus home or it's not raining.

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

I've actually managed to get up to date with posts, but today was a late (for us) start as the friends we had for supper were quite late in departing, and after clearing up, and giving Lily some time to wind down from the excitement, it was well gone midnight, so up time was actually a fair bit later than normal, then we had a very long session of paperwork to contend with, then walkies, dinner, and various other jobs before I was able to use the computer for some more leisure/pleasure activities - and having had to do the shopping the old way last week, I was grateful to get back to the money saving activity of ordering online - actually visiting the shop cost us about 20 quid more.

 

Good to see Geoff back and posting as well.

 

Also enjoyed the chat about paraffin which reminded me of the two TV jingles - one of which has been mentioned - the other was for a Glasgow distributor of the pink stuff which was Aladdin Pink, and the jingle went

 

Ring for Pink

Ring for Pink

Ring for Pink

(spoken "for pink paraffin ring City 2828 NOW")

Ring for Pink

 

Got to go as tea's ready, so generic greetings are all I can offer.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

Edited December 13, 2015 by 45156

[45156]

Morning all. A quick visit before I have to return to the land of no internet and get ready for another busy week. I'm just hoping that they fix it by the end of tomorrow. Eight days is taking the p**s.

 

Mine was down for ten days in total, and all due to some incompetent contractor putting the wires back wrong in the exchange - no word of apology from my former employer, and so far, no sign of a rental rebate - I hope that you get better treatment than than.....