Foxfield Railway 2012 Steam Galas

The Middleton Rly might be persuaded to help out with a lend of their newly reinstated Class H/Y7 - a real beauty!

 

Repaint into NCB, or will that not be approved this time? Right, I'm off to hide!

 

Darfield No 1 in her new livery, paired with a matching Wimblebury would be nice...

 

The Foxfield Railway are delighted to announce that a visitor has been secured in the form of 60163 Tornado. It will be the first time an engine of this size has been seen on the line and we are looking forward to seeing how she will manage the 1 in 29. The loco is due to arrive 2 days before the event. (Subject to mainline commitments).

 

Inaccurate post I'm afraid- it's actually 1-in-19.

 

Is it April 1 already?

 

Indeed, the obvious thing to do for this years gala.

 

Actually there has been suggested that a 4F made it up the line from the exchange sidings once, and there was a wild plan to 'borrow' a 5 from stoke shed and hide it at the colliery in the last days of steam! Of course I can neither confirm or deny these rumours!

 

What I'd really like to see at Foxfield gala's is engines that aren't usually in the limelight, for example, those running on private railways, or those that run on very short lines, or run at far away places. Examples would be;

AB 2168 'Edmundsons' from Rushden
P 2004 from Tyseley
RSH 7680 from the private garden railway at Fulstow
AP 6158 'Siraptite' from the Long Shop museum
Anything from Chatham Docks
P 1893 from Coleford (a fully steamable Peckett that has about three yards of track to run on and only steams a couple of days a year!)

Of the above, only Edmundsons regularly performs on passenger workings.

One of the many industrials that run on lines in Scotland (it's a long way from Oxfordshire and you need the proverbial month of Sundays to cover all the railways)
P 2129 'Kestrel' from Jersey (that may be hoping a bit too much)

All of the above would have the rarity factor that a visitor from Chasewater or Tanfield does not have.

JP

 

Very true!

 

Well the cats out of the bag, I did hope to keep it hushed up for a bit longer. As many of you know the NCB did have a few NER tender engines in service in the north east, hence the planned application of N.C.B. to the tender and removal of the BR numbers is not without some merit.

The planned charter will have Whiston banking, the number plates removed from Tornado will be fitted to Whiston to remind us all that it too could have been a main line "J94" had it not been built in 1952. It is indeed all true and would have been made public on 1st April had this unfortunate leak not taken place.

Plans to lift Tornado off the main line at Blythe Bridge to save the cost of relaying the main line connection have been shelved when the owners of Dubs remembered that it wont fit under the bridge. Dubs will however carry a nice 4101 plate on her smoke box and cab sides as she did on the ESR.

Tonado will run smokebox first down the bank in order that when climbing the tender may condition the rail heads. We expect a few moans about this but on the plus side she will be smoke box first over the crossing - and lets face it thats not something you see every day is it ?.

 

Be sure to remove the vac pipes from Tornado, otherwise it'd just look daft... Anyway, it's more the sort of loco Tanfield would hire in!
If anyone wants me I'll be up to my neck in concrete supporting a bridge over the Tyne.

 

Surely removing the trailing driving axle would shorten the wheelbase and make it easier to negotiate the tight curves on the line. Has this been considered?

 

Good point about the vac pipes, attention to detail is critical.

Regarding the driving axle its perhaps a little early to say for sure, perhaps just removing the trailing rods would do the trick ?. The rods could live in the tender and be refitted when needed.

 

Yes, removing the rods could be a simpler answer. I had thought of removing the leading coupled axle but being divide drive this would have effectively turned the A1 into a two cylinder loco and that would be silly.

 

Tanfield have been on, they are going mad as Mr P had Tornado booked for the September bash. Plans for the North Eastern Tender Engines in Industry on hoppers weekend have been set back and relations between the two railways are a little tender at the moment.

I agree a two cylinder A1 would be silly, but then again in NCB service they would only have needed two, so again perhaps there is merit ?.

 

You make a fair point. Instead of the tender, any thoughts about leaving that off and coupling up a match wagon as they did on the Waterside system? Scottish area I know but an interesting possibility perhaps.

 

You forget, Spamcan81, that the wee pugs were saddle tanks - were would we store the water ?. People will be thinking that we have not thought this through. We could perhaps use an old 25 gallon oil drum, hide it in with the coal and then couple up to a water lifter - could work.

Just in case Tornado does not make it we have other irons in the fire !.

 

I was relying on the capacity of Tornados boiler to see it through a shift without needing to fill up but the 25 gallon oil drum would be a good fall back. If Tornado's visit is a success, how about the SAR Garratt from the Manchester Museum painted up as Sir William Francis for next year's gala?

 

Now that is silly. William Francis did not have a head light !.

I did read in Steam Railway that the SVR wanted to paint 1501 in NCB red in order that it could visit, as you know we never leave these things to the last moment hence if anyone spots red on this this engine our secret will be out once again....