'The Royal Duchy' 2013

My footage of 44932 on yesterday's Royal Duchy, seen at Whiteball, Dainton, St Germans, Hemerdon and Stoke Cannon. Dainton and Hemerdon proved very interesting indeed with some epic slogging from the 5 on load 8!

 

44932 put on a very impressive performance yesterday, especially in the hands of Mr Churchill. Due to late running Xcountry we had an enforced stop in Plat 2 at Newton Abbot ("not my choice" said Ray at Par) so not an ideal start to the climb of Dainton which was the only wet rail climb. Despite a couple of slips the climb was judged brilliantly, I think any more power and the loco would have slipped again but enough was done to see us safely into Dainton tunnel.

I think the loco had a failed injector after Taunton (maybe before?) so was nursed a little on the way home. Still a very good run and many thanks to all involved. Great trip.

 

Nice selection. Dainton and Hemerdon are very good.

 

I don't know the exact train weight, but surely something over 350 tons including the loco itself with tender. On 1-in-42, that's a static load getting on for 20,000 lbs, which doesn't leave a lot to spare from the nominal tractive effort, never mind adhesion. In the days of regular steam, what was the maximum allowed load for a Hall without assistance over the South Devon?

 

I'm a little confused here. How does 350 tons equate to 20,000 pounds?

 

More like 70000-80000. 1 ton is 2000lb.

 

Correction. One TONNE is 2000lbs, one TON is 2240 but whether short or long tons are involved, 350 of them comes to more than 20,000lbs and more than 70,000 as well. 700,000lbs+ by my reckoning.

 

Correction . 1 tonne = 1000kg = about 2205lbs. 2000lbs is a short ton (but ton, not tonne).

But getting back to the original point: I think the poster is alluding to the fact that on a 1:42 gradient, at zero speed (so no rolling resistance or wind resistance) a load of 350 tons including engine will exert a gravitational pull back down the hill of approx 350/42 tons, which is about 18,700 lbs - close to the 20,000lbs quoted, which the loco has to overcome in order to be able to start the train.

Tom

 

I was quoting the US short ton but you are correct of course that a tonne is metric. Thanks for the explanation re the gradient thing.

 

Sorry my post caused confusion, and thank you Tom for explaining what I meant. And can anyone answer my question: what was the maximum allowed load for a Hall without assistance over the South Devon

 

O.S. Nock shows in GW days Stars were limited to 252 tons, Saints (and Halls?) to 288 tons, Castles to 315 tons and Kings to 350 tons. These limits were occasionally relaxed and may have been slightly improved on in BR days. The loading limits were based on the notion that any class-member on any day could re-start its load, no matter what were the weather and rail conditions.

Mostly coaches were lighter than the BR Mark 1 or 2, so a King today takes load 9, whereas for instance pre-war a King on the CR would have taken load 10. It all gets complicated by the number of axles involved today (and the relatively lower resistance offered by roller-bearings).

 

Correction, apologies for a late-evening typo! Kings were limited to 360 tons. When 6024 took the first unassisted special over the banks to Plymouth in 1997, it took 8 Mark 1s, but thereafter has taken 9 without any difficulty. Duchess 46233 once went over loaded with 10, but others may remember the details, particularly the return over Hemerdon.

 

So what would have been the approximate trailing load for 44932 on Sunday?

 

Much guesswork from this distance but if there were 5 x Mark 2s (160-ish tons), 2 x Mark 1s (70-ish), Support Coach (say 40 tons), plus passengers (guessing 400, say 25 tons), that makes 295-ish tons. From the video, looks good everywhere but a wet rail on Dainton west-bound might have made life tricky.

 

Thanks for this. So only just over what a Saint was allowed. Given that a Saint had a t.e. of 20530lbs and a Black 5 has 25455lbs, I'm guessing the load was similar what the GWR would have allowed a Hall, t.e. 27275lbs.

 

More or less. An engineer would tell you the benefits today of (1) fewer axles and (2) roller-bearings over plain bearings, but they are likely to be significant when near the limit over the S Devon banks and bends.

Quite why 46233 took c. 400 tons was not explained but Hemerdon was nearly its undoing. In the early 50s the WR Brits' loads never exceeded the King limit, nor did those hauled by the Stanier Pacifics when they briefly stood in for the Kings in the mid-50s.

 

In BR days, maximum load for a Britannia over the Devon banks was the same as for a Castle. Of course the driver could still opt to take a heavier load without a pilot or banker if the conditions (especially of the railhead conditions) were appropriate, and there are quite a few recorded instances of both Castles and Kings doing this. But if he stalled and couldn't restart he would probably get a "Please Explain" request !

David

 

Presume 25 August train is cancelled due to non availability of locomotives??

 

It's interesting that uksteam has added 45231 to the Royal Duchy loco pool for the 1st September. <BJ>

''34046/34067/45231: Bristol-Par-Bristol''