Steve's Recent Activity
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Steve liked Jamessquared's post in the thread Swanage Railway General Discussion.
Ah, the convertible 4MT sub class :) Tom
Jun 2, 2026 at 10:10 PM -
Steve replied to the thread Remaining Ex Barry locomotives?.
The Super D has one advantage over a NER 0-8-0 and that is a large person can get on the footplate. :)
Jun 2, 2026 at 4:41 PM -
Steve liked std tank's post in the thread Remaining Ex Barry locomotives?.
I wondered how long it would be before someone mentioned the Super D.
Jun 2, 2026 at 4:19 PM -
Steve replied to the thread Remaining Ex Barry locomotives?.
That really depends on what you are doing. Washing out a boiler or brushing down a firebox are never going to be fun tasks. However, driving and firing undoubtedly can be and that is what the previous comments have been about. There’s the...
Jun 2, 2026 at 8:29 AM -
Steve liked Jamessquared's post in the thread Remaining Ex Barry locomotives?.
I've fired over thirty different locos. Given that that list includes a 20 ton Fletcher-Jennings 0-4-0T from the 1870s and also Tornado, it is hard to give an absolute ranking; they really aren't comparable. But I doubt it is a great surprise if...
Jun 1, 2026 at 3:53 PM -
Steve liked 26D_M's post in the thread Remaining Ex Barry locomotives?.
I don't have your experience of older designs Tom but concur that the 4MTT is the finest of the bunch. Did 42085 visit Bluebell or am I misremembering? As far as your experience of a Black 5 goes, I don't know which it was but I think you must...
Jun 1, 2026 at 3:52 PM -
Steve liked Sheff's post in the thread 6024 King Edward 1.
I was an engineer in the chemical industry all my working life and firstly for our sins they were always referred to as vacuum pumps, be they recip, liquid ring or whatever. However, in design and specification, we always used absolute pressure...
Jun 1, 2026 at 3:44 PM -
Steve liked Aberdare's post in the thread 6024 King Edward 1.
The correct name for the mechanical pump that pumps air to create a vacuum in the brake system on a GWR locomotive is the 'Air Pump'. Officialdom at GWR Swindon nearly always refers to it as such in drawings and documents. Outside of the works at...
May 31, 2026 at 10:03 PM -
Steve replied to the thread Remaining Ex Barry locomotives?.
Is any GWR loco great to work on? Admittedly my experience is largely confined to 4277, 5224 & 6619 but I found them horrors to oil up and not the most comfortable to drive and fire. The odd days on Panniers and others were no better. I passed...
May 31, 2026 at 7:49 PM -
Steve liked JBTEvans's post in the thread The South Devon Railway Thread.
Did the Pullman Ploughman's Lunch on Lydia yesterday. The food was excellent and the carriage is superb, can recommend the experience. There was a commentary throughout the trip of Lydia's history with news clips and music from the various time...
May 31, 2026 at 7:40 PM
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Steve replied to the thread 6024 King Edward 1.
Wow! My comment has certainly livened up this thread today:) I did say ‘being pedantic’ and what I said was not wrong. A vacuum is nothing and any engineer will tell you that you can’t pump nothing. You create a vacuum by removing the air in a...
May 31, 2026 at 7:21 PM -
Steve liked Jamessquared's post in the thread 6024 King Edward 1.
Interestingly I looked up the section on brakes in the Black Book. The text refers to a "vacuum pump" and there is a figure caption to a drawing in which the caption is labelled "vacuum pump" (agreeing with the text) but in which the component in...
May 31, 2026 at 6:42 PM
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Steve liked torgormaig's post in the thread 6024 King Edward 1.
So is it a vacuum pump, or is it an air pump? Is it a railway station or is it a train station? In both situations we all know what people are talking about and as far as I can see both terms are correct in their respective situations. On the...
May 31, 2026 at 6:40 PM
