USATC S160s

There is still thoughts of seeing 6046 venture out into the big wide world. Just workload means she's more useful on the hire market at the moment, but 2022 she's due an overhaul and well, we can never guess what the future might hold.

 

Didnt the one on the WSR last year get sent back as it wasnt reliable?

I gather that its a generic S160 issue, not just that particular loco

Nice hooter though

 

6046. There was no major issues when we got her back, and she's performed fine at Dartmouth all summer this year.
5820 never seems to have many problems at KWVR, whilst 5197 has performed well at Epping and CVR with no major concerns.

 

Is no-one going to explain the boxing glove for those of us that don't know, then?

(I'm assuming it's to stop crew cracking their heads on something but I get the impression there's a fun story attached)

 

Assuming it’s like 6046 (which @Steve was kind enough to let me have a ride on a few years ago) it protects your head from a projecting quadrant for the regulator.

Tom

 

701 had a similar arrangement yes its to prevent yourself knocking yourself unconscious on the foot plate, given the lively ride on an S160, its a very sound measure also the regulator had a padlock to prevent the handle from flying off when you gave it the full open treatment, it also had a second hole to lock the regulator closed when the engine was left overnight still with steam on the gauge.

 

That’s exactly why it’s there. Whether it stays or gets replaced with something more appropriate, I don’t know. It makes a good talking point.

 

Every pull out regulator I've ever come across has a pin in to hold it closed as their design means that steam pressure tends to open it. Besides the S160's, other UK examples are T.R. Nos. 1 & 2 and the GNR tanks 1247 and 69523. No doubt there are others that I've not come across. You get into the habit of pinning it closed when you shut the regulator. The S160's have a ratchet on the quadrant, though, so that helps keep them where you put them.

 

Update for 3x S160s
https://www.facebook.com/568397586883216/posts/1493028327753466/?d=n

 

So Batt Holden are the owners/ Custodians of three S160's so they are like the SSL CO for them ?
Love that these locos are so different to British ones but have a genuine place in UK preservation. They are of course the Loco of choice for Polar express type events.
One of these days WIBN to get one mainline, obviously not ideal for high speed cruising but on somewhere tortuous ( the Jacobite for instance) they would be 'very useful'

 

Excellent! Thanks for posting this lil Bear
Good luck on with the restoration!

Knut

 

My understanding is that they own 5197 and 6046, and that they are effectively custodians of 3278. Happy to be corrected if wrong, though!

 

Jon, any idea why there are two threads for S160 / S160s on here? Need merging I’d say.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Because someone couldn't be bothered using the search function, and I've not bothered requesting to merge the two lol.

I'll report this post, and let the mods do their thing.

 

CVR Facebook page has made it public that 3278 has arrived at Cheddleton to be restored under Batt Holden's custodianship, and have said that 3278 will keep the 'Franklin D. Roosevelt' name.

 

A quick request - does anyone know of a public-domain photo of a USATC S160 at work on the Southern Railway during the war or thereafter? I can find a few photos of them at work from that era, but generally on GWR or LNER metals.

Tom

 

Good luck with that quest. There is an NRM image of 2054 at Christchurch on p23 of Over Here - the Story of the S160" whose caption starts "Photographs of S160s working on the Southern are extremely rare." If you just want a picture of an S160, you can find a free one of 1604 which was GWR at https://ba.e-pics.ethz.ch/main/galleryview/qsr=USATC .