Lynton and Barnstaple - Operations and Development

Which is what I was reading this morning!

 

The low slung drain pipe boiler on Lyd isn't exactly the most free steaming thing ever designed. Also the location of the fire hole door which is basically at floor level makes life uncomfortable for a fireman over 4ft tall, trying to keep up with its ravenous appetite for coal.

Tim

 

It'll be interesting to see what further modifications will be made to new build Yeo in the light of the experience with Lyd.

 

I suggest that pretty much a complete redesign in light of experience and using the lasts developments in the steam locomotive would be well advised

 

I suspect Hunslets did this around 1898 after "looking over the garden wall" and saying "Huh!" They gave a further tweak around 1903. (1st try produced drive to the third coupled axle plus Walschaerts whilst the second one involved enlarging the boiler). Sorted!

PH

 

What loco was that

 

This attempt to compare a GWR loco to another design reminds me that I read (somewhere) that Churchward was asked by the GW Board to explain why LNWR locos cost half as much to build as his did. His reply?
"Because one of mine will pull two of their bl**dy things backwards!"

 

Rather different to the answer given by the Eastleigh Draughstman , TS "Jock" Finlayson, to Maunsell's assistant James Clayton. Clayton asked Finlayson why a King Arthur weighed a ton more than a GWR Castle, but had only 3/4 of the Tractive Effort, to which Finlayson deadpanned, in broad Scottish accent, that he supposed "the spec-eefic gr-r-ravity of steel was diff-err-r-ent at Swindon".

Tom

 

Indeed so. Referred to by her latter day crews as the "gentleman's light sporting locomotive." Always a really free steaming machine but a fire thrower until fitted with a spark arrester which necessitated re-draughting to restore her ability to boil water. I once guarded a train hauled by her when she blew off against both injectors at the top of a mile of 1 in 30 when the fireman got a bit eager. Oddly, Hunslet's next design for Sierra Leone, a 2-8-2T, proved to be a turkey!

PH

 

Except err - I was not comparing it with a GWR loco I was discussing the V of R locos that came before the GWR built ones i.e. the D&M ones

 

Indeed so, but others have asked for a comparison with Lyd and the GW V of R tanks. All that can be said about the originals is that the GWR felt it worthwhile to build new locos, based on the D & M design but considerably improved, whereas the Southern left the M-W's largely as they acquired them. That in itself tells us nothing about their comparative merits. The L & B locos must have been deemed adequate for the traffic demands.

A visit by the mildly "upgraded" Lyd to Aberystwyth would be interesting so how it performs alongside the GW tanks.

 

Personally I'd like to see a VoR tank tackle the L&B when it's complete.

 

So would a lot of people, but I think the Rheidol width with the extra tanks will stop that happening.

 

Uh - the most beautiful thing on rails!

 

You mean the coal bunkers of course? One of the mods the cambrian did to the original locos which the GWR copied.

 

Perhaps one of our resident "photoshoppers" could re-livery a side view WLLR 14 or Russell into Southern Livery to see how it would have looked if Hunslet had built the 5th loco.

 

More good news on the L&BR members' site regarding acquisition of trackbed.

 

Nobody with photoshop skills had an idle few hours, apparently! But John de Freyssinet's locos on his County Gate layout give some fun ideas for LBR might-have-beens.

 

Excellent news on the track bed side. I think this is the 'hard yards' bit (to use a rugby phrase) around Paracombe, so it is really good to see it coming together.