Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway General Discussion

TONIGHT (Fri 10) 1930h BBC1 in the north of England only, "The Lakes with Paul Rose" includes a segment on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway (filmed last year). Should subsequently be available on IPlayer anywhere in the UK.

 

I'd love to see the finished version of this loco on the Ratty!

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=4-12-2+air+test

 

I read somewhere else that the Ratty are considering building another loco so perhaps a 4-12-2 might be worth looking at - a good excuse for arranging a visit, perhaps!

 

Where did you read that

 

Somewhere on facebook , I think, but I was browsing at the time and haven't been able to find my way back to it! Apparently there was a design exercise underway, but then the Whillan Beck opportunity came up and it was suspended, but is now being looked at again. Suggestions included updated versions of River Esk and Northern Rock

 

Well if we were to get another loco at the railway, the shed would have to be expanded as the maximum of 5 has been reached

 

All proposals are dependent upon one thing. Because of the work done on Esk and Willian beck plus other loco works current and pending all the piggy banks are empty. Until such time the piggy banks are full again all these ideas are hyperthetical. Including myself we can dream but the bottom line is money.

 

I don't think I said otherwise, perhaps because its a statement of the blindingly obvious and really should be unnecessary as most of us are very familiar with the concept! However, the article I can't find said that thoughts were once more turning in that direction, and what's wrong with people starting to think about it? It would be interesting to see how thoughts eventually coalesce into selecting the eventual candidate. If it helps anyone to locate the article, I've subsequently remembered that another one of the possible concepts would be a DHR C class pacific outline loco.albeit with a shorter tender.

 

The artical is in the last Ratty magazine and a short piece in steam railway mag this month.

I accept there is nothing wrong with thinking about it. Anything beyond an eight coupled loco would have issues going round the bends on the track. Esk has more power than needed to pull any train that fits the loops so proposels byond that size don’t make sense.

 

The 4-12-2 suggestions was tongue in cheek, but what a loco it will be in 15" gauge! The 15" gauge DHR pacific would look great, but doesn't really fit the Ratty's freelance ethos (imho). Maybe a 2-8-2 "Northern Rock" might be the answer - how would that compare with "River Esk"?

 

A 2-8-2 northern rock would be good. It would be rather like a SAR NG15

 

Would something like a Garratt not work on the line, I remember seeing the documentary about it at the Ratty & Romney

 

The thinking seems to be that the existing fleet are powerful enough but that the adhesion offered by 8-coupled over 6-coupled is worthwhile. My impression is that Garratts tend to be be light on their feet, so might not fit the specification.

 

Well what Garrats are very good at is that you can get a large engine with a distinctly low axle load and this automatically translates into less adhesion
and slipping. As they could also cope with sinuous lines they needed guide wheels either side of the coupled axles at each end to give a better ride round
curves and give better tyre wear on the driving wheels - whether two wheeled trucks or bogies these carrying wheels took some of the weight leaving less for grip.

Also the probable reason Beyer Garrats never went anywhere in the USA was that with water and fuel either end of the locomotive and not in a tender you lost
adhesion as it was used up. And worse than that with fuel one end only it is most unlikely the coal and the water would have come out at equally reduced
weights at both ends all the time, so with one regulator you could only open it out as far as the lighter end would keep its feet though the other, heavier, end
could have provided a bit more traction. This did not arise with an American Mallet.

 

The video of it can be found on YouTube - search for "the great little train from down under".

As a word of warning the quality of the transfer is not good and the content has a great deal of err. . . . padding around it so use of fast forward is recommended to get to the bits of interest!

Whilst it's of interest I don't think it's the ideal choice for the Ratty and as Nigel states a Esk type loco is more than big enough for the line capacity, the extra expense in all that goes with a articulated loco is I feel a waste.

 

On the subject of articulated locomotives.

Have any articulated designs ever visited the Ratty- the original River Mite apart....

I wonder how Hawk or Owl from Kirklees would perform on the line?

Chris

 

The Tasmanian Garratt visited the Ratty and Romney lines in ‘93

 

I would like to see the Ratty with the worlds largest collection of 15” locos. That would include articulated locos (bendi engines) of all types and yes we can all dream of our favorates and desired dreams. And yes I would love to build a super 2-8-2. Even what I dream of in the ultimate Nigel steamer is beyond what the railway needs to function. I do like the idea of say a NGG 16, a challenger, P2, BR standard 4 tank, 9f and even an A4. Maybe even one of the Chapelon super 2-8-4’s, SAR 26, 23 and a Australian AD6000 Garrett. That I would think would make a start to filling the round house

 

Would a tank engine, something like the old Bonnie Dundee not be a good idea for services in between like the 12.10 & 14.45 during summer service as to give the passengers who don't want crowded trains like the 10.25 & 11.25 or even help on larger services as a pilot loco

 

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