SR S15 (30)825

Speaking as someone whose preferences are for locos of quite a different company (and colour!) I've always found the Arthurs and S15s to be very handsome, and good fun.

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I too have a bit of a soft spot for the S15s. They're something rather attractive in how much of a rugged, simplistic brute they are. I would dearly love the opportunity to spend a day on them!

 

Found this photo on Flickr of 30506 and 35005 on the ELR back in 1993. (Not mind)



https://www.flickr.com/photos/neil_harvey_railway_photos/6074666372


Nice photo.

 

I think the S15s were capable of a fair bit more speed when needed, as their extensive use on relief passenger work showed. In Bradley's Urie volume there's a collation of recorded journeys by a friend of Bradley's on his daily commute between Salisbury and Exeter in 1929-30. For the Maunsell S15s, the average recorded speeds, over nineteen journeys, were over 70mph at each of Sherborne, Crewkerne and Axminster, better than achieved by the N, H15 and T14 classes.

The maximum recorded speeds, near Axminster, are also illuminating. Among the usual suspects, like say a T9 (91mph), Nelsons (87mph average), KAs (90mph), N15 (86mph), there is an S15 recorded at 84mph. I imagine it may have been a lively experience.

Edit: Obviously, timings of this era shouldn't necessarily be taken as gospel. But even if you assume 10-20% error, an average of 70 and peak over 80 implies rather more than 45 mph.

 

Brute is quite a good word - there's not much finesse about them! I have a bit of a soft spot for 847, because I passed the second part of my firing test on her. But they are heavy to work on, particularly to prep (it's a big old firebox to throw out an old fire, and it all comes out through the firehole door on a big and heavy slice ...). The coal doesn't trim very well in the tenders at heritage line speeds, so you spend a lot of time each trip throwing more forwards. (Interestingly though, a driver acquaintance of mine from BR days reckoned at speed they essentially had suicide coal that walked its own way from tender to firebox ...). On the positive, they steam really well: in fact, the more you hang behind them, the better they steam. On the Bluebell, with sustained gradients at 1 in 75 or steeper, hang seven behind and you have an effortless sort of day. But stick a lightweight set on and they can be a devil to get to steam because there simply isn't enough draught. I remember one particularly hairy trip with slow burning Welsh coal running light engine .

Had I been a BR driver or fireman just doing a job, I think you would have welcomed the Standard 5s as suddenly having tool that made your life easy - cab seats; turn-on-and-forget injectors; nicely adjustable dampers; rocking grate and hopper ashpan to make prep easy; mechanical lubricators to simplify the driver's life; firehole door that doesn't try and bite you at every turn; comfortable cab. But no character: while I can remember numerous days on the S15 with affection (sometimes through gritted teeth!), nothing much on a Standard 5 sticks in the memory ... One is just a tool while the other has a personality.

Tom

 

Yeah I can see that as an ELR driver I'd rather have a day on 52322 than a std tank or wells... Incidentally the fitting staff prefer 52322 to a std tank as it takes up very little of their time in comparison....

 

I'm pleased to discover that I'm not the only member of the S15 fan club! Brutes they may be, but very handsome and solid brutes. I found Neil (Romsey)'s account of 828's lively ride at anything much above 45mph very interesting especially as I too had read of speeds of 75mph or more being attained in BR days.

When my interest in trains revived at the age of 11, just after the end of steam, I was given a copy of the Observer's Book of Steam locomotives dating from about 1964 and when I saw a picture of an S15, something jogged my memory that I must have seen engines like this when I was very small. I was therefore saddened to discover that none had been sold into preservation. When I visited Barry on a mystery trip from Redhill in 1971, I was naturally delighted to see no fewer than seven S15s in the scrapyard, including both Urie and Maunsell variants, and even more delighted when one by one, they were all rescued. It's a shame that 847 has been put on restricted use because of its thin tyres, but with 506 and 825 back in traffic this year and both 828 and 499 being worked on, I and other members of the S15 fan club should have plenty of reason to feel happy in the coming months and years.

 

I am informed that 825 underwent a successful loaded test run to Battersby tonight so is now available fro running on the Esk Valley line once more.

 

Is 825 owned by the same group that owns 830?

 

Yes. The Essex Locomotive Society owns 825, 830 and the remains of 841.

Keith

 

Given the recent discussion r.e. speeds, the speed required for certification for Whitby Running, is 45mph as was achieved the other night. This is only attainable in the Battersby direction from Grosmont, as the linespeed to Whitby tops out at 35mph iirc.

 

Is it doing the whitbys this weekend at all?

 

I couldn't tell you, I believe a roster is normally published on the website, but it is of course, subject to change.

 

Ok thanks for that

 

On the Diner Train today so not on the Whitby service today.

 

Only 30 mph Max between Grosmont & Whitby. It's on the original 1836 Whitby & Pickering Railway trackbed, laid out for horse traction and quite curvaceous, perhaps an asset for a woman but not for a railway.