30777 to be overhauled

Having read the article about it in Steam Railway, it seems that the BR Green will be with the early crest rather than the late crest the loco carried during the last two tickets,
so will be a nice small difference.

 

IIRC, 777's gauging problem is not width over the cylinders as such but rather the "throw" at the front. It was explained to me that the cylinders are quite a long way ahead of the leading driving axle and therefore sometimes scrape against inward-curving platform edges. Does that make sense?

 

Work has continued in Lbro shed and all the boiler tubes should be out by now so the boiler can be inspected.

 

Progress on stripping down. Some of the boiler cladding has been removed and the tender has been moved to a different road in the shed.

 

I'd imagine that's a tad bothersome for any loco with outside cylinders and a copper capped chimney too. It's remarkable just how much many gauging issues have resulted from often seemingly trivial changes on the 'big railway' over the last five-plus decades. Heavier section rail and deeper ballast here and the odd realigned curved platform road there.

 

Here is 30777 today in Lbro shed.

 

You would think NR would be constantly striving to increase clearances to allow larger/ longer rolling stock not the other way round.

 

Why? On the modern fragmented railway, it's up to the rolling stock providers & operators to either fit the existing railway or fund any necessary upgrades.

 

Yes, you are right there, makes completely brand new infrastructure almost make sense...

 

777 boiler is now removed and is sitting outside Lbro shed.

 

Sliding doors. Since sliding doors there have been a good number of passenger entrapment resulting in a fall between platform and train. Hence they are working hard to keep the clearance down.
Interestingly not long ago I saw a profile of actual platform clearances against current spec and it amazed me how few were within spec, too high, too low, too far, the majority were out of the desired range!

 

But on the other hand, there are longer (IEPs are 26m) and more capacious trains out there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Everything crossed in hope of nothing (too) unexpected being revealed. Does anyone please have any idea how old the boiler is, or what significant work it's needed in the past?

 

Here is a picture of the boiler taken yesterday.

 

We are doing that. The issue is wheelbase and front/end throw of older vehicles compared to new ones. Look at the class 800s for example. Modern rolling stock design principles have really moved on since the steam locomotive, unsurprisingly. The balancing act for platform design too has changed with accessibility for passengers and reducing dwell times the main points.

 

Looks fine. Get it back in.



Simon

 

I am intrigued by the Malachite Green livery and the Fratton (70D) shedplate.
Pat

 

It does seem a bit daft that rolling stock policy is defining the state of the infrastructure, rather than designing new trains to fit what already exists.

 

I know its been done to death (and then some!) on here before, but from the coal face. Say something like a Hall, now they don't fit very well, but they appear to have fitted a lot better in a wider area say 5 years back, aren't NR supposed to inform operators of a network change to allow comments before doing it, I know it was a bug bear of a rather vociferous previous poster on here that NR were quietly reducing the loading gauge over time?