Garratts - Why Not Cab Forward

Steve is correct ,it was heating up caused by small wheels on diesels. The brake tenders used on the Toton -Brent coal trains were only used for a couple of years or so. Four or so vac fitted 16 toners replaced them, making a fitted head. Trouble was that in general N C B shunters refused to work with fitted wagons , a pity really as several years of testing on the Midland in the 50s , with fitted coal trains, went to nothing. Unfitted 16 toners had a max speed of 45mph,wooden 13 toners 35 .

 

The last sentence got me thinking - were the 16 ton minerals on the GC windcutters fitted , as stories abound that train crews used to rattle these along in the 60s?

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While on the subject of Garratts lets have a bit of Garratt trivia. In 2009 I took this photograph of the New South Wales Rail Transport Museum's (NSWRTM as it was called then) AD60 class Garratt, No 6040, on display at Thirlmere. Who can tell me what the pipes are that come over the top of the tank and go down in front of the cylinders?


You want a prize? Well maybe one of @Steve's king size Mars Bars will have to do.

Peter

 

What's the thing in L&YR livery ahead of it? I didn't know they worked that far south.

 

Rail washers?

Tom

 

Seing that you ask, here it is, a 30 Class 4-6-4T, one of about 150 built for Sydney suburban work. When the inner suburbs were electrified about half the class were rebuilt as 4-6-0s for country work and wereknown as the 30T class - T for tender of course - well this is Australia!

Peter

 

A good guess Tom but completely wrong - you will find the answer much stranger.

Peter

 

Dropbear remover?

 

To discourage the local wildlife?

 

No. I don't think Australian wild life, real or imagined, poses much threat to an AD60.

Peter

 

Is the pipe the ''hearing aid'' for the crew that went from each of the foremost wheels to the cab to make hearing detonators easier?

 

That is correct. When you consider the distance from the leading wheelset to the cab, combined with the noise of the loco when working hard plus the noise of the stoker as well, it was quickly realised that it was almost impossible to hear an exploding detonator if one was run over. The solution was a simple, but seemingly effective, "speaking tube" devise as seen in the picture.

"Not a lot of people know that".

Consider yourself the winner of a mythical king size Mars Bar, Bluenosejohn.

Peter

 

Google deserves the Mars Bar more than me!

Much interesting information on this site and there seems plenty of worthwhile browsing to avoid the delights of Christmas television:

http://www.modelrailroading.nl/Projects/AD60/Pages/00.3 Versions.html

 

3 very fine films. Thanks for the links.
After the 3rd film, Youtube offered me a colour film by the same chap. One sequence has the final answer to the Garratt exhaust beat question: you can hear the two ends going in and out of phase with each other.
Pat

 

Alas, they don't make king size Mars Bars any more so I can't be so rash with my betting habit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3693092.stm
Was it really that long ago?

 

I saw the G C coal trains passing over the West Coast main line at Rugby in the mid Fifties, ,all were loose coupled, B R didn't have many vac fitted 16 toners.Don't know what the max load was on the G C ,but it was about 1000 tons on the Toton -Brent trains with a 8F.Ratiling along at 60 or more would be very dangerous, stopping distance would be a long way. I know of one instance where the crew on a Corby -London tube train were getting a bit short of water ,and speeded up to pick up water on Oakley troughs just north of Bedford, couldn't stop ,and crashed in to a coal train which was standing at signals. The loco went down the embankment ,both driver and fireman lost their lives.

 

Stopping again was always the problem, even more than getting them moving. If you exploded three shots you had, at best, three-quarters of a mile to stop in. Nor was it a simple matter of throwing the brake full in; if you did that with a drawn out train at any speed you'd have wagons all over the scenery. You first had to gather them all together - close up all the buffers - before you could get on with any serious braking. You also had the consider the riding qualities of the wagons. Since they without braking, they were not intended for high speeds and the bearings were hardly suitable for it. And with a wheelbase of only ten feet, hunting at speed could become very serious. Despite all this, there are stories of mad-arsed drivers trying to break the speed limit and 60 mph with unfitted four wheelers was far from unknown.

 

I've quoted this before, but worth quoting. From HAV Bulleid's book, in reference to the Bulleid Q1 - a loco that punched well above its weight in haulage terms, but had a poor reputation for braking:

“But the biggest worry was the brake power being so low on so powerful an engine; it was accentuated by comparative tests in 1943 between a Q1 and an S15 over the long 1 in 250 downgrade between Basingstoke and Eastleigh. There were some dramatic moments of zero drama on these tests, with Bulleid and Attwell on the Q1 footplate coasting at 45mph and being pushed by a 900 ton train of non-fitted wagons. The handbrake was first applied, to be sure the loose-coupled train was bunched up against the engine and incidentally to avoid shaking up the guard too much. When the full brake application was made, nothing seemed to happen for several long seconds. It took nearly three miles to stop and they overran Wallers Ash home signal by just over a mile. In comparison, the S15 stopped within 1 3/4 miles. So the increasing of the Q1 brake power soon got onto Durban's job list in the Drawing Office; but there were always more important jobs and no loud shouting from Traffic and so it never got done.”
​

Tom

 

Thanks for clearing that up. Cheers

 

Sorry for the above mis-post. Computer screen got a mind of it's own again. Jumping about.
Thanks for clearing up and answering my question! Cheers