FR & WHR & WHHR News

I thought it resided in the name plates seeing as one of them has had three different ones.

The bogies do tend to stay paired up as they are all different. James Spooner has NGG16 tires fitted so has bigger wheels than Merddin. DLG has different valves of course. Taliesin has steam operated draincocks and sanders.

The bogies under the Square are particularly oddball. There was an issue a one time with driving wheels coming loose which was largely down to age and quality of manufacture. But in the 70s it was decided that the solution would be bigger axles and wider wheels. These were squeezed into to original frames with the consequence that axleboxes had to be smaller and more fragile. The cylinders also had to be packed out to fit the wider wheels. On top of that the wheels were poorly balanced at first so it felt like it literally had Square wheels. Some of these issues were corrected but they have never performed as well as the others and were a maintenence headache. I think ultimately some of those bogies could be salvaged but new wheels and frames would probably be needed.

More likely we will get a situation where there are 4 boilers and 3 sets of bogies and just rotate them. Power bogies can easily be turned around over a winter. They only run about 3 years between overhauls anyway. The boilers on Merddin and the Square are getting old now and big money will need to be spent. 4 double engines would be quite boring as the single engines wouldn't go out, and they are much more fun to play with.

 

Great fun with the kids at the Ffestiniog today. We took the northbound Mountain Spirit with DLG and managed to change onto the southbound Quarryman with Blanche at Tanygrisiau (just - last seats!). While eating our lunch at TyB afterwards we saw two Woodland Wanderer services, one with Merddin Emrys and one with Welsh Pony. JGF!
The Quarryman starting from Blaenau seems very popular and is apparently almost always fully booked.
Very pleased that all of the serviceable engines I haven't seen before (or not for ages) turned up today!

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Yes indeed. Russell probably did more work in June than ever before (much heavier trains now than in the 1920s/30s), so these things happen.

I have heard rumours that K1 is visiting the Farm again next year - as allegedly neither Russell nor the Baldwin may be available for a celebration. Russell I can understand - the boiler ticket expiry is imminent, so it may be prudent to do the motion repair and the re-tube, etc. at the same time - but (if true) then the continuing long-term absence of the Baldwin is harder to explain. This is practically a new loco, restored by a very respected organisation, so is presumably under guarantee - if I was involved with said organisation I would be moving heaven and earth to get it sorted pronto, for reputational reasons if for no other reason. And of course all of us who were at the gala have been promised a free ride behind "590"! (but only, I hope, after VERY extensive loaded testing on the main line)

 

The company who completed the overhaul are not the ones who overhauled the axleboxes though. So should they move heaven and earth to fix someone else's problem? Do we even know that the quality of the work is the point of failure? You could machine the axleboxes from the desired material to the desired specifications and that could incorrect for the application. Who is then responsible for fixing that? These things are never as clear cut as just saying "it's all his fault he should fix it".

 

A "Moving Pictures" update on the rebuilds of the Ng15, the Chinese C2, Alco "Mountanineer, and news of the ex Adrian Shooter diesel now at the F&WHR:


Steve B

 

These really are excellent productions and a brilliant form of communication from the railway(s).

 

K1 is not due to visit WHHR next year, that was a mistake by a certain website author finding a press release from 2014.

Russell is hopefully due to be repaired and back in use next year to see out the final year of her boiler certificate.

The Baldwin is more complex a problem and will not be solved quickly there is more than just “an axel box to deal with”

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100079639725339

 

An enjoyable day at Ffestiniog- first visit since 2013 (shamefully!). Great fun to have a footplate ride on Hugh Napier - though a passing 143 rather dwarfed us!

 

Autumn General Manager Update - 2023 - YouTube

Another brilliant update from the GM, absolutely brimming with positivity. New locos, loco acquisitions & overhauls, investment in infrastructure and more importantly a healthy balance sheet to pay for it all. Essential viewing!!

 

I continue to be impressed by Mr Lewin's (and his technical and marketing teams') professionalism in these segments. It's far from an easy thing to do - both in terms of practicality, and in keeping it at the right technical level, so that non-railway people can also gain useful knowledge. In this one he does thank all those (me among them!) who have thanked and congratulated him privately.
I remember in the early 2000s that it was then said around Porthmadog that the FR was "a railway without a marketing department" while the WHR Ltd (now WHHR) was "a marketing department without a railway". (Many) things have changed!
Most of the larger Heritage Railways are now pretty good at this kind of thing - they have to be - although public communication and engagement is (being kind) very patchy among the smaller organisations, with some hardly bothering at all.

On the related matter of a "healthy balance sheet" - we must continue to keep in mind that there's a balance here: like 98% of the UK's Heritage Railways the FR's assets are owned by a Charitable Trust - and it's a basic rule of a Registered Charity that profit cannot be the driving force of the organisation - public benefit is the only driving force allowed. Naturally, a properly-run Heritage Railway needs to be businesslike to succeed - but (with two or three exceptions) it's not a business as such in the normal sense of that term. So every management decision needs to be made on two criteria at once - first, is it demonstrably to the benefit of the public, and only second - is it financially viable. Otherwise we risk being seen by the ignorant as people only concerned with our own profit (which is of course very much not the case).

 

Tickets for the Bygones Weekend are now on sale. Locomotives in use include 'Welsh Pony', 'Merddin Emrys', 'David Lloyd George', 'Lyd', 'Blanche', 'Moelwyn', and a Quarry Hunslet too. New Double Fairlie 'James Spooner' will make it's public debut over the weekend. It will feature in a Three Fairlie Line Up at Harbour Station on Friday night, as well as the Nightglow event at Minffordd on Saturday, but will not be hauling passenger trains just yet. Other highlights include Kerr Stuart 4415 on display across the weekend, Gravity Trains from the Power Station Summit, The Boat in use, and tours of Boston Lodge Works.

 

Don't think Welsh Pony will be running!

 

Why not? It's advertised as running...

Steve B

 

It has tonight been withdrawn from the L&B Gala, with Lilla and Hugh Napier stepping in its place. Paul Lewin has written on Facebook that one of its crank pins has been recorded as moving within the wheel, which can be repaired but completing James Spooner and Linda will be taking priority.

 

Led me to wonder what other locomotives Festiniog & West Highland Railways would have the SSJ injectors apart from the NG16 Garretts?

The Kalaharis are an obvious guess being also from South Africa but there may be others?
The Kalahari 2-8-2s N15s have a surprisingly comparable size of fire grates to the Garratts - 17 sq ft v. 19 - but distinctly less adhesive weight so they might have the same injectors if probably with different size jets. When the one that is under heavy repair 134 is out running it will be interesting indeed to compare with the Garratts.

 

They are looking for Ejectors for creating vacuum in the brake system. Not injectors for putting water in the boiler.

The search for SSJ type was successful. They are now looking for the smaller Dreadnought type fitted to the Festiniog locos. Someone foolishly built more engines than there are ejectors. Also the one the ALCo is particularly worn out.

 

Thank you for the correction to ejector. There seems to have been problems with small ejectors: apparently long term in the Isle of Man
and the new build GWR steam railcar was rather particularly glad to get an ejector removed from one of the Vale of the Rheidol locomotives when they went over to air pressure brakes.

 

I wasn't aware of it but I'll ask while I'm in there on Sunday leading the MNH Heritage Open Days workshop tours. The only talk I've heard re ejectors was about No.16 which had a Dreadnought from new and there was some discussion on whether to replace it with the same type as the rest of the fleet. Largely irrelevant at the moment as, apart from finishing the boiler at SVR, Mannin's restoration is 'on hold'.
Ray.

 

The main issue is the bodies wear out. The Festiniog ones came second hand from BR in the 60s and have been in use ever since. All that use causes passageways inside the body to erode and access to build them up again by brazing for example is virtually impossible. The result is you need more and more steam to create vacuum until it doesn't work anymore.

I'm not sure if a new body has been cast in preservation. They are fiendishly complex and replacing the entire fleet would be expensive even if you can find someone with the ability to cast it. Not easy these days.

We much prefer the Dreadnoughts to the industrial style pepperpot and separate ejector arrangement as fitted to the England engines. They are so much nicer to use and on a railway that is almost entirety downhill in one direction the ability to brake smoothly is very useful.