Swanage Railway General Discussion

Latest update on 30053:

 

This is Brilliant news. All we need is the two Push Pull Maunsell Cars to be resorted for a classic 60s set.

 

I do like steam in the rain Bryan, so I was very pleased with the end result. Just not quite what I rushed up there for, and very lucky I had the golf umbrella in the house (normally lives in the car) as I had used it when it was raining earlier and I had to walk down the town for a haircut. Dread to think how wet I would have been using my telescopic umbrella which I normally just grab if I am popping up there on a "normal" rainy day.

 

Followed an empty S.A. Smith low loader and its escort vehicle out of Swanage just after 15:00 I guess had delivered Eddystone to Herston Works.

 

Just the DBC needs restoring. Then an operating system needs to be agreed with the relevant authorities. In conversations years ago, thoughts of a EPB type configuration might work. Oh! and then the Drummond Loco society need to adapt their loco and supply the Westinghouse air compressors etc. So, £500,000 should cover it.

 

The GWR Autocoaches have forward facing windows so the [assengers can see the drives & the line like a first generation DMU.

I dont imagine thet the Maunsell vehicles are the same so could they just operate as hauled stock in the usual way?

 

Not sure what you are saying

 

Unlike the GWR vehicles there isnt a significant 'experience' you miss as far as I can see of the auto gear isnt installed, not that I wouldnt like it to be

 

As built, GWR Autocoaches have a solid bulkhead behind the driver, so passengers can't normally see ahead. I don't know if any preservationaists have changed this.

 

I'm not sure of the numbers of specific vehicles, but on the occasions I have been in a GWR auto coach (on the Bluebell about 15 years ago and on the WSR), you could stand in the front of the carriage and look through the front both to see the track and also the driver operating the controls. (Which, by your description, sounds like a modification over the original).

Recently we went on BR(W) auto coach on the South Devon, and you could also see out of the front of that - though I don't think it was set up to run as an auto coach, so was more along the lines of an observation car with a completely modern interior.

Tom

 

I also had a ride on the GWR auto coach which visited the Bluebell in February 2008 and oneof the owners was on board. He confirmed that this was a modification.

 

178 (the one that visited the Bluebell) has had windows fitted to the sliding door between the saloon and the cab - the usual thing seems to be leave the door open!

The one at SDR would've been W233W, formerly Test Car 1/ADW150375. It was fitted with a generator at one point. The toilet isn't original either. It's also on B4 bogies. Bizarrely it had windows fitted on the non-driving end in preservation. It's a pity it wasn't kept more as a departmental vehicle rather than chopped about since preservation.

http://www.traintesting.com/test_car_1.htm

 

I don't think point of the proposal of creating a motor train is so that the passengers can see out of the 'front' like they can of a DMU or modified Autocoach. The point is to replicate a way of working trains that was widespread across much of the branch line network of the old Southern Railway and Southern Region but which hasn't been seen since the 1960s. Similar reason why people have spent many many pounds on building a new A1, Saint, Grange and H2. Doesn't really change the experience sitting in a Mk1 (other than the tone of the whistle that occasionally floats through the window) but the experience you get is from seeing a type of train go by that previously hadn't been seen in living memory for a significant chunk of the population

 

Ah, I see. So paint a couple of windows in the rear of 1381 and hey presto, we have a two car pull push unit. Seriously though, to create a proper pull push unit and hell, lets go big and run it on the main (branch) line, to operate this, it would need to be substantially better than the original SR system that was about teamwork and not technology

 

Unfortunately having waited to go to Boots to collect some drugs for my Dad so I could see the 15:20 departure the T3 had failed. From what I could hear from the bridge maybe a firebox stay had broken. D6515 worked the last two services. Great shame as at least two coaches were reserved and full of children, in fact the whole train looked very full.
Glad I bothered with the 10:00, as being "Flu Jab Saturday" at the surgery we had to be up very early (for us). Seen here at Quarr Farm.

 

Lets hope not, Because unless the U class has been repaired, that would mean just one Steam loco and one Diesel.

 

No stay issues; some broken/collapsed firebars.

 

Glad to hear not too major then.

 

Not sure I understand that last point? Surely everything on a steam loco is about teamwork not technology! The SR air system gave the driver full control of the regulator and brakes, so the only extra thing the fireman needed to do was the reverser.

If it's considered acceptable to run mechanical auto systems then I can't see why it shouldn't be fine with air?

 

Does anyone know what happened to 31806, and what stage repairs have reached please?

Bryan B