Tornado

When a class 56 made it down the Cambrian last year it made it as far as just beyond Newtown, I think there maybe a weight restriction on the timber bridge by Caersws that may preclude it going much further. However a substantial amount of work has been done in the last couple of weeks under the recent engineering closure, so perhaps these restrictions maybe eased?

With no firm timings for it to be at Newtown I won't be turning out, however any information gratefully received!!

 

I do know a friend and work colleague who lives just around the corner from Newtown station, but I'm not sure she'd be too impressed with a request to go walk the dog between about 01:30 and 03:30 just to prove or disprove a trainspotting rumour!

 

Line to Machynlleth has been closed for a month with rail rep buses, extensive work involving diggers improving the resilience of the deep cutting at Talerddig, freight last night to assist clear up.

 

Has it?

The local press stated the line was to be closed for just two weeks between March 21st and April 2nd (with fuss about the crossing being closed at Abermule even to pedestrians during that time). Technically 21st to 2nd wasn't even a full 2 weeks. Certainly I've been seeing normal service trains rattling back and forth again for the last week, so those works didn't seem to run on for more than the advertised period.

Why would the normal service DMUs be running back and forth either side of that advertised 2 week closure if the line has been closed for a whole month with replacement buses?

 

I would just like to ask here about 60163 A1 Tornado although it's been given a fresh 10 year boiler certificate why is it only going to be in service until 2028?
Or is that just the contract with W.C.R.C. to run with R.T.C. tours advertised with 60163 A1 Tornado?

 

OK 2 weeks then, I understand there were some services to Newtown then buses, apparently Tornado made it to Welshpool last night before returning.

 

That's just the WCRC contract, I think. They don't appear to have given much detail as to what comes after but it seems implied that it's based at Darlington with operations more akin to what we've previously seen.

 

not mine but you get the idea....

 

Still got the 'boy racer' lights then...

 

Would love to have seen it with my own eyes, but quite remarkable to have an A1 pacific at Newtown Station!!
Hope the tests are going well and prove to be successful, will be a huge achievement.

Who's going to promote the first steam hauled railtour back on the Cambrian!?!

 

...as far as Newtown and back!

 

I really need to go to bed tonight and stop going out trainspotting...

 

Afraid not - I saw an acquaintance I know whilst out last night who commented that "nnnn" was driving, but the name didn't mean anything to me and I couldn't repeat and tell you what/who it was, sorry.

 

Has a description been published anywhere of how the ETCS works on a steam loco? It must interface with the brakes but does it also control the regulator?

 

I’m 99% sure it doesn’t. AFAIK it sets target speeds based on line limit and traffic ahead etc. I guess if the driver exceeds the target speed it will bring the brake in.

 

I think any kind of automated (e.g. servo) control on a locomotive regulator would be hard to arrange. They are notoriously imprecise controls; it is not unknown on some locos (depending on the precise design of regulator control) that the only way to fully close the regulator is to fully open it first (*). It would be very hard to automate that movement.

(*) On many - particularly older - locos, the regulator consists of two sliding plates arranged against the regulator body so as to give a first, or pilot, valve opening and then a second valve opening with much greater cross sectional area. When you open the regulator with a fairly long cut off such as after starting away from a station, you can open to "full first valve", with the regulator perhaps a quarter of the way across the quadrant, after which further movement stops. This is because with a small regulator opening and a very free exhaust, there is big pressure drop across the regulator, such that the plates of the regulator are forced hard together with corresponding high friction, too high to easily overcome with muscle power. To get into second valve you have to pull the loco up tight which constricts the exhaust and gets a more equal pressure across the sliding plates of the valve; then nudge the regulator into second valve, let the valve gear back out to where you want it, and then open the regulator some more.

You then get an issue that when you want to close the regulator, one valve closes, at which point the friction increases and the other valve sticks slightly open; the regulator feels slightly spongy when that happens and doesn't sit neatly closed against the stop. When it happens, the trick is to whack the regulator wide open and then in one movement slam it shut. Automating that would not be easy. (Effectively the "shut regulator" command becomes the somewhat counterintuitive "open it fully, and then shut", but only in certain circumstances ...) You may also realise why if you are doing a footplate course on an old loco, you tend not to go beyond first valve!

There's a tendency when explaining steam loco operation to a newbie to equate the regulator to the throttle of a car, but the graduation of control is really very different.

Tom

 

I would hope it doesn’t. I doubt if it would also operate the blower, in certain circumstances shutting the regulator without putting on the latter could have unfortunate consequences for those on the footplate.

 

Stuff the paint job, I think the lights look great.

 

Does anyone know how this new electrotonic system actually interfaces with the working of a steam loco?
I don't really know, the ins and outs of it, but I would imagine it works very much as the present systems do, IE you have to react to warnings within a set time, or the system makes a brake application, but with in-cab signalling, rather than track side. and energised relays,
I am starting to question though, at what point does modern safety systems become just too complicated to be fitted within the confines of a steam locomotive?