Coal firing on the Vale of Rheidol?

I was in Aberystwyth earlier and called in at the Vale of Rheidol railway. Everything is all closed down for winter. Unfortunately I couldn't see very much happening as the shed doors were closed.

The is an old boiler in the yard which I think comes from No 7. What caught my eye was the firebox doors and an ashpan in front of it, I thought the Rheidol engines were all oil fired - are they going back to coal?

 

No.7 has not steamed since the early 90s and certainly that boiler has been in that spot untouched for the last four years, so I don't think this constitutes a suggestion that they're going back to coal. The boilers on Nos.8 and 9 are both of recent Pridham's manufacture.

 

At least 1 Rheidol engine go back to coal in 2012, I have it on good authority.

 

I have also heard this in Boston Lodge talk. Think same main reason as FfR/WHR.. rising cost of oil. I am also fairly sure that they will be looking at the FfR/WHR ashpan and spark arrestor designs for running through the forestry as this will be a necessity on a line such as the Rheidol!

Karl

 

I will probably never get the chance but I have always wanted to fire using coal on the Rheidol. I reckon it could be pretty challenging as from stories I have heard in the past it seemed that whilst on other railways you may shovel more they are also more forgiving. Onthe VoR I got the impression there was very little margin for error and you either get it spot on or start to suffer

 

Indeed; just read C.C. Green's book.

I hope those concerned will be open minded enough to consider using Lempor exhausts.

P.H.

 

Why would they want to ruin perfectly good sounding engines?

 

I can think of a number of narrow gauge locomotives which sound perfectly fine with Lempor exhausts. That, of course, is assuming such considerations matter which, IMHO, they don't! The fitting enables the use of effective spark arresters whilst maintaining, or improving, steaming capacity.

Please let us put "not invented here" to rest.

P.H.

 

Well it could not be worse than when they attached the "huge" air pumbs to the front of the loco's

 

no loco looks good with a huge pumb on it ;-)

 

If the Rheidol does revert to coal, it will be interesting to see if they lower the cab roofs back to their original height. They were raised by 3" under BMR management because the installation of the oil firing equipment required the cab floor to be raised. The change makes a small but noticeable difference to the engines' proportions.

 

I doubt it. 3" is useful headroom!

 

The Rheidol engines were oil fired in the 1970s, long before BMR took over. The 3" was added in the BMR era for crew comfort.

 

indeed the cabs of the Rheidol engines were raised 6" at the BMR which from photos I have seen whilst working there looked bloody ridiculous they have since been lowered by 3" as Anthony suggests it was due to the fact that the locos were fine for the old short welsh blokes back in the day. for the tall lanky ones (me included) you still cant get in the cab without banging your head...

as for boiler works No.s 8 and 9 had new inner fireboxes only, replacing the original Copper box for a steel construction over the winters of 05/06 (No.8) and 06/07 (No.9) the conversion will be easy enough as nothing will have to happen to the boiler. In layman's terms it would involve removal of the Pan Plate which attaches to the bottom of the firebox and attaching a new design ashpan, there was talk of spark arrestors but I am too out of touch to know much about the progress on this now.

as for Coal Firing etc the ashpan, firebars and firehole doors have been outside the shed in that position since Winter 09/10 (the boiler whilst heading for No.7 is out of No.8 with No.8 having No.9's I believe. however they were not in there former engines when built! ah standardization...) when they were going to look at converting one of them then (the engine of choice would have been No.9 as the boiler had to be removed over 09/10 winter due to a problem with the door ring.) it never happened that year but Like Neil I have also heard that a conversion will happen this winter (No.8 preferably).

as for Lempor exhausts both 8 and 9 already have them...

cheers

AT

 

Excellent!

 

The new edition of Railway Magazine (in the shops tomorrow) contains details of No. 8's conversion to coal firing.



Charlie

 

While on the subject of the Rheidol, are there any plans for no 7 ?

 

And how is the new shed/workshop coming along? Haven't seen any recent pics.

 

Hi,

The workshop is ready for the bricklayers to start and some of the bricks have arrived, some of the more specialised bricks are on order and will arrive soon hopefully. No.7 is on hold until the new workshop is finished as the current shed is currently full and there is little room to work on No.7. The Rheidol has its own Facebook page now and there are some photos of the workshop as it stands on there

Welcome to Facebook

Joe

 

Thanks for that Joe, be nice to see them back as a trio in the future.