Identification of diesels a brief dissertation by Jamessquared

Re: 71000

You may as well give up now Ralph, you're clearly not cut out for this railway enthusiasm lark...

 

Re: 71000

Ralph,

'Cos it seems that understanding diesel classes is a necessary part of the training needed to enter this hobby, I did a crash course to understand the difference between them all. Lesson 1: The various class 30s:

Class 30: An asthmatic diesel. So unsuccessful that BR renumbered them all as class 31 and hoped no-one would notice. An investigation subsequently showed that diesels with even-numbered class names between 30 and 38 inclusive had a systematic design flaw and no more were built.
Class 31: A diesel. Quite long, so lots of wheels, some of which just come along for the ride.
Class 33: Another diesel. Quite a bit shorter, so not nearly so many wheels.
Class 35: Another diesel, but with power transferred to the wheels with squelchy bits rather than sparky bits. Quite short, not many wheels.
Class 37: A diesel. Quite long, lots of wheels. Saloon car rather than camper van in style, with a handy boot at each end for the driver's luggage, picnic table, deckchair etc. Useful space when going on holiday, picking up the shopping etc.

Hope that clarifies the issue. Tomorrow, the troublesome twenties...

Tom

 

Re: 71000

I generally try to avoid visiting railways on days where I might be subjected to such a racket...

Tom

 

Re: 71000

Never realised how fascinating this spotting lark could be. What time is this going out? Must record it

 

Re: 71000

That's the one. Also of note is the bodywork; The original 'steel' panels weren't a success, so they were rebodied with a revolutionary combination of ferrous oxide and Isopon.

 

Re: 71000

Ah, aren't some of these 37 thingies powered by different engines? Something about slugs and growlers?? I think we had a slug on the Mid Hants once but it broke....

 

As part of Ralph's re-education into the new and exciting world of internal combustion, he will also need to learn some new vocabulary for his videos.

Ralph: your homework is to find some videos on Youtube which use the following words in their titles:

1. Thrash
2. Huge horns

Good luck - and please remember to post some of the videos you find on here. There will be a thorough examination at the end of this session!

Richard (or "Sir")

 

Re: 71000

Aha.. Mr JamesSquared please mark my dissertation findings on the 37....:cell:

there's 5 different engines.. 37/0 Triang, 37/1 Hornby, 37/2 Bachmann, 37/3 Lima, 37/4 Vitrains, 37/5 Hornby Mk2.

37/0 Triang ones were more pigs than slugs... but after hours of manicures they will ultimately pull like land rover.. and will stick to the fridge door, mostly found today in scrap bins on shop floors and often parted out for bits... popular number D6830.

37/1 Hornby by the other hand couldnt pull nothing.. and were well known for losing traction tyres and causing derailments on points, much like the 47/1 by Hornby.. found in the kiddie corner of the shop, mostly identified as 37130 (Maybe the RAIB should be informed 47500 could be a Hornby variant after all).

37/2 Lima was the sweat shop of the locomotive industry.. every modern image locomotive operator owned at least 30 of these... 20 painted in 20 different colours and 10 as "Mainline" intercity liveried 37 4xx numbers. Today most commonly found on ebay. It's the Pot Noodle of 37s.

37/3 Bachmann looks ubercool but the mpp (miles per pound ratio) makes them expensive to operate and most operators only have a small fleet... found new and never cheap. It was only produced to make the millions of Lima variants look dated and encourage everyone to sell up there 30 and buy 1 of these instead.

37/4 Vitrains.. just a cut and shut 37/2 rebuild... has anyone bought one ?

37/5 Hornby Mk2.. bit of nip tuck this one.. it's a Lima Sweatshop 37 in a Chinese made box with a few upgrades and a price hike, it's a bit like taking a Pot Noodle adding Onions and calling it a stir fry. The builders know it's a bit cheap.. the buyers think there getting something middle class... Best found in Argos under "toys and games".

 

There are two classes of diesels.
1. Deltics aka Class 55. Most excellent and wonderful.
2. The rest. Rubbish and should be scrapped.

 

I think mail should be canned as "spam"...:fish2:

 

A good first draft of your essay. For full marks you will need to include the 37/9 variety. You will remember from yesterday's lesson that these are conversions from any of the previous versions but are now only good for displaying in a siding due to excessive "thrash" when showing off to your mates. They can easily be spotted by the lingering smell of burnt-out electrics.

Richard

 

Re: 71000

I believe the "slugs" started out as "snails", but suffered the bodywork problems referred to by K14 above. Thus denuded of shells, they became slugs.

Tom

 

Re: 71000

To the best of my knowledge D6830 is stored serviceable in depot MW (which I understand stands for My Wardrobe). It was rebuilt some years ago using parts from the curiously similarly numbered D6830, retaining only one bogie from the original, but it's still the same one my Dad bought me in 1977, honest!
This worked on the UBR (that's Under Bed Railway) for some years alongside a green machine numbered 4472, whose main claim to fame was when it got accidentally diverted into a siding and thrashed itself for some time against the buffer stops, until smoke came out, at which point it's owner thought it was actually turning into a real steam engine. It's never been quite the same since - an extensive rebuild was started some years ago, but is still unfinished with no end in sight.

Phil

 

Fool.

 

My Lordzzzz, I feel like a good flail and bellow after reading that.