Identification of diesels a brief dissertation by Jamessquared

That's top shelf material. He'd better slip it inside an innocent comic. I'll keep an eye on the HR & SR threads then

 

The prize should be appropriate to the crime, oops sorry 'achievement'. As he's a newby modern traction fan, I'd suggest a month on a truly modern beer - get that man a slab of JS

 

Don't they qualify as being a Diesel?
We stick Gallons or more correctly litres of the stuff in one end and the thing under the bonnet seems to make a contented noise after being fed the stuff.
We even shunt with them at times.

 

That guy with the brush can't be very happy if that's how you treat him.

Richard

 

Bet all that deisel keeps him regular though

 

Re: 71000

This thread is producing a lot of wrong information. For a start, it is complicating the simple process of how to recognise a diesel with unnecessary information. quite simply, if it doesn't have a boiler, it is either s diesel or electric and if it is not connected to a big electricity supply, it is a diesel. Simple as that.

I also think that some of Richard's info is wrong. For example, his 05's are actually 02's. And I don't think that Gwalkeriow would take kindly to you describing his beloved coaches as old tub trains....
The ones with the shunters trucks were generally known as Panniers. I don't know about them being lonely, though; ther were usually loads of them down south.
Those locos with the go faster stripes were Jubilees. Very apt, too. I don't know where you got 09 from. As for the ones with the strange wheels fitted, they were better known as Spamcans, never 12's. And you've fallen into the usual trap of mis-spelling Bulleid.

 

Next instalment: the fabulous fifties.

Class 50: The "Hoovers". Part of the sixties revolution that transformed domestic duties, they were a marked improvement on the Brush, type 4, for the busy housewife.

Class 52: Another Western squelchy diesel, another confirming the thesis that amongst diesel aficionados, "popular" is a euphemism for "scrapped early". In Ralph's studies of YouTube, he will no doubt have come across many videos eulogising the "thrash" of such engines. Rather fewer eulogising them for the simple virtues of quietly, efficiently getting on with their job. 'Nuff said...

Class 55: Second class of diesel designed with more pistons than cylinders. When the first such diesel (see class 23), with nine cylinders and eighteen pistons was deemed to be a failure, it was felt that a simple fix could be made by increasing the number of cylinders to eighteen. However, despite stringent design work no viable scheme could be worked out except one which also increased the number of pistons to thirty six. Thus built, they had exactly the same fault as their smaller cousins, except for being twice the failure, sorry, size. They thus became "popular" (see class 42, class 52 etc).

Class 56: Engineering Sales of England for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Romania. Not a success, and sufficient to put BR off foreign imports for twenty years.

Class 57: A Genetically Modified class 47.

Class 58: A frequent complaint of drivers in many diesels was that, in order to move from one cab to the other, they had to walk along a corridor through the engine room, which was hot and noisy. With the class 58 therefore, BR decided to eliminate the problem by eliminating the corridor and providing a narrow walkway between cabs alongside the outside of the locomotive. This was cold and noisy, and drivers were never heard to complain about internal walkways again.

Class 59: A tentative toe in the water of foreign locomotive sales, the 59s were much more successful than the 56s. Their purchase in 1989, at around the same time the Romanian class 56s were beset with problems, is thought by some commentators to have been a contributory factor in the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Next episode, we go back in time to the twenties, when diesels had quiffs and no-one knew what would happen if you put different numbers of wheels under each end of a loco.

Tom

 

Sir, I fear you may have strayed into the wrong section of the forum. Around here, panniers are only for bicycles and jubilees are for stopping the fuel pipe slipping off your carburetor.

Ralph needs clear instructions about identifying *each* class of diesel, and he will be given as rigorous evaluation when the mods venture north in March. Answers such as "that looks like as diesel" will not be accepted, unless he's looking at a kettle.

As for my spelling, sir, I choose my words and letters very carefully, thank you.

Richard

 

I liked the way you zoomed in on that blonde in the Deltic shot!

 

Mmn, standing start out of Keighley up the Worth valley line and THAT'S ON ONE ENGINE. Are you watching Tom? because us lads oop 'ere don't want to be hearing many negative comments about our fine machines, remember, there's still space for a few names in "the book"

I'll just do a bit of raving now (see the B&O thread).......................PINZA was the best of the bunch. eace:

 

Well, I was just going to note that both of the videos posted by Ralph were much improved by turning the sound off, but maybe I won't now. I also note that both class 52 and class 55 are "popular", nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean...

Now clag, what's that all about? I was always told thick smoke was a sign of bad firing. Did the fireman do something wrong? Maybe he was patting the carb for too long?

Tom

 

Someone has forgotten their classes 41 (looks like a lego train), 43 (the later, pointy sort which can carry bicycles), 48 (like a 47 but different noisy bits) and 53 (extinct, but definitely a higher prime number than 47)...

 

Hmmm, I detect a certain smug "know it all" stance from PMH Minor. Well, let me remind the class that I have a Diploma in Diesel Identification from NatPres College of Diesel Education, and have carried out extensive further research on YouTube and have conclusive proof that the class 41 doesn't exist, though I did have an entertaining few hours searching for videos of "big hooters", as well as some interesting websites of possible interest to Mr Max Mosely about good hard thrashing, at least until Mrs Jamessquared asked what I was doing and whether I was ever coming up to bed. So I feel I know whereof I speak. So there. Anyway, next instalment later tonight: the roaring twenties.

Tom

 

Lordzzzzz I can feel my arm stiffening in anticipation :rockon:...... time for a cold bath :bathbaby:

 

I might be wrong, but weren't the NBL D600 Warships classified 41's. Though they were withdrawn before TOPS started to kick in. I also think the prototype HST was also classed 41.

 

Right, pay attention class. Today's lesson: the roaring twenties:

Class 20: Designed as sop to steam-era drivers, who couldn't get used to stopping a locomotive in the right place unless they had thirty feet of redundant stuff in front of them to add a bit of challenge. Later realised to be woefully underpowered; BR solved the problem by welding pairs of class 20s together, thereby inventing the class 40.

Class 21: See class 29.

Class 22: A class 21 with added squelch. Or maybe a class 29 with fewer sparks. Who knows?

Class 23: Cylinders? Tick. Pistons? Tick, tick. Yep, another "popular" diesel with more pistons than cylinders. Readers of a certain age will remember the late Monty Wells' article in the Railway Modeller showing how you could "cut'n'shut" a class 23 from a class 37, with carefully marked cut lines. Well, the original class 23s were so "popular" that none escaped the cutter's torch, so now those same readers are attempting a similar "cut'n'shut" from a real life class 37. It's reckoned that few if any of the 4mm variant managed to run more than a few inches before stalling on a dead frog and then being consigned to the parts box, before meeting their end 30 years later when the modellers mother "had a clear out of your old toys" as part of the aged parents desire to downsize to Bognor Regis. Whether the full-size counterpart will suffer a similar fate, slowly gathering dust in the back of some shed before final consignment to the great razor blade factory in the sky, remains to be seen.

Class 24252627: An almost indistinguishable melange of wimpy diesels called Ethel. Main distinguishing features are that class 24 and 26 are bald, whereas class 25 and 27 display their rockabilly tendencies and sport impressive quiffs.

Class 28: Product of a "POETS Day" conversation in the pub round the corner from the BR design office. "Why are all diesels symmetrical?" someone asked, "steam engines aren't". No-one had a good answer to that question, so they built one to try, and after that everyone had a good answer why diesels weren't built like that...

Class 29: See class 21.

Next episode: the inflammatory tale of the class 70. Right, class dismissed.

Tom