Timetabled goods trains on the Isle of Wight

Dragging unfitted goods trains downhill is what you should do. I was always taught to pin 1 in 3 but not so hard that the wheels stop going round!

There were some short inclines on BR where trains didn't stop to pin down brakes and they were allowed to descend with the knowledge that they couldn't stop. The down grades were followed by an uphill one so, ultimately, the train could be brought to a stand. The sections ahead all had to be clear beforehand so that the descent could be under clear signals. A bit unnerving if you weren't used to it, I guess, and a bit like the EMU which couldn't stop and overran Stonegate station by 2½ miles with the brakes fully applied.

 

I often say it at work, playing with wagons is far more fun than carriages...! It comes to something when I'm spending my Christmas looking forward to a nice little spot of shunting when I'm back in on Friday...

 

GCR's wagons are mostly fitted or through piped, but the two 60' rail carriers are unfitted so most of the unfitted trains are p.way trains midweek. We have done it in a gala at least once though.

 

Heritage Railways reporting of the timetabled goods trains, brilliant publicity!

We had better get our skates on with the restoration of E1 0-6-2T W2, it hasn't even been started yet! and we must remember to add the new set of trailing wheels!

 

Oooh! An E1R! Island Rail News kept that one quiet...

Tom

 

The first of the timetabled heritage goods trains is next Sunday 13th April, the rostered loco is W11, this will be its first public workings.

 

W11 was truly created to be a star! Not content with the Gold Medal and demonstrating the air brake to Continental Europe now she is inaugurating a further development in the heritage railway scene.

One further thing, in 1958 she took part in the filming of "Carlton-Browne of the F O" at Midhurst, sporting a fake spark arrestor and the name "Anna Karenina". Given how that lady met her end this must be one of the most inspired names ever given to a locomotive, along with the L.C.D.R.'s "Flirt", "Frolic" and "Enigma".

Any chance of "Anna Karenina" ever taking to the rails again I.O.W.S.R?

Paul H.(in jest)

 

An update, W11 will be on the goods turn with W8 on the passenger set.

 

Aiming to be there.

Paul H.

 

W11 on the first day of timetabled goods trains, as a bonus W8 was also running on the passenger set.

Next months trains should see an extra couple of wagons added to the train, including the recently restored LBSCR 10t van and a second LBSCR 5 plank open.

Very good to meet Paul H!

 

My pleasure as well!

What a splendid spring day it was with W11 going well on the freight demonstration rake and W8 demonstrating how five four wheelers plus one bogie hold no terrors on 1 in 70 to an A1x in decent nick. (Anyone listening out there?)

Paul H.

 

It looks brilliant. Hope to see more lines following suit in the future.

Was it a case of end-to-end running and swapping the brake van to each end, or did the day involve shunting as well?

 

It was end to end running and swapping the brake van round at each end, but it did end up delaying the passenger train. As a consequence next months trains are likely to run with a van on each end It is a shame as the single brake van looks so much better.

Perhaps next year the whole timetable for the goods running days should be recast, but that creates its own problems particularly when making connections at Smallbrook.

 

I was driving W8 on saturday and it is always surprising how much go that engine has, no trouble at all with the 79 ton train weight. W11 looked very nice the next day too, nice to see her back.

 

Lucky you!

Strikes me Stroudley was right all those years ago. Keep the tare weight down for short distance work. Provide small and economical yet lively motive power for these trains and you stand a chance of making some money.

It would be much more sensible to batch build a few A1x's than some of the projects in hand.

PH

 

Stroudley built the terriers for the South London line. 6 - 8 four wheel carriages, a stop every mile and a half and some appreciable gradients. Not very different from today's IWSR or many other "preserved lines" too.

Great photographs Gary and fantastic to see several projects come together - goods train, four wheel carriages, A1/x reboilering, Train Story............ Thanks to you and all the teams at Havenstreet

Nick

 

The Stroudley trains on the South London line were miracles of lightweight and frugal construction: something like 6.5 tons per coach for a close-coupled eight coach set. Current restored 4 wheelers are nearer 12 tons per coach - at least ours are - I assume mostly on account of having steel underframes. I do wonder what a modern visitor will think about the comfort though! Probably the nearest anyone will get will be when we get our Stroudley brake 3rd 949 restored. Quite what visitors will make of bare wooden bench seats, half-height partitions and one lamp between four compartments remains to be seen!

The other difference between the South London Line and a typical heritage line is the density of stations. There, the average distance between stations was about a mile. Locos were thrashed pretty hard away from each station but then could stop after no more than about two minutes of effort, whereupon the fireman could put another couple of shovelfuls of coal, and recover pressure. Rather different than having a sustained 15 minutes or so between stations.

The other difference of course is that in the 1870s, a Terrier was a tool to be worked hard to make money for the company and then, at least the assumption would have been, scrapped and replaced when beyond economical repair. Today a Terrier is a 130 - 140 year old museum piece!

Tom

 

hi Tom,
i think you underestimate the terriers.
those on the IOWSR are finely tuned and excellently looked after. Len Pullinger and his team have spent many years and lots of hard work getting the very best out of the IW terriers. they are tough, hard working, and reliable, and extremely economic to run. perhaps if the Bluebell adopted the same approach more use would be made of the Bluebell's terriers?
cheers,
julian

 

Hmmmmm....... Better have another glance at Andrewtoplis' posting and then go to Youtube and have a look at the couple of videos which have already appeared of this event. Complete mastery of the task given to it by W8 was the impression given and there was obviously yet more in hand. I was informed that in deference to their ages these machines are kept to a train load of 80 tons tare or thereabouts but whilst they may be antiques, museum pieces they most certainly are not!

Just work out the carrying capacity of the vehicles in use and find out how much fuel gets burned each day. As Mr. Punch says "That's the way to do it"!

PH

 

I'm certainly not meaning to cast aspersions on the IoWSR's Terriers, simply noting that the stop-start nature of the duties they were built for isn't exactly analogous to most heritage lines - and the Stroudley block trains were very light, at least in tare! As for ours: Fenchurch was known to take the four Mets (80 tons) to Kingscote on occasion, but was out of service before the extension opened with the steeper gradients. The romantic in me prefers a Terrier to a P tank, but the practical side of me would take a day on 178 or 323 over Fenchurch any day!

Tom