Tornado

Thrashing was a part of most public schools...

 

When I clicked 'like' for the above, it referred to the comment, not the thrashing . . .

 

.... and my state grammar


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I don't know what the highest authenticated speed behind a Schools was (high nineties mph seems to ring a bell); I've got little doubt that 100mph would have been possible under the right conditions, but I suspect timers of the day probably had to be a little circumspect in releasing logs that were considerably over the nominal line limit, particularly in earlier days. You get the sense that flashy feats of high speed probably weren't of much interest to REL Maunsell, but might perhaps have been seen more favourably by OVSB. The kind of thing where you suspect a driver suspected of running very fast might have been summonsed for a "please explain" to the CME for 30 seconds followed by a long and friendly chat about what the control settings were, how the loco rode, whether they could maintain pressure and water level etc!

Tom

 

According to the Bluebell Railway's website, it was 95mph at Wool with the loco being 928.

 

Sorry yes, I wasn't meaning to imply the he got the Schools to the ton, but every description of a run with a Schools involves it being run very hard indeed.

 

i don't think so .
92158 (iirc) achieved 90 mph on the GN line , which prompted an article in the TI about high speeds with small drivers .
BR management swiftly followed that with a speed limit for the nines

 

And, I believe, instructions issued that they should not be used on express passenger work. And then sent them to the S&DJR specifically for such work, although few runs over that line at 90 mph have been recorded!

 

Could any train on the S&DJR properly be called "express"? What was the line limit?

 

The Pines.

 

@torgormaig is really the person to ask, but I think the real advantage of the 9F on the S&DJR is that they could take even the heaviest passenger trains unaided, which was potentially a cost saving - sadly seemingly largely unrealised due to stubborn management who didn’t seem massively interested.

Tom

 

Officially the line limit was 70 mph but there were not too many places where this was attainable. While it is true that stubbon management were reluctant to see the potential of the 9Fs on the S&D it is also true that, according to Peter Smith, the unions were also unenthusiastic about them, especially at Templecombe, where they feared the loss of pilot work.

Peter

 

With a racing car at the time of Gresley's serious streamlining a useful speed improvement was achieved by streamlining the underneath.
A sheet underneath the chassis above the road surface. (I think the sheet was aluminium and the car an Alta - but definitely in Britain.)

Not that much of a timer but I would thoroughly agree - rather concerned that the result of the 75 mph limit, and its increasingly strict enforcement, is that locomotives are
ruthlessly flogged up banks which would would not be necessary if they were allowed to run faster downhill which they comfortably could.

NB The present 75 mph speed limit is practically the same speed as the French 125 kph.

 

And mine, more than once. All I wanted to do was to get out of the place, I later realised I'd wasted my opportunity.

 

And all this has nothing to do with 60163?????

 

.................................which is a technique practised by GWR crews on top link work, and the practice on BR testing .ie. constant steam rate

 

To what extent is the 75 mph limit (and lower limits for steam locos with smaller wheels) based on engineering and to what extent on "wet finger in the air"? One obvious engineering consideration is hammer blow, but that would imply that speed limits should take account of the number of cylinders and the balancing, rather than only the driving wheel diameter.

 

Am i not right in thinking that a new set of standards for max permitted speed was recently introduced ( might even be on this thread somewhere) that takes exactly these kind of factors into consideration ? think that there was some hoohaa because it suggested that some machines were to be dropped a bracket due to age/ stroke length or some such....

 

Taken from a Steam Railway Mag early last year.

You’re right in there being some some discrepancies. Buck managed to overturn the speed restriction on his B1 which is again registered to 75mph. Keeping the post relevant and Tornado maintains its 90mph certificate. Riley’s 5’s have managed to take advantage of the 65 limit whereas others and Halls have yet to climb higher AFAIK.
To run above 75mph has been said to require hard wired lights and mk2 stock.

 

And mine but on hands only. I put the Headmaster’s bike in the pond!