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Re: Steam engines - tender first?

In article <dd102d85-7033-454d-bfa5-4578e452d8fe@x16g2000prn.googlegroups.com>,
Andrew Clarke  <ajc@cts.canberra.edu.au> wrote:
>On Sep 6, 5:15 am, "Michael Whitson" <m...@pyu156.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
>
>> I remember seeing in inclement weather engines running tender first with a
>> tarpaulin attached to the  cab roof and to the tendsr thus creating a more
>> friendly environment for the footplatemen. This must have made it difficult
>> for the driver who probably  had to poke his head out from time to time to
>> observe the signals.Those were the days of real trains when men were men!
>
>Meanwhile in the Land of Fair Dinkum Blokes and Sheilas, the Tarana-
>Oberon branch -- one of the last-gasp NSW pioneer lines built in 1923
>-- could only be navigated by elderly 19 class 0-6-0 tender

Shades, here. of the hole the GWR dug for itself at the grouping, when it
indulged itself in a programme of mass scrapping of elderly types from
absorbed lines - then found it didn't have enough light axle-load engines
to work branch lines. Fortunately for mid-Wales at least, Oswestry works
hid some ancient Sharp, Stewart 0-6-0s and 2-4-0Ts away until one of
Panddington''s neurons contacted the duty brain cell at Swindon to
scrub the policy for the time being (the time being turning out to be 1948
or so, when some of these lines were finally beefed up enough to take a
Dean Goods, or alternatively just plain shut)..

>locomotives, due to the lightweight track, tight curves, no ballast
>and rather a lot of 1 in 25. It gets damn cold in Oberon in winter. so
>the locos were provided with canvas blinds that could be fitted *down
>the side* of the cab to keep the antarctic gales out.

It cut the other way at times. Back in yr earlies, when the Stockton and
Darlington built its line across Stainmore (a cold, windy spot at the best
of times) it not foolishly equipped the engines intended to work the route
with large, side-window cabs of rather American aspect, plus weatherboards
on the tender and tarps to spread over the top. The enginemen protested -
they couln't see out. So off came the cabs and tender weatherboards and on
went a small spectacle plate, leaving the rest open. Men of iron!
Much later, the Stainmore line got NER C class engines (L&NE J21s), which
had cabs rather like those rejected forty-odd years before..

>Generally speaking, NSW crews would go to any length to travel chimney
>first. If the ancient turntable at the terminus was too short, the
>tender was separated from the loco and turned separately, as happened
>in two places to my knowledge. The Oberon branch was, however, an
>exception. To avoid priming and/or blowing a fusible plug, the little
>19s almost always ran funnel-first to Oberon -- up the hill -- and
>tender first back down again. The trip of some 15 miles took about an
>hour and twenty minutes.

Smith, talking about the Glasgow & South Western railway, mentions engine
crews working from the side plating when running tender first in really
bad conditions, handling the controls around the side of the (minimal,
Stirling-pattern) cab or thought the spectacle plate portholes.

--
Andy Breen ~ 	Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting
money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair)

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