[PRCo] Re: British Preservation Railways - Steam

Fred Schneider fwschneider at comcast.net
Wed Mar 9 22:32:03 EST 2011 

You take the whole boiler off the frame for leaking firebox staybolts?   What?  You drill them out and replace them unless there were issues with the steel.   


On Mar 9, 2011, at 10:19 PM, Dwight Long wrote:

> Fred
> 
> Problem with leaking staybolts, I think.  Recently.  I had the specifics but deleted them.
> 
> Dwight
> 
>  ----- Original Message ----- 
>  From: Fred Schneider 
>  To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org 
>  Sent: Wednesday, 09 March, 2011 18:41
>  Subject: [PRCo] Re: British Preservation Railways - Steam
> 
> 
>  How can we keep up with the whole damn world Dwight?   What happened?   Welds go bad?   Seems to me that was a welded boiler.   When?
> 
> 
>  On Mar 9, 2011, at 6:38 PM, Dwight Long wrote:
> 
>> Fred
>> 
>> 4)  Except that Tornado is not "pick'n 'em up and puttin' 'em down" right now because the boiler is kaput.  It's been removed from the frame and sent back to Meiningen for remedial work by the DB steam experts.  Theoretically it will be back to the UK later this year, possibly as early as spring.  Then the whole thing will have to be put back together, pass tests, etc., before it can resume operations.
>> 
>> Dwight
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: Fred Schneider 
>> To: Skip Gatermann ; Pittsburgh-Railways at Dementia.Org ; peter folger ; Dwight Long ; Alan Schneider 
>> Cc: Michael Greene ; Matt Nawn ; Conrad Misek ; Frank Pfuhler ; E Casey ; Vic Gordon ; David Dillard ; John Sikorskie ; Jim Greller ; Randy Gluckman ; Bob Vogel ; Bradley Clark ; Mary O'Brien ; Jimmy Boylan XX ; Bill Armstrong ; Richard Panse ; Alex Vaughn ; Brad Noyes ; Bill Mangahas ; JJ Earl ; Dave Neubauer ; Jack Rush XX ; Mark Goldfeder ; Andrew Chalfen ; Michael Rambo Jr ; Ted Eickmann ; Muench ; Bruce Bente ; Raleigh Dadamo ; David Horwitz ; David Pirmann ; Neil Carlson ; Chris Gatermann ; Robert Arce ; KELVIN WILKE ; Raymond Crapo Jr ; Carlos Mercado ; Merill Resnick ; Jack May ; Lewis Hitch ; Michael Richmond ; Thurston Clark ; Edward Havens ; Jeff Marinoff ; Harry Pinsker ; Joseph Eid ; Scott Becker ; Trolley One ; C. K. Leverett ; Charles Greene ; Ronald Kupin ; Nate Gerstein ; Melvin Bernero ; Favorite Daugher ; Trolley Two ; Rich Parente ; Evan Jennings ; Harold Golk ; Matthew Mummert ; John Hayward ; Bill Volkmer ; Andrew Sisk ; Charlie Dennis ; Herald Win!
> d !
>   ;!
>> Edward Davis ; #1 Son ; Russ Jackson ; Bill Myers ; wally young ; Joe Bux ; Dennis Zimmer 
>> Sent: Monday, 07 March, 2011 23:08
>> Subject: [PRCo] British Preservation Railways - Steam
>> 
>> 
>> British Steam Preservation Railways from Fred Schneider
>> I created this as a separate file in case someone wanted to save it as a separate topic pending a visit to Britain.   For a small nation, Great Britain has more miles of steam preservation railways than anyone could possibly imagine.  Wikipedia lists 78 standard gauge and 42 narrow gauge undertakings!   Furthermore, when the railfans became disturbed that the last A-1 Peppercorn Pacific was scrapped, the only solution in the last 20 years was to build a brand new one!  Can you imagine building a new New York Central J3 Hudson because the last one was torched?  When we don't have enough miles of track, they built a new 25 mile railroad to run narrow gauge trains.  Unbelievable.
>> 
>> Well, here are some of Fred Schneider's favorite preservation lines in Britain, almost all of which were made surplus when Lord Beeching took a meat axe to British Railways in the 1960s and eliminated any track considered unprofitable.
>> 
>> 1)  NOT FAR FROM BIRMINGHAM, BRITAIN'S SECOND LARGEST CITY, IS THE SEVERN VALLEY RAILWAY, A 16-MILE PIKE FROM SHREWSBURY SOUTH TO KIDDERMINSTER.   Why a favorite?   I love the traditional stations along the line with flower boxes in the windows.   Their machine shop, like the Strasburg here in Lancaster County, is fully competent to overhaul locomotives and not only does their own work but contracts with other preservation railways in Britain to keep their engines running too.
>> 
>>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Valley_Railway
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AonC0pE7B8M&feature=related
>> 
>> 2)  BLUEBELL RAILWAY AT HORSTED KEYNES, SOUTH OF LONDON HAS A LIST OF LOCOMOTIVES AND ROLLING STOCK THAT NEVER ENDS.   The station at Sheffield Park has the nicest little newsstand filled as a museum with magazines and newspapers of a long gone-bye era ... looks just like it would have in steam days.
>> 
>>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Park_railway_station
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTDcTkdxENw
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTDcTkdxENw
>> 
>> 
>> 3)  THE MID-HANTS RAILWAY, A.K.A. THE WATERCRESS LINE, IS ONE OF THE FEW THAT YOU CAN REACH BY WAY OF THE NATIONAL RAILROAD NETWORK.   This is easy for visitors to the area who don't have a rental car and don't wish to attempt driving on the other side of the road.   It's only about an 75 minutes by local train from London Waterloo to Alton Station and the connection to the Mid-Hants Railway.  What's important about the line in history?   Well, there's a house in Alresford where Dwight David Eisenhower set up camp during World War II to command our forces.   What was interesting about the railway?   While the average operating speed is only 20 miles per hour, the maximum is considerably higher ... not plastering bugs on your face but still pleasant.   
>> 
>> On my first visit I was amazed to find a chap in the shop with a American mid west accent.   This fellow liked British steam.   He was from Cincinnati and working for the Mid-Hants Railway.   
>> 
>>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watercress_Line
>> 
>>      http://www.watercressline.co.uk/Home
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCFmCqhDLSI
>> 
>> 
>> 4   IT WOULD SEEM THAT BRITAIN HAS ALWAYS MADE A SHOW OF RUNNING STEAM ON ITS MAIN LINE METALS EVEN AFTER THE LAST FIRES WERE SUPPOSEDLY DROPPED IN THE 1960S BUT NOTHING SURPASSES THE DISPLAY OF MIGHT PUT ON BY 60163, THE RECREATED A-1 PEPPERCORN PACIFIC.   THE TORNADO SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN EVERYWHERE .... HAULING THE ROYAL TRAIN; PULLING STRANDED COMMUTERS IN THE WINTER; RUNNING EXCURSIONS AND EVENING VISITING SEVERAL OF THE TOURIST RAILROADS THAT HAVE INTERCHANGE CONNECTIONS WITH THE NATIONAL NETWORK.   It's worth a trip to England for the ride!  
>> 
>> I recall Harry Grimes, who trained the earliest steam men on the Strasburg Rail Road for some of his expressions.   Harry came to us as a retiree from Reading Company, where he had managed to work himself up to the Queen of the Valley just before they abandoned the last Harrisburg passenger train.   Then he retired.    His expression for a steam engine moving like hell is mirrored in the way the rods moved.   Here, is the Tornado, as Harry would have said, "Pick'n up an' putt'n 'em down."   
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in1On3hEHoI&feature=related
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkAS6PEt7vM&feature=related
>> 
>> 6)  OF THE NARROW GAUGES, ONE OF NEATEST LITTLE LINES IS THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY, BUILT TO HAUL SLATE FROM THE MINES AT BLAENAU FFESTINIOG IN THE MOUNTAINS DOWN TO THE SHIPS ON THE WEST COAST OF WALES AT PORTHMADOG.   The slate business ended before World War II but the tourists blossomed after that.  There were many of these lines and several still exist to haul tourists in the Welch countryside.    
>> 
>>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ffestiniog_Railway     
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov3l4ekw7jU
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2plils8xL6M
>> 
>> 7) SOMETHING THAT DESERVES A VISIT JUST TO SEE WHAT THEY'VE DONE.... CAN YOU IMAGINE REBUILDING A RAILROAD THAT WAS TORN UP 74 YEARS AGO BECAUSE NO ONE WAS RIDING IT?  I'M SPEAKING OF THE WELSH HIGHLAND RAILWAY, WHICH REOPENED FROM CAERNARVON TO PORTHMADOG ON FEB. 20, 2011.  Like the FFestiniog, it is a 1-11 1/2" gauge operation, 25 miles in length.   And while you're in Caernarvon, you must also see the castle, which is where the Prince of Wales is crowned ... see the very last video in this series.  
>> 
>>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Highland_Railway
>> 
>>      http://www.festrail.co.uk/
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZKe0IfJ-E4
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qacs0--GimA&feature=related
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn7-MsaDq_s&feature=related
>> 
>> 8)  CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT A 15-INCH-GAUGE LOCOMOTIVE WITH DRIVERS LESS THAN 2 FEET IN DIAMETER MOVING AT 25 MILES PER HOUR ACROSS THE FLAT KENTISH COUNTRYSIDE SOUNDS LIKE?   David P. Morgan probably had the best description and that was the one he used to describe a train of bad-order cars bearing down on Selby, Ohio in 1955 on the New York Central in his series that year with Philip Hastings.   He wrote, "With all the implications of the Book of Revelations."    Can you even imagine 15 inch gauge?   I would have to show you the slide I have with my shoe broadside between the rails as a comparison.   Please enjoy the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch.   
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLISENMynEY
>> 
>>      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEsCq-ljV3g&feature=related
>> 
>> 
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