Clun Castle at Dorridge Station - Aug 2019
About to embark on a run to Gloucester
specifications below images

Clun Castle December 15 2019 Dorridge to York

Below, two images of the Tornado at York as we arrived

Clun Castle ready for the return trip

International Locos of Interest

The engine which pulled the first passenger train across the Canadian Pacific system in 1887. Its arrival in Vancouver was adjusted to coincide with some celebrations of Queen Victoria's jubilee in London (some 10 hours or so time difference) and so it was held back in Burnaby over some time before it was allowed to reach its destination, dressed in flags and bunting. It is kept in a building next to a round house where it is displayed from time to time, hissing and leaking steam; all fake and generated by a boiler placed beneath the cab. The piston cylinders, valve gear and drive shaft seem quite primitive even for that era, although the cowcatcher is impressive. The text and images are from Don Cropp.

The narrow gauge rail up to the top of Mt Washington (over 6000ft), New Hampshire. The upright boiler machine was (Peppersass), apparently used (1860s) in the construction of the rail and then as the first passenger coach pushing device. The awkward angle of the chassis, on different sized wheels front and back and the lean of the boiler surrounding the smokestack were, of course, to maintain a horizontal firebox as it climbed the steep grade. Either there has been a great refurbishment of this engine since that time or it is not wholly what it is claimed to be.

(Below) We have made a few visits to Lincoln New Hampshire for some mountain hiking in the White Mountains (Max 6300ft). Lincoln was named after Bill Clinton who happened to be the First Earl of Lincoln. In the 19th and early 20th century, the mountainsides were shorn of their fir tree cover by lumber barons, who also built a number of railways carrying their logs to market. This activity is no longer allowed in the Park but some of the rail tracks remain and are used in transporting tourists over a few miles, perhaps with a dinner thrown in, and hauled by an old locomotive made at the end of (1918) the logging era. One evening, I decided to investigate the depot of one company and came across this Climax engine. Unfortunately it was locked away behind a wire fence which spoils my photographs somewhat. It appears that the pistons drive a shaft which rotates transversely through a gear box beneath the chassis. A crown wheel and pinions transfer the drive to propellor shafts reaching forward to 4-wheeled trucks fore and aft, giving the engine effectively 8 wheels driving. The front truck is allowed to pivot about a vertical axis (Hence the need to elevate the piston cylinders above the front truck.) Apparently, the engine was equipped with a pair of gears. The steering ability permitted its use on twisty mountain tracks even though it is standard gauge. Lincoln inherited another tourist attraction, in addition to its
mountains, due to what the botanists call "succession". When the fir trees had been harvested, their first replacements were birch, and maple
producing what is now called the "Fall Colours". Train and busloads of tourists travel from the big cities of the North East to see this
spectacular decoration on the hillsides. (We have our own display in our garden and along the local side roads.) Don Cropp.

Pulling tourists up mountainsides was also performed by this Baldwin 2-4-2T (below) which was first made in 1893. Tank engines had their advantages and some serious disadvantages, but for a logging railway with its low speeds, the 2-4-2T might have been ideal. I note the
reduced length of the engine by tucking the pistons back till overlapping the first drivers, and driving the second drivers directly. What was originally a wood burner, this engine is probably on oil. The large spark-arrester atop North American woood burners is replaced by a slim smoke stack. Don Cropp.

(Below) Are you a fan of Hitchcock movies? Have you seen "Stranger on a Train"? In it, the leading man is a champion tennis player who is about to compete in the final of the US Open and, in one scene, is in the rear compartment of a high speed commuter running through the communities of the North East of the US. These 1930s trains were called "Flyers", driven by diesels mounted in aluminium boxes on steel chassis. In the movie, our hero is being disturbed by a drunken professor of mathematics who attempts to teach some elementary features of differential calculus.I came across one such Flyer in Lincoln, which was being refurbished to railway standards. The wheels had been removed leaving the carriages sitting on blocks of wood, the whole thing being encased in a 'tent" of polythene wrap. Not being permitted to enter the tent, I took a few shots through the plastic to illustrate the 1930s streamlining of the front of the train and the rearmost passenger compartment in which Hitchcock made a scene for his film (Well, it was possible to imagine that was the very train!). Whether they were doing the work for some other railway, I do not know. A flyer would be out of place roaming the hills. Don Cropp.

Don Cropp - We were based in Duluth Minnesota and wandered up the highway north, passing through a small place called Twin Rivers which had a small railway museum. For a long time, the iron mines of Minnesota produced a processed ore called Taconite (Named after a freeway which passes down New York State alongside the Hudson River (Taconic Freeway). The ore was transported by rail south to the docks at Duluth. During the final years of the steam age, the rail company purchased monster locomotives from the Baldwin Company, based on their 2880 design. To accommodate a larger tender, the model was modified to 2882. Baldwin called the model the Yellowstone and it was comparable to the Union Pacific's Big Boy, dedicated to hauling prodigious loads from one side of the continent to the other. The Yellowstone hauled some 115 cars of taconite which were loaded on to bulk carriers called Lakers * at Duluth.  When I saw this monster, I photographed it from many angles not knowing the salient parts of it. Basically, it was a combination of two engines with a common boiler. The rear engine was mounted under the main frame which possibly reached back to the tender while the front engine was mounted on a separate truck with the long boiler protruding over it in the usual fashion. However, the front truck was attached by a vertical pivot shaft reaching up to the boiler frame at a point just aft of the chimney.

In this long Mallet formation, the front engine could be steered by the railbed, the front bogie being also somewhat independent. Both engines were presumably fed steam at the same pressure (The pistons look the same size, which precludes a high pressure cylinder exhausting into a low pressure cylinder.) Sadly, this grand monster stands on a short piece of track and will not be fired up again. Its maintenance as a museum exhibit will take a deal of funds to maintain its general appearance. It must have been quite a sight to see a start with up to 12 000 tons (short ones) behind. The wheel slip must have been horrendous. It was the end of the line for such beasts when they managed to couple up a number of less powerful diesel electrics to carry out the same task. I have seen a couple of kilometers of freight hauled up the Kicking Horse Pass with a pair of engines in front, one in the middle and a pusher behind. If my observations are correct, the iron ore is now propelled down a large pipe to a dedicated dock a distance north of Duluth. I assume that there is a moving belt involved. Despite the loss of the iron ore trade, large lakers still carry bulk freight from Duluth to industries lying to the east and south.