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clive BRretired posted an update in the group
3 weeks agoOther Railway Adventures (The forgotten breed) No Branchline section? So i ponder this (Other railway Adventure) page? So, This cleaner is passed for firing duty in late 50s by the inspector! And a year pushing heavy trains up the infamous 1/37 bank to the Southern region leads to be called in to fire the many branch lines in my region? Suits me i say! So i join a small group of four Drivers and four fireman who carry the great British public to coastal destinations! All year round! But more busy in holiday maker times? Engines like Adams or Drummond! You couldn’t swing a cat in the cab of the M7? A tight cab but a biggish wheel at 5′ 7”inch! The shed foreman is one of the drivers! Lad!! (Lad??) Lol, he says, get J*s engine out the shed? I do so, But wonder at why my senior man cant do it himself? It seems management wont allow my senior college to drive for a while? And so the tale is painfully told that J*s M7 engine was boiler first to the blocks (with no bogy wheel)! The M7 was 0-4-4? He opened the regulator on what he thought a dead spot, And moved the reverser that made his engine take off backwards which was really forward if you get my drift! The rail blocks and shed stops were no match for a 70 ton lump on a 5ft 7inch wheel at 5MPH and 170PSI in its cylinders!! By this time J*s been thrown on to his ass in the cab!! As his engine leaves its rails and goes out the back of the shed! Through a concrete block wall in a totally opposite direction? Now years ago public footpaths were just that! Push bikes were to be pushed! No E Bikes on public walkways like today! The public have just come through WW 2 Doodlebugs and then to be followed by the V2 rocket out of a clear blue sky, When suddenly a 70 odd ton M7 and many concrete blocks appear from nowhere! Its a wonder no one was hurt? Nay killed? So the junior fireman takes a senior roll! And it stays that way too! The M7 like the Ivatt 2Mt that followed were good for dock imports at coastal places, A wheel that could go anywhere! Drummond 30021 and many others were with us back then! I have a list of all my Ivatt 2Mts or Standard 82s and the heavier 8000 Riddles sort. See U Tube video of 80080 and 80079 having big trouble trying to get up St Davids bank in an epic spin? Worth watching! And the inner cylinders or connecting rods of the M7 type i might call mincing machine when oiling? It could go as big as the Bulleid Merchant navy converteds that we would call (Underneaths)!
