-
(A Whatsit)!
A model with little water capacity? A doodle? But! If I open the bunker, Add side tanks, Add rake to the beam, And remove two inner front bogy’s? Then maybe an 8000 Riddles 4Mt? 80105 or the 80064 I would fire at 72A. 1962/ 63 until branch lines went diesel! 80064 followed me to Bristol Barrow rd shed! Late 1965 I take it (and many more) to Severn tunnel jct and scrap, With its drive rods! ‘Well’, No where to store them on an 8000? Some might relieve piston movement! And be slung in their tenders! Still make a din in that long and deep tunnel though! Driver and me would collect up all the strays! (At Barrow road) And three or four weeks later another lot turn up! Always at night! And walking those busy lines from Bath road in the dark was interesting to say the least! Even the walk out to Temple Meads you took care! You climb on EG Western Prince and stop maybe Taunton or St David’s for a fair old run to Newton Abbot for relief! You don’t have a sight glass or fire to worry over! So you stretch your legs, ‘Going back’! The very words I say to my driver! Check my T/H boiler, Look for fire, Odd noises Lol! That’s a laugh in itself! Two Western Hydraulic engines at full pelt! Oh Lordy! And what has this to do with my Model Whatsit engine? Absolutely ‘Nothing’ whatsoever! Doh! (Well its cloudy and damp outside)! Cosy in ere though! Ill ave’ another beer! Gold’s gone through the £3000quid an ounce barrier! Even the humble Gold sovereign is £682! And that’s the selling price? Is it war! Or a world market A I crash? This crazy world today could well pause to contemplate a Whatsit!
