Flying scotsman

Just watched an interesting on the fFying Scotsman here

Interesting. As he says, a bit like grandad's old axe. New boiler one year, new frames another, etc but it's 100 years old this year. Great old machine. I'd love to be on it at the magic "ton".

Had a quick look at the front cover of the video.

I have to ask what "officially" means.

An experimental AEG electric locomotive got to 130mph in 1903. At the time it was well reported and some British railway companies took a great deal of interest. Of course it was German and not steam.

Mini rant over.

JA

Electric traction was already well-established in some parts of Britain in 1903, but would the track and signalling standards have met regular 100+mph services across the network?

I expect the designers would still have put the cab at the back of the locomotive!

Verified by official on-board speed measuring equipment, calibrated and checked by supposedly impartial officials, vs an unverified manufacturers claim, I believe. Followed by suitable PR campaign to capitalise on it of course, and the legend was born. Ironically its record only stood for a year before being upped by 8mph by a train that almost everyone has long since forgotten. That's PR for you.

I really had no idea it was so old. Well I guess the 1920's was a stylish decade wasn't it?

One of my very favourite engines, not least because i rode on the footplate, oooh must be nearly 50 years ago.

Yeah , i know it sounds like a tall story, I just happened to be in the right place @ the right time.

Can hardly believe it myself now, all these years later.

We weren't doing the" ton" though Hopper.

I remember be told to "stand there, keep still & don't touch anything"

Guess little boys were generally better at doing what they were told back then...

In the absence of instructions though , we could still find plenty of mischief to get into!

As a slight aside.

It was once a very popular boyhood aspiration to be an engine driver.~ even in the post steam era.

But did you ever meet someone who aspired to being the stoker?? Probably not!

Hats off to all those stokers of yesteryear.... when men were men. (hopefully not sounding sexist~ i reckon women were women in them days too!)

If you weren't fit when you started, you certainly would be after a few express runs.

What would be coal consumption at a maximum?

I think an absolute maximum rate would be difficult to establish, but Wiki. quotes 3.7lb / mile for GWR Pendennis Castle, when competing in trials against an LNER A1 on the East Coast Main Line. The A1 used more coal to deliver a poorer performance.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 08/03/2023 20:20:41

More like Triggers broom!

Some of the classic locomotives could be very rough rider, particularly whe worn.

Adrian Vaughn relates how he rode trhe footplate for,a long diastance on a very badly worn GWR loco (Probably ntowards the end of steam when no seemed to care ) He virtually had to be lifted off onto the platform.

Some of the smaller locos, would "nose" quite badly at quite low speeds, because of their short wheelbase.

And remeber the infamouse Southerrn River Class tanks. A combination of indifferent track and locomotive, literally, cost lives.

Especially with an unsympathetic driver, a fireman's job could be absolutely exhausting But in those days it was considered to be part of the job in climbing the ranks fro cleaner to top link driver (If you were lucky and good )

In winter, roasted on side and frozen on the other!

Often IF you gat a chance to sit down for a few mintes, the seat wasm't even padded, just bare wood.'

Howard

Hi, I sat in the driver's seat of the Evening Star with my hand on the regulator, we were doing a tremendous speed of absolute zero MPH. It was in the National Railway Museum when I visited there back in the 90's. I wanted to take a photo of the left hand side with the array of pipework on that side, but there was a big information board right in front of all the pipes, I then spotted one of the staff there and asked if it could be moved for a few minutes, which he was kind enough to do, and after I had taken the photos that I wanted, he said I could get up onto the footplate and take some photos from the driver's point of view, which of course I did.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 09/03/2023 19:05:06

I believe all drivers had to have been firemen first.

At the start of my apprenticeship I was in digs. One of the landlady’s sons had been a fireman on the Midland Region expresses. He had a jumper while passing through Burton on Trent station at speed. It completely wrecked him.

I never wanted to be an engine driver.

JA

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the four young women who formed an all female crew on international womens' day (yesterday).

Well done to them all, every one of them a real enthusiast and all perfectly at ease in charge of the iconic Flying Scotsman.

........and here they are, 6 women, sorry.

Hi Geoff, I wasn't aware these women were doing this task, but I have seen women drivers and firemen on a few preserved lines, and they seem to handle the job very well, and I think it's a good thing they do get involved in such things.

Talking of silly mistakes, I made one in my previous post, saying the the pipe array on the Evening Star was on the left hand side, when it is in fact it is on the right hand side, I guess I was remembering seeing it, and they are on the left hand side of my view at the time I was taking the photos.

Regards Nick.