Railway General Knowledge.

[Cowley]

Your getting warmer.

So was he...

Now I'm no steam expert (obviously) but I seem to recall that when a loco was to be left cold for a while, maintenance men would pour oil down through the blast pipe or chimney (clutching at straws here) to keep the cylinders lubricated so that they didn't seize up.
Did they send a small boy down to do the job possibly? That's the sort of thing that may have been banned over here I suppose?

 

[TheEdge]

Something to do with being in the firebox?

 

[theageofthetra]

Something to do with being in the firebox?

Correct but need to be a bit more specific.

 

[TheEdge]

Being in the firebox to clean or repair it, or maybe the brick arch, while there was still a fire in there?

 

[theageofthetra]

Being in the firebox to clean or repair it, or maybe the brick arch, while there was still a fire in there?

Thats close enough

To meet the massive demands of WW2 traffic arguably some of the finest and most powerful/efficient steam locomotives ever were created.

These were fitted with all the most modern labour saving gadgets but none could fully clear out a firebox.

The New York Central at the time had a chief who was very pro steam and tried to prove that it could still compete with the 1st gen diesels coming through with regards to availability and turnaround times.

So to prove this point and meet war time traffic demands a job required a pair of workers in full asbestos suits and armed with steam wands to go into the still hot firebox to clean out any remaining clinker.

This practice was officially banned by unions in the UK.

I'd be interested to know if this occurred in the war time era Navy though most US ships had been converted to oil firing.

Your very hot box.

 

[TheEdge]

I really don't have anything so open floor

 

[Calthrop]

If I may, I'll submit a borderline Railway General Knowledge / "straight" General Knowledge one.

Which eminent artist (in the wider sense of the term), originally a resident and citizen of another country; but a great Anglophile, much of whose life was spent in Britain (in fact became a British subject near the end of that long life) -- was very angrily opposed to the building and opening of railways on the Isle of Wight?

 

[DerekC]

A shot in the dark - Henry Alexander Bowler

 

[Calthrop]

A shot in the dark - Henry Alexander Bowler

I'd never heard of this gentleman (being no art buff) -- had to Google him -- but no, it's not him. A couple of pointers: re the chap who is the answer to the question -- his art was not of the "pictures" kind. His first name was the same as Mr. Bowler's; his surname was another name which is borne also by a loco in the Rev. Awdry's Railway Series.

 

[DerekC]

Well, I am going to have another guess. Henry Duck? Henry Diesel? Don't think so. How about Henry James? But I am not at all sure about this - his dates don't seem to line up with the construction of railways in the IoW (I confess to a bit of Googling).

 

[Calthrop]

Well, I am going to have another guess. Henry Duck? Henry Diesel? Don't think so. How about Henry James? But I am not at all sure about this - his dates don't seem to line up with the construction of railways in the IoW (I confess to a bit of Googling).

Henry James, is right -- he considered railway earthworks to be a horrible desecration of the Island's delicate and ethereal beauty, and denounced same vitriolically in print. I might have phrased my question a bit more precisely, though I don't think that my way of putting it was outright misleading: HJ, dates 1843 -- 1916, would have been too young and in wrong part of world, to be entreating re proposed rail-inauguration on IOW, "don't do it !"; but. in later years, he was for sure angrily opposed to its having been done.

At all events -- the floor is yours.

 

[DerekC]

OK. The London Underground has a reversing loop at Kennington. It once had another - where was it and what evidence for it can still be seen by a passenger today?

 

[A Challenge]

Charing Cross/Embankment, I think there is a junction in the tunnel between the two? It is (I think) shown on the Carto Metro.

 

[DerekC]

Well, the location is (more or less) right but the evidence is a bit more subtle.

 

[theageofthetra]

OK. The London Underground has a reversing loop at Kennington. It once had another - where was it and what evidence for it can still be seen by a passenger today?

Its the one that ran under the Thames from near what is now Embankment on the Northern line. Its the one which was breached by a WW2 bomb and flooded I think- I guess you can see the doors which sealed it off?

 

[A Challenge]

It did, and is the reason for the curvature (otherwise unnecessary) bend in the northbound platform at Embankment.

 

[DerekC]

deleted

 

[DerekC]

It did, and is the reason for the curvature (otherwise unnecessary) bend in the northbound platform at Embankment.

Spot on. There is no complementary bend in the southbound platform. Your floor.

 

[A Challenge]

I'm quite pleased with that, the bend was not there as of course it wasn't then needed.

OPEN FLOOR!

 

[DerekC]

Well, it's nearly 48 hours so I feel justified in having another go.

What was it about Queen Victoria's train which was a particular pain to the operating departments of every railway from Aberdeen to Gosport?

 

[Cowley]

Well, it's nearly 48 hours so I feel justified in having another go.

What was it about Queen Victoria's train which was a particular pain to the operating departments of every railway from Aberdeen to Gosport?

Total guess here. Was it because it was a six wheeler but with a particularity long wheelbase?

 

[DerekC]

Well, the royal accommodation on one of her many trains was two six-wheelers close coupled together. That might have upset the Civil Engineer's department, but it wasn't what upset the operators.

 

[GusB]

What was it about Queen Victoria's train which was a particular pain to the operating departments of every railway from Aberdeen to Gosport?

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that the old dear didn't like to travel very fast, and at a time when railway travel was probably becoming faster, was her train holding up everything else?

 

[DerekC]

I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that the old dear didn't like to travel very fast, and at a time when railway travel was probably becoming faster, was her train holding up everything else?

Getting very warm. I am looking for the feature of her train which played into the problem.

 

[theageofthetra]

Did she not allow it to have a toilet so it kept having to stop for her and her staff to use facilities?

 

[Cowley]

Going on what Gus said, did the carriage have some sort brake handle that one could operate or have operated from the actual carriage to slow things down if they became too fast for ones liking?

 

[theageofthetra]

She also refused to use the corridor connection (an innovation in itself) or dine on board so the train kept having to be stopped.

 

[DerekC]

Did she not allow it to have a toilet so it kept having to stop for her and her staff to use facilities?

No, there was a royal loo 412P so that wasn't the problem

She also refused to use the corridor connection (an innovation in itself) or dine on board so the train kept having to be stopped.

That's true - so because the night accommodation was in one coach and the day room in the other the train had to stop when she wanted to go to bed. Meals might have been a bit more predictable.

Going on what Gus said, did the carriage have some sort brake handle that one could operate or have operated from the actual carriage to slow things down if they became too fast for ones liking?

Almost there - it wasn't as direct acting as a brake.

 

[theageofthetra]

No, there was a royal loo 412P so that wasn't the problem




That's true - so because the night accommodation was in one coach and the day room in the other the train had to stop when she wanted to go to bed. Meals might have been a bit more predictable.



Almost there - it wasn't as direct acting as a brake.

She had a rule of a max of 40 mph at day and less at night. Perhaps old Vic was a milepost counter and raised a flag if these limits were breached?

 

[Cowley]

No, there was a royal loo 412P so that wasn't the problem




That's true - so because the night accommodation was in one coach and the day room in the other the train had to stop when she wanted to go to bed. Meals might have been a bit more predictable.



Almost there - it wasn't as direct acting as a brake.

Ah, did she some kind of bell that would sound in the cab that had to be rigged up for journey? That's ringing a bell...