Engine Displacement

On or around Fri, 21 Oct 2005 08:24:55 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

area of a circle is either pi-r-squared or pi-d-squared-over-4; stroo.

yep. I think people may have overlooked the pi in there.

On or around Fri, 21 Oct 2005 08:31:50 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

cooo, shiny. Coal fired, I assume? must have a fair-sized grate. The ones I used to play with were a lot smaller.

though Alan George had a cab by the time I was involved. Not sure why the rolling stock pictures are so out of date, mind. I suspect the colour picture top right of the 2 steam locos is one I took...

Alan George is quite a challenge to fire, though - grate is 2 square feet. By comparison, Sgt. Murphy is a doddle.

She is indeed coal fired although many of that class were converted to oil over the years they were in service.

All nice looking - I'll have to visit one day.

Just little uns then Austin. Worst piece about having to fire 1250 is that the first scheduled service is at 8am so it's a 3am start.

On or around Sat, 22 Oct 2005 11:37:40 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

Yikes. There's no such time...

'Snot too bad. Go out the evening before and set and light a fire, then fire the bbq. Have me supper, give 1250 another prod and a bit of coal, attack the bottle of scotch, then kip in the depot. Then an early start doing the hard work of making a real fire and getting steam up whilst my father-in-law (who's supposed to be doing the work) makes tea and cooks a decent breakfast (bacon, eggs, hash browns, beans, and whatever else her indoors has seen fit to provide). It's all worthwhile when you pull out of the depot into a perfect morning and trundle off up the line to the station in the sunrise.

Anyways, as I'm not suitably qualified to drive trains it's the only time I'm allowed to so that's a bit of an incentive for the early starts. As is the thought that using the whistle at level crossings at

7am is signalling the start of another Sunday for all those living within a couple of miles. :-)

On or around Sat, 22 Oct 2005 20:53:15 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

Yeah, there's a certain magic about the moment they come alive, too - the point where the blower suddenly starts working (tend to leave it turned on a bit in anticipation, I assume the same on bigger ones) and suddenly the thing's not just a lump of metal with a smoky fire in it but a living creature. I'll have to find another driver for my school work part-time next year, and see if I can get back into fireman training. One of the local railways (Gwili) is standard gauge and more to the point has full signalling, it is in theory possible to get a genuine steam driver's ticket by training there. But fireman is a good start... although I guess it's harder work on a big'un than the little 2ft gauge ones, although the little 'uns keep you on the ball 'cos everything happens so quickly. Used to get the model engineer brigade sometimes, the sort who have 7" gauge live steam

- they reckoned firing Alan George with his 2 sq.ft. of grate was a piece of piss...

ah, I was wondering about the scotch. No booze 8 hours before driving, and

24 hours is better after a session in this country, like the airline pilots and for similar reasons.

On or around Fri, 21 Oct 2005 08:31:50 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

'ere, what track gauge do you lot have in ennzed?

3'6"

We tend to use a bit of compressed air in the smokestack to get a draft going - otherwise the cab beomes a bit untenable (as does the entire engine depot).

I'll have to find another driver for my school work part-time

The only problem with a big'un is the sheer amount of coal consumed - it's a very busy job keeping up with it when it's doing a lot of work. So not too much of a problem just trundling around on the usual branch line, but a huge amount of work when fully loaded and at speed out on the main line.

I'm aiming for my fireman's ticket followed by my driver's ticket. All the old boys who have steam qualifications are slowly passing away so they need a few more of us slightly younger chaps to learn the art.

Ditto.

On or around Sun, 23 Oct 2005 08:13:09 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

thought it might have been. The loco has an odd set of proportions compared to "standard gauge" ones. same as ZA, I believe.