Round the Urmston track on 'The Wildfowler' today.

Topping up the water tanks between runs

First my attempt to video a circuit of the track while driving my loco. It does give an idea of what the loco is like to drive, though I don't have any passengers on the trucks on this run so I am going a tad faster than I would with pax:

Wildfowler round Urmston as I drive

And here's a run with me videoing and Bob driving, and we do have pax on for this one so Bob takes it a bit slower:

Bob drives round while I video him

And here's Bob solo on 'The Wildfowler' just finishing a run:

Bob solo on 'The Wildfowler'

Me again, less chat.

Me on 'The Wildfowler', less chat

Boiler blow-down at end of day. The loco has two blow-down valves.

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Idiots with agendas

First the execrable Rees Mog, and now Bernard Jenkin, both hard brexiters publicly displaying their ignorance and destroying any credibility that "brexit will be a breeze and we'll look back and wonder what the fuss was about".

Ocean going idiots, both. Not for supporting brexit, for they have their own agendas there (to pick up juicy tit-bits at knock-down prices for their financial empires from the smoking ruin that UK will be after a no-deal crash out next year). No, they are ocean going idiots for displaying their ignorance and stupidity in comparing brexit to the Millennium Bug problem. 

They say "everyone panicked in the late '90s about computers unable to handle the roll-over from 1999 to 2000 dates, and in reality, nothing happened".  

Of course nothing bloody happened! Nothing bloody happened because companies all over the world spent an absolute fortune checking computer code for date fields that would not handle numbers above 1999. I know, I was there, and very much involved with my projects at EDS. And a great deal of code dating back to 1960s mainframes was indeed found to have such limited date fields, coded by programmers in the days when memory and storage space was very limited indeed, and who never dreamed their code would still be in use at turn of the century.

It was a massive operation. Affected code had to be corrected, and then of course it had to be tested to ensure the changes had not introduced any new bugs. Unlike know-nothing politicians with selfish personal agendas who label experts as peddlers of 'project fear', the computer industry took the professional approach of fixing the problem rather than waiting to see what happened and then trying to pick up the pieces from the resultant wreckage.

Of course these politicians have the advantage of being able to hood-wink a not-too-sharp public into supporting their agenda. The Computer industry was, thankfully, a tad smarter than that.

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45083650

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5" gauge steam locomotives are big and heavy. So how do we transport them to and from the track?

How do you transport a 5" steam locos by car? This series of pictures shows 'The Wildfowler' on return from Urmston today.

Click on each picture for a larger image.

 'The Wildfowler' secured to the board which fits behind the front passenger seat. 

The board has raised sections of 5" guage to guide the wheels and prevent the loco slipping sideways when secured to the board.

The yellow webbing strap passes across the cab floor (which is protected by cloths to prevent paintwork damage) while the front of the loco is clamped to the board using a threaded rod with a wing nut on top.

A steel plate under the front 'protector bar' of the loco enables the front of the loco to be clamped to the board without compressing the springs.

 Hydraulic trolley with extended plywood top is raised to the same level as the board in the car.

 The loco is simply wheeled from car to trolley. The front of the trolley's extended top rests on the car's boot sill so the trolley will not tilt under the weight of the loco.

The trolley is fully lowered and the loco can be wheeled into the garage on the trolley, where it will remain until the next outing.

Raising the trolley to full height in the garage provides an excellent 'bench' for working on the loco, but does not offer 'underneath' access.

At the club track we have pneumatic platforms and traversers to similarly enable the locomotive to be effortlessly moved from the car to the preparation bays, and then onto the track. 

Needless to say, these models are far too heavy to even contemplate lifting them without mechanical assistance.

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30 years in preservation - the APT

Back in December 1984 British Rail's Advanced Passenger Train set a new speed record of 3 hours 52 minutes London to Glasgow. It still stands, though in September 2006 a Virgin Trains Pendolino made an attempt on the record in the opposite direction; Glasgow to London. It came close, at 3 hours 55 minutes.

The APT was the train of the future in the 1980s, but Thatcher didn't like rail, the rail unions and rail managers obstructed it, but most of all it suffered the 'British Disease' of never receiving sufficient funding to properly develop it. The project was scrapped and BR went for the conventional Inter City 125 train instead. The West Coast Main Line that the tilting APT was designed for carried on with Mk3 coaches and class 87 electric locos until Virgin introduced the tilting Pendolinos after rail privatisation.

The tilt technology of the APT was sold to Italy, who developed it into the highly successful Pendolino series of trains now in use all over the world, including of course the UK.

The electric APT trains were scrapped, except one set that is preserved at Crewe Heritage Centre. This week, Thursday to Sunday, they are holding a celebration of 30 years of APT preservation and I went along.

Click on any of the pictures for a larger image.

 While waiting for the shuttle bus outside Crewe station I met Andrew, chairman of Manchester Locomotive Society (of which I am secretary), his friend Peter, and (above) Midlands DJ Les Ross, owner of electric locomotive 86 259 which Virgin named after him on his retirement from his radio show. Les bought the loco when Virgin retired it, and has replaced the 'Les Ross' name plate on one side with 'Peter Pan', the name the loco carried prior to being re-named.

The shuttle bus that took us to the Heritage Centre and back. The distance is about a mile, but the Journey there took about 10 miles, via Nantwich, as there is a low bridge on the direct route and nowhere at Crewe station for the bus to turn. Last time I was in a Routemaster was at the Abersoch wedding in June.

Here is the preserved APT set at Crewe but with only one power car. The museum have kept it in fine cosmetic condition. The seats are far more comfortable than those in a Pendolino, even in standard class.

 An APT power car which was the second one of the set preserved at Crewe but which was sent initially to the National Railway Museum, then had several temporary homes ending up at the electric rail museum in Coventry. When that closed recently the power car was returned to Crewe where it has been cosmetically restored.

 I had a ride on the 7.25" gauge miniature railway. It would have been rude not to!

 This what the West Coast Main Line got instead of the APT - the Class 87 electric loco. This one, 87 035, is named 'Robert Burns'.

Driver's controls of the 87

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