May 2012 On Shed

May 2012 On Shed

"Preserving the steam locomotive legacy..and more..on film"

FRONT PAGE

4464 Bittern departs Bewdley for Kidderminster on the Severn Valley Railway during a photo-charter on Monday March 26th 2012.    (C) Kevin Wilkins.


Contents:
Welcome, and site news...
Steam Tube Video Highlights
Steam Tube Photo Highlights
Tornado- The Story Continues
On This Day
New Build and Projects Updates...
VSLC Newsletter and Update.
UK Heritage Railways A - Z (S to Z)
US Heritage Steam Information
Busier than usual on the West Coast (Dick Bodily)

From Christian Wolmar....
Around The World in 80 Railways. No. 22. Indian Hill Railways.

Welcome, and site news...
Welcome to another edition of On Shed, the online magazine of Steam Tube-The Home of Steam on the Net!

We are especially pleased to be able to report on our tie up with WATTRAIN (more later..) and our links established with
the Victoria Steam Locomotive Company ..and Jonathan Newton..and a fantastic Australian new build of a  Victorian Railways V Class, 2-8-0, to be numbered V499. And this project is linked with the UK Claud Hamilton new build!
We shall keep an eye on these, and other new build and refurbishment projects.....

Steam Tube membership is now at 939...and fast approaching 1,000! 
The Steam Tube Image Library has now passed 20,000...and what a fantastic variety of images...especially those from Alan Curtis, featuring 1960s scenes..in colour and black and white.
And the Video Library has reached 3,931 clips.
The most recent films include mainline steam, galas (Barrow Round House, Llangollen Railway) ....and more. Take a look!



Partnership with WATTRAIN

Steam Tube is proud to announce a great partnership with a sister organisation! You may have noticed the banner at the top of the screen promoting Wattrain, if youve not heard of them, let me tell you more about them.

WATTRAIN was founded in 2010 after the Railway Heritage Conference in October 2009. A resolution was passed stating to promote the interests of the owners and operators of heritage and tourist trains and trams. The three proposers (Quique Diaz (Latin America), Chris Le Marshall (Australia) and David Morgan (Europe)) were invited to establish an organisation. This new organisation would report back to all potential and interested candidates for membership at least three months before the next plenary session in 2012”.

WATTRAIN now consists of the three founders plus Ian Leigh [Finance Director]; Ian Smith [Managing Director], Kyoichi Oda [Director] and Andrea Hett [membership Secretary]. Much work has been carried out since 2009, to bring WATTRAIN into being as a company, currently based in London, UK. Our next set of targets is to appoint the Chairmen of our various Committees and to begin work on setting them up and also to hold the first ever WATTRAIN Congress in October 2012.
Steam Tube see the partnership as a way forward to reach deeper into both the UK heritage rail scene as well as the World-wide scene. On their part, Wattrain were seeking a foot on the ground in the UK, somewhere they can connect with the real steam/heritage rail fans. Steam Tube seemed an obvious choice. With our 900+ members and huge image library. For their part, Wattrain have said:
“...they would gain another mouthpiece and the chance to recruit more members by being associated with STEAMTUBE so this should be a mutually beneficial relationship”
Ian Smith, Managing Director of WATTRAIN said:“I am delighted that Steam Tube and WATTRAIN are working together to improve communications within the Heritage Sector and I am sure we will be able to provide our members with a great service!”

Both Shedmaster and I are very excited about the forthcoming partnership and its mutual benefits. We at Steam Tube will be able to reach more international heritage rail fans and subsequently move on to the next level. We both hope that, as Steam Tube members you will come with us into these exciting times, support Wattrain, visit their website, discuss with them the kind of issues you been discussing on Steam Tube and together keep the current heritage rail scene strong, if not stronger!

TFC + Shedmaster

Steam Tube Video Highlights






Steam Tube Photo Highlights








Tornado- The Story Continues
     



On This Day....May.....
 

02/05/1859   The Royal Albert Bridge over theTamar Opens.
Brunels Masterpiece (C) TFC

                                   


















03/05/1903  Liverpool s Mersey Railway converts to electric
                    traction.

03/05/1926   UK General Strike, affecting railways until 12th



06/05/1994   Channel Tunnel officially opened.
Reproduced by kind permission "Ministry of Foreign Affairs photographic service"

09/05/1904   "City of Truro" reaches 102.3 mph....apparently....

But not in this picture! Waiting right away....at Toddington. June 2009
(C)P Lewis

                             














15/05/1929 1st "Golden Arrow" service between London -Paris.

The Golden Arrow leaving Victoria Station (1953) View northward under Elizabeth Bridge towards the buffer-stops: the celebrated de-luxe (all Pullman cars) Continental Boat Train to Folkestone Harbour, which connected with the ferryboat to Calais, thence an arrival that evening in Paris at 21.40 and Monte Carlo at 05.30 the next morning - a really civilized way to travel to the French Riviera, at a premium fare. The locomotive, bedecked with headboard, Union Jack and French flag, is one devoted to the job: BR Standard Britannia Class 7 4-6-2 No. 70004 William Shakespeare.
(C) Ben Brooksbank
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.





17/05/1906  Simplon Tunnel between Italy-Switzerland opens.
Simplon Tunnel Italian Portal (C). Markus Schweiss














20/05/1892   Last Broad Gauge train from Paddington.......
"Iron Duke" at Toddington ,June2010. (C)P.Lewis

22/05/1915  Quintinshill Rail Disaster .

24/05/1900  Nottingham Victoria Station opens.

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NEW Builds and Projects Updates







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5AT Project Suspension Announcement

In an article published in the April 2012 edition (No 399) of Steam Railway magazine, David Wardale announced that the 5AT project has been placed in abeyance for an indefinite period. The projects suspension has been brought about by the world’s financial problems and consequential difficulties in raising interest in such a technically difficult and financially challenging undertaking, particularly with regards the numerous hurdles that have to be crossed, and the expectation that its development costs would have to be written off before any return on capital would be forthcoming.In any case, with the completion of the 5AT’s Fundamental Design Calculations (FDCs) and Feasibility Study, work on the project has advanced as far as it can practically go without the injection of substantial funding to establish a full-time engineering design team that is needed to take it further. As a consequence, activity on the 5AT Project reached a hiatus some time ago, since when members of the 5AT Group have been investigating alternative activities through which they can apply the knowledge and experience gained from their work on the 5AT. The technology that underpins the 5AT design was developed by Chapelon beginning in the 1920s, and improved by Livio Dante Porta in the second half of the 20th century. It has been applied to several rebuilds, including two South African machines that were famously modified by David Wardale in the 1980s – Class 19D 2-8-4 No 2644 and Class 26 4-8-4 No 3450 “The Red Devil”. The step-by-step design process developed by Porta and used by Wardale in his South African work, has been systematically documented by him in the form of the FDCs for the 5AT which contain almost 7000 lines of calculation and 100 diagrams. The methodology that they present is specifically intended to be followed in the development of new designs, both for rebuild and new-build locomotives. This unique set of calculations is in the sole possession of the 5AT Group and it forms the foundation of the Group’s capabilities and its future plans. One of the Group’s first intentions is to conduct a nation-wide survey of steam locomotive owners and operators in order to ascertain their views as to current and future locomotive needs for both main line and heritage line operations. The information thus gathered will enable the Group to develop its future strategies aimed at meeting the needs and expectations of the survey participants. Further information on the survey and Group’s future plans will be announced on this website as it becomes available.

VSLC Newsletter and Update
It has been an interesting two months since our last edition of this
newsletter. Discussions have been taking place between the VSLC and
several of our supportive groups, and other important meetings have taken
place too. The positive element is that everything keeps driving the
project forward, even if things do appear to be going slowly.
A common question that we find people are asking us is how we plan to
finance the locomotive, and how we plan to keep the locomotive in
operation once it is built. Therefore, in this issue we have explained the
strategies we have in place for raising the much needed capital.
So, please find attached within this email your copy of the April edition
of The Compound Chronicle. If you wish to read the past editions, you can
download them from our website right here:
http://www.vicsteam.com/news
Also, we havent forgotten about the photographs of the 5inch gauge V
class and they will start to appear on our site later in April.
Thank you once again for your interest in the V499 Project, and your
future support.

The following article , which appeared in "Puffing Billys" magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Jonathan Ne


May 2012 On Shed