On Shed January 2012

On Shed January 2012

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

Front Page

"Olly" (70013 Oliver Cromwell) crosses the Welwyn viaduct at 07:55 on 17/12/11.     (C) Nick Curtain

Contents
Welcome..and site news.
Steam Tube Photographic Highlights
Steam Tube Video Highlights
1825 Year of the Railway
Railway Journey from Britain to Moscow in the 1950s
On This Day in Railway History
Christian Wolmar
Tornado...the story continues...
New Build Projects Report.
Signalling and Safety on the Railways.
Railway Art
Around The World in 80 Railways. No 18. Japans Shinkhansen 
UK Heritage Railways A - Z

Welcome..and Site news.

Well, here we are at the end of 2011, with 2012 before us!

Steam Tube will be entering its fourth year since inception in a couple of weeks, so it is appropriate to thank all of you for your excellent photos and videos......  As usual, On Shed includes a few of the latest uploads in each section.

During the last month, we have been pleased to add 10 new members ( up to 733), 122 video clips(now 3,578 clips), and 263 new photographs (now 17,093 in the Steam Tube library)

And a warm welcome to the 2,350 (increase of 41) friends on Facebook  and 758 followers on Twitter
(was 731)

Our magazine has the usual features...highlights of new videos and photographs,the latest "Tornado" clips, This Month(January) in years gone by, a look at the Shinkansen in Japan (Around the World in 80 Railways) and Christian Wolmars latest newsletter to subscribers.

In addition, look out for the video "1825 Year of The Railway", a 1950s rail journey from the UK to  Moscow, and a feature on "Signalling and Safety".

Railway Art has produced memorable names and paintings..and Steam Tube has a few artist members, one of whom has been commissioned to provide appropriate images to three of the New Build projects featured in this edition. We shall endeavour to keep updating the information regarding these excellent projects.

And we start with an alphabetical listing of Heritage Railways etc in this edition ...

So, enjoy!!

Steam Tube Photographic Highlights






Steam Tube Video Highlights




1825 Year of the Railway

MORPproductions
2nd year Teesside University students short documentary on the History of the Stockton to Darlington Railway, Locomotion No.1 and George Stephenson.
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Railway journey from Britain to Moscow in the 1950s
HuntleyFilmArchives(Film 7234)

Moscow by Train, Russia, from Harwich.
Railway station, journey starts in the U.K., boarding a train, filming the departure and view back from train of cameraman on platform, passengers sitting in comfortable looking soft chairs, are seen, followed by a view of the countryside rushing by the train. There are shots taken from either side or the train, showing the open countryside going by at speed. We are next on a boat, where we see a gangplank being moved away, and also some passengers on board the ship looking out over the rails of the ship. The boat moves off out of the port and there are shots of the waves thrashing about under the ship. Some old people in soft chairs look out through the portholes in the ship, then we see what could be the captain of the shipping the engine room (he wears a flat cap and a neat white shirt, under a navy blue uniform) There is a shot of a ship, possibly this one, possibly another, from another boat. A seagull flies past and the camera focuses on it for a moment.
Sailors in caps and shirts are seen on the deck of the ship as it pulls into the dock, one of them throws a rope to a man on the quayside who secures it to an iron post. Some families have disembarked from the ship and are carrying suitcases along the dockside. Then some men in jackets board a train , marked wagon - lite. The train then leaves the station, and the station staff wave to the camera from the platform as the train carries it away. The train is now rushing through twig light. Two men are sitting at a table with a bottle of beer or wine in front of them. There follows a shot of train carriages going through a station tunnel. Passengers carrying suitcases stand on a station platform waiting to board a train. Some men at the table of the diner car await some refreshment. In the same diner car, an old fellow sits reading a book. A ticket inspector looks at a mans passport to check that it is all in order. The train reaches a station where we see a close-up of the sign: "Poznan Peron 2A". A driver then climbs the stairs of the train engine here and gets inside. The train then moves off from the station, and we see a shot of train tracks rushing by. A train then pulls into Warsaw station. Inside the dining car of the train a burly middle aged waitress serves three men who sit at a table.
+Some very strong looking coffee is shown being poured into a silver handled cup, and is then sipped by one fellow. Another portly man in a suit counts on an abacus. At an Eastern European looking city (possibly Moscow) some Slavic looking people , including women in headscarves, queue to buy something at a station. Some more scenes from Moscow, including Pedestrians walking along the road, shoppers walking along the pavement, and trams moving along the street and then coming to a halt at a stop. A mother in 1940s wartime-style dress (black, with white polka dots) holds the hand of a young child in a sailor suit. There is a long and wide street with high rise tenement buildings either side and St. Basils Basilica ? At the end.
Some 1950s style cars are driving on the street in question.

There are some shots of very regal royal looking carriages, with large wheels and gold framed carriages, looking very much like the ones the queen rides in. Inside the Moscow underground system, with terrific chandeliers and grand pillars and columns, between which the commuters walk. The tube train moves off from the right to left, looking just like the London Underground.
Outside an official looking building, a statue of Lenin stands, pointing. There are also some shots of very plain looking tenement buildings. There is a huge square surrounded on three sides by very large, stately buildings. Finally, we see the city of Moscow as filmed from a river very close to the city.
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On This Day In Railway History

??/01/2003
The electrification of the Trans-Siberian Railway, a project begun in 1929, is completed

01/01/1945
The national railway operator in the Republic of Ireland, Great Southern Railways, with responsibility for the southern part of the Irish railway network is merged into a new national transport operator, Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ).

??/01/1965
British Railways adopts a new corporate identity including the name British Rail and the double arrow symbol.

01/01/1943
First Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST steamed, earliest of 377 built for war service to British Ministry of Supply order

Find more videos like this on The home of steam on the net!


01/01/1938
Creation of SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français), bringing
the principal railway companies of France together under government control.

??/01/1933
London Underground diagram designed by Harry Beck introduced to public.



01/01/1932
William Stanier appointed CME of the LMS succeeding Ernest Lemon.

05/01/1997
Further British train operating companies begin operation of their passenger service franchises as part of the privatisation of British Rail: Anglia Railways (GB Railways); Great Eastern (First Group); Virgin CrossCountry; and WAGN (Prism Rail)

06/01/1997
Full freight and passenger service is restored through the Channel Tunnel, just short of two months after a devastating fire.

06/01/1968
The Hixon rail crash occurs when a low-loader road transporter is struck by an express train on an automatic half-barrier level crossing at Hixon, Staffordshire, England. 11 people are killed. This has repercussions on the arrangements for automating level crossings on British Rail

10/01/1923
All major railways in Great Britain are amalgamated into the "Big Four" companies, the Great Western Railway, London and North Eastern Railway, London, Midland and Scottish Railway and Southern Railway, under terms of Railways Act 1921.

01/01/1948
The railways were nationalised.

01/01/1905
The Trans-Siberian Railway officially opens..allowing travel from Paris to Vladivostock in 21 days

05/01/1969
Last trains over the Waverley Route from Edinburgh in Scotland to Carlisle.

09/01/1900
The first through train runs from Cairo to Khartoum in the Sudan

09/01/1886
The first GWR coal train runs through the 4 ½ mile Severn Tunnel

12/01/2009
Official opening of Docklands Light Railway London City Airport branch extension under the River Thames to Woolwich Arsenal

16/01/1961
Eastern Region of British Railways takes delivery of D9001, the first production "Deltic" class diesel locomotive

BR Deltic 55022 - start, horn & departure, at York, 16-Aug-2008
Courtesy: TrainBusJaguar on YouTube

23/01/1955
Sutton Coldfield train disaster, England: a passenger train rounds a sharp curve too fast and derails; 17 people die as a result.
A British Pathe film clip at: http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=38889



24/01/1955
British Transport Commission produces a report on Modernisation and Re-Equipment of British Railways which proposes the large-scale replacement of the steam locomotive by diesel and electrification together with major resignalling projects


26/01/1921
The Abermule train collision was a head-on collision which occurred at Abermule, Montgomeryshire, Wales on 26 January 1921, killing 17 people. The crash arose from misunderstandings between staff which effectively over-rode the safe operation of the Electric Train Tablet system protecting the single line. A train departed carrying the wrong tablet for the section it was entering and collided with a train coming the other way.
More details at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/mid/sites/history/pages/abermule_1921.shtml

29/01/1959:
Fog brings transport chaos. Dense fog - the worst for seven years - has brought road, rail and air transport in many parts of England and Wales to a virtual standstill.
Many long-distance trains from London were cancelled. Suburban services were also seriously disrupted.
------------------------------

Christian Wolmar
Latest Newsletter.................


DearSubscriber

Puttingthings off seems to be the order of the day. We had expected a very fullDecember with announcements on HS2 and franchise reform, as well as progress onfranchise lettings, but instead everything has been kicked into touch. JustineGreening is rightly being cautious, but there is a time when she has to showwhether she is up to what is a very complex job, with lots of decisions to bemade, or not.
 Instead, we had an Autumn Statement whoseheadlines promised much but which, on examination (see latest Rail magazine not yet on the website I’mafraid) offered little of new to the rail industry except for the promise ofthe reopening of an East – West route north of London. There was, though,precious little of the hard stuff in Osborne’s statement with really no newmoney at all.
 There are a more than usual number ofadditions to the website, reflecting a busy month. Journalism, thankfully,lives on though I have also blogged a couple of times on the Westminsterparking row and even been threatened with ‘m’learned friends’ after writingabout a particularly junky piece of research by the rather grandly titled Centrefor Economic and Business Research – read it here.
 First, an entertaining little item about the roadlanes that are being promised for the exclusive use of the dysfunctional ‘Olympicfamily’ in The Oldie.More seriously, the deaths of two cyclists on the so called Cycle Superhighway in East London prompted me to write about it in my now regular column in Surveyor magazine.
 In Public Finance I rehearse the arguments over HS2 and also return to these in my analysis of thevery thorough report on the issue by the Transport Committee here. My other Rail column is on the bizarre renationalisation of the railways by European state ownedcompanies. Finally, I have started writing again for TSSA magazine here
 I am also going to be writing for a newmagazine, RailConnect, principally on projects and the like, which is a greatexcuse to get round the railway and see what’s going on at ground level. First stop next week is the station rebuild at Tottenham Court Road – hard hats andboots de rigueur.
 I have summed up the score in my usual MysticWolmar predictions in the current Railmagazine, scoring about 50 per cent with a good hit on Hammond’s departure, but welcome thoughts for next year.
I have finished my American railroads book, the fifth in my railway history books, which will be published in May, though, of course, there will be lots of editing andcorrections to do before then. Next up, the Transsiberian. I will, of course,be travelling on it and tips on where best to stop off, how to organise it, etc are most welcome. Instinctively, I think I will travel on it East West as that’s the way fewer people go but open to advice.
 For last minute Christmas presents – I now have a few of the trade paperback (a kind of big version of paperback, as the proper version will be out in June) edition of Engines of War, £8 plus £2 50 p & p, pay by PayPal or email me via the website.
 No planned talks in January, but lots coming up in February, including a special at the Canal Museum on February 22nd on the Subterranean Railway.
 Compliments of the season and follow me onTwitter @christianwolmar
Order your copy of a Christian Wolmar book here
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Tornado...the story continues...


19/12/11

New Build Projects Report.

On Shed will endeavour to keep members updated on the progress of these key new and rebuild projects.
If you would like us to help keep your project before the eyes of genuine enthusiasts, please let us know.
Hengist


LMS Patriot 45551 The Unknown Warrior

Locomotive:

? All six driving axleboxes have been cast – at contractors in Southam (Warwicks) awaiting machining
? One axlebox keep and one bearing have been cast and await checking before we order five more of each
? All hornguides cast – those for the leading driving wheel which are different from the rest have been machined and trial fitted. The remaining eight await machining. The four ties (stretchers) for these have been machined.
? All horn ties have been cast and are at Llangollen awaiting machining
? Six driving wheel springs have been manufactured at Owen Springs Rotherham
? Twelve spring hanger brackets have been cast and are at Llangollen awaiting machining and fitting to the frames
? Six spring hangers and the pins have been machined and are at Llangollen waiting for delivery of the springs
? The pattern for the Tee Piece (which connects axlebox to spring) has been made and the six Tee Pieces cast
? The four main frame stretchers have been cast and machined and are at Llangollen awaiting fitting to the frames
? The wheels have been machined and are at the South Devon Railway to be made into wheelsets
? The two axles have been machined and work on the crank axle is proceeding.
? Manufacturing drawings for the running plate, motion girder and motion bracket are in preparation
? Quotes have been obtained for the two remaining connecting rod forgings and the inside cylinder end cap
? All buffers have been refurbished
? The chimney from 45539 E.C. Trench has been acquired at Sheffield Raiwayana auctions
? One bogie wheelset complete with axleboxes and hornguides has been acquired with the other one promised.

Tender

? The tender wheels have been refurbished at Tyseley
? The tender springs have been refurbished by Owens Springs in Rotherham
? Quotes have been obtained for new inside and outside frame plates and front and rear dragboxes
? The order has been placed for a new axlebox pattern and four axleboxes to be cast
? Drawings for the revised tender tank have been complete


On Shed January 2012