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[apparently lucky eddie]

You've just got to love a Bullied BoB/WC loco, especially a spamcan. Sounds as good as it looks.The rebuilt ones are sadly lacking the character and style. Nice to see the 350 'bollock crusher' and the Crompton too, I had many good nights sleep on Cromptons whilst on ballast turns. The romance of steam goes out the window the first time you run tender-first into a howling gale though.

[Caboose]

Hi Apparently Lucky Eddie,


Like yourself, I spent many hours sleeping on ballast turns, but mostly in the brakevan and on 100 mile Class 9 freight trips.
I started as a Goods Shunter in 1965 and was a Goods Guard from 1974 until promotion to Guard's Inspector in 1989, then redundancy in 1994!
I followed that with 10 years with EWS from 1997 until January 2008.
The old wise drivers always said that the spotters would not have been so keen if they had to rise at one thirty in the morning and shovel (left handed) 10 tons of coal into a firebox, over a 100 mile journey !
After steam ended in 1967 we had mostly EE Type Ones coupled nose to nose in multiple, 24's -25's - 27's - 37's - 60's and best of all type 47's. Shunted with the EE CL8's and Hunslet Barclay 204's
REgards Dick.

[Adrian]

ANY Bulleid pacific doing its job is a joy to behold. "The rebuilt ones are lacking the character and style." Hmmm, I thought this little clip from about 2 minutes 10 seconds in might show why anybody bothered preserving the things. Play it back nice and loud.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA5KQf3hBMw



Let's see if the embedding code works:







Wouldn't mind popping down to Swanage for that vintage transport weekend, and I probably would, if I wasn't already going to a rally in Brittany on those dates. Can't have everything...



A.

[Scalyback]

Being a southern guy, my favourites are the spam cans. Saw Blackmore vale at the blue bell on Monday, awaiting some attention.

[apparently lucky eddie]

There isn't much that can spin her wheels like a Merchant Navy I used to love watching them pulling out of Waterloo I'm looking forward to seeing General Steam Navigation back on the metals again one day and I hope she gets the publicity that the old LNER scrapper 4472 got!

[Adrian]

35011 will be some time yet, though one of the mags reckoned 35018 British India Line is nearing the end of its restoration at Carnforth. A.

[Leon Novello]

I`d say the rings are shot in the engine in lower picture. Just a guess mind you.

[Adrian]

Or the driver has the cylinder drain cocks open... A.

[apparently lucky eddie]

Caboose, if you were doing 100 trips behind a 09/350, max speed 27mph, you had to be very grateful you weren't on the loco! We didn't call them 'bollock crushers' for nothing and they were of course intended for yard shunting duties. Interesting that you feel the Brush type 4's (47's) were your favourite loco. As a driver the ones I had dealings with coming onto the Southern had one fatal flaw that rendered them utterly helpless - no sands! They would haul 1500 tons of oil (plus 100 ton loco)and then get stuck at Clapham Junction or Tulse Hill because they couldn't climb the bank because of wheel slip. Even the drivers' trick of 10lbs in the straight air brake didn't work, too much power. Many's the time I went out to haul them onto the level with a 350 horsepower shunter or the 600 hp diesel on a class 73.