Contractors Loco Project

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philipy
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Tue Feb 15, 2022 9:24 am

I've just found this piece in a local newspaper of the time, I wonder if this is what caused the need for major repairs/rebuild of our little monster?

It also gives a clue as to the size of the trains and the loads.

Fatal Accident 50%.jpg
Fatal Accident 50%.jpg (41.99 KiB) Viewed 4170 times
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by GTB » Tue Feb 15, 2022 11:11 am

philipy wrote: Tue Feb 15, 2022 6:54 am To quote from the local press, "It is believed that this Excellent New Locomotive Engine will be highly beneficial in the efficient execution of the contract."
How much did that piece of journalistic misdirection cost the railway management???? :shock:

philipy wrote: Tue Feb 15, 2022 9:24 am I've just found this piece in a local newspaper of the time, I wonder if this is what caused the need for major repairs/rebuild of our little monster?
The loco in the later photo certainly looked like it could have been in the reservoir for a while.......

If that steam powered tool shed could pull four loaded trucks they must have been small and the track flat.

Phil Sharples has a small box tipper in his range which looks like the sort of thing that might be used for spoil. Small flat trucks, or bulkhead flats would be a likely possibility, as they'd be more suitable for moving cement and bricks around. Cement would have been transported in barrels back then, not the paper bags used now.

Since the railway management seems to have been conned into using it for track maintenance after the completion of the reservoir, flat trucks would be more useful for carrying a few sleepers and rails.

Incidentally, congratulations on squeezing all that electrickery into such a limited space. :salute:

Regards,
Graeme

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Tue Feb 15, 2022 3:52 pm

An amazing coincidence this afternoon.

We had a visit from friends of ours who live in S. Wales and we who we haven't really seen since the dreaded pandemic started. He is a Norf Lunnen boy who was a loco fireman working out of Kings Cross until the end of steam and then became a cabby. He is always interested in my model making so I showed him the latest creation. He looked a bit puzzled for a few minutes but when I said what it was, his face cleared and he said " I know where you got that from." It transpired that he remembers seeing it as a wreck at one of the reservoir maintenance yards up until, he thinks, about the 1970's when he saw it being craned onto a low loader to be taken away. He also said thet his memory tells him that it was painted a sort of pale blu-ish colour and that of course could easily tie in with the apparent pale grey colour of the wreck photo. It could also be a weathered version of the fairly common 'Lead grey', or pale grey, often applied to plant.

Small world!
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by ge_rik » Wed Feb 16, 2022 8:48 am

Wow! What a coincidence!! Amazes me sometimes how interconnected people and places can be.

I once met an unknown random person at a party in Ellesmere Port. After five minutes' conversation it transpired that he once lived in East Anglia (the opposite side of the country) and had been a bell ringer in a church with my brother and sister in law ......

It was a spine tingling moment!

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by Andrew » Wed Feb 16, 2022 8:52 am

philipy wrote: Tue Feb 15, 2022 3:52 pm Small world!
Indeed! That's an amazing coincidence!

It's not uncommon to have to explain the concept of a narrow gauge railway to visitors, what are the chances of entertaining a guest who recognises a loco that niche?! Amazing it survived until the 70s - only to be scrapped...

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by Lonsdaler » Wed Feb 16, 2022 2:23 pm

philipy wrote: Tue Feb 15, 2022 9:24 am I've just found this piece in a local newspaper of the time, I wonder if this is what caused the need for major repairs/rebuild of our little monster?

It also gives a clue as to the size of the trains and the loads.


Fatal Accident 50%.jpg
Where and whenever you store or display this little gem, a copy of that article should accompany it. I wonder if the named individual is one of those in the photograph?
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Wed Feb 16, 2022 3:24 pm

Lonsdaler wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 2:23 pm I wonder if the named individual is one of those in the photograph?
I did wonder that myself, especially since the double picture is dated 1913 and the accident happened in December 1913, although of course we don't actually know how many loco's were working on the construction and if ours is the one mentioned.
The other thing is that the pictures show a crew of two, but the accident report doesn't mention anyone else. Having said that, it would be a bit difficult for the driver to see past the fireman if he was standing on the footplate, so I wonder if they had some sort of weird arrangement of stoking the loco before it set off on a trip and hoping the fire lasted long enough to get back! :shock:
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Wed Feb 16, 2022 3:30 pm

I don't suppose anyone has any drawings, or even good pictures, of contractors wagons? I've been trawling around and they seem to be almost as rare as hens teeth.
I realise that there are a few usable kits from PS and others but I'd quite like something 'real' to get my teeth into.
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by GTB » Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:43 pm

philipy wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 3:30 pm I don't suppose anyone has any drawings, or even good pictures, of contractors wagons? I've been trawling around and they seem to be almost as rare as hens teeth.
There doesn't seem to be much available in the way of drawings. I remember seeing a few ng examples in the early issues of the Industrial Railway Society journal that are available on their website. Look under 'back issues' https://www.irsociety.co.uk/

There's also Sydney Leleux's book 'Industrial Narrow Gauge Stock and Trackwork', published by Plateway Press 20 odd years ago. Out of print, but there are currently a couple of copies on ABE books. No drawings, but a lot of useful photos of all sorts of stuff, from Hudson v-tippers to things even more home made than this loco. More useful than most ng books, as it shows just rolling stock and track and ignores trains and locos.

A search through the online bookshops of the Industrial Railway Society and the Narrow Gauge Railway Society would also be worth the time.

Here in Oz, industrial locos were often single manned and I would have thought it would be the same in the UK. The crew on a timber tram may have been two men, but the second one was brakeman, guard, shunter and general dogsbody and rode the trucks. Any person in the cab apart from the driver was just hitching a ride......

This contractors loco was likely geared down and probably ran slow enough that the driver could jump off, throw on a couple of shovels of coal and jump back on again without stopping.

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by Andrew » Thu Feb 17, 2022 8:31 am

Hi Philip,

Try this: https://issuu.com/tombell17/docs/hudson ... terials-gs

Loads of makers photos of Hudson industrial equipment...

Hope it's useful!

Andrew.

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Thu Feb 17, 2022 8:45 am

Thanks Andrew. I've got that thanks. It's their 1915 catalogue and although I'm sure a lot of the designs carried through from years before, I was hoping for some early-ish wooden stock.
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by Andrew » Thu Feb 17, 2022 9:20 am

Damn, thought I'd solved all your problems there!

I was pleased to rediscover that catalogue though, I could lose myself for hours in there. And it does contain the answer if your next project is a 3D printed pachyderm, they seem to have wagons suitable for elephant haulage...

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by ge_rik » Thu Feb 17, 2022 10:03 am

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by Lonsdaler » Thu Feb 17, 2022 11:19 am

GTB wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 11:43 pm
There doesn't seem to be much available in the way of drawings. I remember seeing a few ng examples in the early issues of the Industrial Railway Society journal that are available on their website. Look under 'back issues' https://www.irsociety.co.uk/

Graeme
That is a wonderful resource Graeme, thanks for sharing. I found an image and drawings of a wooden waggon 'CHALDRON WAGONS AT SEAHAM HARBOUR' in Issue no.10 June 1966, which may be worth considering Philip.
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by SimonWood » Thu Feb 24, 2022 8:42 am

philipy wrote: Mon Feb 14, 2022 3:44 pm Well... here she is:

This shot is as close as I can get to the original 'big' picture:
Absolutely stunning Philip - even better than I imagined it would turn out - and I had high expectations! A masterpiece.

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Thu Feb 24, 2022 10:43 am

Thanks Simon ( and all the other recent comments).

I haven't forgotten the video, but the weather this last week or so hasn't been conducive to playing trains.

Plus, now I've got myself into the job of trying to cure some squeeky floor boards that I've been promising I'd do for a couple of years!
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Thu Mar 24, 2022 3:26 pm

I can't believe that it's been a month since I 'finished' this loco!
Things just got in the way of doing the promised video and I'm not exactly happy with it even now, but I just need to get it done and dusted.
My plan was to do a representation of the train that crashed, but this is as close as I can get. I was going to do a rake of KerrStuart contractors wagons but my 3D printer broke halfway through the first one so 4 has ended up as only 1, I'm afraid, plus a couple of flat wagons of unknown origin/prototype that I had lurking in a box.

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by Andrew » Thu Mar 24, 2022 4:23 pm

Brilliant!

The sound works really well I think, it's sufficiently different from a conventional loco to sound "right" - I've got no idea of whether it is!

Is the first wagon the KS one? I like that very much, I'm a sucker for opens with rounded ends...

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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by philipy » Thu Mar 24, 2022 4:42 pm

Andrew wrote: Thu Mar 24, 2022 4:23 pm The sound works really well I think, it's sufficiently different from a conventional loco to sound "right" - I've got no idea of whether it is!
Well its fairly near I think, although it is from a single cylinder vertical engine not a twin cylinder, but I couldn't find a twin without chattering gricers or rushing water in the background.
Andrew wrote: Thu Mar 24, 2022 4:23 pm Is the first wagon the KS one? I like that very much, I'm a sucker for opens with rounded ends...
Yes it is. It's a bit of an amalgam from illustrations in the KS catalogue ( thanks Rik), but since they seem to offer a fair amount of customisation options and don't give any dimensions, I made it to suit. :D
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Re: Contractors Loco Project

Post by Old Man Aaron » Fri Mar 25, 2022 3:29 pm

Absolute little gem, that. :salute:
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