Subject:
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Re: British Trains Re: Hogwarts Express train
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Fri, 24 Feb 2006 01:39:32 GMT
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Viewed:
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8300 times
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In lugnet.trains, Mathew Clayson wrote:
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In lugnet.trains, Mark Bellis wrote:
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For this first coach I used the 6x4 and 4x4 smooth centred brown plates from
the Sopwith Camel to do wood-panelled compartments, though there’s little
point as I made the roof permanent and the vertically-mounted plates only
detach after a few months of going to shows and shifting boxes around.
John mentions rivet-counting. Well I did put the ventilators on top of the
carriage :-) Sometimes at shows I’ll say to a pedant “count the rivets on
that!”, but only if they’re being unreasonable about the limitations of LEGO
scale modelling.
I also used the macaroni boiler technique on my Thomas and Stepney models:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=742630
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=742629
Notice the 1x2 hinges incorporated to hold the chimney and dome. I think
this technique would be nowhere without the 4x4 round brick for strength! I
wished there were a plate to go with it - so much so that I even drew a
sketch of one:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mbellis/New-Parts/Designed-Only/Plates/4x4_round_plate.bmp
Mark
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Mark,
I’m in the US, but I’m modeling some Thomas and Friends engines and cars.
Perhaps you can explain a bit regarding GB train operation, past and present.
I notice a white lantern, sometimes 2, placed on the front foot plate on many
engines. But other times it’s missing in photos. What is it, and what are the
details of its use. Is there a similar light at the back of a engine or
train?
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Until the mid-to-late 50s the headlamps formed a code to denote the type of
train. There were four positions, centre, left and right along the footplate and
top of the smokebox door. See this site
for more info (scroll down a bit for the codes. The different railway companies
had their own variations on the codes. Many of the first generation of diesel
locos had discs on the fronts, replicating the headlamp positions. These discs
folded in half, covering their lamp and their white face. See
here for some examples
After this time there was a move to 4
digit headcodes to display the service code of the train, in the mid Seventies
these went out of use. From the mid Eighties there has been a gradual retrofit
of high intensity headlights, all stock now carries these, previously the lights
in the front were more like marker lights than of any use to the driver.
Every train has to carry a red tail light. On unit trains and locomotives this
is built in, on freight and hauled passenger stock it is a separate lamp fitted
onto a lamp iron (a bracket) From the mid Nineties these have changed to
flashing units, presumably the advent of LEDs has allowed this to provide
greater battery life (not called FREDs here AFAIK).
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US cars have air automatic brakes. Do GB cars?
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All passenger stock has had continuous brakes for at least 100 years (IIRC).
However this was mainly vacuum rather than air brakes, The last thirty years has
seen a move over to air and now all stock is air braked (I think) Until the
Sixties almost all freight stock was unfitted (i.e. handbrakes only), the
exceptions were those used in passenger and express freight trains (fish trains
being an example) Those vehicles which had continuous brakes were vacuum braked.
Again from the Seventies there was a move to get rid of unfitted trains (they
had lower speed limits and required the use of a brake van (similar idea to a
caboose) Most of the unfitted vehicles have now been scrapped due to changes in
traffic patterns, some were vacuum or air braked. Again AFAIK all freight stock
is now air braked.
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The US also eliminated the use
of caboose, and now uses a FRED, are brake vans still used.
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The removal of unfitted or partially fitted trains (trains with a section of
continuously braked vehicles next to the loco) has meant that the brake van has
become obsolete, they are now rare and only used for nuclear flask trains and by
the Permanent Ways (MOW in the US) department. The guard now travels in the rear
cab of the locomotive.
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I’ve heard
mention of combination passenger/brake cars (Clarabelle), could you give a
bit more detail?
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All trains used to have to carry a guard (conductor in the US?) (there are now
quite a few One-Man-Operation services on commuter lines). The guard travelled
in the guards compartment, sometimes this was in a
dedicated vehicle on services
that required a lot of luggage space (mainly express trains), or in a
vehicle with
passenger and luggage space. These were far more common than full brakes (the
dedicated vehicles) as every train has to have one. These vehicles aren’t called
combines in the UK, rather ‘brake first’, ‘brake second’ or ‘brake composite’
(first and second class) (also, further in the past ‘brake third’)
Again things have changed in the last twenty years as almost all passenger
trains are now units, but any loco-hauled services still have to contain a
vehicle with a guard’s compartment. Within the luggage space the guard had a
small office, in the past this would often have had
side lookouts called duckets.
Hope that help
Tim
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: British Trains Re: Hogwarts Express train
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| (...) snipped (...) Tim, that was extremely useful, thank you. I'm assuming that Thomas with two coaches would be a B class, same for Toby with his coach and baggag car. Is the red end of train light mounted high or low? Mat (18 years ago, 24-Feb-06, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Brittish Trains Re: Hogwarts Express train
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| (...) Mark, I'm in the US, but I'm modeling some Thomas and Friends engins and cars. Perhaps you can explain a bit regarding GB train operation, past and present. I notice a white lantern, sometimes 2, placed on the front foot plate on many engines. (...) (18 years ago, 23-Feb-06, to lugnet.trains, FTX)
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