Ffestiniog Earl
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Oh Goodie, someone else making up nicknames for The Square and claiming they'r in popular use.
That't the third this year I can think of ?:-) Someone on one of the photographic groups claimed it was known as the box and that it was all he'd ever heard it called. He got ripped to shreds as no one had ever heard of him either. I fired it in its first year, it was my regular engine for around three years and I drive to this day. Its only popular nickname is The Square or, more recently, The Mighty One (part of the campaign for keeping it) Occasional incident based temporary nickames have been The Dustbin with a loose lid - it has a sliding sun roof and it used to rattle The Amoco Cadiz - contemporary with a certain doomed supertanker its oil tanks split and dribbled oil the length of the railway, Don't hold your breathe waiting for a kit from me |
开云体育Yes a set were done at the same time as we did Merddin Emrys over a Christmas and New Year working party 11 years ago to take advantage of the massive jig we built at the time out of two overhead crane beams but which had to be dismantled before the full time works staff returned to work in the New Year. At that time they weren’t completed as, whilst in the jig, they were only welded to be structurally sound and solid enough to be lifted out of the jig. Unlike the pair we did for Merddin they were seal welded and made water tight. There wasn’t time. They were, and still are, stored adjacent to 13 road at BL. ? The initial plan was to use them on the Earl at the next 10 year overhaul a few years later. However, as is often the case with loco overhauls and availability circumstances changed. To install the new tanks would have involved completely rebuilding the rest of the superstructure and re-plumbing the entire engine resulting in it being out of traffic for two years. The motive power situation at the time was such that we couldn’t afford it out of traffic that long so its present shape got a very quick boiler overhaul and sent back out into traffic. ? The tanks were a product of their time and things move on. They would have produced a Merddin clone, they need finishing, they’d need grit blasting before welding but they’re also oil burner tanks so they’d need gas axing to install coal bunkers. ? They’ll probably never get used now as things move further on because…….. ? Any keeping of The Square will involve keeping it square. ? Whist the new boilers will fit the Earl and Merddin the new loco will be built around the boiler to best use the shape. The cost of retro work to the stored tanks would almost certainly be more than making new with new steel to the shape actually wanted. The final persuader is that technology moves on. The new engine is designed in 3D CAD so we can see how it all fits together with the ability to make subtle changes and the ability to test the assemblies complete with tab and slot construction like an etched kit but in 6mm steel. When happy that same 3D CAD program produces a parts list and a cutting ?and bending list ready for loading directly into a laser so it gets e-mailed off to our supplier and 10 days later a giant loco kit arrives. Makes a lot more sense than beggaring about with the 11 year old ones ? Paul ? ? ? Hi Paul ? Am I correct in thinking that you built some new tanks for her a few years ago? Or was that one of the others you done that for? ? Regards ? Colin R ? ? ? ? ? ?
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Paul Martin