Day out at Gilling East (RSME)

[NickG]

A guy from our club invited me to go to Gilling East to the Ryedale Society of Model Engineers' track there where he was invited to run his loco. It's 3 gauges - 3 1/2", 5" and 7 1/4" the same as our club but ground level with points / sidings, working signals etc. Very nice layout and some nice club buildings. There weren't a great deal of locos there due to the weather, actually I should have got some more pics though, there were a couple of large 5" tender locos which I missed. A Britannia and something else.

This is a Sweet Pea (5" narrow gauge) the same as what I am 'making'!



A large 7 1/4" tender engine (not sure what!) with loads of power! It wasn't trying at all pulling those two coaches full.





Here is my friend's 3 1/2" County Class loco





Even got the wife on!



He insisted I had a drive too but she forgot to get pics of that  It had a surprising amount of power though, pulling me and him up the steep gradient with 40 psi! Yeah, I know I shouldn't have let it get that bad! 

Despite the weather, it was a good day and I'd recommend others to go and have a look. They run every Sunday except those not stated on the website. They also have main-line rally days twice a year which sound really good.

http://www.rsme.org.uk/

Nick

[DennisWA]

Nick...The large loco is a 7 1/4" gauge Stanier Black 5 4-6-0. Google to see lots of links, including videos on You Tube. It is built to the design published by the late Martin Evans.
 
We have 3 that belong to members at my club in Johannesburg (Rand Society of Model Engineers, another RSME that dates from 1934) and they are powerful haulers, easily managing to haul 50 passengers on our ground-level track some 1.2 kilometres in length. This includes a 200-metre long 1-in-50 gradient that sorts out the men from the boys in term of driving skills!

Cheers
Dennis

[NickG]

Thanks for the info Dennis. Wow, impressive power. I think there was something similar one one of the stands at Harrogate for sale - sure it was around £30k 

Some locos are a pig to drive. When I drove the little 3 1/2" gauge, it was quite difficult being at ground level. I found you had to add coal on the move or the fire would develop a big hole in it quickly, I was trying to be too clever notching it back too. On the 2nd lap I didn't bother and it kept more pressure. Sometimes you want more blast, you might use more steam but you make more.

Doing 1 lap and stoppin to take on more passengers isn't usually too bad but we have what we call stephensons trials - pull as large a weight as you can as far as you can using the least coal possible. I've drove somebody elses loco in them a few years back and it was challenging!

Nick

[DennisWA]

Nick....I agree with your sentiments about firing on-the-run on a ground-level track. It is very difficult to get coal through a small fire door of the smaller gauge locos whilst the loco is bucking and swaying! I have a 5" gauge Simplex and I try to rake the fire and add coal when stationary if possible. It is better practice to rake your fire over an ashpit anyway.

Our club's Driving Licence test requires you to complete 30 minutes running without stopping - this translates into 6 laps of our main loop (900 metres long) - as you will appreciate from your experience it is difficult to do this with a smaller 3 1/2" or 5" gauge loco particularly on ground-level track! For the benefit of the non-steam folk reading this, the problem is (as Nick describes) one of keeping your fire in good shape, very much influenced by the quality of coal used and your skill / experience. Whilst this is going on you also need to keep your steam pressure up, which means balancing your consumption of steam against inflow of water from your pump or injector. Oh yes and watch what is going on ahead of you on the track too! (and what is happening to the side and behind you as well).

One of the other 2 live steam / model engineering clubs in the greater Johannesburg region has an elevated track, much appreciated by the older drivers in terms of having to lean forward to reach the controls etc.  

The big 7 1/4" gauge locos (7 1/2" in most of the USA) and equivalent narrow gauge outline (3' 6" in full size, running on 5" gauge in model size) are much easier to drive as they need less frequent attention to the fire, and comfortably do a few laps under normal loads (pulling say 20 passengers).

Below is a South African Railways class 15F 4-8-2 that runs on 5" gauge track.

Cheers

Dennis

[NickG]

Dennis, good info there for people that don't really know much about these! I've been able to drive for a long time but unfortunately always with large breaks of years between! I actually got told off on said weekend by the station master because I was looking down at the controls / fire too much! It is tricky balancing all of these things and a lot depends on how sensitive things are on the loco, how well made etc. Every engine I've driven is different but once you get the hang of it you can sometimes set the by pass valve (from axle pump to quite nicely balance the inflow of water with what you're using. Most locos in our club don't having injectors but when you see one working nicely you wonder why not. All of ours have to have hand pumps too as a backup. There are a few examples of Simplex in our club, I think I've driven 2 or 3 they are powerful and a nice size though still too heavy for 1 person to lift. A well proven engine.

That's good actually, we don't have a license but just pick it up when the track is quiet. An inexperienced person wouldn't be allowed to haul passengers or drive when it's busy though.

That 15F is huge, he has the advantage of being able to sit on the tender though. Some of the 5" tender engines I've seen look a pain as you're having to lean right over the tender. As you say, in general the larger ones are easier to drive and fire. I don't know how you go about transporting something like that though - you'd need a van or decent sized trailer I guess?!

Nick

[DennisWA]

Nick....Thanks for the comments!

We tend to use injectors in the main, with many builders fitting two.  Most locos have axle pumps and some have steam pumps, which I find quite fascinating to watch in action!

I can lift my Simplex carrying it the 10 yards from workshop to garage (with great care to lift properly so as not to hurt my back). I use a pick-up truck (1 ton payload) for train transport - there is a driving truck to load as well.

The larger locos are transported in trailers or on pick-up trucks.

Cheers

Dennis