• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Railway General Knowledge.

DerekC

Established Member
Joined
26 Oct 2015
Messages
2,113
Location
Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
That's the one. 4ft 0 3/8in gauge according to my book. It was almost exclusively a colliery railway, I think, which is a bit surprising for that part of Wales. Here's a picture from the National Museum of Wales

Saundersfoot Miner's Express.jpg


Your open drift.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Calthrop

Established Member
Joined
6 Dec 2015
Messages
3,305
Thanks; but I seem very short on inspiration for "RGK" questions these days. Open floor, please.
 

xotGD

Established Member
Joined
4 Feb 2017
Messages
6,075
Assuming that it is my turn for guessing Hong Kong...

How many Class 56 locomotives were built at Crewe Works?
 

Spamcan81

Member
Joined
12 Sep 2011
Messages
1,075
Location
Bedfordshire
The first locomotives for the GWR were notably ineffective. Why was that to a considerable extent the fault of I K Brunel?
he issued rather odd specifications that resulted in some rather odd locos, including some that had geared drive and others which had the boiler on separate frames to the cylinders and driving wheels.
 

DerekC

Established Member
Joined
26 Oct 2015
Messages
2,113
Location
Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
he issued rather odd specifications that resulted in some rather odd locos, including some that had geared drive and others which had the boiler on separate frames to the cylinders and driving wheels.
That's right - but what specifically did he ask for that caused such strange locos?
 

krus_aragon

Established Member
Joined
10 Jun 2009
Messages
6,044
Location
North Wales
Not that. @Spamcan81 had the right idea - what did Brunel specify that resulted in locos with (for example) the boiler on a separate frame and also very large wheels?
Ah... Did he mandate a low centre of gravity, which would have meant putting the boiler where conventionally-sized wheels would have had their axles?
 

DerekC

Established Member
Joined
26 Oct 2015
Messages
2,113
Location
Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
Ah... Did he mandate a low centre of gravity, which would have meant putting the boiler where conventionally-sized wheels would have had their axles?
Not according to my source, although of course stability must have been in his mind in deciding on broad gauge. He specified two things, one of which resulted in (for example) the boiler on a separate frame and the other in (for example) very large wheels. Get one of them and the floor is yours!
 

DerekC

Established Member
Joined
26 Oct 2015
Messages
2,113
Location
Hampshire (nearly a Hog)
maximum piston speed (feet/min?)
That's one of the two parameters Brunel specified and it resulted in large wheels. The other was axle load. He specified no more than 10.5 tons on six wheels or 8 tons on four. The problem was that the large wheels were heavy so boilers had to be small to compensate. To quote Angus Buchanan's "The Life and Times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel"

When the GWR began to run regular train services in 1838, it was therefore equipped with a remarkable assortment of underpowered and inefficient locomotives for which Brunel was fully responsible, as they had been designed to his specifications.

Your floor, @AndyPJG.
 

Calthrop

Established Member
Joined
6 Dec 2015
Messages
3,305
A question to do with pre-Independence India (including for this purpose, Pakistan and Bangladesh): which under British rule, was served by a considerable number of different railway companies -- genuinely independent, or state-controlled but operated under private enterprise; and often with fine sonorous names, which were soon swept away after independence was gained.

Please give the names of four such railway undertakings of British India. Anything goes, as it were -- from "Premier Line" to local Talyllyn-equivalent ...
 

Top