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Post by nickf on Jun 8, 2010 18:45:57 GMT
What a lovely sound the Atchison Topeka & The Santa Fe makes when you say it...or sing it as:
Can anyone suggest a British railway with a suitable name to have a song written about it - or how about the least likely candidate?
BTW this film clip is amazing: no digital effects, everything achieved by human beings, some really incredible crane shots, and can you imagine the loudhailer (Stay behind the Yellow Line) men of Forest Hill going berserk at the final sequence? (The sound is out of sync because of modern digital encoding and decoding: it is not thought to be important enough. Mutter mutter curse swear).
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Post by nickf on Jun 5, 2010 6:20:31 GMT
I have a vague memory of fourth rail electrification there at one point.
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Post by nickf on Apr 28, 2010 9:24:23 GMT
Very interesting, and thanks. It's good to see the route open again, but I miss Broad Street. I saw it only in its declining years but it still had a shabby glory about it.
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Post by nickf on Apr 28, 2010 6:54:37 GMT
When are we going to see a driver's view of this route?
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Post by nickf on Apr 26, 2010 9:03:57 GMT
Thanks Tubeprune. That makes it very clear.
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Post by nickf on Apr 20, 2010 12:37:27 GMT
Thanks from me too. That Wiki article is tantalising; Quote: "The noise timbre changes as the pulse length changes. The noise is produced by the switching frequency current ripple and resulting torque pulsation experienced by the rotor of the induction machine." So the induction machine has moving parts. Reminds me of two things (hope I don't get ticked off for going off thread). A ship I worked on a couple of years ago was powered by seven diesel/alternator sets. These fed a AC-DC rectification system. The DC was then processed to produce variable frequency AC which fed the three phase motor which turned the propeller. And many years ago when I worked on feature films the camera had a 220 volt three phase motor, for synchronisation purposes. On location we in the sound department got 24 volts from a couple of lorry batteries, which turned a DC motor, which turned an 3 phase generator to supply the camera. Frequency was controlled by hand, watching a Fram wobbling reed frequency meter. Happy Days. Sorry for blethering!
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Post by nickf on Apr 20, 2010 8:59:03 GMT
This shows just how long it is since I travelled on LU, but on Friday I was on the Jubilee Line and noticed an entirely different sound from the familiar clicks as the resistances notched out on older stock. You'll know the sound I mean as the motors accelerate, an almost square wave rising an octave then falling back to the original tone and up again and then a third, more subtle change which I find hard to describe, almost as if the nature of the wave form changes as well as its frequency. Can someone explain what is going on, please? What actually produces the sound? Is it chopping the DC supply into increasingly longer fragments or are we talking AC motors with DC - AC converters with variable frequency?
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Post by nickf on Apr 17, 2010 18:39:52 GMT
Aha! All is clear. Thanks.
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Post by nickf on Apr 17, 2010 16:36:14 GMT
This is probably the dumbest question to be asked for a while, but here goes. I was up in London from Sussex yesterday (Friday 16th April) and although disappointed at not finding the streets paved with gold I did find that when I joined the DLR at Canary Wharf and disembarked at Cutty Sark there was no barrier or means of checking whether whether I had a ticket. I had a Travelcard anyway so it was all paid for, but this lack of checking makes me ask....is travel on the DLR free?
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Post by nickf on Apr 14, 2010 21:17:53 GMT
Oh, excellent observation! I must ask you to scrutinise any contracts I have to sign.
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Post by nickf on Apr 13, 2010 13:22:07 GMT
Thanks for all the info.
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Post by nickf on Apr 13, 2010 7:56:35 GMT
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Post by nickf on Apr 12, 2010 17:27:15 GMT
In the main part of this website, under the fascinating Stories from Malcolm, there is reference to the Jack Wood Line: "All the Box Boy did was to book the inner & outer Circle service plus Hammersmith & City service and in the rush hour the Metropolitan extension service (the Jack Wood line). We kept Moorgate informed of the out of turn running to the City plus where his reverser trains were, informed Baker Street Met on the on the state of running of the Jack Wood line service and also Edgware Road." Can anyone enlighten me as to the origin of the name 'Jack Wood Line'?
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Post by nickf on Apr 12, 2010 12:05:21 GMT
I was about to suggest Casualties Union, which is an organisation which provides people to take part in these sorts of exercises - Fire service, Network Rail etc. You are told what injuries you have and whether you are hysterical or phlegmatic and so on. But I find that the Casualties Union web page is down, so here - www.casualtiesunion.crscomputing.co.uk/ is the Dorset branch page, who may be able to provide more up to date info.
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Post by nickf on Apr 2, 2010 18:37:02 GMT
I used to travel past Mansion House in the '60s and I am pretty sure that I recall seeing two reversing bays there, whereas now I see in the atlas that there is one. If my memory isn't playing tricks, when did the north side bay go?
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Post by nickf on Apr 2, 2010 13:55:33 GMT
Thanks for that.
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Post by nickf on Apr 2, 2010 9:25:58 GMT
Given that when an Underground train is travelling on NR rails (750 volts) it is getting almost 20% more than the 630 volts provided on its home rails, is there a noticeable difference in performance that has to be compensated for in driving technique?
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Post by nickf on Mar 30, 2010 10:57:23 GMT
Gentlemen, thank you very much indeed.
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Post by nickf on Mar 30, 2010 10:34:27 GMT
AAhhhh!! Right! Thanks. So the 4th rail train puts up with 3rd rail practice rather than vice versa. And the increased voltage is within the tolerances, or does some voltage regulation circuit kick in?
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Post by nickf on Mar 30, 2010 10:08:42 GMT
I travelled on a South West train that was diverted from Wimbledon via East Putney to the Windsor Lines via Point Pleasant Junction and I wondered what is involved when a train designed for 3rd rail pickup travels over a stretch of track which is 4th rail. Does it just put up with reduced voltage, 420 volts instead of 750 volts? If so, how does its running rail return system complete the circuit? Are there implications for track circuiting?
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Post by nickf on Mar 30, 2010 8:29:44 GMT
That's very kind of you. While you are looking at valve gear on the Beyer Peacocks, any information on the Gibson and Lilley gear that they had (replacing the original Stephenson), would be VERY much appreciated.
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Post by nickf on Mar 30, 2010 6:47:16 GMT
Very many thanks for those links. Yes, I was being slower than usual in failing to pick up your reference. I've got an article somewhere by a fireman relating his experience of suddenly being confronted with one of these locos; he had a steep learning curve but succeeded in the end. As you mention, these were much more sophisticated than the denizens of the Widened Lines, with exhaust turbines powering forced draught for the fire and the cooling fans as well; I believe they also has oil traps to make sure that the lubricants in the exhaust steam didn't get recycled back into the boiler. The arrangement on the Beyer Peacocks was simpler. The exhaust steam pipes entered the side tanks and ended above water level, but just beneath it another pipe led down under water and at the bottom bifurcated and led fore and aft, but perforated. The idea was to let some steam condense under water and some to go over the water surface...presumably this split was to avoid back pressure. Oil droplets were deemed acceptable as water changes were frequent, Aldgate, Edgware Road and (I think) South Kensington.
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Post by nickf on Mar 29, 2010 20:26:24 GMT
Alas no, if only. I had a conversation with the driver of a Dean Goods which had been converted to condensing mode to haul huge guns mounted on rail trucks on Dover cliffs during the war - they didn't want exhaust steam to give the position away. He gave me the tip about the crackling sound. When still a child I saw an ex-GWR pannier tank hauling an engineer's train through Tower Hill station, but my memory lets me down on the sound - I don't even know if they were fitted with condensing gear? Please enlighten me about the SAR 25s. There's an amusing story in Alan Jackson's 'London's Metropolitan Railway' about when Aldgate station was built, they had the troughs into which the boiling condensing water from the Beyer Peacock 440s was dumped. These troughs originally connected with the common sewer down to the Thames...until houses further down the sewer pipe found that 1000 gallons of boiling water rushing down created a nasty shock for anyone communing with Nature at the time. The Metropolitan was required to build its own sewer quite rapidly.
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Post by nickf on Mar 29, 2010 12:55:01 GMT
This is a long shot....does anyone remember what a British condensing steam locomotive sounded like? Presumably no conventional chuff chuff; perhaps a gurgling noise or a crackling sound as the bubbles implode. What a pity that the only extant condensing loco, the Gresley N2, has its condensing apparatus restored cosmetically only, so I am informed. I guess that No. 23 will never leave her plinth in Covent Garden? I've heard rumours of a Mersey Railway loco awaiting restoration; perhaps that will provide the answer in time.
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