LNER "Flying Scotsman" + "Buddicom" + LMS Lickey Banking Eng

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

3 engines are covered in this set.

The first is the flying Scotsman, famous even in the old days! It had to come in the set!

Included also is the "Buddicom" - a rather modern sounding engine, and in point of fact and engine fits right in alongside "Puffing Billy" and the others.

Lastly, an LMS Lickey Banking Engine is included - a rather strange creature with peculiar cylinders. John A - perhaps you'd like to explain more about this engine?

The set had the inevitable six colour cards, two of each for each engine, and was first produced in 1952 at a cost of 2/0d (uncoloured), and then re-issued at 2/6d in colour. See all the changes on the cover below!

Below I also include some side profiles of the less common to engines to give people an idea of what I'm talking about.

[John Ashworth]

Can't really do better than to quote Wikipedia on this one:

MR 0-10-0 Lickey Banker

In 1919, the Midland Railway built a single 0-10-0 steam locomotive, No 2290 (later LMS (1947) 22290 and BR 58100). It was designed by James Clayton for banking duties on the Lickey Incline in Worcestershire (south of Birmingham), England. It became known as "Big Bertha" or "Big Emma" by railwaymen and railway enthusiasts.

The railway term for such a locomotive is a banker. The locomotive's function was to provide extra power on steep inclines by being added to the rear of other trains. Bankers were also used to protect against wagons or coaches breaking away, in which case they might run in front of a train going downhill. They went out of use with the introduction of advanced braking systems and diesel locomotives.

No 2290 was built at the Derby Works of the Midland Railway in 1919 and was in use up to the year 1956 by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and British Railways (BR). She was numbered 2290 from new and kept this number through most of her LMS life, but was renumbered to 22290 in 1947 to make room for the numbering of a Fairburn 2-6-4T. Only a year later she was renumbered to 58100 by British Railways since adding 40000 to her number (as was done with the majority of LMS engines) would have put her in the 6XXXX ex-LNER series.

With a weight of 105 long tons (107 t) and 10 driving wheels with a diameter of 4'7.5" (1.41 m), she had a tractive effort of 43,300 lbf (59.2 kN). She was the only locomotive not given a power classification by either the LMS or BR, since she was designed specifically for the job of providing extra power and was not suitable for normal train working.

The engine was withdrawn in 1956 and a BR standard class 9F, number 92079 took over, acquiring "Big Bertha's" electric headlight in the process. The other banking turns on the Lickey were operated by Midland Railway 2441 Class and LMS Fowler Class 3F 0-6-0Ts, often in pairs, operation being controlled by a complicated system of whistle codes.

The climb is just over two miles (3.2 km), at an average gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65%), between Bromsgrove and Blackwell (near Barnt Green). It is on the railway line between Birmingham and Gloucester (grid reference SO985710). The Lickey Incline is the steepest sustained adhesion-worked gradient on British railways.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Thank you John.

I suppose you wrote this quickly and popped it into Wikipedia first???

[John Ashworth]

No, I'm no expert - but quite quick at looking things up!

It's worth remembering that at least until the end of steam working on the national network in 1968 (and in fact for some years afterwards) most freight trains in UK had no automatic continuous braking systems. Before descending a bank such as Lickey they would need to stop and tighten the hand brakes on the side of some or all of the wagons. British trucks had a brake lever on the side, not the brake wheel found in USA and South Africa, and the guard or shunter would use a brake pole to tighten them. This was maybe about 1.5 metres long (from memory) and you jam it against the brake lever on the side of the truck and use it as a lever to tighten the brake against a ratchet. Freight trains would normally have a brake van on the rear of the train where the guard would also apply his handbrake, this one using a wheel. And of course there were the brakes on the locomotive. When you read old footplate tales from that period you hear how often trains ran away and ended up stopping well past the bottom of the bank.

In the early years of diesel haulage of unfitted freight trains there were braking problems as the diesel locos were much lighter than their steam predecessors and thus had less braking power. I have seen photos of "brake tenders" attached to diesel locos - basically just a heavy wagon with brakes to assist with braking the train. I thought I had a photo - I'll look for it and post it if I find it.

[John Ashworth]

Found one on the internet - - click this thumbnail for a larger picture.

There's also a picture of a model brake tender here which shows it quite clearly.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

John, the information about the brake wagon is very interesting.

The use of additional wagons or coaches to assist locos is something that is always interested me, especially as the use of these is quite widespread in the United States.

The situation here, is that given all the different railways that have operated or operate, a multitude of different solutions and uses have cropped up over time. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to get information on all the various bits of equipment that had been manufactured by the railways themselves and put into use.

Some units that I have seen that are of interest, are reinforced flat beds with control couplings that are placed in between multiple units to spread the weight over wooden trestle bridges, where a number of multiple units following together will exceed the bridge loading.

Another use, which I have seen on offer a number of years, is a converted boxcar, again with control couplings, which is used to provide a remote radio control facility for operating an engine or engines, such as in a shunting yard.

Then, there are units had served more mundane purposes, such as single units that interposed between engine and tank cars, where the latter are not allowed to be connected direct to the power unit.

I'm sure I have seen other uses as well, but at the moment these slip my mind. I have never seen the equivalent of the brake car however on a US railroad - I do know that sometimes they used to set most of the brakes on the wagons before descending steep hills - maybe this is their way of compensating when operating? I presume nowadays this is not done, as I would assume dynamic breaking would be of more assistance?

[John Ashworth]

Kevin, interesting reflections.

The brake tender is now obsolete as all trains in UK have continuous automatic brakes - in fact it was quite a short-lived phenomenon, I believe, and I myself never saw one when I was travelling daily by train during the late 1960s and early '70s. Similarly, as you say, in the USA, the old practice of the brakeman having to tighten down the brakes approaching an incline has also been rendered unnecessary by continuous automatic braking systems.

We still add vehicles for braking power in South Africa in certain circumstances, eg hauling a dead locomotive with no brakes.

The use of vehicles to separate tank wagons from the locos is common in South Africa, where these vehicles are called "runners". Runners must also be used on explosives trains. The rules specify how many runners are needed in different circumstances.