front doors

[daveinstoke]

Has any one got a picture of either, a class 37 or 40 showing the loco's front doors open . or any other early Diesel loco. Plus, as I have never been inside the cab of one. A discription of the cab inside, but below the windows. !
Dave.

[Mickey]

Deleted

[manna]

G'Day Gents

We did'nt get many 37's at the 'Cross' but we did get class 40's, imagine your standing at the back of the cab, to your right, almost behind you, was the door to the engine room, to the right ,cab door to outside, then the secondmans window, secondmans seat, (no arm rest) front window, under that, handbrake wheel, and control for water scoop ??? (left a bit) centre window, under that, door to nose, the floor had a 'well' that would be about a foot deep, and I think the door opened into the cab, then there was the drivers position etc Both the drivers and secondmans seats sat on small 6" high plinths, so the drop into the nose door well was about 18" and could give you a nasty jolt if you stepped off your seat a bit quick ( or if you fell asleep and fell off your seat, known to happen??)
manna
PS class's 31-45/6-55 almost the same.

[Mickey]

Deleted

[strang steel]

Has any one got a picture of either, a class 37 or 40 showing the loco's front doors open . or any other early Diesel loco. Plus, as I have never been inside the cab of one. A discription of the cab inside, but below the windows. !
Dave.

Wouldnt it be easier to just wait for a diesel gala on a preserved railway, and pay them a visit? If you ask politely I am sure that you would get a chance to look in the cab for yourself and maybe take a photo or two.

John

[strang steel]

I can always picture in my minds eye seeing a class 40 (although we still referred to them as spotter's back in 1971 as ENGLISH ELECTRIC TYPE 4s) on a 'dirty foggy evening' from a vantage point of standing beside the up slow line just to the north of WELWYN GARDEN CITY station (where the Hertford branch left the main line) at the head of 4S83 (a freightliner that came out of KINGS CROSS GOODS YARD around 6:45 pm every week day evening) was a B.R. two tone green English Electric type 4 just recovering from a signal check on passing through WELWYN 'in the faded grey light of the doom & gloom of a foggy evening' with her driver giving the loco FULL POWER with the controller WIDE OPEN!. Boy did that thing SOUND AND LOOK IMPRESSIVE!!!. I havan't forgotten that sight nearly 40 years on with FLAMES OF FIRE leaping about 6ft high out of the locos two exhausts from the roof at either end of the loco and the sound and noise of her engines was ENORMOUS with me standing track side!. UNFORGETTABLE REALLY UNFORGETTABLE!!!.

There was an afternoon parcels from Kings Cross to York in the 1970s which was often a class 40 working. I remember seeing that going up Stoke Bank on full power and if the wind was in the right direction it could be heard a minute or two both before and after it passed.

(Incidentally, and way off-topic, I was told many many years ago that the reason the Stanier Pacifics were withdrawn and cut up with indecent haste in the 1960s was because the class 40s that replaced them were deemed by some drivers to be not much better in the power output department, and inferior in the short bursts that a good fireman could produce at the right time. So the pacifics were disposed of so there was no alternative. I dont know how true that was.)

[Mr Bunt]

There was an afternoon parcels from Kings Cross to York in the 1970s which was often a class 40 working. I remember seeing that going up Stoke Bank on full power and if the wind was in the right direction it could be heard a minute or two both before and after it passed.

I can still vividly remember my first encounter with a 40. The old Bay Horse Station on the WCML and going like stink. As you say, you could hear them coming long before you could see them.

That said, the 37s weren't exactly quiet machines either. I can remember hearing one at full belt on a Liverpool Street - Kings Lynn one night between Cheshunt and Broxbourne with the exhaust beat reverberating off the sides of the Lea Valley and nearby buildings. No flames though, just deafening noise - and that was on a piece of line which is effectively level!

[strang steel]

On the subject of class 37s and noise, one event that will live with me forever is watching a pair of EE Type 3s on a stone train climbing up from Acton Wells Junc to Willesden High Level. I dont know what the gradient is just there, but the line is curved as well which makes things even more difficult.

The locos were on full power and doing about 15 m.p.h. and were like a mobile earthquake.

(I hope I have my junctions right)

[StevieG]

Sounds right to me.
The line is I think, pretty level for about 500 yards north from Acton Wells, until, while going beneath a road overbridge (Old Oak Common Lane?). There, just before passing by a box that was just beyond into the 1970s called Old Oak Jn., in the up direction the line starts that steep rise while turnig right (I couldn't comment on the actual gradient), then, still rising, describes a sweeping left curve, across the canal on the way, up to Willesden High Level Jn. box, where the line up from Mitre Bridge Jn. on the W. London line, trails in from the right. The line then starts turning right again as it traverses the level-ish long bridge over the WCML and into Willesden Junction high level platform before falling again, still veering right, before levelling, and straightening out at Kensal Green Jn. (3-way).

[Mr Bunt]

On the subject of class 37s and noise ...

If you want to talk noise though let's talk Deltics

My first encounter with one of them was in Potters Bar during the 1960s and I couldn't believe my ears. I'm straying well OT here though so I'd better stop, after all they didn't even have front doors!

Quite obviously, English Electric just didn't do quiet; perhaps that's why a powerful loco is sometimes said to have "plenty of grunt", even today

[Mickey]

Deleted

[manna]

G'day Gents

Going back to the 'Nose' rather than noise of a class 40 ( love the noise they make) inside the nose of a cl 40 were compressors etc and a very small stainless steel toilet, about 6" wide and about 12" long, don't think I ever used one, as once your moving you'd get flung about all over the place, but someone must have used them as the nose always smelt of urine?
Class 47's had there's in the engine room, again surrounded by compressor's! and everything smothered in oil.

Cannot remember where they were on a Deltic, but I know everyone tried to avoid a Deltic enginerooms when it was moving, although I did have to attend to a boiler that was playing up one day, near Connington, could'nt hear a thing 'till I got back to the 'Cross' and still had a ringing in my ears when I got back to 'Sarfend'

On a 31 everyone used the gap in the shutters by the boiler, or if you we'r'n't going to fast! opened the cab door??--stations avoided of course and mind the slipstream

The other thing in the nose on some class's was the roller blind for the route indicator, ie class's 40, 45/6 and 55 (at KX) that was always the s/mans job, OK in summer but in winter and the compressors running, it had a wind chill factor of about -20c and the handles were metal (Brass?) Oh happy days!!!

manna