German Type Smoke Deflectors

[sirbrian]

Regarding foreign concepts adopted in the UK - how about rocking grates? I know the Pennsylvania Railroad had them in the USA a long time ago because I was in the Railroaders' Museum in Altoona recently and in the Museum there is a cab from a K4, with the rocking grate handle and operating socket visible.

I had been on a visit to the Locomotive Works of Norfolk Southern in Altoona that day with a group of members of the Rail Transportation Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. We finished the day with a dinner and visit to the Museum. The Altoona Works overhauls and repairs EMD locomotives, for other railways as well as for Norfolk Southern. Norfolk Southern GE locomotives are overhauled and repaired at Roanoke.

Sir Brian

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

I'd forgotten the rocking grate. Didn't the self-cleaning smokebox come from there as well?

[STAFFORDA4]

just out of colloquial interest, I remember we urchin spotters at Darlington referred to the modified A3s as having "Gerry Blinkers". Some adored the newer modern appearance, whilst others preferred the classic smiling unaltered smokebox face, even with the double chimney. Eric

[BJamieson]

It sounds as if the BFB wheel would have been much cheaper to manufacture (and it would have avoided paying patent royalties for using the Boxpok system).

Going back to the other three pictures from ID, I should have said that the main subjects all seem to be class 50s - perhaps of most interest is the tender poking out of the shed which appears to belong to an ex-Prussian Railways 0-8-0 of class G8.1 (DRG/DR/DB class 55.25-56), a type which was getting quite rare in the west by the mid 1960s, when I assume the photographs were taken.

Bill

[Iron Duke]

Spot on Bill, it would have been around 1964 - 65.

ID

[Sir Nigel Gresley]

Of the second batch of photos, 1-4012 is interesting as it shows a 50 with the original "Schurze" (full front skirt), with which all DR standard locos built pre-war were fitted. Most locos, apart from 01, 03 and 41, lost this during the war, in order to save metal, and the few 50's retaining it became celebrities in the 1970's. The Class 50 mutated into the much simpler 52 via a number of changes, and the final batches, 50UK (50 UbergangsKriegslok - transitional war loco) was almost indistinguishable externally.

The many variations in the class 50 are well-illustrated here: Bundesbahnzeit

[BJamieson]

Well spotted Sir Nigel - I hadn't realised that the Frontschürze had become so unusual on DB class 50s, but this seems to be confirmed by my own photographs from 1974/75. Interestingly, the East German DR didn't see the need to remove it from their locos of that type, so that although 50.1002 became a bit of a celebrity, it was thanks to the Wagner-type smoke deflectors it carried latterly (these had come from an 01 Pacific) rather than the Frontschürze:-
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/extra ... y/30323393

Even the 208 locos reboilered by the DR to class 50.35 still retained the Frontschürze:-
http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/extra ... y/31264313

Bill

[BJamieson]

Have just come across another piece of continental kit which gets a mention in the January issue of British Railways Illustrated - Lambert wet sanding apparatus, of French design, used on the 1925 batch of S&D 2-8-0s, at least.

Bill