Green Goddess

@@omegadavids6362 brown bricks

determination

Magic

Churchill still has her original Crosby chime that Howey bought in Canada. I was told that Typhoon had a Britannia whistle (fitted in the last few years). I've never seen a Brit in steam but the sound of the whistles on KZfaq is much more shrill than Typhoon's. Logically the Duke would have a similar whistle and if her previous one was deeper you may be on to something if it's now on Typhoon.

@@plesbit ah interesting. Yeah if you listen to vids of the duke from when she was freshly back in steam in the 80s/90s, there’s a striking similarity in pitch to typhoons, less shrill and more rounded

UK

No 8 (2:53) is a pre-war A4 whistle, given to Captain Howey (who built the railway) by Gresley. They were an American design, made in the US. The A4's mostly lost their chimes during WWII (apparently sounded too much like air raid sirens) and the removed whistles mostly melted down for other use. After the war they decided to return the distinctive sound and a new batch of UK made whistles were made - but they sounded slightly different. No 10 (2:57 is one of these whistles - it once lived on Commonwealth Of Australia. No 9 (6:49) is one of the original Crosby chimes that started it all. Howey brought back two Crosby's from Canada but gave one of them to Gresley - thus introducing Gresley to the chime whistle and giving rise to his decision to put chimes on the A4s. He kept the other and put it on no 9 where it still lives. So essentially no 9 is the forerunner to the A4 whistle on no 8 and the later variant on no 10 as well the even later BR version on no 7. Sorry - bit of geekery for you.

@@plesbit I said it *sounded* like an A4 whistle

@@plesbit I must correct you captain howey designed it and then gifted it to the wonderfull Gresley

Wiki's reads that (Class P2) No. 2001 "Cock O' The North" was given a Crosby chime from Howey to Gresley. Could it have sounded like No. 7's or No. 9's whistle?

25 mph ,but consider the minuscule gauge (15 in) it feels a lot faster =))

@@allaround3536 25mph is the link limit but they could probably go faster. However, with some of the wonky track, the question is whether you would want to!

She was out of traffic for 4 years, returning shortly before this gala. She is back in regular use now.

Southern Maid is also my favourite. She is in regular use but has missed most of the galas in recent years by developing minor faults days before. Since I don't live locally and only go down to film the galas I've missed her. I've also only just regained access to this account after more than a year locked out so I've been unable to load any more recent stuff. She does appear in one of them but only in the distance. I got a great shot of her charging through Dymchurch, whistling, but the camera had a "moment" and the clip didn't save to memory.

Now that I have restored access I will upload more recent material.

Both trains were pulled by the mountain types. Samson was only just back in traffic after a 4 year break so I chose to ride behind Hercules on the basis that the train would be less busy (and therefore easier to film from).

15 inch

No I don't think so. Many of those points are spring loaded so locos can run over them (slowly) when they are set against them. There are appears to be a lever beside the set at the time point you mention so it can clearly be changed to allow access to the other roads in the shed but it looks like a local change (i.e. not controlled by the signal box). I guess the points in the yard are maybe set by the drivers with the box concentrating on the main station points. I don't know for certain - you'd need to ask someone closer to the railway I guess for that.

Technically it's not - but there is a history and it's quite nuanced. When I first heard it I actually thought it was a Britannia whistle and it's not that either. No 9's whistle was manufactured especially for the BVR from a Crosby design. But I guess Crosby probably had lots of designs - no 8's whistle is also a Crosby design and the two are quite different. I read somewhere that the first ever chime whistles in the UK were a pair of Crosby's bought in the 1930's in Canada by Jack Howey who founded the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch. He gave one of those to his good friend Sir Nigel Gresley (who eventually put it on Cock'O'The North) and put the other one on Romney's no 9 - where where remains to this day. Gresley was so impressed by the Crosby chime that when the A4 class was built they were all fitted with US built chime whistles (whether these were Crosby's I don't know, but it would make sense that they were). Gresley then gave one as a gift to Howey who put it on Romney's no 8 - where it remains to this day. However, according to the story I read, they were deemed to sound too much like the air raid sirens in WWII and were removed (and subsequently melted down for the war effort). After the war it was decided to restore the sound so a new batch of whistles were made which were manufactured in the UK. These had a slightly different sound and a slightly higher pitch than the originals. One of these, from the A4 Commonwealth Of Australia, is now on Romney's no 10 (and has been for at least the last 50 years). So, it's not an A4 whistle but a 1990's job made in the UK using Crosby designs - though the (original) A4 whistles may well have been Crosby ones as well.

To summarise - BVR 8 and BVR 9 both have UK made whistles to Crosby designs. RHDR 9 has the original Crosby chime which gave rise to the A4 whistles and RHDR no 8 has one of the original pre-war A4 whistles, whilst RHDR 10 has one of the post-war versions. You can hear them in the relevant video.

Thanks very much for that!

@@simonpleasants7453 it's strange how different RHDR 8 sounds to RHDR 9 and 10, always sounds like a different whistle, I know it's chrome plated however so I don't know if that would make a difference? But thank you for the information, I've got an unfathomable fascination with minimum gauge whistles!

@@rhdrbob Well they are all three different whistles as per the explanation above so I would expect them to each make a slightly different sound. I would think the chrome plating on RHDR 8's whistle makes sound even more different.

Yes River Mite is a R&ER engine that was just visiting for the gala. This year they had a Willan Beck, also from R&ER and a few years ago they had Wroxham Broad and Blickling Hall from the BVR. I don't have footage of that but you will see footage from both the BVR and R&ER elsewhere on my channel.

I think that's just what it sounds like! Someone told me it's a Britannia whistle. It's not very musical, is it?

I think it's amazing, especially in the Eskdale Valley

I must admit it's not nice

@@plesbit yeah it’s a BR Crosby

Very big ones. 😆

The video is an hour long as it is, hence why it is cut quite closely to focus on the locos. I think the locos are generally within their pulling power and could do more but there are known issues with worn track, greasy rails and perhaps lower than ideal weight on the driving wheels (to reduce wear and maintenance). These will all be contributing to slippage.

I know that 8 is going in for a major overhaul and will be gone for some time (a year at least, perhaps more) but I wasn't aware there was further work on no 7. It's not long back! Sounds like I might be lacking material for my 2019 version. Thanks for the kind comments. Check out the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch equivalent.

I’ll go check it out in a bit, and I don’t know what I can really say about 8 and when it’s back, fingers crossed by the end of this year if all goes well. 7’s boiler needs doing, when it was last out that was to do with the frames, although could be wrong.