WD Austerity 2-8-0 steams again

[John B]

Great news,

The "only" UK based WD 2-8-0 90733 is in steam again and ran both light and with a short goods train on the K & WVR on Friday June 29th 2007. It appears to be running slowly with it's cylinder drain cocks slightly open in what I must assume is a precautionary measure during the test.

These engines were hugely important to the dock traffic in Hull as well as between Hull and West Yorkshire, they formed the backbone of the Baltic timber/Earles Cement/coal traffic diagrams.

For a video of the test run, follow this link:

http://www.kwvr.co.uk/WDtestrun9thJune2007.AVI

[richard]

Looking good, if running a bit light

We are booked in for a night at Haworth during our upcoming visit, and intend to try and get some photos for the site.

Richard

[Bullhead]

Nice to see the LMS 20T brake van "in steam", too!

[donco]

Great news,

The "only" UK based WD 2-8-0 90733 is in steam again and ran both light and with a short goods train on the K & WVR on Friday June 29th 2007. It appears to be running slowly with it's cylinder drain cocks slightly open in what I must assume is a precautionary measure during the test.

These engines were hugely important to the dock traffic in Hull as well as between Hull and West Yorkshire, they formed the backbone of the Baltic timber/Earles Cement/coal traffic diagrams.

For a video of the test run, follow this link:

http://www.kwvr.co.uk/WDtestrun9thJune2007.AVI

This brings back memories about 1952 my first main line firing shift, it was a P, Way special it was from the Neville Hill shed Leeds to Wetherby West Yorkshire, they used to call them War Dogs. DONCO

[45609]

A few years ago I went to a slide show given by an ex Western Region Driver/Fireman who worked from Tyseley in Birmingham. To quote his words...

"There were only two good things about the Dub-dees. The first was the injectors. Very reliable. The other was getting off the *@!*?$* thing at the end of a shift".

Clearly not the most popular of mounts.

[Bullhead]

A colleague who'd worked these in Scotland said that he hated them, principally because of their poor ride characteristics, but Yardmasters loved the WDs, as "they'd empty the yard of everything in it".

[richard]

Catching up on pictures from my recent visit. Haworth is a small but very busy site. No. 90733 wasn't running during our visit, but we managed to get some picture. Unfortunately mine weren't too good. A wide angle lens would have been good for the tight conditions, and could have produced some good cab pictures.

The best is the following, which my father took:



Word from the KWVR staff is that it doesn't notice a typical length KWVR train. A big contrast with the Jinty which had to pull hard getting the '5 Millionth Passenger' train up the gradient out of Keighley...


Richard