Wirral Steam Journal of the Wirral Model Engineering Society November 2010 Issue 49 Registered Office: The Sidings, Royden Park, Frankby, Wirral, CH48 1NP Track: ROYDEN PARK http://www.wirralmodelengineeringsociety.co.uk/ In this Issue • The Electric Trolleybus • Committee Minutes • Tom Thumb • Adhesion • Turbinia • News & Letters • Programme Chairman’s Round A full and busy summer is now behind us and the Santa’s beckon. It has been a very good year with a successful Open Weekend and a superb effort by all those involved in raising over £1000 in aid of cancer charities. If you haven’t already seen them, there are lots of pictures on the website. At present I’m keeping the pictures fairly small so they are easier to view as an album on screen. If anyone would like a higher resolution picture, I can put them in contact with the photographer. I tend to remove original pictures from my PC as they take up so much disc space. I have also posted a couple of videos on the website. These were taken by my son on his recent visit to the UK. They were taken by either an iPhone or digital still camera. The quality of these videos is better than my not very old dedicated video camera. It would appear to be very easy to take high quality video these days, I can edit them and even better YouTube will now post HD movies. I would love to get more videos on the website of up to about 2 or 3 minutes – so get recording and let me have the results. In this issue I report on the potential return of Trolley Buses, surely a much cheaper solution to urban transport than Trams. I follow on the seemingly random pictures of Tom Thumb and Turbinia with some words about them. I also have pleasure in publishing an interesting report from Mr K Wilson on driving the track and solving wheel slip in a Single. - 1 - The Electric Trolleybus Leeds Trolleybus (or New Generation Transport - NGT) is a planned trolleybus system in Leeds, West Yorkshire. If the plans go ahead, it will be the first trolleybus system to be re-introduced in the UK after almost forty years since the last trolleybus in Great Britain operated in Bradford. The predicted passenger loading of the trolleybus is 8-9 million passengers in the first year. The Tbus works by drawing its power from overhead cables, rather like an electric tram. The difference is that, whereas the tram usually gets its power from one large cable, with the current passing through the rails and into earth, a Tbus uses two, smaller, wires, drawing the current from one and returning it via the other. When Trolleybuses were first invented back in Victorian times, the power collector took the form of a small 'trolley' which ran on wheels on top of the electric wires - hence the name: 'Trolleybus'. This was soon replaced by two sprung poles which had small wheels that ran underneath the wires instead. These days, even the small wheels have been replaced by solid graphite contacts at the end of the poles. Despite the fact that the term 'Trolleybus' is a hundred years out of date, the name has stuck! However, people nowadays are using more up-to-date names for these incredible vehicles. In Germany, they use the term 'Obus' (because of the Overhead wires). In Britain, the terms 'Tbus', 'Trolleycoach' and 'Electroliner' have been coined. Because Tbuses use electricity which is centrally-generated at the power station, they can use fuel more efficiently than, say, a diesel bus. This means that, even if fossil fuels are used to generate the electricity, the Tbus is still much more environmentally-friendly than any internal-combustion vehicle. On the street, of course, the Tbus gives off no emissions at all - the electric motor is completely clean and very quiet. Typically, a modern Tbus will use a 750 volt DC system, which is converted to AC onboard for greater efficiency. Some modern Tbuses use a series of hub motors to increase efficiency further and to enable an even, low floor throughout the vehicle. Tbuses are also capable of 'regenerative braking' which means that the braking system is designed to be used as a mini-generator to recapture some of the energy that might otherwise be lost when slowing down. Up to 40 percent of the electricity can be reclaimed in this way. 24-metre Tbus on the streets of Leeds (City Square/ Park Row ) Tbus design and composite by Ashley Bruce of the Electric Tbus Group . Original photograph by Gary Stevenson Image & words with permission Leeds Tbus - 2 - The "Elektromote", the world's first trolleybus, in Berlin, Germany, 1882 Chicago Transit Authority control tower 18 guides elevated Chicago 'L' north and southbound Purple and Brown lines intersecting with east and westbound Pink and Green lines and the looping Orange line above the Wells and Lake Street intersection in the loop. - 3 - Committee Minutes 7th July 2010 • More missing sleepers on Raised Track to be replaced. • ‘Len’ to be taken out of service until boiler water feeds made reliable • Cost of Flagging along front of shed approved. • Chairman to acquire new Battery and Charger for ‘Jenny’ and fix. • A list of competent/approved members had been circulated to members supporting activity on the Ground Level Track at Royden Park. • An incident had occurred where a member of the Station Staff had been verbally abused. This was because three youths were refused a ride as they were unaccompanied. New larger signs to be produced stating clearly that no rides can be given to under 18’s without adult supervision. • Mr. Stephen was thanked for his work in replacing wheels on Peter George. Mr. Ashe was thanked for the use of his wheel press. • The Council had ordered from WMES a new log store. Please note that at the Committee meeting of 13 th October a revised Key Policy Document was approved. This will be made available in the member’s section of the website. It is now formatted to fit on 4 sides of A5 paper. Again at the Committee meeting of 13 th October, clarification was sought on interpretation of the Code of Practice. The issue was whether a youngster or an adult friend of a member was able to drive on the track under supervision, when members of the public were being given rides. The answer is an unequivocal ‘yes’. Youngsters, whether as a family visitor (signed in) or as a Family Member, can drive their own or other locomotive if they are deemed competent and whilst under supervision. They can be on the track at the same time as others who are giving public rides. Obviously the same goes for adult visitors, who should be ‘signed in’. @@@@ Some thought has recently been given to signalling the Ground Level Track as well as powering the two operational points at the station throat. I had the opportunity to look at an Australian development, The Modratec Interlocking Lever Frame. http://modratec.com/ They supply an interesting piece of software called SigScribe4, with which one can design an interlocking frame. I’ve come up with a few solutions to the GLT. If anyone has a particular skill or interest in signalling solutions, please contact the editor. - 4 - Contact the Editor Copyright © 2010 WMES – All Rights Reserved. Editor: Alan Banks, [email protected] Tel: 0151 336 7797 7 Yewtree Close, Little Neston, Neston, Cheshire. CH64 4ES Disclaimer : Wirral Steam is published for the Wirral Model Engineering Society. Any views expressed are not necessarily endorsed by the Society, Committee or Editor. Electronic Journal The Journal is now posted in a secure area of our new website. http://www.wirralmodelengineeringsociety.co.uk/ Go to the site front page and click on ‘Members Page’. Contact the Editor for user name and password. Tom Thumb Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive used on a common- carrier railroad. Designed and built by Peter Cooper in 1830, it was designed to convince owners of the newly formed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to use steam engines. It is especially remembered as a participant in an impromptu race with a horse-drawn car; the "Tom Thumb" led the race until a belt slipped off a pulley and the engine lost power. The demonstration was successful, however, and in the next year the railroad, committed to the use of steam locomotion, held trials for a working engine Tom Thumb was designed by Peter Cooper as a 4-wheel locomotive with a vertical boiler and vertically mounted cylinders that drove the wheels on one of the axles. The "design" was characterized by a host of improvisations. The boiler tubes were made from rifle barrels and a blower was mounted in the stack, driven by a belt to the powered axle. Cooper's interest in the railroad was by way of substantial real estate investment in what is now the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore; success for the railroad was expected to increase the value of his holdings. Construction was carried out in the machine shop of George W. Johnson, where then 18 year old James Millholland was apprenticed. Millholland would later become a prominent locomotive designer in his own right. Testing was performed on the company's track between Baltimore and Ellicott Mills (now Ellicott City, Maryland). Two tracks had been constructed, and the driver of a passing horse-drawn car bearing passengers challenged the locomotive to a race. The challenge accepted, the Tom Thumb was easily able to pull away from the horse until the belt slipped off the blower pulley and/or a popoff valve was broken or was active.