SOHC.co.uk Forums > CB350/400

Just had to share this 400/4 Collector box refurb

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MCTID:
I had a pal in the TA in the 80's who had worked on the Tilting Train Project....IIRC he reckoned that they were trying to apply 'Aircraft Technology' which was never going to work on Trains, and stubbornly, they wouldn't accept defeat - until the financial plug was eventually pulled ! He also said that the rubber components used in the Tilting Hydraulics just shredded in use and when that happened 'All ist Kaput' and the whole Train had to be taken out of service with all the aggravation that entailed.

K2-K6:

--- Quote from: Oddjob on October 29, 2019, 11:47:00 AM ---My dad was one of the test drivers for the tilting train, worked on BR for almost 50 years. He said it kept tilting and sometimes stayed tilted which meant closing the line it was on as it was leaning into the other tracks.

His claim to fame is to be the last driver to drive Evening Star in service, if you ever see pictures of Evening Star on it's last journey it's my dad driving it. It was hauling coal IIRC. He said every train station was packed, every bridge had loads of people all taking photos of it so there must be thousands of pics of him somewhere. He sadly died in 2010 but some of his workmates turned up at his funeral and gave me pictures of him with them working old steam locos, I was really touched that they'd done that.

--- End quote ---

That's really cool,  a dad that drove that era.  My son like the diesels  :) especially the last of HST stock.  We used to sit on a little bridge over mainline through Wimbledon ( No HST but sometimes a aggregate train diesel pulled) when he was a baby and wave to the trains,  who would often toot the klaxon in response.  He just loved that and we couldn't leave if he thought he was going to miss one.

hairygit:
The way treads meander off the original post, but always remain interesting, is one of the great things about this forum. Oddjob, Awesome to have your dad have such a place in history like that. I wish my father had been a train driver rather than a teacher!

Laverda Dave:
You've lead a bit of an adventurous life Oddjob! A great couple of stories. An old school friend's dad used to drive out of Willesden on the old LNER line and he told us the same story about the jumpers, he didn't know he hit them either!
As regards the APT's, there were three of them, one was a gas turbine unit. All three were tested by BREL on a stretch of the old midland main line that was closed to traffic in 1968 but the line was retained for testing of the APT's between Melton Mowbray junc and Toddington near Nottingham. BREL left in the 90's but it was taken over and upgraded by Alsthom to test the Pendalino, the successful tilting train the APT should have been. TfL took over the now disused track in 2008, spent a fortune installing new four rail track and tested all 153 S-Stock trains there until production ended in 2018 and I retired having been the manager of the site from 2011. A lot of guys who worked there were ex NR staff who tested the APT's and had plenty of stories to tell!
NR now own the site although it's no longer called the Old Dalby Test Track any longer.

MCTID:
Brilliant nickname Oddjob.........nearly as good as a few that I gathered along the way.......Muscles (cos I was a beanpole when I was young)........Wizzer (after the sticker on my Toolbox for a Toronto Radio Station WIZR when I came back from living in Canada in the 70's) and probably the piece de la resistance when I was an Apprentice - Crazy Horse ! No explanation needed for that one I suppose. I think everybody working in Greater Manchester had a nickname when I started work in the 60's......if you didn't have a nickname you were a boring fart and the dafter you were, the dafter your nickname.

The all time favourite nickname I recall was a chap at Chatham Docks who had a Club Foot and was known as 'Six Inch' - cos he only had half a foot !

Priceless stuff.....what a great heritage we have, and no wonder 99% of the rest of the world thinks all Brits are crackers !

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