Railway Oddities

[What About The Bee]

Thread Title

RAILWAY ODDITIES or My slog through 8999 books online, using railway search criteria, contemporaneously published during the life of the LMR, wherein I discovered that early authors often had ridiculously long titles and that plagiarism was quite common.

A big part of my railway modeling experience is the period books and illustrations. There is nothing like the first hand description of an early traveler or an industry insider. An illustration may be simply landscape, or offer mechanical details that crack a problem wide open, an example being the size of a turntable.

All manner of records and books celebrate the LMR, but the LMR was consolidated by 1845, giving me a firm end date in my quest. 2nd hand summaries and compendium books are fine, but all of those depend on the original record themselves.  

Over the past 6 months, I have engaged on a quest to gather up period images and note which books to investigate further. I asked the Hathitrust resource to provide me with the "card catalog record" of every online book, published before 1845, that included the word "railway" and/or "railroad".

8999 records were returned.  

As the title of this forum post indicates, authors in that period had ridiculously long titles, at times filling an entire page with text. My forum title is a tribute to those authors!

The other thing I learned was that early authors thought nothing of plagiarism, out right copies of images and text, without a lick of attribution. An example is the data regarding rolled fishplate rail, patented by Birkenshaw. Of the 134 texts that reference fishplate rail, method of manufacture, Birkenshaw, Bedlington and/or Lingridge; the supposed method of manufacture was repeated using identical sentences in each and every text examined. It matched the text originally provided by Longridge, Owner of the Bedlington Iron Works, where Birkenshaw worked. 134 times, and not one produced any new meaningful data. Plagarism without any redeeming value. Longridge kept the method of manufacture a trade secret.

While some of the 8999 records are duplicates, care must be taken to view each edition of the same book, as artwork can change betwixt revisions. Some texts had included the search word, but was merely in passing.

I've completed the first pass. 8999 books. Some very strange images have appeared. Going forward, I will attempt to share a Railway Oddity on the first of each month.  

Enjoy!

Bee

The first installment awaits moderator image approval. Check back later!

[What About The Bee]

The other day, Three Link asked about Experiment, LMR32. Experiment was a bell crank locomotive.

PISTON WEAR CONCERNS

A major concern of early locomotive engineers was the wear of the cylinder and piston. It was reasoned that gravity would always pull the same side of the piston down onto the same inside of the cylinder. As all the force was always concentrated on the same tiny surface, it was expected that this would lead to premature wear and failure.*

You will see the results of this concern in period stationary steam engines as well as locomotives. Rocket's pistons were mounted at an odd angle too. We know today that this is an unfounded concern, but it is a logical outcome of period engineering. It makes logical, if not actual sense.

BELL CRANK LOCOMOTIVES 

Sharp, Roberts & co. were a very early concern manufacturing locomotives. They produced Experiment LMR32 in 1833 for the LMR. No images of Experiment exist, but fortunately Experiment's sister locomotive Hibernia was produced for the Dublin and Kingstown Railway. This was drawn by Clayton in 1834, "Thirteen Views of the Dublin Kingstown Railway". Clayton also produced early unique drawings of the LMR, we can be assured of his pedigree.

THIRTEEN VIEWS

Hibernia had vertical pistons, which totally alleviated the horizontal piston wear problem. Force was transmitted through a bell crank. It is assumed that Experiment and Hibernia closely resembled each other.

In this view, Clayton shows us the various classes of travel, pulled by Hibernia. I take special note of the Fourth Class carriage, and its similarity another enigmatic LMR view by Clayton as well. 

1834/5

This more detailed view of Hibernia appears, but I can only find the image in isolation, not a book

This image appears in Janvier, 1838

This in Parker 1838 and several other plagiaristic copies.

It is important to note that the Sharp & Roberts valve gear was unique and somewhat troublesome, leading the LMR to order a retrofit of Experiment long before Janvier, Parker and all the rest gleefully committed plagiarism.

DUNDEE AND NEWTYLE

Another bell crank locomotive of 1833 provides us with an absolute gem

The locomotive was on the Dundee and Newtyle railway, in Scotland. As technology marched on, the locomotive was reduced to stationary pumping duty, where it was found in the 1850s by what can only be termed a wealthy enthusiast. He gathered back all the parts and restored the locomotive. It was photographed in the 1880s.

Details of the valve gear can be discerned in the image. A spectacular bit of 1830s technology, complete with a photograph instead of a drawing.

Bee

[RB51]

May I suggest an edit to your title to something like

Railway Literature : Long Titles & Rampant Plagiarism

Might be more of a descriptive title?

R-

[What About The Bee]

Nay Nay Roger!

This is a tribute to book titles of the early 1800s. Ridiculously long is the name of the game!!

Bee

[RB51]

Your post title has been amended to describe the post content. Your tribute can take place within the thread. R-

[96RAF]

A tad artistic licence in some of those images. One shows the bell-crank and driver wheel crank outside the frame, which would work, as would the bell-crank and wheel crank inside the frame, but others show the bell-crank outside the frame and the wheel crank (spigot) inside the frame which sensibly could not work.

[JJ73]

Hello Bee

Liking the illustrations, but big pages of text put me off reading it - I do try to read it but end up missing lines to be honest - it tends to go in 1 ear & out the other!!! 😀🚂

[What About The Bee]

Hi JJ

This month, I am showing pictures of a bell crank locomotive. One was on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

I looked at a lot of books and found some neat pictures.

I will show some very strange early railway pictures, every month.

I am happy you liked the pictures JJ.

Bee

[What About The Bee]

Hi 96RAF

You may have heard me use the expression "known good observer" when I speak of old images.

Not every artist gets that description. Not only is Parker not a good observer, it is entirely likely that he didn't actually see anything first hand. He just plagiarized an image and did a poor job of it at that. I did not bother to include the books that plagiarized from Parker, but they do exist. I take whatever Parker says with a grain of salt.

So when you hear me reference someone as a known good observer, it is because the artist clearly observed the images first hand, and drew what he saw. A primary example is Issac Shaw. Another is Clayton, referenced above.

Clayton is the only artist to show the 4th class carriages. There is one more, not included above. I have shown it before, it is in the Olive Mount Cutting, with the top hat guards along the way. The 4th class carriage appears to be little more than flat cars, low walls and bench seating. From the modern perspective, dangerous beyond belief. There is a wealth of carriages completely untapped by Hornby.

Bee

[What About The Bee]

Hello Roger B.

I am sorry that my title did not meet with your standards.

I carefully considered just how long a title could be. Hornby permits 254 characters, including spaces and punctuation, as found by careful experimentation.

I considered that if Hornby allocated the space, I was permitted to use the space.

I thought the title a bit of a lark, as it was a great fit for 1830s titles and 1830s books.

Example: 1829, Zachariah Allen The Science of Mechanics as applied to the Present Improvements in the Useful Arts, in Europe and the United States of America: Adapted as a Manual for Mechanics and Manufacturers and containing Tables and Calculations of General Practical Utility This title is 248 characters long (only counted it once). He offers an interesting paragraph about friction and the LMR.

I carefully trialed titles in the wee hours, so as not to disturb others. I wanted a title to be very description of what the reader would see and that was equally as long as Allen's. The behavior of the Hornby Forum is to clip titles that are too long, right in mid word, without apology.

After a bit of work, I left one character on the table. My title was 253 characters long. Hornby permits 254.

This is not a request to change your mind or the like. I just wanted you to understand what I was about. Hornby allocated space. I came up with a title, befitting the post, that utilized the available space, almost to the dot. It was a tribute to the 1830s.

If you would like to tell me why you felt it inappropriate, I would respectfully like to hear it. Not from an argumentative perspective, but just for insight. Thanks

Bee

[P-Henny]

From my perspective and to offer some form of (my) personal insight. When looking at the forum on a very small screen device. Your original title took up an awful lot of screen space reducing the overall content I could see, with a need to employ excessive scrolling to view other posters titles. For that reason, although I did recognise the humorous intention of the original title, I support the action RogerB took.

[Augustus Caesar]

It's not that Hornby 'allow' 254 characters but rather that the field in the database for the title has either a default setting of 255 characters from the original design and build of such or it was used as a typical base concept as numbers are used in programming.

This is based on 'doubling up'... 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 and 256 etc.

Note that computers begin counting from 0 and not 1 and, of course, only understand zeros and ones... i.e. binary.

The database therefore would be unlikely to have been designed with that kind of wriggle room for lengthy titles.

It is generally understood on any Forum platform that titles should be kept short but informative but not over descriptive and where the reader gets the meaning of the thread immediately.

Similarly, replies follow the same unwritten protocols.

Titles that are obviously too long or not understandable will be edited probably with the original postee being asked to take that to task.

It is their thread after all...

Some may ask why I used 255 in my post when making my point. The clue and answer are contained within too.

[Rana Temporia]

Whatever the title these early locos are fascinating.

In the Wigan area.(and possibly further afield) rather than a bell crank there were a lot of early steam locos with the drive to a crank axle, rather like a lot of diesel shunters. This would be in the centre of an 0-4-0 chassis. While it’d look odd nowadays we need to remember that this was fairly new technology and people didn’t have the computer analysis or engineering experience we have now so would be trying different designs which worked on paper.

Hornby were the first model manufacturer that I am aware of to attempt British Caprotti Valve gear on their Duke of Gloucester. I have also seen that someone is proposing to make a model of the Haydock Foundry Bellerophon which has outside Stephenson Link Motion (and which I was told my Grandfather used to ride on after starting in the mines at 14) Both these locos are a departure from the more common and easy to represent Walschaerts valve gear so the locos will look different. There are lots of other options that will be difficult to produce in model form but they al worked and did what their designers wanted them to.

There is usually more than one solution to a problem such as making valves work in correct timing and some may be better than others but not in all situations.

Keep them coming Bee!

[96RAF]

@Bee

The clue is in the word ‘concise’ as recommended for the title of a new discussion.

The idea being it is short and directly to the point with the detail being placed in the main body, again as advised on the new discussion screen.

From a practical point of view a wordy title will probably appear in every future search and is also less likely to promote interest among readers as evidenced in some of the posts above which have thus driven your thread off topic.

I appreciate your emulating the style of the old writers but it was wasted on me personally.

[RB51]

I agree. WATB's posts are amazingly detailed, well illustrated and imaginatively narrated. I am glad to see him persevering and I look forward to the next instalment. R-

[What About The Bee]

Hello Paul

It does indeed take a bit of work to set a joke up properly. I'm glad someone saw the humor and thank you for that note. Even if it didn't last, someone saw it and had a chuckle. Makes it all worthwhile.

Bee

[What About The Bee]

Hi Roger B.

Would you mind turning the images the right way around? They all appeared correctly when I posted. I would really like it if the image in the editor would appear the same way around as it will be, when viewed later.

There are quite a few installments already in mind. The real conundrum is the order! I am saving an extra special one for the Holiday Season, a present for all.

Bee

[What About The Bee]

Hello RT

Right you are! Although Walschaerts Valve Gear was widely used, there were many other types. Railway Oddities may examine other strange things as I go, as well.

When I get around to LMR32 Experiment, I will be studying that photograph of the Dundee and Newtyle locomotive as a functional example. As 96RAF points out, not all of those artistic representations could function.

And yes, there are plenty more to come!

Bee

[threelink]

Cracking stuff Bee. Keep it coming. A bit off topic but here's something that might make you jealous. At Beamish museum I found on loan from the National Railway Museum George Stephenson s own lathe It was quite a moment to stand at it as I share the same surname, albeit spelled differently and have generations of engineers (including railway engineers) in my family tree. Although I am not an engineer myself, for a fleeting moment I felt like one!

[Fishmanoz]

As some know, I have something of a thing on titles. For me, the abbreviated title does not match the contents. I would call this thread, given what Bee says he is going to include and where he is getting his content from:

”The LMR: Contemporaneous Diagrams and Descriptions”

[What About The Bee]

Hello Fishy

I selected the word "oddity" carefully. It first appears in 1713 but is in common use by the 1830s. Specifically, it is "something old or peculiar" by 1834. "Oddity" is a period word! I know most will not get that reference so I make it explicit here.

The thread will not explicitly restrict itself to the LMR, although I make no secret of my adoration.

Bee

[What About The Bee]

Hi ThreeLink

It is incredible how artifacts from long ago can appear before us, as if by magic.

To think that you stood where George would have operated the tool is fairly startling!!

V

Bee

[Fishmanoz]

In that case Bee, I would add to my title “….. of its “Oddities””, using the inverted commas to alert that you are not using it in its current meaning.

[threelink]

Hello again, Bee.

Startling is the word. Just as startling and perhaps a little worrying is the fact that the lathe just sits in a workshop wholly unprotected and somewhat ignored - there was a wheelbarrow leaning against it. I took the liberty of moving it so as to get a decent photo. The workshop building contains all manner of treasures including a Rocket type connecting rod built into a wall to act as a lintel over a fireplace. The replica Puffing Billy is a sight to behold in motion on the demonstration track. I came away with the distinct impression that the emphasis of the museum is moving away from industrial history towards social history. The 1900s street scene was rammed with folk yet the beautifully recreated Rowley station immediately adjacent was deserted, with stock falling apart on the rails and no sign of any trains having run for some time. The mining village (cottages, school etc) was crowded yet the adjacent mine with working winding engine was not receiving anything like the same number of visitors. The main gate guardian is the frame of an enormous steam hammer (one drives through it to enter the site), nicely painted up, yet what I am sure is the piston/hammer is rusting away in a bed of weeds near the mine. There is a dearth of information boards/guide books to tell visitors what they are looking at - indeed when I and my son were chatting about the lintel we realised that we had an audience behind us who had no idea what the lintel was until they overheard us and were hanging on our every word!

[What About The Bee]

FULL STOP

ThreeLink, you said, about George Stephenson's lathe "there was a wheelbarrow leaning against it. I took the liberty of moving it so as to get a decent photo".

May I please see that photo? Please!?!?!!!

I'm also quite curious. How was it powered? I do suppose it was line shaft, but that is a tentative guess at best.

About the Museum

The head curator, the director of a museum sets the tone and tenor. Sometimes it is a financial strain which causes a shift in focus. It sounds as if the current director has a different focus than early industry. Perhaps a formal letter to the museum will jolt them back to reality?

Bee