A World War One Motor Rail Simplex (probably) - Lawrie Goes Loco Episode 12 

I am probably the first RU-vidr to buy a locomotive. Pretty proud of the fact.

@@lmm Are you now also the first with a fleet of them? :D

@@PedalBox think so

I was thinking that too. and imagine if you had a wagon or two of ammunition for the artillery behind you. at "least" a steam locomotive like the Huntslet 4-6-0T and the Baldwin 2-6-2T/4-6-0T had a cab that would give you some level of splinter (shrapnel) protection. It wouldn't stop a rifle bullet but it would likely deflect it and slow it down.

@@sawyerawr5783 I don't know much about loco's only what I've learned from Laurie but I've watched a fair number of documentaries about the First World War and been stunned at what they went through without a choice of whether they wanted to be there or not. But seeing someone that in a way I know re-enacting what some did on the front line really brought it home to me. My mind can't comprehend the fear they must have felt and rightly so, it would be disrespectful to the people who were there to say my mind could do so. I've never lived in a position of not knowing from one moment to the next whether it would be my last, war is dreadful but that one IMO was the worst for the soldiers.

@@sawyerawr5783 A steam locomotive would also have a column of smoke above it. Very convenient for the oppositions artillery to target. A sheet steel cab will do very little when a 6" high explosive shell arrives. Better not to announce your location at all.

@@allangibson8494 assuming a direct hit, yes. but even then a direct hit on a Simplex would do the same. there is a radius that the impact would be lethal, but even something as light as sheet steel can lower that: its the shockwave that kills more than shrapnel, mind. In the First World War the accuracy of artillery was measured as a circle a hundred yards wide or more, so one shell has a higher likelihood of it missing you than hitting you. and like I said direct hits are basically a write off anyway, so you protect against the shrapnel and the blast the round throws up. and like I said the cab of a steam engine is at least going to deflect and top some of that.

@@sawyerawr5783 Steam locomotives are very vunerable to shrapnel damage - one hole in the very large boiler and they are not moving again under their own power. If the shrapnel punctures a fire tube the crew is dead too. Petrol and later diesel locomotives were simply MUCH smaller targets with a lower profile (WW1 stealth if you will). Not being seen and shot at beats being seen as a target for heavy artillery (particularly for the neighbours with a couple of hundred metres). If you wait for the train to stop you improve your odds that it is parked near a target that even a miss is worthwhile.

Woohoo! That's great news, thanks for letting us know - and glad to head you're enjoying what we do!

Just pleasant now? I'm falling from my lofty grace 😂 More things to turn up 😂

@@lmm I can't recall that I was gushing on about you any higher than that, before. Take it or leave it, Geary McFlywheel! x

😂 😂 😂 I'll take it indeed, I've been called far worse

@@lmm That's best, unless you insist on provoking any more friendly sass! 😘

It's great! Properly makes you feel excited when you open it up!

Oh wouldn't that be something. I can dream! Glad you're enjoying what we do!

@@lmm Maybe one of these years if you come stateside you could run one of the Nevada Northern locomotives. nnry.com/pages/engineer.php

Oh yes, I'd love to get out there and do that. I'm heading out to the states again this year, but probably looking at the East Coast again, I'll have to try and get over there in the future.

You're most welcome, it really must have been beyond our comprehension to have operated this at the front. We're very lucky, there are over a hundred different museums, and something like a thousand preserved locomotives.

Thank you, glad that you enjoyed the video. It's one of the things I really enjoy about railway preservation, lots of unlikely survivor's! The railways didn't get too close to the front, so bullets not so much. Shells though. It must have been horrific.

Oh that's tragic!

The stuff he must have seen... The 'feeling' method makes perfect sense, you don't want to have lights giving away your position!

Oh that's quite cool - a good example of railways working in industry! Oh that's quite an impressive network of track then!

Well , all the scrap metal for the oxygen furnace comes in by rail, the torpedo cars full of molten pig iron comes in by rail, the raw iron ore and coke also by rail, and the finished coils of steel go out by rail, and there is a spur that runs the five miles through Granite City to the Mississippi River docks. It really sucks during the winter on midnights, you spend the whole night thawing switches and resetting points in a busy yard trying to watch your back.

They don't build them like they used to! It's a fantastic little machine, and very well looked after by the guys at Apedale. Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you, I liked that too. Made me feel very important 😂 😂

That was a very good event!

Oh awesome, may have to make a visit at some point in the future

I highly recommend that you do! Hoping to do the salvage squad one in the future.

Awesome mate, I look forward to watching that 👍

Jeeze, the stuff he must have seen... Thank you - glad that you enjoyed it!

Thank you very much!

Oh awesome! It's great fun isn't it.

Lawrie's Mechanical Marvels yes it’s fantastic 👍

Thank you, we're aware no one else seems to do videos like ours, and the bigger we get the more engines we can feature! I always love a diesel. One of my favourite things is my little one cylinder diesel dump truck. Such a super noise.

You're most welcome. Good luck with your kit

They're pretty simple and nice to drive - hope you enjoyed the experience. Flight deck is good terminology. I'm taking it to be at the back 😂 I'm excited to see it!

@@lmm Probably my favorite aspect of the design is how the operator's spine becomes part of the suspension, like any good narrow gauge design. The completed artwork, hope you enjoy! instagram.com/p/B6bsCP1BVBw/?igshid=nisp5xn9afd6 www.deviantart.com/rockyrailroad578/art/Ruston-824480618

It probably needed a few grunts to make it work *Ba dum tiss*

How interesting - a nice thing to be part of! A good day out then!

Thank you very much! Quite bonkers really when you consider just how long it's been around for. There will be more steam appearing on the channel in the new year.

You're most welcome, glad you're enjoying what we do!

By the way 2 fot narrow gauge railwas was pretty common in Scandinavia, At least in the north where i live i think it was even more common then the 3 fot system actualy.

Thank you very much - glad you enjoyed it! Two foot became very common in the UK, but elsewhere lots of other narrow guage options were embraced. Ireland had a broad and narrow guage network.

@@lmm I am not sure if the 2 fot gauge mainly was an old industrial standard that also was used here in rural areas, or if it realy was a universal standard in the late 1800. I know there was a pretty heawy crossower sometime with industrial chargo and light transports/passenger transport on some lines, so possibly it had something to do with that. Grandfather had an old catalogue from the 1930s with a sortiment of "(The) Edstrand Brothers light railroad material for industrial applications and other" (loosly translated with my crappy scool English... :D ) where anyone could orger a lot of light 2 gauge equipment, like miniature locomotors, chargo wagons, pre made bolted on iron railroad sections, etc. But it seems like they used much heavier steam locomotives, almost half the size of a "full size" loco, and not the light locomotors for the long distance, so possibly some of them doubled as passenger lines for the workers and others when they where not needed for industrial chargo my guess. Most likly those where fired by leftower wood products from the sawmills i think, i know grandfather tould me those where active until the very early 1950s here on some lines. (Later replaced by modern chargotrucks i think)

No, it would have been beyond awful.

Oh really? Wow, likely a very similar locomotive. Would be grim working on that without a cab in the miserable winter seaside weather. Really glad to hear you're enjoying what we do!

Thank you very much! Glad that you enjoyed it, and hope you continue to enjoy the videos that we create.

We've alot of history, some we're more proud of than others. Glad to hear you're enjoying what we do and finding out about these engines!

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. The logistics and size of the first world war trench network is just unreal.

Thank you. Its a super little thing.

Yeah they're pretty cool wagons. Great fun to use!

It's a really super little thing. Scaling it up didn't happen for a while. Track moving was so weird, but it's how it would have been!

I'm enjoying it certainly! I do love the sound that they make. It's quite super!

@@lmm Hope you have a merry christmas, maybe you can find good deals on locomotives during the holiday sales ;) rofl

@@lmm Can't say it sounds much different from any diesel twin with a large flywheel.

Which is to say, awesome.

@@lmm But not as good as a single cylinder !

I quite liked that bit.

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much! It is a superb little thing

Welcome aboard! Good old RU-vid Algorithm doing its thing. Glad your enjoying the content so far!

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much, I very much did have a super time!

Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed the video! It really is worth a visit, super place. It's fine to drive for a day or so, you just wouldn't want to do more than that 😂 That's a mad thought how old that trench is now! It is really beyond our comprehension how bad the trenches might have been.

I like being Professor Lawrie 😂

It's really good to hear its been recommended. Quite the jump from big boys down to Simplexes! Glad you enjoyed the video - thanks!

Excellent! Thank you

Thank you very much!

It's well worth a visit. There is so much there!

@@lmm , it does look like it, sir!

Amazing it's still running happily really

Thank you very much! Merry Christmas and a Happy New year to you too!

Thank you very much!

Thank you very much! We'll certainly do our best!

@@lmm Oh. Sound was too quiet and the quality lacked something - bass ? Getting the mic right seems to be a bit of a nightmare - some mics are really good and others relatively crap. I'll give you 'points' for focus - don't recall much out of focus - a common challenge in the amateur world but the brief 'static' insert glimpses were more annoying than either useful or nice; the freeze-frame getting a lot of use on those to take in the scene. I think it would have been better without those and instead done a 'walk around' talking about the various bits we can see.

Thank you very much!

They're great aren't they!

Brilliant! That's what we like to hear!

Yeap, bare minimum, but it works. And still works. Flight deck is my new term for cabs 😂

Me too! Really good fun!

I would absolutely love to if given the chance. Any idea who the correct person might be?

@@lmm I think it would be best to contact the railway via enquiries@ffwhr.com who could put you in contact with the right person. The slate shunts are like a driver experience so would come at a cost but I'm sure there would be opportunities at a gala or an event if you are helping out on the railway for a few days.

Oh fantastic! The only thing better than doing an experience is volunteering and being let out on your own. Genuinely still one of the greatest feelings I've ever had.

@@lmm I agree, alas i'm too far away to travel there on a regular basis, so i'd never be able to achieve or maintain competency, i am however a volunteer for some more local railways (all be it not a driver) but for these far away ones i find the expeirience days at least give me a chance to try some equipment i wouldn't normally get anywhere near, (another one i'd recommend for diesel shunters is a day at Appleby Frodingham in Scunthorpe)

Glad to hear it, and thanks for subscribing! If RU-vid doesn't show them, we drop new videos every Thursday.

Perfect little engine for one's own private railway.

I think they conducted most of the movements near the front line under the cover of darkness, but with no lights it really must have been terrible. I don't think we can really envision just how grim it was. Glad you enjoyed the video though!

Thank you very much. They've got a massive collection of things there, so I'm sure we'll do one eventually

Oh really?

YES.

You're not that far wrong either!

They're great aren't they

It's not connected 😂 So doesn't run at all. It was a cold day, and we didn't do much to stress it

@@lmm 😁 Shows the efficiency of Diesel, I doubt you'd get away with that for long with a petrol engine, especially a low compression one of the same era.

@@Martindyna oh it certainly wouldn't work on a petrol 😂

Lovely place, highly recommend going!

@@lmm have been once, my ex and eldest are going to a WW reenactment event this coming weekend 😁

Glad you enjoyed it!

It's all about the experience 😂

Thanks for that Jon - I'll try it out next time I'm on one.

It really was!

Yeah, that's at this railway. We'll feature it in the future

Salvage Squad.

That's the one!

It's at the Welsh Highland railway being overhauled. We'd really like to do it. Silly dinner plate sized wheels.

Shifting up I'm normally fine, trying to shift down, that's the challenge!

I'm really working my hardest to get more steam on the channel. It's looking promising though!

:D

It would be cool to see some of the bigger steam engines, like the Mallard

Leo 1C2 Mallard is static at the National Railway museum and will probably never run again

@@pricey130 My cousin told me that the BRM is gonna start putting funds to overhaul and try to fire up the mallard by summer of 2020

I agree!

Yep

These wouldn't have gone into mines themselves, they'd have transported ore away from mines. Having this underground would kill everyone 😂

I'm sure a 009 one would be popular.

That's a pretty good comparison yeah!

Oh it would have been terrible

The railways were the arteries supplying the effort of war.

Good airflow at all times if there's no bodywork in the way 😂

@@lmm the airflow would be even better if you turn the radiator by 90 degrees as it is international practise 😉😁😁😁

@@lmm got you. good airflow could be provided by carrying the loco sideways to the tack 😉😁

Steffen Rosmus it's sideways for simplicity- the fan is belt driven via the transverse mounted engine. If it works, which it did, why add complexity and cost when the requirement was for low cost simplicity with reliability?

@@steffenrosmus1864 (in response to "turn the radiator by 90 degrees") but then it has no airflow in reverse which they would be doing half the time

It's mighty.

That's quite possible yes.

It's got a cam on the starting spindle meaning the handle cannot turn backwards.

The crossbucks on the posts should say "railway crossing".

Oh my, I would be so up for that. I think we'd make a good team!

@@lmm reach out to him or perhaps Edd China?

I thought so

With the sheer number in preservation, I'd guess somewhere it's likely. I don't know of any though.

I'd like a go on a drag line... Big machines I'm always a fan of. I'm heading to the Netherlands next year, so who knows!

Lawrie's Mechanical Marvels In may I wil be at the Higro (Bant , nearby Emmeloord) a Priestman otter wil there to 😊 And we’re de beding about a show in Erica Otherwise we can run in a pile of sand at the museum Greetings Saul

I am looking to return to the USA next year. I'd love to do some engines whilst there

Lawrie's Mechanical Marvels if you’re in Northern California look up the Roots of Motive Power - all sorts of nifty early steam and internal combustion bits used in the logging industry. Fascinating stuff. You could sleep in a caboose at the Featherbed Railroad - a bed and breakfast made of vintage railroad cabooses.

That sounds amazing!!