Al series electric loco's,

[Torquay]

Is their any Electric Traction Engineers who can answer my Question.
In late 1967 I was on a Holyhead, Crewe, Euston Mail Train a class 40 brought it to Crewe, and I took over with an AL 5, the speed limit was still 100 mph, I pulled out of Crewe, and once clear of the platform I really notched her up I was soon at 50 mph and approaching a neutral section,the controller was showing 60% full power, I moved it back to the run back position, and once clear I opened her up to 80% full power, and I was soon on the magic 100 mph. At Rugeley I notched up more and next I was doing 105,and it did not shut down the traction motors, on approach to Litchfield I was on 110/111 mph, and suddenly their was an almighty crack, i must have left my seat about 10 inches, and considering the door to the engine room has a very small window, it was daylight in the cab, I closed my controller and thought what have I done, could smell like burning metal, when I dropped down to 80 I gingerly opened up, and nothing, 2 more notches and she was away. I checked in the engine room at Euston but could not find anything wrong so it was later back to Crewe, I believe 2 days later it failed, for what I do not know, I just kept Mum on it. can anyone tell me why it did not shut down at 100/101 mph as normal. Torquay.

[Tony]

Hi Tony, Somewhere, there is the ghost of a shed foreman looking for you !
Regards Tony (currently on holiday in Spain).

[JEB-245584/2]

Hi Tony, having previously worked on heavy duty switchgear (but not railway locomotives) it sounds like you experienced a contact problem, sometimes where the two ends of electrical contacts join the current passing through them can create an amount of arcing which can weld the two ends together hence why the loco wouldn't shut down.
Eventually the current passing through this temporary contact will become too much for the joint then the two will seperate resulting in a flash over. In most cases you can still operate the switch gear afterwards although the contacts would wear out sooner rather than later, hence why you managed to keep going.

One of my old workmates was working on a switchboard when this happened to him, the flashover resulted in him being burnt from his chest to knees, and it was made worse by a cleaning lady who was working in the corridor outside rushed in to see what was going on, saw him lying on the floor smouldering and then fainted landing on top of him pushing his melted overalls further into his wounds.
He did make a full recovery after months of skin grafts.

Cheers John

[Torquay]

Hi John, thanks for your input on the Electric Loco,sounds very feasible to me,at least the loco ran for a couple of day's before it packed in, then again it may have failed for something not related to the initial problem. Also i liked speed, even towards the end of steam, as did other drivers.
I am glad to see your friend made a good recovery from his incident.
Thanks once again. Tony T.

[Torquay]

Originally Posted by Tony

Hi Tony, Somewhere, there is the ghost of a shed foreman looking for you !
Regards Tony (currently on holiday in Spain).

Hi Tony, hope you are enjoying your holiday,and by the way the ghostly figure has not arrived up to now, then again their may be two of them lurking out there if things were known about an incident at Agecroft Shed in 1957.

Keep well young man.

Tony T.

[D.O.G.F.A.N.]

Originally Posted by Torquay

Hi Tony, hope you are enjoying your holiday,and by the way the ghostly figure has not arrived up to now, then again their may be two of them lurking out there if things were known about an incident at Agecroft Shed in 1957.

Keep well young man.

Tony T.

Come on Tony.Surely the Statute of Limitations has expired on that incident.
This was my local shed in the '60's.
Stuart

[Torquay]

Originally Posted by D.O.G.F.A.N.

Come on Tony.Surely the Statute of Limitations has expired on that incident.
This was my local shed in the '60's.
Stuart

Hi D.O.G.F.A.N. In 1957 i was a young fireman at 26B with about two & a half years service,one Saturday night, myself and 3 others from the shed had just gone to Summerville Road to drag a friend out to go with us to Bolton to a dance hall, because of this we just missed the Bus to Bolton,so someone said lets borrow an engine from the shed,so down we went and it was all quiet,all the engines were very low on steam or dead,then we found a Crab that had a good fire and a full boiler,so we brought it round and slowly peeled up to the ringinging out post and said light engine Bolton Shed bobby,the small peg came off and we went right up to the buffer stops of Brindle Heath Jct Box tender first, we all stood against the tender doors so the bobby could not see us and Tony Munday was driving as he had a black teddy boy outfit on so we thought less chance of seeing him from the Box we got the dolly out mainline and it was off to Bolton L,E chimney first when we arrived on the shed we just left it and over the wall we went into Bolton town centre for a good night out. I do believe Bolton shed rang Agecroft on Monday morning to say they had one of their engines, Agecroft were looking all over for it. We never heard anything,i am glad to say. Very Naughty i must say. I think i started growing up after that.