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Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers
Volume 46 (1956)

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Journal No. 249

Brown, E.R.  (Paper No. 553)
Limits and fits from the railway point of view. 1-82.
General Meeting held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, SWl, on Wednesday, 18 January, 1956, at 5.30 p.m. Mr. R. Arbuthnott. (Vice-President) took the Chair in the absence of the President, Mr. K.J. Cook.
A.J. Powell (55-6) contributed to discussion.

Gray, A.C. (Paper No. 554)
Control equipment on electric locomotives. 83-92. Disc.: 92-5.
Presented in Manchester on 22 February 1956. A General Meeting of the Manchester Centre was held at the College of Technology, Manchester on 22nd February 1956, the Chair being taken by Mr. J. S. Scott
The Bo-Bo and Co-Co types of electric locomotives were first introduced into British Railways on the Manchester-Sheffield-Wath Electrification in 1953, and the writer also commenced his service on British Railways in the same year, and so to some extent he feels a close link with these locomotives when reading this Paper relating to the electrical control equipment on them. An illustration of a Bo-Bo Locomotive (with a Co-Co in the background) is shown in Fig. 1 on which the overhead wiring carrying 1,500 volts D.C. from the substation to the traction motors through the pantograph can be clearly seen. Includes a section on regenerative braking.

Jagota, S.S. (Paper No. 555)
Production control in Chittaranjan locomotive works. 96-102.
Annual General Meeting of the Indian Centre held in Madras on 28 March 1955:. Mr. P.G.C. Peyton in the Chair..
All materials manufactured in the works are inspected to ensure quality of work before being passed on for the next operation. For the rejected materials, a Reject Note is made out and copy sent to the Production Control Office for arranging replacement. The above organization has been developed in order to ensure that-
(i) Supply of components, sub-assemblies and assemblies, is regularly and timely made to the Erecting shop in order to avoid any hold-ups;
(ii) The exact position of the details of the components during the course of manufacture is known; (iii) To ensure that raw material required for manufacture is made available ;
(iv) The manufacture of locomotives is being done at a minimum cost;
(v) That everyman in the workshop is fully employed and that the quantum of work expected of an operator is actually produced by him.
The above organisation has justified itself in that (i) in 1952 the period between the start of the manufacture of components to completion of locomotive was 14 months, considering that only 45 % of the parts were manufactured. This has been reduced now to a period of 5 months with over 80% parts being manufactured, (ii) the output of 86 locomotives with 80% parts manufactured at Chittaranjan during 1954 has been obtained with a staff strength of 3,174 as against 30 locomotives with approximately 45% parts manufactured during 1952 with a staff strength of 2,922, and (iii) the cost of the locomotive which in the earlier period was approximately Rs. 7.05 lakhs will be reduced by the end of this financial year to Rs. 5.30 lakhs which is below the imported cost. It is expected that with the future development these figures will reduce further.
Success of this organization has to a large extent been due to the detailed study in building up the data for computation of operation times.

Journal No. 250

Byrne, B.R. (Paper No. 556)
Ultrasonic flaw detection. 114-41. Disc.: 141-70.
General Meeting held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on Wednesday 22 February 1956 at 5.30 p.m. Mr. J. F. B. Vidal, (Vice-President) took the chair in the absence of the President.
Ultrasonic flaw detection is carried out with waves varying in frequency from about ½ megacycle/second to six megacycles or more. Locomotive and carriage axles are usually tested in the range between 1 and 3 megacycles/second, for which the wavelengths (which determine the sensitivity to flaws) are 6 mm. and 2 mm. respectively. As generally practised, flaw detection consists in injecting a pulse of ultrasonic waves at a high repetition rate into the material under test and intercepting the echo returned from the far boundary at which it is aimed (“bottom echo”) together with any others that may bc reflected by discontinuities lying in its path. This is the pulse-reflection method. The sequence of events is displayed upon the screen of a cathode ray tube by the use of a recording spot synchronised with the transmission of each pulse or wave train.

Nock, O.S. (Paper No. 557)
Signalling from the driver's point of view. 188-203. Disc.: 203-15.
At the invitation of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers a Joint Meeting between that Institution and the Institution of Locomotive Engineers was held at the Institution of Electrical Engineers on Wednesday 28 March 1956 at 6 p.m. Mr. E. G. Brentnall, President of the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers, was in the Chair. The Chairman, on behalf of the I.R.S.E., extended a hearty welcome to members of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers. Unfortunately, the President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, Mr. K. J. Cook, O.B.E., was unable to be present owing to his convalescence after an operation, but the Chairman was glad to be able to report that Mr. Cook was making satisfactory progress. He was very glad to welcome Mr. J. F. B. Vidal, M.C., the President-Elect of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, and also Mr. W. A. Agnew who, despite every appearance to the contrary, had been a Past-President of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers for 25 years. He welcomed also Mr. Hart, the Secretary of the Institution.
J. Pelham Maitland, (208) recalled that in 1910 he had paid a visit to the locomotive sheds at Luxembourg, and had found in the foreman there a person who was interested not only in locomotives but in signalling. That foreman had made a remark which had greatly impressed him, namely, that there were two aims to be obtained in signalling, the speed idea and the safety idea. Mr. Nock’s Paper had brought out those two ideas very ably, but there was still a great deal that needed to be done to reconcile them. There was, of course, a great difference between considering the matter at a meeting such as the present one and dealing with the problem on the spot. He felt sure that the Author would agree with him that any time spent on signal-siting was well worth its cost. The determination of the mean between the two ideas which he had mentioned could only be realised by collaboration between the locomotive inspectors and the signal department on the spot and in each case, accepting as a basis the theory which the Author had put forward in his Paper.
Regarding restrictive approaches to splitting junction signals, there seemed to be a tendency to revert to the practice which had come in at the beginning of the present century and to give a caution aspect in the event of the subsidiary road being clear at the junction. That in itself was the cause of a great amount of reduction of speed. It had also been the cause of unnecessary coal consumption, and he indeed sympathised with their friends on the LM Region in insisting that some facility of that description was provided. There was another sidelight to that, namely, distant signals from branch lines at junctions which could not be worked. That again caused reductions of speed and a general hold up of the traffic which to his mind was entirely unnecessary. He would like to have the Author’s views on the practice, which seemed to be on the increase, of providing one yellow aspect for the diverging lines at junctions. He thought that something could be done to make an improvement in that respect.
D.R. Carling, (208) asked what was the Author’s opinion as to the value of flashing lights for signal indications. These had been used for many years in Scandinavia, and he believed their use was increasing elsewhere in Europe. Flashing lights could be used alone or in conjunction with steady lights to give additional signal indications when multiple indications were required. They might be particularly helpful where there was confusion due to background lighting a5 in some urban situations,

Journal No. 251

Doherty, J.M. (Paper No. 558)
Evolution of the internal combustion locomotive. 235-68. Disc.: 269-91. 18 diagrs., table.
General Meeting of the Institution held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, S.W.1, on Thursday 12 April 1956 at 5.30 p.m. Mr. J.F.B. Vidal, (Presideat-Elect) took the chair in the absence of the President, Mr. K.J. Cook.
An important historical paper. The Hornsby-Ackroyd engines used in explosive environments were significant. A six-coupled petrol locomotive weighing nine tons, for plantation work in Assam, was completed in 1909 by MacEwan Platt & Co., a firm associated with Messrs. Baguley of Burton-on-Trent. The engine developed 50 b.h.p. at 900 r.p.m. Sulzer Bros. of Winterthur developed an engine fitted into the chassis and superstructure built by A. Borsig of Berlin of a 2-B-2 locomotive (Fig. 4) weighed 95 tons in working order. The main engine had four two-stroke single-acting cylinders 14 in. dia. by 21 in. stroke. Development accelerated during WW1.
Kitson-Still locomotive is examined in the light of subsequent diesel development.
John F. Alcock (271) noted that around 1932 Sir Henry Fowler went to America to see the progress made with diesel locomotives there, and on his return decided to carry out what must then have appeared to be large scale experiments. Very satisfactory and encouraqing results were already being obtained with two trial diesel locomotives, the first being the Hunslet 150 h.p. and the second a 250 h.p. Armstrong Whitworth diesel-electric type. Then there were the early Avonside diesel locomotives. Both these locomotives which had previously been on loan were purchased by the LMS and Sir Henry obtained a grant from his board of £30,000 tor experimenting with various types of diesel locomotive. At the time it seemed a tremendous sum and it certainly bought something like ten shunting locomotives, of about the 30-ton mark. It was from these early experiments which lasted several years, that the LMS eventually standardised on the 50-ton 450 h.p. diesel-electric locomotive for shunting purposes, but it has always been his view and still is that the only reason the diesel-electric was selected was because in those early experiments all the diesel-mechanical units were from 150 to 200 h.p. only, while the diesel-electric units were from 250 to 300 h.p. On shunting work and particularly on hump shunting and fly shunting on which all the locomotives were tried, the larger, heavier and more powerful locomotives were obviously bound to be the more useful in moving the traffic. He was quite sure that had it been the other way round and had the diesel-mechanical units been the more powerful and heavier ones, then they would have prevailed just as easily. As it was, the 200 h.p. diesel-mechanical unit was fully proved at that time and ever since has more than justified itself, and it is indeed strange that in the last 25 years the wheel has turned a full circle and British Railways are now using large numbers of 200 h.p. 30-ton diesel-mechanical locomotives. During the same period, larger sizes have been developed for use mainly abroad, and again for the record he would like to refer to what is probably the largest dieselmechanical locomotive in service in the world today, that is the Hunslet 500 h.p. 5540x1 locomotive, as all other locomotives both of this size and larger, though frequently referred to as mechanical units, are of course fitted with some form of hydraulic coupling or hydraulic converter. W.O. Skeat (277-8) adds to the information about the Kitson-Still locomotive..

Vidal, J.F.B. (Presidential Address)
The Institution and its members. 296-306.
Delivered before Institution in London on 26 September 1956 and before the Centres:
Manchester Centre, 3 October 1956
Midlands Centre, Derby, 4 October 1956
Newcastle-on-Tyne Cenbre, Darlington, 9 October 1956
Scottish Centre. Glasgow, 10 October 1956
North-Eastern Centre, Leeds, 11 October 1956
The Institution, commencing with a handful of enthusiasts, has served a useful purpose for over 45 years. It now has a membership of appraximately 2,000. and we must always realise that the 500 who are oversea in many parts of the world may only be able to interest themselves in the proceedings by reading the journal.
strain of the first world war. The grouping of the railways in the United Kingdom in 1923 and the second world war were difficult periods; after that we had the division of the railways of India and Pakistan and the break-up of the British interests in the South American Railways to contend with; I think the particular anxious period was at the beginning of the Nationalisation of the main line railways of Great Britain. The Institution may be a small one in numbers compared with the major Institutions to which many of our members belong, but I hope all will agree that it is, nevertheless, an important and useful one in linking together quite a large proportion of the mechanical and electrical engineers on railways spread all over the world, and linking those engaged in railway industry. I think you will agree too that it is a most appropriate Forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience in the problems of our profession covering the construction and maintenance of railway steam, diesel and electric locomotives, carriages and all other rolling stock.
1911. Some members may not be aware of the fact that the Institution was born out of a deeply rooted dispute mainly between two of the very enthusiastic founder members of the Stephenson Society, founded in 1909, who before that event had resigned from the earlier Railway Club, formed I believe in 1899. The early happenings of the Stephenson Society and the birth of our Institution brings to mind the proverb “From little acorns mighty oak trees grow” and how an inspiration in the minds of one or two can be caught up in the imagination of others and carried forward with increasing vitality and strength. I have gathered some of my notes from one of the two, a Mr. L. E. Brailsford, whom I met for the second time last July, and from the Stephenson Society’s Journal which records Brailsford’s side of the dispute I have already referred to. Mr. Brailsford, now in his 82nd year, was acknowledged the most enthusiastic of the founder members of the Stephenson Society. He was in the Banking for his livelihood, but he had a love of railways and a special interest in locomotives, particularly those of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. The other specially enthusiastic founder member was Mr. G. F. Burtt, a draughtsman in the C.M.E.’s Department of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. These two men developed a strong friendship while members of the Railway Club, and in a short time after the formation of the Stephenson Society they were cIosely linked, Brailsford being made the first Chairman and Burtt the Honorary Secretary. This combination lasted until late in 1910 when the 75 members-railway enthusiasts in all walks of life decided to form a committee of management by secret ballot. It is recorded that things went wrong with this ballot, because it was alleged that it was not carried through with secrecy. Mr. Burtt, accustomed to opening the Society’s correspondence, apparently opened envelopes which contained ballot papers. It was further alleged that Burtt surprisingly brought in as members a number of his railway friends, and their votes considerably influenced the ballot. It was a first-class dispute between Brailsford with his friends on the one side, and Burtt and his railway colleagues on the other. The two sides issued printed statements giving their respective opinions as to the validity and non-validity of the ballot.
There is no point now in delving into the rights and wrongs of the quarrel, but it is satisfactory to note that Brailsford and Burtt renewed their strong friendship in later years. The quarrel was so deep that Burtt and his friends resigned from the Stephenson Society and promptly founded another which they called “The Junior Institution of Locomotive Engineers” with emphasis on the need to encourage the professional rather than amateur interest in locomotive engineering.
The name, however, was soon changed, the word “Junior” being dropped at the request of the Junior Institution of Engineers. The objects of the newly formed Institution have remained, namely, the “Reading and Discussion of Papers and the dissemination of information concerning Locomotive Engineering and its allied Sciences.” The qualifications for membership, in the main, also still apply.
At the end of the first year the numbers totalled 52 and we are undoubtedly indebted to the late Mr. G. F. Burtt, who became the first Treasurer and Secretary, for his extraordinary enthusiasm in bringing about the professional interest in the fascinating engineering problems connected. with the design and the operation of locomotives and other rolling stock, rather than the general interest appealing to the enthusiasts who are not necessarily engineers.
I have been informed that there was no society or literature devoted to the locomotive before 1896 and A. Morton Bell-later a strong supporter of the Institution and a Member of Council-who was on the Great Eastern Railway at the time published a magazine called “Moore’s Monthly” and the first issues featured Burtt’s history of L.B. and S.C. locomotives, Burtt’s history being the first attempt at recording locomotive history. Bell was refused perhission to use his own name by the C.M.E., Mr. Holden, so he used his mother’s name in calling it “Moore’s Monthly.”
As I have said, many members have helped in an outstanding way in the progress of our Institution and some of our Past-Presidents, young fellows for the time, will be recognised in the photograph taken of an Institution visit to the Great Eastern Railway Works at Stratford, London in September 1920, for example, H. Kelway-Bamber, F. S. Whalley, ‘W. A. Lelean, W. H. Whitelegg. Some others will be recognised in this photograph of the first Annual Dinner held in 1912, notably Alfred Rosling Bennett, a consulting engineer, and Frederick Harvey Trevithick, a C.M.E., Egyptian Railways, both of whom left legacies to this Institution, the interest from the capital sums supporting Institution Awards which are well-known. Another member who should be recognised is W. G. Tilling, recently deceased, who, as you know, gave S250 as a capital sum in support of his old friend Bennett’s legacy, and lastly G. F. Burtt, the Secretary. The first paper to be read was by founder member Mr. J. Pelham Maitland, now retired, but still a strong and interested member. His paper was entitled “French Locomotive Practice,” and this was soon followed by an outstanding Paper contributed by Mr. Lawford Fry, the reading of which attracted much attention and resulted in a large increase in membership.
The late Mr. Lawford Fry and the late Mr. W. A. Lelean were most active members of Council and a large measure of credit should be given to Lelean in the preparation of the Articles and By-Laws connected with the Institution’s Incorporation in 1915. Mr. Burtt was succeeded by another Honorary Secretary, Mr. J. C. Sykes, in 1923, and the Institution made further considerable progress during his Secretaryship. Following his death in 1931, Major H. A. Hamson was appointed the first paid Secretary-Editor, and after a short period the Institution’s office occupied by Major Harrison and his assistant Miss Hann-a dismal room in a building in the Vauxhall Bridge Road, London-was considered too small for the growing Institution. Most of the offices in this building, by the way, were single rooms occupied
Long account in Locomotive Mag., 1956, 62, 159

Journal No. 252

Rampala, B.D. (Paper No. 559)
Diesel electric traction in Ceylon. 314-46. Disc.: 346-81.
Eighth Ordinary General Meeting held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, SW1., on Wednesday 14 March 1956, immediately following Annual General Meeting. Mr. E.S. Cox, Vice-President, occupied the Chair. The Chairman conveyed to the Meeting the regrets of the Author of the Paper to be read that evening, Mr. B. D. Rampala, at his inability to be present. At the time of writing the Paper, the Chairman said, Mr. Rampala had been Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Ceylon Government Railway, and it had been his lively hope that he would be able to be in London to read his Paper. Since then, however, he had been elevated to the position of General Manager of the Ceylon Government Railway, and no less a personage than the Prime Minister of Ceylon had asked him to remain in the country, at any rate for the time being. The Chairman felt sure that the members present would regard it as appropriate to ask the Secretary to send a cable to Mr. Rampala, expressing their regret that he was not able to be present. (Agreed). They were happy to have in Mr. Rampala’s place Mr. C.E. James, who had been closely associated with some of the locomotives described in the Paper, who had spent some considerable time in Ceylon and who knew Mr. Rampala personally. Mr. C. E. James, Associate Member, then read the Paper by Mr. B. D. Rampala, M.B.E., Member, entitled “Diesel-Electric Traction in Ceylon,” which was afterwards discussed. On the motion of the Chairman, a vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Rampala for writing the Paper, and to Mr. James for reading it.
Mr. C. E. James, in the course of reading the Paper, referred to Fig.-11 and said the Author had told him that this graph represented a normal day’s run with about 550 tons, and no attempt had been made to get the maximum horse-power. The sharp drop in the horse-power curve was due to the driver notching back on reaching the permissible track speed.
Figure 12, Mr. James remarked, might seem a little mysterious, because there did not seem to be any connection between the isolated points shown. The Author told him that these were readings taken on a number of different journeys and simply showed the drawbar horse-power and drawbar pull at the stations indicated by the vertical lines below.
Dealing with the Brush locomotives, of which it was stated in the Paper that the total mileage was 860,000 to the end of 1954, Mr. James added that the total mileage was now over 2,250,000. The Chairman, in proposing a vote of thanks to the Author and to Mr. James for reading the Paper, said that the Paper was of the kind that they liked best of all, being based on practical experience in the field. It was by the accumulation of Papers of this kind that the Institution could be of the greatest service to locomotive engineers everywhere. They would appreciate the Paper all the more for the fact that it was interspersed with numerous salty “asides” which illuminated the personality of the Author. The recorded discussion would be sent to the Author for his considered reply, but Mr. James had kindly offered to give an interim and unofficial reply, which would necessarily be brief, to some of the points raised.

Draper, T.E. (Paper No. 560)
Design of rail traction diesel engines - consideration of some of the main aspects with particular reference to crankshaft bearings. 382-405. Disc.: 405-11.
Second Ordinary General Meeting of the Midlands Centre held at Midland Hotel, Derby on 23 October 1956, at 7 p.m., the Chair being taken by Mr. J. W. Caldwell.
Problems associated with crankshaft bearings: an attempt to show some sides of the problem, to review the various courses open to the designer and consideration of materials and manufacturing technique.

Journal No. 253

Devereux, M.J. (Paper No. 561)
Experiences with diesel railcars. 416-39. Disc.: 440-77.
General Meeting of the Institution held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, SWl, on Wednesday 24 October 1956 at 5.30 p.m. Mr. J.F.B. Vidal, President, was in the Chair.
Author was the Assistant C.M.E., Coras Iompair Eireann.

Krishnaswamy, R. (Paper No. 562)
Certain aspects of goods train operation. 478-91.
Annual General Meeting of Indian Centre held at the National Sports Club, New Delhi, on 12 March 1956..
Chief Mechanical Engineer, Western Railway, India. observations on WG class 2-8-2 which was regarded as being over-cylindered.

Journal No. 254

Symposium on engineering training on 21 November 1956 

Nesbitt-Hawes, Ronald (Paper No. 563)
The training of a locomotive engineer. 496-501.
General Meeting held at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, SWl on 21 November 1956 at 5.30 p.m. The President, Mr. J.F.B. Vidal took the Chair.
The Chairman said that a Symposium of Papers was to be presented dealing with the engineering training of up and coming young men, young men whom they all realised were urgently required in rapidly increasing numbers, not only in our railway world but in all other branches of electrical and mechanical engineering.
The Chairman, in proposing a vote of thanks to the Authors, said that they had been very well informed of the methods of training adopted by The English Electric Company, British Railways and the Indian Government Railways. The training period was a very strenuous one but the practical training given at the time when he himself was an apprentice also required a good deal of stamina. At the age of 18 they were working from 6 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. each day and that meant rising at 5 a.m. and cycling three miles to clock in at the right time. For three months the work had extended to 10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week and Friday from 6 a.m. then all through the night until 12 o’clock on Saturday. At that time production was thought to be more important than evening classes

Parker, G.F. (Paper No. 564)
Engineering training in the main workshops of British Railways. 501-11.

Peyton, P.G.C. (Paper No. 565)
Recruitment and training of officers for the Mechanical Engineering and Transportation (Power) Departments of Indian Government Railways. 511-17. Discussion on three above papers: 517-40

Gosain, L.R. (Paper No. 566)
Impressions of American railway workshops. 541-67.
General Meeting of the Northern Branch of the Indian Centre held at New Delhi on 17 December 1954.

Sethi, R.K. (Paper No. 567)
Essentials of transmissions for diesel rail traction. 568-89. Disc.: 589-91.
General Meeting of the Northern Branch of the Indian Centre held at New Delhi on 26 July 1956.