Let's Make A Train (2)

 What Does "Make" Mean"?

In the 1870s, The Pullman Car Company of the USA sent kits of parts to the Midland Railway for assembly at the Litchirch Lane Carriage Works. Effectively, the Railway was gluing together a giant Airfix kit, although not plastic!

But the ebullient Gregg Wallace fronted an episode of "Inside The Factory" first broadcast in 2022 and repeated a few days ago.

Mr Wallace "shot to fame" (as they say) presenting a programme called "Veg Talk" on BBC Radio 4. His origins were humble, as a porter and then a salesman at Covent Garden Market but he grew his own fruit and veg business dramatically and then moved into the Restaurant trade

Once upon a time, documentaries on the BBC were well researched, informative and occasionally intellectually challenging.

"Inside the Factory" is none of these. The series verges on the banal, intellectually at Primary School level. Some of the information is revealing and interesting, but the presentation is hardly "highbrow" and rarely even "middlebrow".

"And the wheels fit on the bolster?", mused Gregg with wide eyed amazement. "Wow, I never knew that!". Although Gregg's (mis)understanding was confirmed by the supervisor interviewed, that conclusion is wrong.

The wheels fit on the bogie ...

... and the bogie attaches to the bolster ...

... pivoting on that big peg in the middle.

The "Train" programme begins with the arrival of a very long lorry load.

We were NOT told whence came this vehicle, but a sign on the back ...

... reads "Convoi Exceptioinel" which is the European standard for warning following drivers of a "Long Vehicle". So it is reasonable to assume that these loads did NOT come from the UK!

These IKEA-style "flat packs" of aluminium panels would form the floor pan of the carriage. But first we have to enjoy watching the welding machine doing its stuff.

Once welded, the floor was shot blasted using a terrifying nozzle viewed excitedly by Gregg but without shot! 

Scaree!

This would clean the surface and provide a good "key" for the next stage. Then it was spray painted by hand. Indeed all the body panels were hand sprayed.

The welded floor was then spun upside down, again much to the "Wow" factor from our endearing presenter.

Once upside down ("So the seats are all underneath? Wow!")

Erm, No, Gregg. The seats haven't been fitted yet. If they had, they would have been crushed when the floor panel was turned over!

Here the "bolster" ...

... and lots of other stuff is fitted (but no wheels, Gregg!) and the floor is turned right way up. 

Along comes the roof panel, "assembled in the same way as the floor". The roof is suspended in a jig.

Now the sides have to be fixed.

These are swung into place alongside the roof-gap-floot jig ...

As we watch this side panel swinging, note that the panels are not solid; they are hollow with zigzag aluminium strengthening which makes them much stronger than the old steel panels and, importantly, they weigh only a third of the "traditional" metal construction.

Here is a view of the original delivery, end on.

All the panels are like this.

Nothing was said about how these panels were actually made, which confirms that they were NOT made at Litchurch Lane!

The sides are bolted to roof and floor ...

... using 28 (in the case of this shorter panel) "Huck" bolts. "Huck" is a brand name like Hoover, Google and Sellotape. The generic term would be "self locking bolts".

No, fbb had no idea either - but he has watched a video.

And "swage"?

Swaging is a metal-forming technique in which the metal of one part is deformed to fit around another part by either pressing or hammering, or by forcing the material through a die.

Yep, that matches the Huck Bolt idea. The "nut" (called a "collar") is pushed onto the threaded bolt in such a way that the metal of the collar is forced tight into the screw thread making a permanent immovable seal.

According to the Alstom man on the telly programme, these devices are stronger than a weld, stronger than a rivet and even stronger than Seccotine.

(OK, fbb made that last bit up)

So floor ...

... roof ...

... and sides ... 

... make up a very strong tube of aluminium which is, effectively, the equivalent of the steel chassis of the traditional railway coach.

As yet, no mention of coach ends?

So far, have we come across anything that is actually made in the UK?

More possibilities tomorrow!

 Next Make a Train blog : Weds 4th Sept 

Interestng Ipswich Information

Ipswich Has Two Bus Stations

Tower Ramparts was the home of Ipswich Corporation buses, still Local authority owned today.

Old Cattle Market bus station was the home of Eastern National buses, later First Bus.

Since privatisation and following both competition and First cutbacks, other operators, including Ipswich Buses, will appear as it is the home of the "out of town" network.

There are on-going discussions about merging the two bus stations, but finding a site is challenging. In the meantime, there is a fighting chance that you bus will serve one and stop close to the other.

It was correspondent Andrew who alerted fbb to this.

This is a brand new service scheduled to start on Monday 2nd September. The on-line publicity comes with an excellent route map (as above) but, sadly, it is not a PDF so "goes fuzzy" when enlarged.

Although the web site speaks of its terminus as at Copdock Tesco Extra, its real purpose ks to serve a brand new housing development on a wedge of green fields north of its intended end point.

Ipswich Buses route 13 currently runs to the Tesco ...

... and here is one obligingly doing it.

Unusually for a Tesco, the bus stops right outside the store rather than being relegated to the far reaches of the car park.

As fbb  explored the area on-line he noticed this bus going round the Tesco roundabout.

It was hard to identify behind the weeds (sorry, the environmentally "sound" wild vegetation). But fbb is on the case ...

... and it turns out to be a Felixstowe Flyer!

There is a snag, however ...

The "Flyers" do nut serve Tesco!

But nearby is the Park and Ride site ...

... for which First Bus has the contract using specleally liveried buses in blue.

An Essex County town map shows its proximity to Tesco.

Note, in passing, routes 91 and 93 which will re-appear in a jiffy!

But the new route 20 has a different purpose. It serves a block of new development between the A 1071, the A14 and the A1214.

When the Google Earth satellite had batteries in its camera, development had barely started, but Google Streetview reveals lots of new build ...

... lots of new building ...

... and property under construction right at the end of the cul-de-sac road whereat the 20 will turn.

Once a county lane, now blocked by the A14 ...

... this becomes the spine road of the new estate.

The new route 20 only operates Monday to Saturday off peak, once an hour.

It would appear tht the new block is called Wolsey Grange. Thomas Wolsey spent his boyhood at Ipswich and a plaque records where he spent it.

But that was at Curson Lodge. fbb suspects that Wolsey Grange is a manufactured name, designed to hoodwink the residents into believing that their boxes made of ticky tacky have some historical substance.

The spine road, according to Ipswich Buses is called Popular Lane.

Whoops! The road is actually named after a tree and is called ...

Poplar Lane.

Whoops indeed!

Extra blurb accompanying the on-line timetable refers to buses which could get you to Wolsey Grange at peak times.

One is the 91 ...

... operated by the modest and self-effacing Beestons!

The 93 is operated on tender by Ipswich Buses.

The peak service on 91 and 93 is hardly lavish and there is a good walk to get to them, certainly from the far reaches of the development.

Incidentally, the new 20 uses Hadleigh Road to exit the central area, a road used by the 91 (see map above) and not an existing Ipswich Buses bus road.

Apart from a lack of knowledge of road names at Wolsey Grange, Ipswich buses (or the Council that presumably helps with the costs) is to be congratulated on getting a bus into the estate BEFORE it is completed. That policy was normal practice in good old municipal days. 

It rarely happens in today's commercial world!

But that is how it S8HOULD be done.

 Next fbb really tried blog : Wednesday 21st Aug