#david l. smith

[horwichwren]

Wee bit of context before what's below the cut-off line

I recently reread my Sou'-West book (from middle to the end, then front to middle) while transcribing parts for a friend as they don't have it (is this piracy?). Reminded me of something @mean-scarlet-deceiver did a while ago and such served as not a little of inspiration for a (hopefully) all informative special(ish)

Will had been an express driver and quite a runner in his day. They tell of some stormy trips on the Paddy with 82, Manson 4-4-0. But these days were long last, and old Will, grown very stout, was quite content to sit down on the fireman's side of the cab, and let that functionary oil, drive, fire and catch tablets.

Keep in mind this starts about halfway down the first page, the only previous mention of a 'Will' is in 'Will Ross', the man who presumably runs the Turnberry, also no prior explanation. (Yes, I do know this is a snippet out of a magazine, as is most of this book, but I really have to emphasize that the bar. is. high.)

Manson 4-4-0 (below) (note single bogie tender, used exclusively for the St. Enoch-St. Pancras 1.30 p.m. Diner, non-stop from Kilmarnock to Carlisle, I could go on)

Last thing to note is let that functionary oil, drive, fire, and catch tablets, he really did not want to do anything at that time

I remember him taking the regulator only once. It was the time the Government was trying to make a School of Aerial Gunnery at Loch Doon, and Will Ross's group used to run a workmen's train (known for obvious reasons as the Sinn Feiner) from Ayr to Dalmellington in the morning, shunt all day at Dalmellington, and from the Sinn Feiner down again at night.

I might be the one missing something, or maybe the books 80 years out of date with a tale from about a hundred years ago, but obviously the workmen's train is called that. Obviously. How could you not know?

That day they had big 37, a Manson 0-6-0 of his 1910 variety. This class had the Dreadnought ejector at a time when such things were a bit of a novelty on the Sou' West. It was a good one, and with everything tight and the vacuum needle trying the beat the barometer, 37 could stop things.

Oh yeah big 37

Perhaps it is a little large for a railway used to 0-4-2s and 0-6-0s from Smellie's era (not saying their bad, no siree, 231 might give a spark shower in the not poetic way if I say otherwise). Also, Dreadnought ejector? brakes? on the sou' west?

The fireman was shunting Dalmellington yard,

mhm, write this down kids, look who's actually doing work

and he asked old Willie to take her for a bit till he went up to the station and filled the water-bottle. 'And mind that brake, Willie, for she's very quick.' He returned in 20 minutes to find the yard a chaos of clashing buffers, couplings flying in all directions and the guard bleeding from a gash in the hand. 'A gran' brake that, boy,' said old Willie, 'a graan' brake!'

Noo Willie, don't. Having to return from filling up your canteen only to find the person who is supposed to be more sensible having had somehow ruined a poor guards hand is not what could be classified as good. End of the first page and there's already the standard yet for the G&SW, tune in next time for the worry point when descending hills is when you can't see your van in an inferno of flames from shoes to tyer contact

[horwichwren]

Thinking about the time when Wheatley (GM of the Girvan & Portpatrick, whos railway was also host to three ex-NLR 4-4-0 tanks) put his hand under the running board of an engine on a visit to Girvan shed, got it dirty! (shock horror), and proceeded to metaphorically eat out one of the goods guards(?) (then cleaner? [unsure of employment at the time]) for not keeping the engine clean!

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

Will you ever make a master post of any such sort? Mainly asking this because I love reading your excerpts from Tales of the Glasgow & South Western :))

Yeah, sorry, my #real true railway stuff is super inconsistent as far as more specific tags go. I really thought back in 2020, 2021, even 2022 that I was never gonna have so many real engines on my goofy TTTE blog so it wasn't ever going to be necessary to organize them. 🤡

I have gone back and tagged all the posts I can find related to Tales or Legends with #scottish engines #glasgow and south western engines and #david l. smith. I hope this helps! If you find one without those three tags, let me know!

(I even cheated a bit to add #glasgow and south western engines to a couple posts that are purely about post-Grouping engines in the ex-G.&.S.W. region. Hope this helps more than it confuses.)

As for a master post, I've created a couple that you can find under #admin and maybe #masterpost. Unfortunately they are super out-of-date.

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

"They were fine engines. I can still see them all — 90 with Jimmy Robson, 45 with Ivie McCaig, 284 with Andy Neilson, 91 with Bob Hogg, 122 with Jimmy Neilson, and 84 with Andy Bryan. Then at the summer shift-up of 1916, the latter three engines went to Darkie Sillars, Jimmy Johnston and Will Ritchie respectively. A clean P.D. [Peter Drummond engine] looked very nice, and how these men did clean them. I remember Ritchie coming up to Dalmellington one evening with the goods. He hadn't had 84 for a couple of days, and she was the worse of it. So as soon as they got past Dalrymple Junction they put in a big fire and Ritchie went out on one side and Sam McCulloch on the other, and polished her all the way up! But I think the finest was 122 when Jimmy Johnston had her. Jimmy was no mean cleaner, but when he got Kenny Campbell to fire to him their zeal knew no bounds. I remember particularly the inside of the cab — it was like a Dutch kitchen. Then Kenny Campbell fell ill, and he had to go to hospital for many weeks. Jimmy Johnston was a rather gruff and morose man — some didn't get on with him. Well, do you know that all the time that Kenny Campbell was off duty, Jimmy Johnston turned out an hour or an hour-and-a-half early for his shift, and could be found scrubbing away at 122 for dear life. 'I wouldna like her to get dirty,' he would say. 'We canna let Kenny doon.'"

— David L. Smith, Tales of the Glasgow and South Western

If your work bestie doesn't put in 30 hours of unpaid overtime to cope with his feelings about your extended hospital stay, is he even really your work bestie?

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

So they gave her the 5.15pm to Ayr, returning on the 9.20pm semi-fast—very semi. Sanny Colquhoun was driving No 543 at the time, and his fireman was Jimmy McBridge, a big craggy individual whom all at Corkerhill called 'Gus'. On the 9.20pm one night, old Sanny had gone away down the street at Ayr, and Gus started to get some coal in. Gus liked to get plenty into the firebox then put his his feet and enjoy the drive, so he shovelled and shovelled till the coal got a bit beyond his reach. He looked into the bunker—there was only about a barrowful left. Gus thought it a pity to leave it out in the cold, so he put it in too, shut the firedoor and let it cook. About 9.15pm old Sanny comes along. Gus says, 'We've done it tonight, old timer! We've done it tonight! Look, no coal!' Old Sanny nearly passed out. No coal! Gus had enough in the firebox to take the train to Perth!

— David Smith, Legends of the Glasgow & South Western Railway (in LMS days)

[mean-scarlet-deceiver]

"After a circus like that [170 minutes late with post missorted and undelivered], one would have thought that a searching inquiry would have been made, but evidently not. London probably never heard of those things, and in Scotland, if the Caley territory was all right, nothing else mattered."

- David L. Smith, not sounding bitter at all

[christiannightmares]

Man spots face of Jesus on fireplace (Click image for story and video)