History on the V.r H Class (V.r in Steam)

[@vsvnrg3263]

my dad helped build harry. he was a riveter at newport workshops. later on he fired on harry. all the crews thought it was the best loco in victoria. as i said in the comments of your s class video, he described firing on the s class as "bloody hard work". but he said that the hardest he ever worked was on harry when the mechanical stoker broke down.

[@Alzaar_The_Gunzel]

One of my friends father drove H220, he was also the last person to drive him.

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@Alzaar_The_Gunzel , my dad said only the best, most experienced drivers were put in charge of harry and the s class. that says something special about your friend's father

[@Alzaar_The_Gunzel]

@@vsvnrg3263nice

[@Alzaar_The_Gunzel]

@@vsvnrg3263He was a driver on the VR who started in the 50s until 1986 and worked on a lot of locomotives, one of which my friend told me was H220. Sadly, the man has passed away some years ago.

[@rus0004]

The Gresley Conjugated Valve Gear used in the S class, while fine on paper, presents a number issues in practice. Aside from the high placement of the center cylinder in the casting (as shown at 6:03) causing premature failure due to heat from the boiler, but because the lever arms were attached to the front of the outside valve rods, as the engine heated up and expanded, the inside valve gear would thrown out of time. Not only that, but the long levers of the Gresley mechanism had a tendency to flex at high speed, causing the timing to be thrown out even more. The Henschel und Sohn valve gear used shorter, more rigid rocker arms to mitigate flexing, actuated from the rear of the outside valve rods to avoid the problems caused by their heat expansion. This new system had the benefit of allowing the middle cylinder to be further forward, driving the first axle instead of the second, and thus also allowing it to be positioned lower, away from the heat of the boiler. I suppose this is the difference between British engineering and German engineering.

[@xymaryai8283]

i know its impractical to restore such a big locomotive for Steamrail, but i wish it was running, a single engine with that much history in service, deserves to be well treated and celebrated on the mainlines, it could be driven at a fraction of its power for longevity and still easily make the grades.

[@vsvnrg3263]

xymaryai no. there was a k class written off (now repaired). after a level crossing acco at benalle. fixing harry up then putting it at risk of cowboys who expect trains to give way to their trucks , not on. if, however, there was someone who really had a lot of money to spare who gets a kick out of trains was to build another h class, then that would be great. the vr plans still exist, mostly it seems, in private hands. a bloke in nsw mentioned in the comment section of one of his videos that he scored enough of them to "fill a panel van". lucky man. there is another problem. there arent many tracks that are built strong enough to take the 23.5 axle load of the h class at a decent speed. it is shameful that it and other locos were left in the rain only a kilometre from the bay for decades. that does not qualify as being well treated.

[@johnd8892]

A surprising super highlight at 11:15 with the first film of H220 actually in motion and pulling a moving train. And in colour too. Even the late eighties V/Line official Power Parade video was not able to supply any film of H220 in motion at all. Now i will supply a link to this to all my VR interested friends.

[@TrainBloke38]

The H220 is definitely a very unique locomotive and it's also one of five three Cylindered steam locomotives to have operated in Victoria

[@kevinpepperell1941]

I don't know where you got your information from but you have a lot of errors in your description. The radius of curves was not the issue on the western line it was the bridges due to the weight of the H class locomotives. I don't think a big 4-8-4 would go around sharper curves than a pacific loco like the S class. The development of the H class was to reduce the need to double head locos on the Overland passenger train.

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

There is a sources section in the description of my video if you would like to fact check something.

[@PiersDJackson]

Small point of order, as for other 3 cylinder Mountain type locomotives: there is a single preserved DR 45 class in Germany (a Henschel und Sohn), and the ČSD Class 477.0 in the Czechia.

[@Alzaar_The_Gunzel]

Funny how this came out not long after I did my documentary on H220

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

wow, weird.......

[@adriannettlefold9084]

My Grandfather told me that when H220 was introduced it collided with a platform and had to have new cylinder fitted, is there any evidence of that? I only got to see Heavy Harry from outside as the museum was closed the one and only time I got to Melbourne. 800t is quite a decent effort.

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

That could have been true my video only information mostly readily available so no fireman or workman story's.

[@volgrencr221]

0:37 tell that to the now defunct WCR who would triple head 3 diesel's on a 5 car service

[@lauriewhite8153]

aww i was looking forward to a video on V56 ;)

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

might happen soon

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

A great pity that "Heavy Harry" wasn't preserved in running order for heritage trains today.

[@STYtrainspotter2007]

Well there's not many places to run harry anywhere anymore, apart from the Seymour also there's the problem of turning him around, he'll need Tottenham triangle for every run to turn, UP 4014 uses triangles to turn around

[@kevinpepperell1941]

I think you need to fact check your sources. An eight coupled steam loco the size of the H class has a longer fixed wheel base than the six coupled S class. Therefore the H class is NOT going to negotiate sharper curves than the S class. The H class was designed to haul the Overland to eliminate double heading on the western line however the wooden trestle bridges were of a too light a construction for the H class to maintain passenger train speeds over the bridges. Bridges were not an issue on the N/E line and the big H handled freight traffic even though it was specifically designed for passenger traffic.

[@Low760]

3050km? Not m?

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

what do you mean?

[@rus0004]

@@VictorianTransportHistory Was it miles or kms?

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

3050km cause I prefer metric

[@LukeWatson99]

Heavy harry is cool, but 520 class is the absolute goat 😤😤🐐

[@PiersDJackson]

Ironic that the 500 and 520 classes were intended to form part of the cross-border services, without the silly need to all change carriages across the platform at the border.

[@joshjohnson-k2o]

until now, its been allocated for restoration and return to service

[@Low760]

I think the gm/b classes look good...

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

ok...

[@aspiewithattitude3213]

Can anyone confirm if it's true that the Heavy Harry into active operations just like our K-Classes, the R-Classes and the Na-Classes (Puffing Billy)?

[@lachlansmith1522]

its a static exhibit at the Newport Railway Museum, wont ever be restored for a multitude of reasons such as being too heavy to run on any line and a lack of facilities to turn the locomotive anywhere in the state(outside of the turntable at Ararat in the states west but that turntable hasn't been used in im going to say over 30 years and has been disconnected for quite some time as a standard gauge triangle was installed near it and broad gauge passenger to ararat is all DMU's)

[@TrainBloke38]

Also I'm not sure if this is true or not but I read on railpage that one point the H class was gonna be a 2-10-2 amongst other proposals

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

@@TrainBloke38 They where alot of proposals for large locomotives then never happened

[@TrainBloke38]

@VictorianTransportHistory yeah it would've been interesting if the H class was 2-10-2 since Australia never had any ten wheeled steam locomotives

[@johnd8892]

I had read somewhere that the X class was first proposed as a 2-10-0. However concerns were that that long a rigid wheelbase would cause problems in yards and the tighter curves on the system. The development and use of a trailing truck booster on nearly all the X class gave them ten powered wheels when it mattered most on starting trains and at low speeds but having the extra flexibility of the shorter rigid coupled wheelbase of a Mikado design.

[@johnd8892]

​@@TrainBloke38lots of ten wheeled locomotives in Australia of the 4-6-0 and 2-8-0 ten wheeled types, but no ten coupled locomotives. Ten wheeled locomotives likely the most common type in Australia.

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

@@johnd8892 haven't done much research on the X class. Maybe I'll dig up something soon

[@gwaithwyr]

Very interesting, but would be much better without the "music".

[@ThePaulv12]

The notorious 'Islington bank' might not exist in the state of Victoria. The location you describe goes by another name. Your sacrilegious bastardization of its name is so deeply offensive to this broad gauge gunzel that I had to ring Lifeline, then the paramedics had to come worsening the ambulance ramping situation in this state - all because you can't be bothered taking responsibility for your dyslexic tendencies. Think of the taxpayers, think of the people that really need treatment (rather than crazed Gunzels blocking up the S bend of the health care system). Not happy!

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

So what do you want me to call it :D

[@ThePaulv12]

@@VictorianTransportHistory Really? I mean, if I were writing a comedy sketch I couldn't use this material as people would think it was implausible, yet it is happening LOL.

[@VictorianTransportHistory]

@@ThePaulv12 So Warrenheip Bank it is then

[@davidperrott4502]

what a disrespectful documentary, smug and not that enjoyable, sorry.

[@JacksVictorianTrains]

How the hell is it "disrespectful" lil bro? or are you pressed you cant make good videos like him