[Gary]

How many of you knew that one of the greatest locomotive engineering minds of the last centuary, O V Bulleid, went to work for Irish railways CIE in 1949 after the demise of Southern Railway.

And further to that move he developed a turf burning locomotive based on the Leander!

Yes, a loco than ran on Irish grass. And this operated for 6 years under trial.

I wonder how many Irish modellers have scratch built one of these unique locomotives?

Apparently Bulleid took the Irish railway system by the scruff of the kneck and modernised everything, retiring in 1958 at the age of 75.

I didn't know any of this and did a bit of research after picking something up whilst doing a spot of reading. It all came as a bit of a surprise.

Happy modelling
Gary

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE And further to that move he developed a turf burning locomotive based on the Leander!

Yes, a loco than ran on Irish grass. And this operated for 6 years under trial.
Gary, are you sure you're not confusing peat with turf?

They're very different. Peat is used for fuel in Ireland and north west Scotland and is in ready supply. It's partially decomposed organic matter which is cut from peat bogs and then wind dried. Turf is grass attached to dirt which is used for instant lawns. I don't see dirt burning too well or grass for that matter.

 

[Brian Considine]

Gary & Neil,

I remember it as being "turf burning" so maybe the archives gave the impression that it did indeed use "turf" as a fuel.

regards
Brian

 

[Colombo]

" Britain and the USA, two great nations divided by a common language........................."

The words are the same but the meaning can be different.

In Ireland, turf is peat. If I had Irish turf on my English lawn, I would call it moss.

In England a root is part of a plant, whilst in Australia a root can be something entirely different.............

Back to Bulleid. Someone worked out that the oil bath, in which the Leader's motion operated, leaked as much oil onto the track as a diesel loco would have burned to do the same work. That was one of the reasons why the project was scrapped.

Colombo

 

[neil_s_wood]

QUOTE In Ireland, turf is peat. If I had Irish turf on my English lawn, I would call it moss.I had a feeling that might be the story.

I found it hard to see how a train could run on lawns.

 

[pedromorgan]

Anyway the loco was called turf burner.

There was one running around the irish layout at scaleforum.

Peter

 

[60134]

In the 19th Century some of the Bavarian railways experimented with turf / peat burning locos. The calorific value of turf is really too low to be of much use and the ash produced has to be seen to be believed!

60134

 

[neil_s_wood]

Peat burns at a lower temperature than coal. You would have to carry a hell of a lot more peat than coal to cover any given distance.

 

[pedromorgan]

turf burner was not the only turf burning loco. bulleid modified another loco to find out how viable it would be.
as neil said it has a much lower calorific value and so you need lots more of it.
I have a photo of both loco's somewhere. the earlier loco looked like a normal loco with a massive tender.

Peter

 

[7113]

Hi Guys,

Just been thinking, (don't worry I don't intend making a habit of it) There is a lot of information about the whole Leader/turf burner development in a book entitled "Leader - Steams last chance" I believe it was published by either Alan Sutton or David & Charles.

Hope this helps...

Regards

John

 

[neil_s_wood]

The reason this would have been experimented with is due to the high availability of peat in Ireland. I beleive they have the worlds only peat fired power station. Where it would have fell down is ude to the high amounts of peat you would have to carry for journeys. As Peter says it would have a massive tender to pull.

 

[BRBlue]

I have vague memories of seeing the Turf (or Peat) burner laid up and decomposing in a siding.
As stated above, turf is very inferior to coal for locomotive power. There is also far more ash/dust left in the firebox. The lack of native coal in Ireland hastened the adoption of diesel at a quicker rate than in Britain.