You can defiantly here a lot of clanking in these clip taken earlier that day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6_l0akVPHY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JBNe7n8nZc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYt_NLCvORc

Good point. I haven't run steam at speed. the first sign might have been feel, rather than sound. In any case, the videos will be important to her crew as they figure out exactly what went wrong, when, why and how.

I've put in a fair number of miles on steam at mainline track speeds and can testify that there's a whole symphony of " sounds" generated by these machines "doing their thing"....... and my guess is that this incident did not produce sufficient advance warning sounds to alert the crew to the point of their taking any extraordinary measures.

Gratefully this incident did not result in any injuries or worse and will not cause any major change in the very positive mainline steam environment in the UK.

Ross Rowland

The noise at low speed is very noticeable and would have made me very curious. The engineer (Driver over there) is on the other side of the engine, but still should have heard the noise. Either the brass is nearly gone or the crosshead pin is loose.
IMHO

Is this a bushed or roller bearing unit? If it's brass, is British side rod construction the same as US? Shot with hard grease early and often? On cars, sounds can often be hidden in how they are projected, I would imagine the same is true for a locomotive. But the fact that it was doing it for hours and hours before it failed, and made such a racket in low speed in places where you get echos, makes we wonder did no one really notice that at all? Sounds bad enough I would expect it to be spitting metal.

As a reference, look at this starting at 41:30. I hear a lot of different sounds as this recording continues with the video and microphone down in the machinery. I don’t know what makes these sounds. I hear a heavy metallic clunking more or less continuously. Occasionally there is a loud clicking sound. Sometimes I hear a lighter clicking sound that may be rail joints, switches, etc.

What I find interesting is how both the image if the rods and the sound seem to speed up and slow down, going in and out of phase with the flow of the action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQIegKnCD7w

This is second hand information from a friend who is hands on with British mainline steam. Apparently Tangmere was drifting at speed (steam shut off) at the time of the failure, once stopped the gudgeon pin (wrist pin) was found in the oil tray behind the crosshead guide, and the nuts and cotters were missing. There was fairly little damage to the engine. This is strictly my own opinion but I think UK mainline crews are under a lot of pressure not to stop "in section", as even a delay of a few minutes could throw off the schedules and paths of dozens of passenger trains. Pegasuspinto, most British steam locomotives have whitemetal (babbit) filled rod brasses and axle boxes which are oil lubricated, I'm not sure if this is also the case with this Bullied engine, as his designs were a bit more advanced. I wouldn't worry to much about the long term effects of this on UK mainline steam.
P. Hosford

It's amazing that the main rod didn't pole vault itself and wind up like a pretzel if it did come loose at the crosshead end. This could have been much, much worse. At least we know it wasn't a broken crankpin or something else. The wrist pin could have ended up tearing up some driver spokes also.
Please don't mention gun banning in the US. British steam isn't mentioned in the Constitution.

Just as a reference, Tangmere doesn't usually clank that much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8YhCy7xE-M

Just took a listen to the 3751 video (which is quite impressive, by the way), and the "continual clanking/clunking" Ron Travis refers to is very typical of slightly loose rod brasses on solid rod bearing locomotives; this is a sound that is normally absent on engines with roller rods.

There seem to be two types of clicking sounds, neither of which I can positively identify, but one that seems to be in synchronization with the locomotive might either be the valve gear or possibly a mechanical lubricator, which has a ratchet mechanism. The other, irregular clickings may actually be the mount for the camera and associated vibrations.

The speed-ups and slow-downs are simply from changes in speed of the locomotive, at least what I observed.

I had this up once before, but it looks like a good time to bring it back--UP 844 in 2009. This is a most amazing clip, the engine working so easily and with so little effort it almost seems to be running downhill--a testimony to its power and the expert handling of its crew. Because of this easy working the rod noise is the most dominant sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl736E_V ... re=channel

Equally interesting, if a bit off topic, is to note how the tender likes to sway, apparently more than the locomotive. Sometimes the rear of the tender swings enough to remind me of a dog wagging its tail!

Well, there's clanking and then there's clanking. It's hard to describe the difference. In the case of the British engine, that's enough to cause some concern in the one video.
If you don't work the engine just right it will cause clanking. You gotta keep some steam cushion in the cylinders for one thing. It's possible to make an engine that's pretty snug clank with the right conditions.
I still think the one video where it was so obvious would have made me get down and look.

What I don't fathom is the seeming need to try to
minimize the perceived effect of such and similar
mishaps.

IMO, this kind of stuff is serious, not something to
be sloughed off with a dismissive "could have been
worse." Of course it could have. That's the point.
Eventually it will be worse.

What I don't fathom is the ability of people over 3,000 miles away from the object in question, presumably all having virtually no firsthand exposure to or experience with operable unrebuilt Bullied Pacifics with chain-drive valve gear, to analyze the condition, upkeep, and operation of one of these complicated pieces of machinery based on a couple lines of text and one YouTube video clip shot at night of the loco roaring by at high speed.

I have a dozen or more audio recordings of these "Spam Cans," have watched plenty of videos, and even ridden behind a couple, including one on one of Britain's steepest lines (the 3.3% of the Folkestone Harbour Branch), and have books on these locos, and I wouldn't even pretend to claim any knowledge of what's at issue with this incident beyond the obvious "something fell off that shouldn't have." I might be able to rule out global warming, the Trilateral Commission, and the Loch Ness Monster if I wanted to speculate a bit.....

I still have a feeling that George W. Bush is involved in some way. I'm finished discussing this now.

Thanks for blanketing everyone with the 'I know best, you know nothing' comment. However I know enough about Tangmere and the Bulleid pacifics to know that something in the original clip I posted doesn't sound right to me.
Do you always have to deride/put down others comments Mr Mitchell ?

My mistake to post this thread I knew it would end with this.

Mike Pannell