Rails Announce OO 18000 Gas Turbine Locomotive

[BrushVeteran]

4 hours ago, BMacdermott said:

 

Hello gwrrob

 

The Railway Observer for May 1957 says:

 

The 'Merchant Venturer' joined the ranks of chocolate & cream trains on 1 April, but the set is spoiled by a maroon slip and occasionally an extra red and cream coach for Reading. The Gas Turbine 18000 has been working the down train recently, returning with the lightly loaded 4.15pm from Bristol.

 

Probably not a named train per se, but the issue for October 1958 records that on 29 August, No.18000 worked a special 8-coach train from Paddington-Oxford conveying delegates to the Seventh International Symposium on Combustion. Departure was at 10.08am and one hour was allowed for the run. It returned light engine (LE) at 12.15pm.

 

Brian

 

 

I have in my collection a photo of 18000 at Oxford, l.e., and as a rare location it could be the same event.

[MG 7305]

41 minutes ago, 96701 said:

Was it E2100? If it was, I saw it at Rugby a long time ago.

 

No.   E2001 was converted from the Metropolitan Vickers built 18100.

 

Best regards

[96701]

1 minute ago, MG 7305 said:

 

No.   E2001 was converted from the Metropolitan Vickers built 18100.

 

Best regards

That's the one. I was close with the electric loco number.

 

[adb968008]

Absolutely fantastic choice, Not sure between green 1950’s or black.

 

i had a look inside 18000 last year.. sadly it’s mostly empty, but I did think it would make a nice display for a model railway.

 

I was a bit worried about the rot.. I could the Didcot running line by looking through both sides of the loco’s rotting bodysides at one angle.

 

I think this this is going to do well.

 

 

Didcot can be so timeless, 18000 is right at home.

Edited November 12, 2019 by adb968008

[Enterprisingwestern]

9 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

I shall now have to spend many, many hours searching the archives to see if it was ever diverted, due to the regular flooding, slipping, falling to pieces of the WR east of St David's. Ummmmmm!

A. Stinker.

 

 

Regularly!!

 

Mike.

[MGR Hooper!]

Even though it's been a high polling item, I never expected this to be announced any time soon. Well done Rails of Sheffield and Heljan.

[TrevorP1]

I noticed this just before I went to bed last night and today I'm pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a dream!  Very welcome news indeed and many thanks to Rails for taking the plunge.  Bank account duly raided. There is no justification for 18000 in Cornwall but who cares. It will look very well on the 1954 era Cornish Riviera that I'm getting together and I've got time to build the correct dining car for the train.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

14 hours ago, dibber25 said:

...Sad to see the state of 18000 rotting away at Didcot. Really ought to be in the National Collection as its the only significant survivor from the 'black traction' era that linked steam and 'modern' traction...

There is a survivor in the national collection:  DP1 which had an altogether more adventurous external treatment, and arguably presaged the external treatments of contemporary locos and units. Proof that 'eye candy' works, even on those tasked with selecting for technical merit for preservation as a museum piece?

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, TrevorP1 said:

There is no justification for 18000 in Cornwall but who cares.

 

There's no justification for it on the S&DJR either - but I always thought that the banks on that line would be an ideal testing route for new traction !

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[St Enodoc]

20 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Yes.  And of course it ran to Plymouth at various times

And also to Penzance, through Porthmellyn Road...

[The Stationmaster]

On 12/11/2019 at 16:23, gwrrob said:

 

Have you got photographs to prove it Mike.

I haven't (I was much too young of course), but photos do exist.  Its first visit to Plymouth was a gauging run on 22 February 1950 witha four coach train.  The next planned trip was on 14 March but that was cancelled due to the loco failing on a previous working. It worked reguaalrly from paddingto n to Pl;ymouth and return between 22 May and 3 June 1950 - down on the 15.30  exPadd and back the next day leaving Plymouth at 07.15.  It reappeared on Plymouth work on 9 June for a couple of days before being kept at laira forloading tests up to Hemerdon on the 12th & 13th then back onto passenger work on the 14th but it failed at Newton Abbot.

 

After working elsewhere it went back onto Plymouth work on 28 August with two return trips per week until 30 September.  It was back in November and continued occasional turns to Plymouth, interpsersed with failures and trips to Bristol in1951. By 1952 it seems to have spent most of its time working between London and the Bristol area.

Edited November 15, 2019 by The Stationmaster
Correct typo in one year - as the loco ceased work in late 1959 I should have got that typo sorted.

[Armchair Modeller]

12 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 It worked reguaalrly from paddingto n to Pl;ymouth and return between 22 May and 3 June 1960 

did you mean 1960 - or 1950 which possibly makes more sense?

[BMacdermott]

16 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

 

 By 1952 it seems to have spent most of its time working between London and the Bristol area.

 

Hello Mike

 

Agreed. Many photos I have seen seem to indicate to Weston-super- Mare but I haven't seen one actually at that location.

 

I have seen three photos on eBay that seem to be Oxford (as noted in my earlier post and as noted by another respondent here).

 

Brian

[Coach bogie]

3 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

I noticed this just before I went to bed last night and today I'm pleasantly surprised that it wasn't a dream!  Very welcome news indeed and many thanks to Rails for taking the plunge.  Bank account duly raided. There is no justification for 18000 in Cornwall but who cares. It will look very well on the 1954 era Cornish Riviera that I'm getting together and I've got time to build the correct dining car for the train.

It made it to Taunton (see link). Who knows, on your trainset it continued on into Cornwall

http://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=36097&search=gwr+gas+turbine+1800

 

As for 18100, as E2001 my uncle saw and photgraphed it, stored on the Ex Great Central line north from Ashendon Junction which had been reduced to a long siding, before it went for scrap.

 

One of my local friends 'claimed' he saw 18100 on Teesside near what is the current Thornaby station as it went to Metrovic stockton for attention. 

 

Mike Wiltshire

[-missy-]

[Red Devil]

2 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

There is a survivor in the national collection:  DP1 which had an altogether more adventurous external treatment, and arguably presaged the external treatments of contemporary locos and units. Proof that 'eye candy' works, even on those tasked with selecting for technical merit for preservation as a museum piece?

Erm 26020, possibly as important as any of the other 'black locos', at least that was from a fleet rather than a one off prototype, add in the EM2s and there's some more.

[dibber25]

2 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

There is a survivor in the national collection:  DP1 which had an altogether more adventurous external treatment, and arguably presaged the external treatments of contemporary locos and units. Proof that 'eye candy' works, even on those tasked with selecting for technical merit for preservation as a museum piece?

But Deltic (it was never DP1 when in use) was a private enterprise. It simply adopted American styling. It was not part of mainstream railway motive power development, was not commissioned by a railway company and it was years after 18000/10000 etc. I suspect it was also given to the Science Museum rather than being selected for preservation as part of the national locomotive collection. Had the Eastern Region not gone against the grain and bought a batch of them, it would have been very much a motive power dead-end. In that respect, at least, it is like the gas turbine, although gas turbine motive power was used successfully in both Europe and North America. And, yes, the EM1 qualifies, if only in the electric category, and is contemporary with - slightly ahead of the gas turbine. (CJL)

Edited November 13, 2019 by dibber25

[woodenhead]

Deltic had American styling because EE wanted to export the locomotives, the big headlight would have been fitted of an American type if needed.

 

As Dibber says, the Eastern Region went against the grain to procure them and the type was not part of the pilot scheme but a prototype that offered something nothing else did at the time.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

37 minutes ago, dibber25 said:

But Deltic (it was never DP1 when in use) was a private enterprise. It simply adopted American styling. It was not part of mainstream railway motive power development, was not commissioned by a railway company and it was years after 18000/10000 etc. ...

And I would see all of that as only adding to its significance, as an indication of things to come! Not the fumblings of the failing once mainstream railway company motive power development; that would eventually result in private enterprise traction designs becoming the norm on the UK network. ER as ever, ahead of the curve...

[dibber25]

8 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

And I would see all of that as only adding to its significance, as an indication of things to come! Not the fumblings of the failing once mainstream railway company motive power development; that would eventually result in private enterprise traction designs becoming the norm on the UK network. ER as ever, ahead of the curve...

If, indeed, the mainstream motive power departments did fumble and fail, then that should be reflected in the museum collection that tells the history of those railways. The national collection has private enterprise diesel locomotives - including a Type 4 from English Electric - which is far more significant in the story of diesel traction on BR than Deltic was - especially as the museum also has a production Deltic. Anyway, my original comment that the gas turbine (shell) is the only survivor from the 'black' era remains true. It's more significant than Deltic because it is earlier, it represents the 'jet age' (all the rage at the time) and a means of traction that ultimately wasn't pursued any further. Deltic's novelty was all about its engines and the body styling was based on a 20-year-old American design. Though a small class was built, they, too proved to be a traction dead-end. I see no reason why both locomotives should not be in the collection but the fact remains that Deltic wasn't chosen for any good reason, it was a gift (to a science museum not a railway museum) from a company that had finished using it. (CJL)

[Covkid]

17 hours ago, -missy- said:

That isn't a scan is it Missy ?

[Covkid]

I am guessing that when built it had just two pipes on the buffer beam. Vacuum and steam.  Since then it probably received a res pipe and an air train pipe for it''s journey to and around Wien. However, even though i doubt they are, the two white pipes in one of the images look a little like the old Austrian / Swiss double vac pipes used on the narrow gauge alpine railways.

 

I am sure every knows anyway but 18000's framing was significantly altered during its time in Austria. You can see that from the sole bar down, one end is different to the other. I imagine the Rails / Heljan team know this and will work from the unmodified end of the loco.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Gloss black and silver version duly ordered, because as evry fule nose, it was preserved in full working order and was being used on enthusiast specials into the 1960/70's.

 

Mike.

[-missy-]

1 hour ago, Covkid said:

That isn't a scan is it Missy ?

 

Yes it is. Its a 3D model generated from a laser scan.

 

M.

[No Decorum]

On 12/11/2019 at 19:22, atom3624 said:

There was mention of whether or not it would be all-wheel-drive.

 

Answered with Heljan's historic A1A powered configurations for Co-Co's anyway.

 

There is the other consideration, if this is to be as accurate as required and expected nowadays, the 'trailing' wheels are smaller than the main drivers.

Mains are 4' 0.25", and the centre 'trailing' wheels are 3' 2".

 

Trying to synchronise that could be difficult!

 

Al.

If you take a look at the CADs on this page, you should be reassured.

https://railsofsheffield.com/products/38603/Heljan-1800-oo-gauge-br-gas-turbine-18000-class-locomotive-br-gloss-black-with-silver-trim