Peterborough North

[mullie]

L1 for me today.

 

Martyn

[jollysmart]

Has to be the A2/3 for me, the pity about Thompson was that times and resources were against him but he remains an enigma even to the present time and he didn't manage to build just one great class of passenger locomotive even though some managed to be there at the end of steam..

[Mallard60022]

Come on, the L1s were crap. The A2 rebuilds weren't his design, they were rebuilds of another design and they were not much cop despite me liking them. So if the B1 is mixed traffic , OK.

I withdraw my B1 vote and the L1 is his least bad design, not most successful.

P.S. I really liked the look of the rebuilt A2/3s, but.....................

[thegreenhowards]

I’d say that the A2/3s were pretty successful, powerful certainly if not overly reliable. Not as good as the A1s but quite possibly better than the A2s, especially the single chimney versions of the latter. However, arguably they were a mixed traffic design which leaves the A1/1 and the L1s in the passenger category. On that basis I’ll go with the L1s, but only as ‘least worst’.

[great northern]

Looking at official power ratings, all the Pacifics were given a rating for both passenger and goods work. A4 and A1 8P 6F, A3 7P 6F, A2/1 7P 6F andA2/2 and A2/3 8P 7F. The B1s , however, were rated 5MT. And the L1? 4MT folks.

 

That's why I differentiated, or tried to, as otherwise arguably even an A4 could be described as a mixed traffic design. Prime purpose is surely what matters.

 

As to whether A2s were Thompson's design, I would say yes. The poor P2s were so rebuilt as to be something almost completely different, the A2/1's were then a step on the way to the A2/3, which were new build and Thompson's own.

 

And when did I blow anyone up? I am completely harmless. Well, almost.

 

Amended votes will be allowed until 9.30 am tomorrow. Quite good fun, this.

[great northern]

The late afternoon Welwyn Garden City to Colwick Class D is the next to appear, a job for one of those Standard 5s that got foisted on KX for a short while.

 

 

 

 

[Denbridge]

39 minutes ago, great northern said:

Looking at official power ratings, all the Pacifics were given a rating for both passenger and goods work. A4 and A1 8P 6F, A3 7P 6F, A2/1 7P 6F andA2/2 and A2/3 8P 7F. The B1s , however, were rated 5MT. And the L1? 4MT folks.

 

That's why I differentiated, or tried to, as otherwise arguably even an A4 could be described as a mixed traffic design. Prime purpose is surely what matters.

 

As to whether A2s were Thompson's design, I would say yes. The poor P2s were so rebuilt as to be something almost completely different, the A2/1's were then a step on the way to the A2/3, which were new build and Thompson's own.

 

And when did I blow anyone up? I am completely harmless. Well, almost.

 

Amended votes will be allowed until 9.30 am tomorrow. Quite good fun, this.

Apologies. In that case I'll abstain, since there wasnt a decent Thompson passenger engine 

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

I'll follow Clive's lead and go with the B12/3.

 

manna

[Woodcock29]

A2/3

Andrew

[drmditch]

Agree with the above, B12/3 please.
(Weren't the L1s conceived as an MT locomotives?)

[Clive Mortimore]

All you geezers wanting nominate the B1, why not go for the B2, in fact apart from the rebuilt Great Northern the B2s were his only class of pure passenger locos.

 

I do hope I can still get away with a rebuilt 1500.

[great northern]

Before we become any further mired in controversy, here is a nice picture of a J6 bringing in the two coach 4.45pm from Grantham.

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

If A2/3s are in this category then I’ll change to them. However, I would query whether their primary purpose was passenger as I think they spent more of their time on fast goods workings.

 

As for B2s, I agree with Clive that they were probably the nearest Thompson got to a pure passenger design....but hardly a success as despite spending all the money on the conversion they didn’t outlast the B17s.

[great northern]

54 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

If A2/3s are in this category then I’ll change to them. However, I would query whether their primary purpose was passenger as I think they spent more of their time on fast goods workings.

 

As for B2s, I agree with Clive that they were probably the nearest Thompson got to a pure passenger design....but hardly a success as despite spending all the money on the conversion they didn’t outlast the B17s.

I agree that the Thompson A2 variants eventually seemed to spend a lot of time on goods workings or passenger trips which would not have stretched the capabilities of a B1, but I doubt that was Thompsons original intention. The whole thing is further complicated by the fact that by this time there was a general desire to make locomotives more versatile, rather than pinning them to a certain type of duty.

 

As to the B2s, were they not really a B17 with the 100A boiler? I agree they were no improvement. Going back to my trusty Ian Allans, I find that the original B17s were rated 4MT, whereas the B17/6 with B1 boiler and the B2 were rated 5P4F, which would mean, I think, that they were considered to be predominantly passenger engines.

[great northern]

9 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

All you geezers wanting nominate the B1, why not go for the B2, in fact apart from the rebuilt Great Northern the B2s were his only class of pure passenger locos.

 

I do hope I can still get away with a rebuilt 1500.

You did Clive. It was quite a major rebuild, and produced a locomotive which was very useful and well regarded for another 20 years.

[great northern]

Right, here we go. Oh the feeling of power, and being able to change the rules as we go along.

 

Seriously though, the B1 and L1 were classes as mixed traffic locomotives, and have been excluded from this poll. Of the remaining nominations which I accepted, A2/3 got 8 votes, with B12/3 next with 3. My recollection of the times is that the A2/3s were seen on top express work considerably more often than A2/1 or A2/2. Great Northern was usually on one specific duty, a heavy train, but not a demanding schedule. When it was at Grantham for some years it carried a plaque in the cab designating it as Grantham passenger pilot.

 

For those whose votes were cruelly denied, today we will do a search for the most successful Thompson mixed traffic design. It is a two horse race, as the only two classes designated MT were the B1 and the L1.

[jollysmart]

Has to be the B1 for me, let the discussion begin.

[LNER4479]

Well, for me, that really is a 'no contest'. But to give the LN(ER) equivalent of the Stanier Black 5 its day in the sun then it has to be the B1. Probably (almost) as good as the Black 5 (didn't it come out ahead of the Black 5 in the 1948 exchanges ... although I don't think the ex-LMS crowd offered up one of their best, for some inexplicable reason) and some badly needed 'go-anywhere' medium power standardisation, equally at home rattling a fish train towards the capital or wandering around ex-GNSR lines in the north east of Scotland.

 

ET's one real 'success'.

Edited April 14, 2021 by LNER4479

[Sandhole]

Has to be B1.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

Can I nominate a third mixed traffic class, the B16/3, where Mr T modified/updated his Father-in-Law's wonderful design.

[Sandhole]

Just now, Clive Mortimore said:

Can I nominate a third mixed traffic class, the B16/3, where Mr T modified/updated his Father-in-Law's wonderful design.

Not a bad point Clive.

[Market65]

This is quite straightforward, since the most successful Thompson mixed traffic locomotive has to be the B1. The L1’s were a somewhat troubled class in comparison. So the B1 it is for today’s poll.

 

Rob.

[FarrMan]

Nothing of his to match a B1.

 

Lloyd

[Welly]

Got to be the B1!

[malc60015]

B1 for me,

don’t think I saw or remember the L1. Then again I lived in the deepest midlands!
cheers malc.