Imaginary Locomotives

[The Johnster]

Fits nicely in here, recycling 2 old traing hymeks and a lima deltic chassis pretty simple but a good looking loco. Would have been a fantastic machine, imagine one preserved on east lancs........

 

Liking it.  I'm guessing from the grilles that it is a twin engined diesel electric, presumably putting out about 3,400hp, capable of 110mph like the class 50 whose bogies it has stolen.  Might have lost a bit of the weight advantage of the pre-stressed aluminium bodyshell as it would have had to be strengthened because of the length.  Available in a freight geared version?  Imagine that blasting a hole in the sky over Stormy coming up from Margam with the Llanwern iron ore tipplers...

[The Johnster]

Having seen Redgates photos of the Standard 2-8-2, I could well imagine a 3 cylinder (Caprotti) 4-8-2, for the west coast traffic. Oil fired, as the firing rate is probably too high, or mechanical stoker.

 

Not too many in the class, so they are named after? Well, you decide.....

 

Regards,

Ian

 

Honest politicians?  No, that would mean none in the class...

[The Johnster]

More likely that if, in the electrified ecml alternative history, if deltics had still been invented that they would have been seen on top link services on either the wcml or gwml. My bet is on the former

 

David

 

The 'Blue Deltic' prototype was used on Euston-Liverpool trains, and production Deltics would have been great on the WCML north of Crewe until the wires went up north of Weaver, as the 50s were in reality.  But the LMR was wedded to the underpowered overweight 40s on the grounds of reliability and not interested in prima donna maintenance schedules, so it probably wouldn't have happened in reality.

 

The WR might have gone for them, though, had they not got bogged down with the hydraulics; the higher power would have been appreciated when eth and aircon stock knocked the top off the 47's performance on the South Wales expresses.  Like the 50s, they shared many components with the 37s which the WR were already familiar with to an arguably greater extent than the LMR

[DavidB-AU]

Another possibility is that if Southern electrification had reached the planned extent by 1975, there could have been a need for a more modern electric locomotive or larger electro-diesels. Were there any firm designs for the proposed class 75?

 

Cheers

David

[cheesysmith]

A lot of what happened post modernisation may have been bad in the closing of small stations and goods yards, but in doing so thiis freed up line capacity and speeded up the city to city expresses. Without this, we would not have had the intercity brand and services we know today, and the railways would have been outclassed, uncompetitive and too slow to maintain the customers it needed to survive. There was a few express trains, but in reality most trains bumbled along at a slow average speed with long station stops.

[Corbs]

There's a rather good film from BR, made in 1966, putting forward the case for streamlining their services as you say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR9P-ZD0sw8

[Budgie]

The film won't show, because

 

"The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement."

[PhilJ W]

The film won't show, because

 

"The YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement."

It worked for me this morning but now I'm getting the same. Try Googling 'Youtube Forward to first principles'. You should be able to view the film but not post it.

[Corbs]

That's unfortunate, it has indeed been terminated.

[Corbs]

Another photoshop of the P2/4 (I don't know who took the base image). Can hardly wait to get started on it now.

[Wolseley]

I once seriously considered constructing a layout (and obviously the stock to go with it) set in Scotland in the late 1920s set somewhere on the Strathmore line.  It was to have been loosely based on Luncarty, but I never got beyond building some locomotives, goods stock and a few buildings.  And how is this imaginary?  Well, it was to have been set in a world where the grouping resulted in five companies, rather than four, with the Southern, GWR, LM (the S would have to come out of the title as you will see when you read on) and LNER south of the border, and the fifth company being an amalgamation of all the old Scottish companies - apparently such an arrangement was considered but was ruled out for some reason or other).  There would be one company that would dominate the others and impose its corporate style on the rest (as was the case with the big four) and, to my mind, the logical one would be the Caledonian.  Passenger engines would be blue (it's a bit like stepping into a minefield here, but I opted for the lighter shade), goods engines lined black (unchanged from Caley days).  I always thought that a Reid Atlantic would look stunning in Caley blue, but I never got around to trying it out, as the only locos I finished were genuine Caledonian ones.

[Corbs]

Sounds great, a progenitor of Scotrail

[Guest 40-something]

I once seriously considered constructing a layout (and obviously the stock to go with it) set in Scotland in the late 1920s set somewhere on the Strathmore line.  It was to have been loosely based on Luncarty, but I never got beyond building some locomotives, goods stock and a few buildings.  And how is this imaginary?  Well, it was to have been set in a world where the grouping resulted in five companies, rather than four, with the Southern, GWR, LM (the S would have to come out of the title as you will see when you read on) and LNER south of the border, and the fifth company being an amalgamation of all the old Scottish companies - apparently such an arrangement was considered but was ruled out for some reason or other).  There would be one company that would dominate the others and impose its corporate style on the rest (as was the case with the big four) and, to my mind, the logical one would be the Caledonian.  Passenger engines would be blue (it's a bit like stepping into a minefield here, but I opted for the lighter shade), goods engines lined black (unchanged from Caley days).  I always thought that a Reid Atlantic would look stunning in Caley blue, but I never got around to trying it out, as the only locos I finished were genuine Caledonian ones.

One of the members of my group has had an idea that the grouping never happened and the Caledonian continued as is.  His plan was to model the 70's with diesels in Caledonian liveries - Lined blue for passenger, lined black for mixed traffic and plain black for freight.  Great idea I think!

[Wolseley]

If I had gone ahead with it, I probably would have ended up pushing the time frame forward 5 or 10 years, but not as far as the diesel era.  That could be interesting but, for me, a bit too far removed from reality.

 

Sometimes I wish I had persisted, but that was around 40 years ago, and my railway interests have since taken a rather different direction.

[Edge]

A few years back I drew up plans for the North Western Railway's Birmingham Terminus (Birmingham St. Martins) with a whole selection of stock from the 'Locomotives that Never Were' book running in pre-grouping, Grouping and BR liveries. The idea never got off the ground, but i'm wondering if I should have another go at it

[Zomboid]

One of the members of my group has had an idea that the grouping never happened and the Caledonian continued as is. His plan was to model the 70's with diesels in Caledonian liveries - Lined blue for passenger, lined black for mixed traffic and plain black for freight. Great idea I think!

I find it hard to believe that a company would, in the 1970s, still have a corporate identity unchanged from the 1920s.

I like the idea, but I'd be imagining the updated corporate image that they'd use. (The current GWR is actually probably quite a good interpretation of a pre 1948 company).

[Guest 40-something]

I find it hard to believe that a company would, in the 1970s, still have a corporate identity unchanged from the 1920s.

I like the idea, but I'd be imagining the updated corporate image that they'd use. (The current GWR is actually probably quite a good interpretation of a pre 1948 company).

He'd imagined a livery using the same colour schemes but with simplified lining.  Im tempted to paint up some stock to see how it would look!

Edited January 1, 2017 by 40-something

[BlueLightning]

About to embark on a project building an imaginary 19th century industrial loco. Went through a couple of designs on my layout thread, thought I would upload the final design here as well. It is originally based on a Manning Wardle M Class adapted to fit on a chassis I had, it then underwent some alterations to shorten it and move the wheels forward, but still looks like a Manning Wardle.

 

Gary

[Corbs]

It has begun.....

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82465-cobbling-spare-parts-together-lner-p24/page-5

 

[Northroader]

Talking of steam Railways updating corporate indentity, one good example was the prewar Irish Great Southern railway (black engines, lake coaches) merging with the Dublin buses to make C.I.E. with dark grey locos and coaches in the bus livery, dark green with light green bands at midriff and cantrail heights. What if an independant Scottish rail company had merged with Glasgow buses?

[Zomboid]

If grouping hadn't occurred in 1923, there would no doubt have been some mergers (I bet the GWR would have wound up being what it was anyhow). Maybe the Midland and GCR would have merged, maybe the LSWR would have taken over the GWR... Perhaps the companies would have developed a corporate image when they dieselised (e.g. Union Pacific's yellow). Probably mergers would have resulted in the previous constituents' images being wholly replaced, whilst a takeover would be what the word suggests.

[richard i]

The GCR,GNR and GER were looking at at least working much more closely together. I doubt the GCR and Midland would join together as they were strong rivals, I see mergers of complimentary rather than competitive companies.

[Devo63]

One of the original proposals for grouping saw the GCR being linked in with the GWR. I've always wondered what a 'Director' fitted with a Swindon designed boiler would have looked like and would they have survived the culling of large wheeled 4-4-0's in the late 20's and early 30's? Better yet a Robinson 8D 4-4-2 getting the full Swindon treatment! (Living way down on the other side of the planet I may not need to go into hiding to avoid the wrath of the Great Central enforcers)

 

Dave R.

[AMJ]

How about European train service with a DB Ice running on the GCR to Sheffield and Manchester. The loading gauge is the Berne on GCR.

 

Who needs HS2 or HS3 as this will cover both.

 

I'd envisage the LNER had kept the line as the high speed link to Yorkshire.

[Wolseley]

OK, so I'm going a bit off topic, but the speculation above as to what would happen if you crossed a GWR locomotive with something else brought to mind the NSW NN (later C35) class designed by E E Lucy, an ex GWR man who arrived in Sydney to take up a position in a railway system very strongly influenced by LNWR practice:

 

 

Unfortunately I was unable to find a suitable photo of the real thing that showed the (almost) GWR appearance of the unrebuilt engines.  Try to imagine it without the steam dome and with a six wheel tender instead of a bogie one.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Wolseley