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great northern
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The poll. This one seems to have got diverted into a discussion centred on tribal loyalties. I think in the end there are just too many awful examples to choose from. Some notable ones were offered, but only one got more than one vote, and even that got only two. Pretty Polly it is then. Totally inappropriate for an express passenger locomotive. I've always thought though that a member of the public who was knowlegeable about neither racehorses or admirals , and there would be plenty, would be more than slightly puzzled on seeing Sandwich.

 

What shall we do today? Good suggestion from Jamie, so let's look for the missing links in the ranks of preserved locomotives. What's your stand out loco or class that all got swept away in the haste to eradicate steam, which was of such significance that one or more should have been saved?  Plenty to choose from again, I think.

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For this poll, there are many notable LNER examples, and I’ll go with the K3. A missing  link if ever there was one, they did good work on both passenger and freight trains despite rough riding. 
 

Rob.

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There are too many to chose from but I am torn between a Claughton and a Thompson A2/3. Both locomotives could be regarded as a “near miss”, but on balance I’ll go for the Thompson A2/3 as they were immensely strong locomotives capable of hauling the fastest expresses but they had too many flaws.

Sandra

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30 minutes ago, great northern said:

the missing links in the ranks of preserved locomotives.

 

  • A5
  • A8
  • V4

 

Sorry, couldn't bear to drop any of those.  Consider them 1/3 of a vote each, and use it as a tie-breaker.

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It took me a while to decide, but I’ll go for a B16; I don’t mind which variant. They were more than capable mixed traffic engines and would be well suited to a lot of preserved lines and possibly mainline rail tours as well.

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There are plenty of classes of loco, steam, diesel and electric, that it would be nice to have preserved. Some of the very early locos, or the heyday of the broad gauge, and many others would be nice to see the originals still, especially in working order. I think my vote must go to the leader class from Bulleid. An interesting idea that, with more development, could have been successful. As it was, it appears to have hardly been given a chance.

 

Lloyd

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1 minute ago, FarrMan said:

There are plenty of classes of loco, steam, diesel and electric, that it would be nice to have preserved. Some of the very early locos, or the heyday of the broad gauge, and many others would be nice to see the originals still, especially in working order. I think my vote must go to the leader class from Bulleid. An interesting idea that, with more development, could have been successful. As it was, it appears to have hardly been given a chance.

 

Lloyd

Wasn't it cooking too many firemen though?

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16 minutes ago, great northern said:

Wasn't it cooking too many firemen though?

 

Gilbert

 

True, that that was why it was called the Chinese laundry, but had the casing been removed in that area, and perhaps some enlargement,  with some serious development it might have been made to work. How many ideas work straight off the drawing board?

 

Lloyd

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As a young man, my senior engineering manager was a Michael Lockhart - a Doncaster Premium Apprentice in the 1930s before war service running Army trains across the Middle East and Europe and then following OVS Bulleid to Brighton and getting involved with development and testing of the Leader. From Michael I learned to recognise that there were too many different experiments in the one locomotive and a lot didn't work as the materials science and precision machining were not sufficiently developed to support the ideas.

 

So for me the Leader may have been a brave last fling, but it didn't really LEAD anywhere.

 

Perhaps the real "Missing link" in preservation was actually never built - the proposed Riddles Class 8 MT 2-8-2?

 

Coming back to the real locos that failed to be preserved, the two I would most like to have seen are:

- Metropolitan Railway Class H 4-4-4T.

- LNER "Gresley" P1 2-8-2.

 

The locos that most standard gauge Preservation railways should concentrate on - for reasons of economy in operation and maintenance is the BR Class 4 2-6-4T. Just make sure they are all painted in different colours to make sure the paying passengers recognise that the railway has more than one engine!

 

I will now retire with tin-hat on!

 

Regards

Chris H

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31 minutes ago, Metropolitan H said:

As a young man, my senior engineering manager was a Michael Lockhart - a Doncaster Premium Apprentice in the 1930s before war service running Army trains across the Middle East and Europe and then following OVS Bulleid to Brighton and getting involved with development and testing of the Leader. From Michael I learned to recognise that there were too many different experiments in the one locomotive and a lot didn't work as the materials science and precision machining were not sufficiently developed to support the ideas.

 

So for me the Leader may have been a brave last fling, but it didn't really LEAD anywhere.

 

Perhaps the real "Missing link" in preservation was actually never built - the proposed Riddles Class 8 MT 2-8-2?

 

Coming back to the real locos that failed to be preserved, the two I would most like to have seen are:

- Metropolitan Railway Class H 4-4-4T.

- LNER "Gresley" P1 2-8-2.

 

The locos that most standard gauge Preservation railways should concentrate on - for reasons of economy in operation and maintenance is the BR Class 4 2-6-4T. Just make sure they are all painted in different colours to make sure the paying passengers recognise that the railway has more than one engine!

 

I will now retire with tin-hat on!

 

Regards

Chris H

Chris

 

Very interesting. i agree that there were too many innovations for one project, but what interesting innovations. In some ways ahead of its time, but if some of those innovations could be made to work!

 

Lloyd

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50 minutes ago, Metropolitan H said:

As a young man, my senior engineering manager was a Michael Lockhart - a Doncaster Premium Apprentice in the 1930s before war service running Army trains across the Middle East and Europe and then following OVS Bulleid to Brighton and getting involved with development and testing of the Leader. From Michael I learned to recognise that there were too many different experiments in the one locomotive and a lot didn't work as the materials science and precision machining were not sufficiently developed to support the ideas.

 

So for me the Leader may have been a brave last fling, but it didn't really LEAD anywhere.

 

Perhaps the real "Missing link" in preservation was actually never built - the proposed Riddles Class 8 MT 2-8-2?

 

Coming back to the real locos that failed to be preserved, the two I would most like to have seen are:

- Metropolitan Railway Class H 4-4-4T.

- LNER "Gresley" P1 2-8-2.

 

The locos that most standard gauge Preservation railways should concentrate on - for reasons of economy in operation and maintenance is the BR Class 4 2-6-4T. Just make sure they are all painted in different colours to make sure the paying passengers recognise that the railway has more than one engine!

 

I will now retire with tin-hat on!

 

Regards

Chris H

 

P1 was an interesting beast - massively over powered with its boosters working - I believe so much so that they couldn't find enough weight for it to haul and still stop in safety!

 

I suspect you've seen this interesting model floating around RM Web?

 

798223493_BR2-8-2.jpg.cc80a3ffda2f2a80b7f6964cdc11c8a5.jpg

Edited by bigwordsmith
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