2750Papyrus

Having been away for a few days, I have missed several polls! 

Though I love the looks of the B17, I would have had to vote for the N2, probably the "most seen" class of locomotive when I was young.  I attended the unveiling of the SNG statue a few years ago and was able to spend some time on the footplate of the preserved N2 and could quite imagine myself driving or firing it up from Stroud Green to Crouch End!  

For the current poll, whilst I like the looks and concept of the V4 and appreciate the contribution of the K3s (and K2s) over many years, my choice has to be the V2, surely one of the best all-round UK locomotive designs.

10 hours ago, 31A said:

 

There's a good description of working such a train out of King's Cross in the book "2750 Legend of a Locomotive" (not a book many would have I imagine!), not in wartime, but following a derailment in the loco yard they decide to combine the 4.45pm Newcastle and 5pm Leeds trains to make a 24 coach train, rather than cancel one.  They drew one out of Platform 10 into the tunnel and set it back onto the other train (which is said to be in 12 which is odd as it would have been in the suburban station - may be artistic licence!); then the description covers how the right away is relayed to the train engine inside the tunnel and the train is banked out by the ECS J52.  It's a fictional book but pretty close to reality and written by a railwayman, so it is probably based on a real experience.

 

I believe it has been reprinted in paper back format.  A book which did most to stimulate my interest in railways and steam trains.

A biography of the author, Henry Charles Webster, was written and published a few years ago and is worth reading.

The brochure of my youth showed a streamlined Coronation, so that has to be my choice.

My vote goes to the original MN.  I think I've mentioned before the colour brochure of express locos I had as a child, the SR representative being Channel Packet, which made a great impression with its air-smoothed casing. 

Subsequently, I served my student apprenticeship with the firm which worked with the SR on the chain drive for the valve gear, innovative if ultimately replaced.  Possibly the best boiler design fitted to a British engine, it's a shame that Bulleid never got the chance to fit his first choice valve gear, which I believe would have been similar to that eventually fitted to Duke of Gloucester.

13 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

As I understand it, attempted to demonstrate that similar performance could be achieved with existing equipment, the LNER being too impoverished to afford such fancy new technology.

As I understand, the standard of accommodation compared to LNER coaches and the lack of catering facilities were major considerations.

20 hours ago, SD85 said:

 

I think I remember reading in the book 'Under 10 CMEs' by E.A. Langridge that the L&YR was the most technologically advanced constituent of the LMS when it came to locomotive design

By co-incidence, I ordered both volumes of this work from Stenlake Publishing yesterday morning; they arrived today!

Mrs 2750 says Spring has arrived - 8 swallows on the telephone wires opposite the kitchen.

I think my choice has to be guided by the selection criterion. 

10000/10001 (I saw them at Euston when I was young) was probably the most influential design, but there were only 2 of them. 

The class 4 eventually performed well, was built in considerable numbers and was fairly widespread.  So in terms of a successful class, it has to have my nomination.

I thought it was a Lennon quote in a radio interview on one of the early US tours?

I hadn't realised Cartazzi worked for the GWR.  Was this design ever patented?

Given Thompson's apparent and laudable objectives to improve availability and maintainability, I find his choice of the inside cylindered J11 as a standard goods loco to be curious.  His rebuilding of a D49 with two inside cylinders appears more so and the experiment was not multiplied.  Apparently, he also earlier tried to persuade Gresley to rebuild the ex North Eastern pacifics (class A2) with two inside cylinders.

1 hour ago, Willie Whizz said:

 

His view was that, typically, management consultants get about 70% of their ideas and solutions by talking to a Company's own staff.  They already know most of the problems, and they already have a pretty good idea of how they ought to be fixed

 

 

It used to be said that a consultant was a man who borrowed your watch to tell you the time.

I missed the "passenger" qualifier in yesterday's poll, so can vote J6 two days running!

So many of my favourite locos to choose from, the Atlantics, D series 4-4-0s, the N1 and C12 tanks, the Long Toms.  However, my choice has to be one of his last designs, the numerous and long-lived  J6 0-6-0. 

Surely a RTR model can't be too much to ask for?

I'm not sure now what we're basing our nominations on.  If it is success based, then maybe a numerous, long lived class deserves our recognition more than a glamorous but shorter lived class.  So my nomination goes to the 812 class of 0-6-0, of which there were 96, with an honourable mention of his 3F tank engine (147 off). 

20 minutes ago, FarrMan said:

Who is this Gay Abandon, and what are you too getting up to?

 

Lloyd

 A better (or more understandable) name for a racehorse than Gay Crusader?

Whilst respecting the claims of some of the 0-6-0 classes, I am drawn to the looks of the T9.

50 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

We don't want to know the diagnosis of your visit to the clinic tucked away behind the rest of the hospital

That would be a very singular infection.

Has to be the Crab.

My Stirling nomination will be rather vague in terms of class designation, but a narrative description would be "standard goods". 

The first of these were built in 1867 and the design was successively developed by Stirling, Ivatt and Gresley; a total of 205 Stirling pattern (domeless boilers) had been built by 1896 whilst Ivatt added 133 more using a domed boiler. 

The later rebuilds became LNER classes J3 and J4 and some survived into BR days, though how I'm not sure how much Stirling content remained by then!

I don't know as much about Bowen-Cooke or LNWR locos in general as I should.  I do have a reprint of his 1894 book "British Locomotives 1894" but that was published before he got the top job.

In his “West Coast 4-6-0s at Work”, C P W Atkins claims George the Fifth to be “by common consent one of the most outstanding pre-1914 British steam locomotive designs”. 

Checking my 1944 ABC I find that one of the survivors possessed a name with a silent P (as in swimming bath).  So Ptarmigan confirms my choice of the George Vs for today’s poll.

20 hours ago, D9001 said:

I am seriously beginning to think that I may not live long enough to receive my Hush Hush. I’m 61 for God’s sake get a move on! 

I have had this feeling about the Bachmann V2 for several years now.........

M7 for me, please, long-lived honest little loco.

57 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

Yes, indeed, a rather more comprehensive list to choose from this time round.

 

I'm going to choose the 'R' class 4-4-0, which became the D20.

 

A pretty decent loco by all accounts and lasted well into BR days. Even better, they ran on the Wensleydale route and into Garsdale until 1954 so I can have one on the layout. Even better still - I've already got one! Albeit in LNER livery so needs a makeover but, together with a G5, will be a rather nice ex-NER/LNER counterpoint to the LMR stuff.

Mmm... to quote Sidney Weighell, talking about the Wensleydale branch, "Those D20s were terrible locos, really bad riders. They used to roll about."