Murican

I decided to revisit some of my older ideas for locomotives, and try to keep it tamer than I originally posted. Here are some ideas I have for a BR Standard 10 Mountain: Built to serve on long-distance express passenger and freight trains. Mainly intended to operate such long distances on such express freights with a minimal number of fuel, water, or maintenance stops. For instance, a theoretical run from London Euston to Glasgow would only see the engine stop for refuelling at Crewe and Carlisle. A 4-8-2 wheel arrangement, based on locomotives that'd exist in thus AU like the LNER Gresley/Peppercorn I series Mountains, Southern's Bulleid Merchant Navy 4-8-2s, and to a lesser extent the LMS Stanier 10MT 4-8-4s. Conventional 2-cylinder layout like on the other BR Standards. 5' 8'' Driving Wheels based on those of the Standard 4 4-6-0 to help reduce size to one acceptable for British loading gauge. I originally considered Standard 5 wheels, but worried that'd be pushing it. Unique in that initially these locomotives are painted in BR Express Blue, which had been mostly phased out after only a few years before. However some members of the class are repainted in Brunswick Green. Continue the naming conventions of the Standard "Britannia" Class, leading to the nickname "Ultra Britannias". Some namesakes include Benjamin Disareli, Robert Louis Stevenson, Richard Trevithick, etc. Mainly see service on the WCML, ECML, and Southern Region due to said routes being acquianted to such large locomotives in this AU. Although some rarely venture on to the Western Region - rarely being the key word here. Among the last BR locomotives to be retired, the last ending BR steam in my AU when it ends in September 1974.

Another musing that crossed my mind was what things would be like if the Padarn Railway had been preserved as it originally was instead of being turned into the Llanberis Lake Railway (I'm from the states, so forgive me if I spelled that wrong).

Well I did imagine the Bristol - Bath Green Park link staying to eventually become a suburban line for Bristol.

For example, one idea I had was for the S&DJR between Bath Green Park and Templecombe to survive as a tourist railway at the cost of the East Somerset Railway existing as it does in real life.

An offshot of some discussions I had on the imaginary locomotives thread. This time, I'm taking inspiration to write up ideas for alternate heritage railroads, and what their existence would likely mean for certain railways.

Yeah, this was what I had in mind when writing up the idea for the Standard 8 2-6-0.

Probably right. My bad.

Never mind I just realized that if my idea for a Standard 2-10-2 were to come about, the easier solution would be to just relocate 8Fs to the Western Region. Or even without said imaginary locomotives do that. To say nothing of the possibility of having a few USATC S160s stay in the UK.

Going back to the subject of Imaginary Locomotives, how well would have a Standard 8 fleet of 2-8-0s worked on the Southern Region? My idea behind them was to rememdy complaints about the 9F on the Western Region, but I figured such a locomotive would also work for the Southern Region.

UPDATE: Apparently, Devvy had written up his idea that the Severn Valley Railway is longer than in real life. The post explaining this says that since in his alternate timeline more BR lines remain open, the heritage railways that do exist are much longer. To that end, I could see the equipment of the West Somerset Railway being used on the SVR since both are Great Western lines.

An alternative scenario: would the Devon and Somerset from Dulverton to Barnstaple be viable as a tourist line as well?

For the record, this is the map that was created by Devvy, the create of the alternatehistory.com TL which I've been using as one of my main sources of inspiration (it's called 12:08 - Redux for those interested). The user basically took this map of the proposed cuts under Dr. Beeching and played around with it. The lines colored in black are the routes that Dr. Beeching tried to close, only for the lines to remain anyway. Right off the bat, I noticed that the NYMR as it exists in reality would be butterflied. However, I could see an LNER heritage group still run a few locomotives over that line. Plus, other lines are closed and taken over by heritage groups as the alternate TL goes on.

UPDATE: Apparently, the alternatehistory.com story that inspired many of my ideas here has the Taunton to Morehead line remain a part of BR. So in such an alternate time some if not most of the WSR stuff could end up at this hypothetical S&DHR. In such a scenario, I could easily see the two class 33 diesels end up on it. They do have Southern heritage after all.

I suppose in the case of the West Somerset, it does raise the question of if it could have remained a viable line under BR had someone more competent than Beeching been put in charge. I know someone on alternatehistory.com who could have an answer.

Fair enough if it pertains to real-life. But I have wondered what a S&D heritage line could be like if it were an analogue of sorts to the Great Central heritage railways in a reality where the GCR is still active as a mainline mostly for fast freight and occasional passenger trains.

Settle & Carlisle, right? If not the S&D, what other pull-up lines could be good tourist railways?

Loosely related to some of my locomotive ideas: what parts of the S&DJR would have been best as tourist lines? If I wasn't concerned abour plausibility, I'd want to go for preserving the Bath to Bournemouth line as a whole, but I want to try and maintain some degree of realism, which is also why most of my pre-nationalization ideas were based on locomotives that were actually proposed.

That's another reason I thought of my ideas for what proposed locomotives I would have bought into reality. The idea of several stronger engines doing the work of more smaller engines.

OR rather, I underestimated just how much of UK rail history would be rewritten. I mean, I already knew that UK loading gauge can be pretty unforgivingly small, but I originally thought it was fairly exaggerated to some degree.

For example, one idea I had in mind when creating the Standard 9 Mountain, beyond Gresley and Bulleid getting their chance, was for if the LMS then BR really went full-throttle with intermodal-esque concepts for their non-mineral goods traffic. Meaning trains that go far longer distances with much fewer stops.

It's a 4-6-2, but yes. Since this thread is about purely imaginary locomotives, I figured it wouldn't hurt to discuss what would need to be changed with infrastructure another day.

Even so, I still feel pleased with my ideas for locomotives. Even if I'm aware I'd need to be rewriting the history of UK rail infrastructure

Loosely related side note, but many of my ideas ARE loosely inspired by users on alternatehistory.com who are more knowledgable about British rail history than myself. As well as what I've read in this thread about locomotives that were proposed in real life, or mostly have some degree of historical plausibility.

This is probably the crux of my idea: what precedent would have been set if the Hughes 2-10-0 and GCR Baldwin 2-10-2, then later Fowler's Pacific and Mikado cousins were indeed built.

The point about the whole Race To The North is valid. Though to be fair I had imagined mechanical stoking would show up on these larger engines, even though I am aware hand-firing was more common in real life. In terms of giving my alternate timeline more plausibility, would it be possible to have some degree of loading gauge or track weight increases in certain parts of the UK rail network? Perhaps after WWI and into the 1920s? FWIW, the point of my idea for an earlier precedent for larger locomotives was formed on the idea of several large engines that were proposed indeed being built. On that note, the alternatehistory stuff I created my British steam ideas for does also involve American rail tech as well. Regardless, I do appreciate how you were more civil in your critiques. .