Murican

So far for now, my idea is to have for the LNER: six P2 Mikados, six W2 4-6-4s, and eight I1 Mountains. Does that sound reasonable? That is if we have Peppercorn immediately follow Gresley and create an I2 Mountain instead?

To be fair, these engines are mostly just our imaginations at work,

I addressed that earlier with some alternate names for the Britannia Pacifics. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/14790-imaginary-locomotives/page/325/&tab=comments#comment-4505842

They can be either railroads still in existence (Union Pacific, CSX, etc), or Fallen Flags (Santa Fe, Pennsylvania Railroad, etc). Part of it is admittedly for research for some ideas I've had regarding Imaginary Locomotives.

UPDATE: Going off the point about the author names and renaming Britannias, I decided to also expand the humber of my 9P 4-6-4s. That, and I also took it upon myself to shuffle the names around a bit. Once again, bold denotes a preserved example. 91200: William Shakespeare 91201: Geoferry Chaucer 91202: Frances Hodgson Burnett 91203: Arthur Conan Doyle 91204: H. G. Wells 91205: Mark Twain - The only 9P whose namesake was not British. 91206: Charlotte Brontë 91207: George Eliot 91208: Bram Stoker 91209: Mary Shelley 91210: Rudyard Kipling 91211: John Milton 91212: Kenneth Grahame 91213: Robert Louis Stevenson 91214: Jane Austen 91215: H. Rider Haggard 91216: Alfred Tennyson 91217: George Gissing 91218: Anthony Hope 91219: Lewis Caroll 91220: Joseph Conrad 91221: William Wordsworth 91222: Robert Burns 91223: Mary Elizabeth Braddon 91224: Samuel Butler 91225: Thomas Hardy 91225: Percy Bysshe Shelley 91226: Beatrix Potter 91227: Lord Byron 91228: T. S. Eliot - The only 9P whose namesake was still alive at the time of its building. 91229: William Blake

I'm afraid I didn't. That said, I suppose we could handwave that by giving the conflicting Standard 7s new names. Plus maybe give the other author names to more 9Ps so we can have some fun with alternate Britannia names: 70002: Queen Victoria 70004: Benjamin Disraeli 70005: Richard Trevithick 70006: Charles Darwin 70030: James Cook 70031: Thomas Becket 70032: Athelstan 70033: David Lloyd George 70034: William the Conqueror 70035: Walter Raleigh

I decided to revise my Standard 9P 4-6-4s to be named after British authors instead. The fictional history being that when the decision was made, some of the "American Railroad" nameplates has already been created, so said nameplates went to several Standard Class 5 4-6-0s instead. 91200: William Shakespeare 91201: Joseph Conrad 91202: Frances Hodgson Burnett 91203: Arthur Conan Doyle 91204: H. G. Wells 91205: Mary Elizabeth Braddon 91206: Charlotte Brontë 91207: George Eliot 91208: Bram Stoker 91209: Mary Shelley 91210: Rudyard Kipling 91211: William Wordsworth 91212: Kenneth Grahame 91213: Robert Louis Stevenson 91214: Jane Austen 91215: H. Rider Haggard 91216: Samuel Butler 91217: George Gissing 91218: Anthony Hope 91219: Lewis Caroll

BTW, with my additional locomotives, this 'Wisconsin Central' new-build would be numbered 91220.

My bad. My Americanism slips again. Although, my BR Standard 4-6-4s later on in the Boyd-verse do have a connection to the Hudson name - being named after American railroads.

Admittedly I did have the idea of preserving at least two of them. Sicne the Boyd-verse preserves more steam around the world in general. Although that definitely would not be that bad an idea for a new-build, since I'm thinking the Standard 9Ps that survive would all be stuffed and mounted.

Here's a new idea I had based on something I saw on DeviantArt. After Stanier has success with his "Admiral" 9P 4-6-4s in the 1930s, BR builds their own class of Hudsons that essentially are Stanier 9Ps with typical BR Standard characteristics. What makes the class unique is being named after various American railroads, an idea presented to Riddles derived from the "Hudson" name used for most 4-6-4 engines. These names, like the ones on the 6MT and 7 Pacifics, are on plaques on the smoke deflectors. 91200: United States Railroads 91201: New Haven 91202: Pennsylvania 91203: Southern 91204: Union Pacific 91205: Atlantic Coast Line 91206: Illinois Central 91207: Santa Fe 91208: New York Central 91209: Baltimore & Ohio 91210: Milwaukee Road 91211: Rio Grande 91212: Chesapeake & Ohio 91213: Southern Pacific 91214: Great Northern 91215: Boston & Maine 91216: Louisville & Nashville 91217: Erie Railroad 91218: Burlington Route 91219: Western Pacific

So I've been thinking. Does anyone know what numbers the LMS "Admiral" 4-6-4s or the 4-8-4s would have had they actually been built?

If you ask me off the coast of Florida or Washington would have been good choices.

Yeah that's why if I were to recreate the Railway Series, I'd have located Sodor off the coast of Blackpool. It allows Sodor enough room to be the kind of big island that justifies a railway network that large.

Here are my ideas for the BR Classification of the various big steamers I've discussed so far: GWR Cathedral Class 4-8-0: 9P Southern "Merchant Navy" Class 4-8-2: 9P8F LNER Gresley I1 Class 4-8-2: 10P9F LNER Peppercorn I2 Class 4-8-2: 9P8F LMS 10MT "Conqueror" Class 4-8-4: 9P10F

Just a thought with all my LNER superpower steam ideas: if there are only six each of the P2s and I1s, how many of the W2 4-6-4s could we see? Could they possibly replace the A4s of real life as the the A3's successor?

I also thought of the GCR 2-10-2 being built first by Baldwin (the prototype), then by Baldwin in collaboration with Beyer Peacock. First it's called the 10H, then the S2 under LNER rule.

Almost forgot to mention that my reality would also see the construction of thirty Standard 2F shunters.

Now for some tidbits regarding my pre-existing ideas and how they'd interact with locomotives that were actually built. - In the early LNER days, Gresley decides to built 15 of the Robinson J11 engines in 1924 at Darlington for use in Scotland. As a result, only 20 of the later J38s are built. - Maunsell is allowed to build his S16 4-8-0 for use on heavy mineral traffic. This means not additional S15 4-6-0s, and a wider retirement of the N Class engines. - The introduction of the P2 2-8-2 and I1 4-8-2 in 1937 leads to the replacement of twelve of the A1s and A3s on express passenger trains. As a result, many are instead sent to work on the former Great Central. Even more Pacifics end up on the GCR after Peppercorn succeeds Gresley in 1941, and builds his I2 4-8-2s. - Due to the number of already existing Pacifics, Stanier only builds fifteen of his 9P "Admiral" 4-6-4 designs. All survive into BR days, and naturally a few are preserved. - Stanier's creation of 10MT 4-8-4 initially does not affect the 8Fs. However, the LMS ultimately sells off more 8Fs than real life due to the surplus that the twenty-strong 10MT class created. Additionally, Stanier also considers building more 4-8-0s are his rebuild of the Lemon 9F 4-8-0. - Peppercorn taking over from Gresley in 1941 means that the Peppercorn A1 rebuilds arrive earlier. However, the Peppercorn A2s are now the Peppercorn I2s. - Due to the success of Colliet's "Cathedral" 4-8-0s, the GWR board allowed Hawksworth to design his County Class as another 4-8-0 class. Also in this reality, the 4-8-0 is known as the "Norfolk" in tribute to the Norfolk & Western in America. - Peppercorn's proposed 4-8-4 is built for the LNER in 1946 as the M3 Class (formerly used by the retired 0-6-4Ts). However, the LNER board orders runs two because they're partial to the six I1 class and 4-8-2s. - Bulleid's Merchant Navy Class being 4-8-2s is gone through thanks to a longer disagreement with the Southern's board. - Thanks to Riddles studying the Gresley V4s, the BR Standard 4MTs are 2-6-2s instead of 4-6-0s, and are especially common on fast goods trains, like the container trains that become more common across the world earlier than real life. (my own US railroad ideas have container trains by 1951). - Twelve Caprotti/Crosti BR 5MTs are built, but are not replicated.

Not counting GER or GCR engines, that is.

Another lner.info picture I say showed a model of the Peppercorn 4-8-2 plan that'd resemble Cock o' The North. I'd personally make my idea for the Peppercorn Mountains (The I2) use that as well, or go for the look of the Pacifics he did in real life.

For the record, I imagined the LNER Gresley T2 being made to resemble this Deviantart mock-up. Since what little I remember seeing says the engine resembled a GWR Night Owl somewhat. While another idea for a 2-8-0 I found on lner.info described said engine as being for West Highland Line - I'd personally make it a general freight engine for the entire LNER network.

True, but what about the A3s and A4s thereafter? Would there still be room for them somewhere on the LNER?

Was thinking. How many LNER W2 4-6-4s could we theoretically see being built? Assuming the same number of A4s are built and there are still 6 of the Gresley 4-8-2s. Also, if Peppercorn takes over in 1941 and not Thompson, could we see his proposed 4-8-2s instead of the Peppercorn Pacifics? Or maybe more B17s instead of the Thompson 4-6-0s?