tythatguy1312

oh they did, the Thompson pacifics were reportedly worked fairly hard on them. Luckily the more prominent & numerous of the lot, the A2/2's and A2/3's, supposedly retained the P2's enormous reserve of power.

my stance that it counts as theft comes from the fact that I've seen AI outright mimicking the watermarks of freelance artists. Although my stance is different for corporations, theft of the artwork of active freelance artists without so much as credit to them is mildly disgusting on a moral level. Whilst that key clue isn't present on this specific case, I've seen dozens of cases of artwork like that being made by real people.

that's not real art. You're not an artist. As someone who's close friends with at least 2 real artists, it's frankly insulting seeing this wretched theft of the real artwork of numerous people. Not only that, but it's merely shoved through an algorithm and passed off as "your" "art".

I'd be hopeful for the Thompson Pacifics' ability considering their routine employment on fast freights but the wheelslip can't help them. They could give it a good try though

this is also the logic behind why freight trains cause more turbulence. As a train gets longer and requires more couplings, the gaps between the vehicles add up quickly and cause huge amounts of air resistance. On a 4 car train streamlining the front end will make a significant difference, but a 16 coach train requires between-coach streamlining to deal with the most significant parts of air resistance... which raises the question as to if an Unstreamlined A4/A1/1 could match Mallard on Stoke bank with just the Coronation rake, ignoring the massive drag causer which is the Dynamometer car.

self cleaning smokeboxes were unpopular because they didn't mesh well with 3 cylinder designs, a type which were extremely popular in the UK.

on most streamliners there was an access door in the casing which would be opened to reveal the actual Smokebox door. The J3A's had 3 of said doors, though most streamliners had 2.

They do. They typically have better structural integrity and smoother running compared to spoked wheels.

scratch that maybe we should de-streamline an A4 just to see how effective that'd be. Even then both the Peppercorn and Thompson A1's, which are both quite close to the A4's mechanically, showed less capability for speed, implying the A4's streamlining would've helped in that regard.

I think Thompson's modifications to Great Northern are a bit closer. If the A4's lost their streamlining they would've likely ended up with Witte deflectors

I'd call the designs rather visually unpleasant but I've seen what the French got up to.

I do believe something similar was tried on a GWR King, though without the central headlamp. The results are certainly a sight to behold.

you know, with all the extended complications, I'm starting to see why it was easier to just leave the streamlining on. But it is an interesting aesthetic possibility.

I imagine removing the "ribs" and painting it properly would allow it to look substantially better

ah nice, a P1 which wouldn't try to murder the poor fireman. Frankly it looks brilliant, but it does raise the question of what an unstreamlined A4/W1 would look like

I do suspect that there was room for an 0-8-0t based on the 56xx, but I can't imagine what it could do. The 56xx needed its trailing bogie for the additional stability when running through the valleys, something an 0-8-0 wouldn't have. It could work as a banking engine but the GWR didn't have enough suitable inclines to warrant a new design, and a heavy shunter is out of the question because GWR doctrine saw locomotives as large as Castles being used in the role.

to be completely honest the Jinty chassis-M7 Body combo looks far better. It certainly gives adequate space for the M7's firebox, though the cab would be rather cramped. Reminds me of how I used to privately swap bogies between models in Trainz: A New Era before they dropped the feature in Trainz 2019 onwards.

if I'm remembering correctly the LNER had roughly 60 Sentinels, though I was referring to simpler, more conventional types. They weren't exactly powerful but had enough for light jobs. That being said, Doble did have the right idea and a scaled up version of his automotive designs might've been exceedingly successful, at least as a rival to Sentinel & Atkinson Walker designs.

I understand that nobody may be active due to the holiday season (not that it matters to an Atheist like myself), but I can say that I believe vertical boilers represent an avenue avoided by the rail industry. Though undeniably underpowered and arguably resembling more coffee machines than locomotives, they did have fairly exploitable advantages (ease of maintenance being the single best of them, though they're also extremely light) which could've been used in the place of pugs. A railmotor based 0-4-0vbt might've been able to handily replace the Great Western Railway's fleet of inherited pugs

I never want to see anyone complain about the aesthetics of the Thompson pacifics ever again after laying my eyes upon that

Well I suspect we've just found a use-case for a 4-8-4t in the UK, though it would've been an absolute titan (the closest equivalent, the Derry Northerns, were merely equivalent to 2-6-4t's). I'd suggest some flavour of Garratt but I'm unaware as to any successful passenger garratts. I did successfully find a passenger garratt in the form of the TGR M Class, though I'm inclined to discount them as they had 8 cylinders yet only had the tractive effort of the LBSC Marsh H2 Atlantics post-1938.

Ah, the Derry solution

I'm not gonna attempt to picture that but the mental image of a tender so hilariously small that it makes the one behind the TGOJ M3t look like a Gresley Corridor tender is possibly the funniest idea discussed. Speaking of the most successful of the turbines, could the LNER have built a turbine-mechanical? Not saying it has to work but it could be a fun idea. Actually, thinking about this further, steam turbines are the perfect locomotives for the LNER's numerous long distance runs, though the idea of the Flying Scotsman whirring along emitting the noise of 1,000 vacuum cleaners is... peculiar.

you know what, just for fun, considering that the B12's are an evolution of the Clauds most prominent for their lengthening, imagine if that was taken to its logical conclusion

the general layout of the S69 was based on the clauds though. Yes the boiler & cylinders were enlarged and 3 sets of smaller drivers were used instead of 2 sets of larger wheels, but the boiler, cylinder & frame designs were based on the Claud Hamiltons, as well as the general layout of the design. The LNER also modified the S69's and the Clauds in ways which were exceedingly similar, though said modifications were standardised.Whilst it's inaccurate to simply call the S69's "enlarged Clauds" it's also inaccurate to call them a clean-sheet design. The biggest giveaway that they're a proper evolution is simply looking at the 2 of them together. Notice the similar boilers, running boards and general appearance.