The title says it all!
The British freight company GB Railfreight has hired a preserved Deltic diesel locomotive to help move freight in the north east of England.
This link is to a BBC News item tells more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13592652
Andy
This is incredible. You cannot imagine how much joy I have at this news! Almost like getting a GG-1 or an EF-4 (ex Virginian electric) back in serviece. I think it was 1976 (the year of the Queen's Jubilee, and I've discussed my meeting her in Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, some year earlier) that I helped organize an ERA tour to England, Scotland, and Wales. I and one other fan had a cab ride in a Deltic not stop from London to Newcastle, with steady running at 100mph. The Deltics were replaced by the East Coast electrification, and we saw the catenary supports already in place.
This is the link to the support website for 55022, D9000 Royal Scots Grey.
http://royalscotsgrey.com/index.php
I'm sure all the UK diesel experts knew about this when the contract was running. According to the news on the website it was on a 4 week contract to GB Railfreight. Normally she is used for excursions on the mainline and preservation lines in the UK. Today is a public holiday here in the UK which is why the article made the BBC Breakfast news programme.
Certainly the current owners have done a suberb restoration job.
Being an old timer myself, it always cheers me up to hear or see a retired loco put back in revenue service! Much better than to see them relegated to pulling museum trains.
Now just imagine if they started borrowing some preserved steam locomotives from the Heritage Railways! Wouldn't THAT be something! I could happen. Sometimes I think the Brit railroaders have a bit more imagination and "sense of fun" than our own do.
Getting stopped at a grade crossing would make for a far more pleasurable experience even for folks that don't care for trains!
baberuth73 Being an old timer myself, it always cheers me up to hear or see a retired loco put back in revenue service! Much better than to see them relegated to pulling museum trains.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/8428097.stm
Link is to a Dec 2009 story by BBC of a rescue of stranded passengers by the A1 Pacific "Tornado"
And don't forget the story from some time back of the UP's 844 bringing in a UP freight that had stopped due to engine failure in its diesels out on the line.
In Dec 2010 there was a story that was posted in a Thread her (?) IIRC. It was from Sweden and was about the Swedish Railway bring out Class Da Electric Locomotive from its home in the Swedish Railway Museum to plow snow.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2650539/posts {Scroll down to:}
"Sweden deploys vintage trains to battle snow"
Is this really such a great idea?
Suppose you had a 50-year old Classic Automobile that you lovingly restored and drive very sparingly, mainly for exhibition and show purposes, and some taxi cab company came along and said, "Yo, love that Studebaker of yours, mind if we lease it from you for our taxi fleet because we are a bit short of cabs right now"?
My understanding is that Diesels in light-duty service (as switch engines, on occasional excursion trips) last just about forever, just as if you can keep an old car without rusting through and only "drove it to church and back on Sunday" would do the same. But if you put a lot of mainline freight-service miles on the thing, where the prime mover is operated in Run 8 (do they call it that in England?) for hours on end, there is a reason that mainline Diesels get scrapped after about 20 years of hard service.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
The situation here in the UK is not as extreme as in the US. Freight trains are much shorter and lighter than the trains I remember seeing charging through the California desert past Lancaster back in the 70's.
The railway traffic on the UK network is mainly passenger; freight trains have to run to fit in with the schedule of the passenger trains. This is the opposite of what seems to be the situation in the US where the passenger trains have to fit in around the freight trains. The physical rail network is a not for profit Government owned company; the trains are run by companies. When any mainline certified heritage locomotive runs on the UK mainline it will have to have a driver from one of these companies,
The tank train shown in the BBC film will be the whole train; the train weight and distances involved are more like a US short line than a class 1 unit coal train. We don't have drag freights over here so there will be less running at full power.
55022 is fully certified for main line passenger use and there are a number of passenger excursions scheduled for her during the year. I suspect this short term contract has been very useful to the groups finances to keep her running along with their other Deltic which is being restored for heritage line use. Certainly it is unusual even in a country that built a brand new mainline steam loco, Tornado.
The Deltic was peculiar for it's triangle cross section engine type – could maybe have a unique sound – however I never heard one . It’s a long time since the Deltics bumped Stanier , Gresley and Peppercorn Pacifics from express service . Paul , there is a point in what you remarked , yet it’s just another turn of the age-old question ‘to keep the cake or eat it?’ I trust , the owners will have a close look at protecting the engine from undue stress . So , engines are built to run – if they found some useful work to do , why not ? It sure adds color to present day railway scene !
The new built Tornado is really a replica Peppercorn A1 Pacific . From my engineering standpoint , I think it’s unfortunate the opportunity was missed to improve design , with some 50 years of progress in technology since the end of steam locomotive construction a lot could have been incorporated without taking any risk – just by applying some improvements known from the age of steam plus some good common sense engineering using metallurgy and construction technology since introduced . I mean , just take a look at those vintage frames , axle boxes , boiler firebox , tubes and superheater designs that became out dated with the advent of the British Railways standard types – and that was over half a century ago ! Especially for superheater design there would have been a few valuable and absolutely proven features to adapt from DR standard types design – it was all there to be picked up for free , from trackside , if you pardon my expression .
I understand , though , this was a joint effort and with many people having a say , probably agreement could only be reached to correct steam scrapping and resurrect a ‘missing link’ between Gresley and Riddles by re-building this Peppercorn Pacific .
That said , my best wishes for 55022 as well as for Tornado for lots of inspiring trips , miles on end of trouble free performance and lasting public success !
Below, you find links to Tornado on BBC topgear’s race to the north – steam against XK 120 and Black Shadow
(some parts work , some not – don’t worry , be happy)
Regards
Juniatha
Race against LNER Scotsman Tornado from London - Edinborough - part 1,3,4,5
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-1?VideoBrowserMode=categories&VideoCategory=Challenges http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-3 http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-4 http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-5
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-1?VideoBrowserMode=categories&VideoCategory=Challenges
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-3
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-4
http://www.topgear.com/uk/videos/train-race-part-5
Some parts of this video may work on the Top Gear Australia site!
There must be something about opposed-piston designs that the world's navies like. The OP engine in the United States and the Deltic engine in the UK both seemed to have found their initial service in naval service.
Juniatha, I believe that there was a significant design change made to Tornado's boiler. It was built with a welded boiler rather than the original rivetted design. This was done to given a longer life especially with the less frequent firings that steam engines now get compared to when they were 'working'.
Although if I remember correctly the boiler had to be returned to its manufacturers in Germany to have repairs carried out recently.
Certainly it was a remarkable achievement to build a mainline certified steam locomotive from plans.
Yes , the boiler was made by Meiningen , ex Deutsche Reichsbahn main steam loco shop . They weld about any boiler , I think they like to weld just next to everything . The boiler design was left practically unchanged , though , except of course for replacing overlapping with butt-joint with the change from riveting to welding , thus eliminating staggered diameter boiler segments . What design changes I have in mind rather were a different tubes layout , superheater layout , a wider water leg between inner and out firebox and a different foundation ring . The one that Meiningen makes is composed of a flat element welded to the side plates .
Vital internal changes could have benefited axle boxes , frames layout , brake layout , and probably more (besides drawings in books , I can only judge from what I had seen at one trip on an excursion with an LNER Pacific , for more details I would have to look at the drawings) .
The boiler had been back in Meiningen already ? ok , ya … oh-no , I’ll leave it to those having to deal with it to comment on it , but I guess they won’t .
= J=
I would reason that the Tornado project was to build new an existing design whereas the David Wardale 5AT project is to make all of the suggested design improvements to boiler, superheater, steam passages, and so on.
Where the 5AT project is at right now in terms of funding I don't know, but the Tornado is on the rails. The 5AT is necessarily a slower development based on the need to do the engineering work on what is a new design, even if it is somewhat "conventional" not something radical such as turbines-condensors-water tube boiler-what-have-you.
I'm replying to agree with both Paul and Juniatha and to extend the thread a little. Paul, the Tornado's number identifies it as the next in the Peppercorn A1 class and signifies that the builders and backers envisioned returning to those glorious days of yesteryear. So you were right on the money when you explained the project's origins.
Juniatha, I agree that an opportunity was lost, but you probably already know how difficult it is to raise money for a non-traditional exploration of a traditional and usually irrationally beloved technology. For example, only if you race airplanes and have bags of money of your own can you take a P-51 Mustang and "hot it up". Otherwise, you incur the wrath of legions of warbird fans.
In sum, had the team that built the Tornado for much more money than originally planned gone to potential angels and said "It will look like a Peppercorn on the outside - sort of - but it will have various bulges and boxes to improve its efficiency", the idea would still be languishing in the same limbo as is the 5at.
Going further along the lines of innovation:
I am reading an article in Spanish about a Cuban experiment in which they've taken sugar cane leftovers, processed it into combustible briquettes, and tested it in a stationary steam engine.[It's not the first time such fuel experiments have been conducted.] As I read, I think of the predictions that oil fuel will be scarcer and more expensive. And I wonder if certain applications - like agricultural or industrial sites - could use narrow-gauge railroads with small briquette-burning steam locomotives instead of trucks.
But even in that setting, we'd be pressed to get funds to build the right kind of steam locomotive if we were to ask heritage-minded deep pockets. Maybe Richard Branson would put aside some of his space-tourism money?
Sugar-cane waste has been used for firing boilers for years, I's called "bagasse" It's some kind of agricultural waste, anyway and used mostly in southern Pacific island locations. When I worked for The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance company years ago, the forms we had to fill out about a new insured location asked if the fuel was oil, gas, coal or bagasse. I never ran into one. Last year I was in the cab of the Tornado- it's full of computer equipment and the headlights are LEDs. I'll be seeing it again this July when I'm back over there when it's pulling an excursion from King's Cross to Kidderminster, where the Severn Valley is. Real ale on the train, too!
Got to see a fleet of bagasse-burners in the Philippines some years ago - bunch of little saddle tank locos (that looked as if they'd been, "Rid hard and put away wet") pulling what looked like haystacks on flat cars. The same mill had a `built for Russia but never delivered' 2-6-6-2 with a tall extension stack rigged to provide steam for the fixed machinery. Gauge was 3'6".
Since the money all seems to come from folks who (mis) remember `The Good Old Days,' don't hold your breaths waiting for any 21st century steam locomotive designs to start burnishing the rails.
Chuck
Hi all
Unfortunately I have no detailed information as to which components were actually looked at in the A1 project , however , it seems there definitely were some points considered for changes at least in the initial stages of the project . It seems , they had even gathered a proposal by L D Porta , if anyone could confirm this or , even better provide information on it ?
Just to get the right picture : Knowing what can be done in rebuilding historic machines , my own interpretation of ironing out a few known design flaws doesn’t mean anything near building a radically new thing that looks like nothing before . Principally , you wouldn’t have to touch a thing in external appearance to apply some minor yet important improvements to components such as axle boxes and bearings or inner frames structure , not to mention boiler inner layout .
That sort of ‘sensitive treatment’ is wide spread in restoration of historic planes , sail ships and cars , if they are destined for running . Just one of many examples : No lovers of historic Jaguars are keen on experiencing historic thrills of pistons freezing up in the middle of a fine run and that’s why re-building old Jag straight six engines they apply sensible changes get engines to run as reliable as they never did when the E-Type was turned out .
In the process of the A1 project , any pending decision between (a) applying minor (!) improvements to inner components without (!) changing external appearance – such as I had mentioned earlier – and (b) straight reconstruction along historical drawings somehow seems to have been ‘solved by omission’ as the financing party within the group gained more influence . They seem to have applied some slight changes or deviations from drawings , though , namely of boiler dimensions to suit welded construction (differing in the way boiler plates are joined for instance) .
That sort of Cuban bagasse firing experimentation , probably born of need to run railways on waste material as a fuel , would have nothing but nothing to do with anything I had in mind when mentioning minor inner improvements to an historic design just intended to iron out known flaws .
It always amazes me how people admiring classic machinery invariably seem to believe it was all perfect the way it was . Of course it was not – it simply couldn’t , or else there would not have been any more progress from that time on . That sounds only logic , doesn’t it ? Keeping that in the back of your mind , it shouldn’t interfere at all with acknowledging an ingenious , inspired or admirable design for what it was in its time frame ! Now , I wonder that I keep those aspects apart – rational and emotional you may call them – while many men obviously get them entangled , all the while accusing women of never being able to sort out rational sense from emotional feelings . That’s curious !
By the way , I think there is no way to get Richard Branson interested in steam – it’s neither fashionable-new or glamorous , nor is it flashing-dashing fast or flying high enough .
That said , I wish them well with their engine as it is – my words are not meant to criticize , how could I as I have had no part in what surely was difficult enough to accomplish . As always , any technical realization is but a compromise between wishful thinking and practical means .
Many miles ahead of energetic traveling for Tornado !
Having had a hard time to get that text to show up formatted as I did it and my 'subject' line appearing complete I hope to call it a day today .
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