kgbw49 Apparently the A1 Trust chaps are getting cracking on preliminary work for the V4 2-6-2 that is next in line for building after P-2 2007 Prince of Wales is completed. https://www.a1steam.com/2018/01/29/first-components-acquired-new-gresley-class-v4/
Apparently the A1 Trust chaps are getting cracking on preliminary work for the V4 2-6-2 that is next in line for building after P-2 2007 Prince of Wales is completed.
https://www.a1steam.com/2018/01/29/first-components-acquired-new-gresley-class-v4/
Tornado has had a failure of its inside valve gear.
https://www.a1steam.com/category/news/
Apparently the piston valve seized causing the combination lever to fail.
The bent combination lever can be seen lying on the track at the feet of a track worker (or crewman).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00N0Y2UCuuo&time_continue=40...
Peter
M636CThe bent combination lever can be seen lying on the track at the feet of a track worker (or crewman).
Who is standing in the gauge talking on his phone. I know, different country, but still...
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Here is a link to 27 new build steam projects in the United Kingdom.
Yes, 27!
Several on the list have been completed, but it is an amazing list nonetheless!
https://newbuildsteam.com/the-projects/
Note that many of these proposals are for relatively small locomotives, nothing remotely close to the size of an NKP Berkshire, much less a T1. I also suspect that most of these proposals will die for lack of financing.
True they are much smaller locomotives. The clearances and the loading gauge are much more restrictive than here in North America.
At the same time, the population base of the UK is much smaller, so the financial base from which to raise funds is much smaller.
So if even 40% of these new builds become reality, that will be an amazing group of accomplishments indeed.
What those men and women are achieving over there is definitely deserving of a tip o’ the hat!
Here is a 4-6-0 that is getting very close:
http://www.6880.co.uk/news/
And a 2-6-2T:
http://www.82045.org.uk/news/82045_news-aug18.html
P2 is shaping up very rapidly. Scroll down on the attached link to see the latest steam locomotive to be brought back from extinction.
https://www.p2steam.com/
I wonder how long it will be before they start referring to this unit as ‘Double O Seven” for a nickname? After all, it does have a license to thrill.
Note that they still need the boiler but the boiler cladding is fitted so it is possible to start seeing the final shape of the unit.
Nifty video on 2007’s first move on its own wheels:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MK3BuFb2Qkk&time_continue=87
Nifty Indeed! I've said it before but those Limeys do not screw around! Maybe they can build a Dreyfus NYC Hudson for us if we ask nice?
54light15 Nifty Indeed! I've said it before but those Limeys do not screw around! Maybe they can build a Dreyfus NYC Hudson for us if we ask nice?
Meiningen did build the boiler for the Tornado, there were probelms with it that they did sort out. That narrow-gauge 2-8-2 was destined for the Mollibahn, I was at Meiningen during an open house a few years ago when they were building it. It was built of welded plates as I recall. If you've never been to Meiningen, go! It's in September every year and it's paradise! I have got to get back there!
This link goes to an incredible 3D tour of Darlington Locomotive Works where the P2 2007 Prince of Wales is being assembled.
https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=et26HqjU4iV
It would be something to see Cheyenne this way! This group really has their act together!
Link to the latest update from the group:
https://www.p2steam.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/MM-50.pdf
...It's not just steam.
In the late 1940s one of the 'Big Four' British railway companies built two prototype main line diesel locomotives. The following Youtube video (silent) gives some details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suqjQVkZ0ZM
The following contemporary newsreel may be of interest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9rSzitGZZg
The two locomotives were scrapped in the 1960s. There is an organisation, the Ivatt Diesel Recreation Society, dedicated to building a 'new' LMS 10000, as far as possible to the same specifications as the original.
The project is not going to create a completely new locomotive from scratch, but is going to adapt components from a variety of appropriate sources as far as possible. The engine for the 'new' loco is of the same type as used in the original, having been used in a standby generator at a military base and kept in excellent order. Although about 70 years old, the engine has had only about 500 hours running time. The underframe will come from a scrapped freight loco, and the bogies (trucks) from a scrapped electric locomotive. The cabs will be new build, outwardly identical to the originals but constructed to modern crash-worthiness standards. The appearance and sound of the locomotive will be the same as the original.
Remarkably, the President of the Society was an engineer on the original 1940s project. Stanley Fletcher will be 100 years old in March next year, perhaps making him the oldest person ever to lead a heritage project.
Details of the Ivatt Diesel Recreation Society as given in the link below:
https://lms10000.co.uk/
The engine for the 'new' loco is of the same type as used in the original, having been used in a standby generator at a military base and kept in excellent order. Although about 70 years old, the engine has had only about 500 hours running time.
Apparently the engine is one of ten ordered by the New South Wales Government Railways but the order was cancelled after a satisfactory design couldn't be developed. The original proposal under estimated the weight of the equipment and the locomotive structure and couldn't be carried on six axles. After some foolish attempts to build an articulated locomotive with seven axles, they gave up and eventually purchased Alco RSC-3s from Montreal.
But 10 000 isn't the only diesel locomotive being recreated. The recreated "Baby Deltic" is under way using the shell of a Class 37 which is having the noses shortened and the six axle trucks replaced by two axle trucks (from a Class 20). The nine cylinder turocharged Deltic engine and its generator are an original that avoided scrapping.
That's relatively simple compared to 10 000.....
A brief excursion to fantasy land:
(i) Perhaps the Ingalls 4-S is '...not dead, but sleepeth..'! Superior Engines and Compressors, the manufacturer of the engine used, still exists in some form and their products have been widely used. It is possible that a standby power plant somewhere still has an engine of the same model in it. Since Ingalls was/is a military contractor and the 4-S engine was a marine diesel, naval bases and military craft headed for the breakers' would be likely places to look for a unit. As for the other loco components, I suppose it would be possible to use frames and trucks from other builders' locos but I don't have enough info to judge whether this would be feasible or not.
(ii) At the same time that the London, Midland and Scottish Railway was pioneering main line diesel traction, another of the British Big Four, the Great Western Railway, was experimenting with gas turbine locos. It ordered two locomotives of different design, 18000 and 18100, which were delivered after the railways were nationalised. Neither locomotive was a stellar success. No. 18100 was converted to a 25 kV electric loco for test purposes and scrapped in 1972. No. 18100 had the turbine removed and was moved to Austria for use as a test-bed. It was subsequently acquired for preservation and is now at the Didcot Railway Centre, near Oxford. The following link gives details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_18000
As far as I know the owners of 18000 do not want to resurrect it as a working gas turbine locomotive. I suppose it would be possible, though to say the least 'challenging', to do this. The biggest problem would be to locate a suitable prime mover. The original model of gas turbine is probably extinct so a substitute would be needed.
SwampCreatureA brief excursion to fantasy land: (i) Perhaps the Ingalls 4-S is '...not dead, but sleepeth..'!
If you are going there, a FAR more interesting possibility offereth itself.
We now know something about the 2000hp passenger unit Ingalls offered (to be roughly competitive with the Alco PA) and it interestingly combined a theoretically highly-reliable prime mover with an interesting non-contact mechanical final drive requiring no friction or solid engagement at any speed or condition of shock loading.
This would be interesting to build and test, as it represents (in my opinion) one of the most significant 'roads not taken' in the design of useful passenger power.
I would prefer something a little more prosaic. A replica of an Alco-GE-IR boxcab switcher of the 1920's-1930's might be attainable. Ingersoll Rand still builds industrial air compressors so a reasonable replacement for the original 10 x 12 engine could be obtained. GE traction motors are no big deal and the frame and bodywork could be fabricated much more easily than the cast frame for a T1.
The turbine was pretty much a "one-off" although it probably was very similar to the earlier turbine in the Swiss Am4/6 from the same builder.
As I understand it 18000 is an empty shell so would need control equipment and traction motors from another locomotive as well as a gas turbine. I think it had a small auxiliary diesel for starting and possibly light running, so a standard genset might provide this capability while a helicopter-type turbine could provide the 2500HP from something much smaller than the original.
You would have to want to have a gas turbine locomotive, of course.
In the USA, the Bombardier Jettrain locomotive still exists and is basically just missing its turbine, of a type still available. But like 18000, someone has to want to run it...
As Union Pacific found out, gas turbines tend to be fuel hogs at anything less than full throttle and speed. Running a gas turbine locomotive in excursion service would probably be beyond the means of most groups.
The P2 Locomotive Trust keeps steaming right along. The tender wheels are at the shop and they have raised about. 2/3 of the necessary funds to complete the P2 Mikado.
https://www.p2steam.com/2019/11/04/eight-wheels-on-my-tender-part-1/
They have ordered two new boilers. The A1 Tornado and P2 Prince of Wales use identical boilers, so their plan appears to be to swap three boilers between the two locomotives so as to keep them operating on a more frequent basis than if they did not have a spare boiler.
It has been a while since I visited the P2 2-8-2 Prince of Wales web site, and they have really had a lot happen. There is good informatoin on the progress of the P2 and also about their next new build, which is going to be a V4 2-6-2.
I am just bringing this thread back up so it can be a reference to those who have started the BR 2-8-2 thread.
kgbw49I am just bringing this thread back up so it can be a reference to those who have started the BR 2-8-2 thread.
See the references in the other thread for details of the proposed 2-8-2. It is not related except very circumstantially to either Gresley replication.
Thanks, Overmod. Yes, understood. I read your post and it was fascinating - I learned something about the 9F that I never knew. I just figured I'd update this thread in case there was any interest.
...the proposed BR 2-8-2 using the Britannia standard boiler -- which morphed into the 9F class at little more cost than firebox-leg depth reduction.
It was a bit more than that:
Britannia boiler tapered from 5'9" to 6'5" with a tube lenth of 17' 0"
The 9f boiler tapered from 5'9" to 6'1" with a tube length of 15'3"
Britannia grate area was 42 sq ft; 9F grate area was 40.2 sq ft.
However, the smaller boiler was quite capable of getting a 9F to a verified 90 mph, even the clumsy looking Crosti boiler version.which was timed after overtaking a sports car being road tested by a magazine (which published a photo of the 9F drawing away from the car in their review).
M636CIt was a bit more than that:
It's not hard to see why the Crosti boiler was an attractive appliance on that boiler; the short tubes would optimize both heat transfer and convective circulation, at what would be a higher exhaust temperature, BUT the surface and gas path of the exchange surface would ensure ''usable" Rankine-cycle heat recovery right down to the magic number that is the effective dewpoint for corrosive sulfuric compounds. So 'equivalent evaporation' would be as high as a boiler with much longer 'tubes and flues' with optimized heat transfer their full length...
Speaking of 9F class, here's a real one on the NYMR.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.