Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Simon Reed If those stories came from Steam Railway - the Enthusiast press equivalent of the Sport / Weekly World News - you can probably dismiss them....
QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton QUOTE: Originally posted by Simon Reed If those stories came from Steam Railway - the Enthusiast press equivalent of the Sport / Weekly World News - you can probably dismiss them.... Roughly translated for our American hosts: It's like the National Enquirer
QUOTE: Originally posted by Simon Reed There's a book by Kevin Robertson called "Leader - Steam's Last Chance." I don't own a copy but I have another Robertson book with a photo of the second "Leader" in it. It was 95% complete, but had never steamed, when the decision was made to abandon the Leader project. As a result it was towed almost straight from works to scrapyard, and was broken up in June 1951.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Tulyar15 QUOTE: Originally posted by Simon Reed There's a book by Kevin Robertson called "Leader - Steam's Last Chance." I don't own a copy but I have another Robertson book with a photo of the second "Leader" in it. It was 95% complete, but had never steamed, when the decision was made to abandon the Leader project. As a result it was towed almost straight from works to scrapyard, and was broken up in June 1951. Not so! The first Leader WAS steamed, and undertook a number of test runs. But even if the purely technical problems with it had been over come, there were more fundamental problems. For instance the poor fireman had to work in an enclose compartment amidships, which got intolerably hot even in winter. The purely technical problems included the fact that the boiler was offset to one side of the frames and so a complex arrangement of balance weights was needed. Although British Rail quickly scrapped the Leader project, the above problems did not deter Bulleid from persuading the Iarnrod Eireann (the Irish Republic's state owned rail company) to build a similar loco, intended to run on peat in 1955. Like the leader it was an articled loco with two power bogies - 0-6-6-0T - with each bogie having 3 cylinders and Bulleid chain valve gear. But whereas the Leader had a cab at each end, like a diesel loco, the turfer burner had a central cab with lots of windows where both driver and fireman were positioned. But the turf burner was no more successful than the Leader and after Bulleid's retirement it was scrapped in 1965. By the time it had been built IE were already buying lots of diesel locos; Bulleid being unconvinced of the advantages of diesels was making a last ditch attempt to persuade IE to stick with steam.
Isambard
Grizzly Northern history, Tales from the Grizzly and news on line at isambard5935.blogspot.com
QUOTE: Originally posted by Railroading_Brit Try these http://www.semg.org.uk/steam/leader_01.html
QUOTE: Originally posted by Tulyar15 Yes, for a picture of the first Leader on one of its outings, see:- http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/leader/leader.htm With regard to the D600 Warships, some time ago there was a letter from a former North British employee which suggested that originally 30+ D600's were to have been ordered. But problems with the first one and the fact that the D800 Warships had a much better power to weight ratio resulted in the order for D600s being cut to 5 locos and instead NB got an order for some D800's using the MAN engines originally ordered for the D600's. Talking of North British , I understand most of the MAN engines used in the diesels they built were built by NB themselves under licence. But I read somewhere that after NB went bust the Scottish Region bought some genuine German MAN engines to try and make the D6100 class more reliable. Can anyone confirm this? In due course some of the D6100's were rebuilt with the same Paxman engines that had been tried out in D830. But I believe the D6100 that got into to Barry scrapyard was one that was not re-engined.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Isambard QUOTE: Originally posted by Railroading_Brit Try these http://www.semg.org.uk/steam/leader_01.html Thanks for posting the link Matt. A fascinating story. They were obviously pushing the envelope, to use an aerospace expression. [:)]
QUOTE: Originally posted by Tulyar15 Yes, for a picture of the first Leader on one of its outings, see:- http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/leader/leader.htm
QUOTE: Originally posted by M636C The D6100s rebuilt with the Paxman Ventura (An official Royal Navy report said the best feature of the Ventura was that the Admiralty hadn't had to pay for its development) were fitted with central four character headcode panels, so it would be easy to tell if the Barry loco had been rebuilt. M636C
QUOTE: Originally posted by Tulyar15 QUOTE: Originally posted by M636C The D6100s rebuilt with the Paxman Ventura (An official Royal Navy report said the best feature of the Ventura was that the Admiralty hadn't had to pay for its development) were fitted with central four character headcode panels, so it would be easy to tell if the Barry loco had been rebuilt. M636C I'm fairly sure the D6100 that got in to Barry scrapyard still had the discs, so it would have been an unrebuilt. Ah the Blue Pullmans - I remember seeing them at Paddington when I was very young. We also had two Tri-ang OO guage models - one in the original Nanking Blue and one in the later BR Corporate Pullman livery (ie reverse blue and grey).
John Baker
QUOTE: Originally posted by John Bakeer Re. Leaders. My memory was awakened by the article re-produced by the SR group. I believe the shape was inspired by the early ppost war electric main line loco's. Their power to weight ratio was phenominal, but unreliability and their tendency to cook the fireman and melt his shovel (they were hand fired) meant extended trials did not happen nor were any conclusive results achieved. John B.
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