What Ifs, and Locos that never were.

Here's a video of it running.

 

I think the issue is how much technical risk do you want to take, given the period in question (late 1940s, when surely it was obvious that steam's days were limited?)

Cab each end tank engine is essentially the Leader, and trying to resolve the technical issues of that concept essentially led to a blind alley, while still not resolving the big issue of the separation of driver and fireman.

Whereas it was known that crews could quite easily control a locomotive even when they were positioned twenty or thirty feet from the end of the loco. The main issue with running backwards was signal sighting, especially if the tender is big enough (as on a Q1) to give adequate protection when running in reverse. So given that fact, a Q1 with controls duplicated across the cab appears to give all the advantages of a loco that can be satisfactorily driven in either direction without turning while giving crew protection and adequate signal sighting, while having a very small technical risk over and above what was a known successful design.

Tom

 

As Bulleid was also working on the diesel electrics which became 10201-3 the question on the Leader is why was it pursued? if all that was wanted was an M7 replacement then the Ivatt 2-6-2 tanks were perfectly suited to that job. In fact, the last M7s were not withdrawn until 1964 so they must have had some life left in them anyway

 

That quote always reminds me of the sort of thing I used to write when I wanted to say "This whole damn project was fundamentally flawed from start to finish and if you'd only listened to me we wouldn't have wasted all that money" Sadly I was never quite good enough at the tactful phrasing...

 

Regarding single-acting steam engines, I recall reading that the North-Eastern Railway had a B15 4-6-0 running with very high-mounted "Stumpf Uniflow" cylinders that gave it a remarkably BR Standard-esque appearance. Although they subsequently built a C7 4-4-2 with Uniflow cylinders, which it kept until rebuilt as a double-acting Lentz engine in 1934, the experiment proceeded no further. However, the Sentinel company of Shrewsbury used single-acting cylinders with notable success, especially after they employed the American genius Abner Doble, who had started out building steam automobiles. Jay Leno owns two running Dobles, and a third chassis sectioned to demonstrate the internals. The Doble "steam generator" and single-acting cylinders were, I believe, used in the various Sentinel steam railcars of the 1930s and 50s, including those for the Egyptian railways (one example of which is preserved at Quainton Road).

 

I've found a bit more about the Atkinson, or more correctly Atkinson-Walker, uniflow locomotives at this modellers' website http://glostransporthistory.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/ROD_Universal Works_British steam.html It seems they built 25 locos altogether. They had two or three cylinders, vertical largely welded boilers and the drive was by bevel gears and roller chains.

 

True enough. Take away the double cabs and the sleeve valves and you've basically got a glorified Kitson-Meyer. Of course, one of those might actually have worked, especially if he hadn't aimed for Class 5 power output.

 

Article about the building of the five inch leader here http://www.bulleidlocos.org.uk/_ldr/ldrKevan1.aspx mechanically not much like the original (I wonder why!) so it works!

 

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/steamotor/steamotor.htm The German V-twin 2-8-2 looks interesting. Unfortunately, it was shipped to the USA after the war then scrapped, so its potential was never established.

 

The LMS loaned 5000 Launceston Castle for trials on the West coast main line in 1926 and, apparently, asked the GWR to build them 50 Castles. The GWR said no. What would one have looked like in LMS maroon?

 

According to many here, almost exactly like Hogwarts Castle...

 

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/colombia/colombia.htm

 

I think the only Irish locos with a cab on either end were those for the Dublin&Blessington tramway, which wad standard gauge? Others, such as some of the Cavan and Leitrim locos used on the Arigna tramway, had controls at the front as well, but no cab (and the controls didn't last long).

One of these was built for the Clogher Valley, and didn't work at all well. It was bought by the County Donegal, converted to a diesel shunter, named "Phoenix", and is now preserved at Cultra.

 

Most of the others seem to have had reasonable working lives. A very similar loco to the Clogher Valley one was quite successful and popular on the Redlake Tramway running to clay pits on Dartmoor, a line whose apparent mis-treatment seemed to have previously broken a nice little Kerr Stuart 0-4-2 side tank after just a few years use!

 

Blimey. Almost a cross between Leader and the Hush-Hush!

 

That would make for an interesting new build!

 

Don't start! You'll get Stuart starting it as his next new build project!

 

Looks remarkably similar in outline to the 0-6-0+0-6-0 400hp Sentinel used by Dorman Long on Teesside, which had a similar boiler but probably at lower pressure, since I think it just had four standard 100hp Sentinel engines instead of the Doble compounds.

There's a picture in this post, if you scroll down a bit (hotlink to the picture here). I'm not sure it's entirely in the spirit of this thread though, since it actually existed and was apparently well-liked. It certainly looks like a good solution to having a double ended engine with good visibility in each direction from a single cab. The cab, boiler and two engines were on one chassis, fuel tanks and the other two engines on the other, and the two coupled together. Conceptually, that makes it quite similar to a Sturrock 0-6-0 with steam tender.

 

An 0-6-0+0-6-0 configuration seems an awful lot of locomotive to deliver a mere 400hp.