A question about the Kings

This question arises from what I have read about the great King class locomotives. Were the Kings derivatives of the Castle class and if so, were significant changes made (other than sheer size) to Castle class to create the Kings? Just thought if they could have been called "Super Castles".

 

The King's were a completely new design though following closely the principles used in the Castles and Stars. On the other hand the Castles were very much enlargements of Stars with many common components and dimensions, and were initially thought of as "Large 40s"

 

I suppose the Kings were a natural progression from the Castles but due to their axle loading they were fairly severely route restricted from London to Plymouth, Cardiff and Wolverhampton and that was about it. The names started with the incumbent monarch at the time King George V and then worked backwards ending up with 6029 King Stephen, another three and they would have got back to William I even more and we could have had such stirring names as Ethelred the Unready.

 

A certainty to fail its FTR.

 

Given the GWR ran the lions share of Cornish traffic and Felix Pole was never one to miss some good PR, Perhaps surprising one was never King Arthur ?.

 

+1

 

Thanks for the reply. Is axle loading due to weight of rails on certain routes or bridge & overpass weight limits? Branchlines were certainly out of their territory.

 

I don't think being confined to three* major routes should be seen as a failing of the class. Rather it should be seen as the reason why only 30 were needed, the superb Castles being capable of almost everything else.

*four in reality....

 

Not all branch lines were excluded. Most of the small ones that had a low passenger and freight business would not e served by a King class loco but a busy branch, with a terminal served by a named train, such as the Newton Abbot to Kingswear branch did see them.
Others may suggest other branches by the way.

 

I wasn't inferring that at all

 

I don't think there were any more branch lines a King was allowed, Kingswear was a notable exception as a double red route

 

I think mostly bridge weight limits but in some cases it could be loading gauge limits. Motive power restrictions due to weight limits were not uncommon in Britain which suffered from being the first in the field building railways with little thought being given to future development or with cash strapped companies building on the cheap. A good example being the Great Eastern in East Anglia ( the bit towards the south east that sticks out into the North Sea) where a lot of bridge strengthening work had to be carried out to take a modest 4-6-0 design in the 1930s.

 

You could almost turn that around by suggesting that the Kings were proportionate enlargements of the Stars all round, but the Castles were basically upboilered (and cylindered) Stars. Interesting to me that the Castles stayed in the Star number sequence.

 

that's what Nock says in GWR steam

 

They limited themselves to kings of England who definitely existed; Arthur fails on both counts.

 

I agree about Arthur, but George I onwards were Kings of Great Britain and Ireland. Also strictly speaking Edward V wasn't crowned so perhaps wasn't really king either (except in retrospect and for Tudor convenience).

 

True, but I was aiming to be succinct! It's why I used a lower-case k in the phrase "king of England".

 

Now, of course, the SVR and WSR too, but I presume a big infrastructure upgrade has been undertaken on both lines since GWR/BR days?

 

They named backwards from KGV and then renamed the later members of the class forward from KGV so it would never have happened.

 

Most of the SVR north of Bewdley was ‘dotted blue’ (17t 12cwt) and those restrictions still applied in the original preservation LRO. A major upgrade of the line’s infrastructure followed, with a number of bridges being replaced. One reason for the upgrade was The Great Marquess (owned by then chairman Viscount Garnock) which exceeded those restrictions. South of Bewdley was ‘dotted red’ which specifically excluded Kings.