Replica builds for heritage lines.

There must be, otherwise the railway companies wouldn't have built new. Even more so if you consider the possibility of recycling parts that are not life expired and only scrapping the parts that are beyond use.

Didn't Tornado cost approx 3M and the Fying Scotsman resto 4M5? They're not directly comparable, but I think it suggests the two can be in the same ballpark.

 

I guess making singular comparisons like that probably isn't particularly useful as labour comes into it a lot. With tornado's inception being before I was even born, I haven't the foggiest how much work was volunteer done and how much contract.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

 

I expect that sooner or later we will get into new boilers and frames for many preserved loco's which means that we will be closer to new build..............

 

I wonder how much of that was wasted on work which had to be re-done on both?

 

cancelled

 

We're already in the era of new frames aren't we - 4561? And if we're not there are said to be several locos needing them: 45428 and 45407 are two I've heard mentioned as candidates. 44767 has been receiving new cylinders as has 76079. How long before someone uses all these to make a new one?

 

Did I hear a rumour that the Maunsell Society has spare set of trailing wheel sets as a possible back conversion of one of the U boats to a K class tank? The "river" names would help make it something it different to a normal tank. Handsome locos.

 

Neither of which is for sale, or ever likely to be. But that's beside the point, which is not that there are still large numbers of unrestored locos (many either too small or too large for most heritage lines) but that many locomotives which are currently seen as mainstays of preservation will sooner or later make a one way trip to the plinth. Green Arrow, City of Truro, the Great Marquess, Union of South Africa, the list is growing. Locomotives actually owned by their host lines will probably be kept going, but those owned by museums or private individuals or small groups cannot be expected to remain available forever. What happens to the NYMR for example if NELPG and the ELS decide to jack it in? There is going to come a point when the choice for many lines is between overhauling from unrestored condition an industrial tank which is too small, or overhauling a Barry condition MN or 28XX which is too big, or building something which suits that line's own needs. That may well be another Standard 4MT, or it may be an L1, or a Billinton K, or whatever, but the fact that something exists and is operational now is no guarantee that it will be anything other than a static exhibit in a decade's time.

 

I can't remember whether it is a U or an N but the Metropolitan Railway K class (later LNER L2 class) was built by the Woolwich works using the Southern Mogul class chassis, boiler and other bits.

I may be out of luck and it'll be the one surviving U class loco, but I always thought a rebuild to present one of the Metropolitan 2-6-4Ts locomotives would have been nice to see.

 

AFAIK, 31806 is the only surviving K Class rebuild, Simon

 

That's a River though, not a Metropolitan K class:



Metropolitan K




SECR River Class

Close but no cigar. One is a U boat the other an N in components?

 

The Metropolitan tank locos were based on the SECR N class, they went to the LNER in 1936, two (I think) reached BR

 

What are the actual visible differences?

 

Primarily wheel diameter. The SECR /SR River tanks are a 2-6-4T variant of the U class moguls with 6ft diameter wheels (*); the Metropolitan K class are derived from the N class moguls with 5'6" wheels.

(*) Actually the chronology is the other way round: the River tanks came first and the U class moguls were derived from them.

Tom

 

And the reason that River class locos were withdrawn and no longer exist is?

 

A derailment at Sevenoaks in 1928 where the bad riding of the loco was found to be a contributory cause, although it was also down to the track. After the accident, but before rebuilding, one was tried on the East Coast main line out of Kings Cross and rode well. Exactly the same test was done on one of the Hastings DEMUs after the Hither Green accident in 1967, with the same result

 

Not really a big difference, especially if we're discussing what could be built (or re-assembled Didcot-style) for use on preserved lines. Personally I'd consider either of them somewhat better looking than a Thompson L1, though that is of course a matter of taste. Authentic Metropolitan livery would be nice.

 

Another operational Met. Loco would be interesting.. dig those tailrods man.

 

The amount of grey on such a large amount of loco always strikes me as being at the brutal end of the livery scale . I always think that even the lined out southern livery needed the nameplate on that side tank to really set these fine engines off. Its a shame they always get associated with Sevenoaks.