Best British Locomotive

Stanier or Ivatt edition? Better unlock the thread!

 

Two throw crankshaft making half power instead of one throw making one third?
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/uploads/monthly_09_2017/post-898-0-40142800-1505684845.jpg

 

A true British eccentric (well four actually, all on the outside), unquestionably unique, but also quite a powerful and effective bit of kit for a loco of its size. It's also grumpy and possess a sly cunning of which any elderly British gentleman would be proud.

 

I think that this is the only survivor fitted with Mr Gooch's link motion. Are there any others?

 

We'll all have our favourites, this is mine:



SECR H Class 263 by Merlin_1, on Flickr (Not my photo)

If there is a better combination of haulage, comfort and free steaming, I'm yet to see it; and having run over 1.8 million miles in fifty eight years of pre-preservation service, pretty good value for money for the railway company that built it.

Tom

 

Pure copper capped beauty: https://earlyrailwaysunpublished.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/3003-avalanche.jpg

 

Link well worth clicking on. Very nice!

 

W.Stroudley?

 

Many.
This one was bult by Neilson for Danish State Railways and the valve gear is Allen/(Trick)
http://www.jernbanen.dk/Fotos/Damp/DSB_K501_1894.jpg

 

Not the same thing I am afraid.With Gooch valve gear the link is stationary. As you say, the DSB machine has Allan valve gear. The original query by @Steve was whether any locomotives other than Bellerophon survive with the Gooch arrangement.

PH

 

Totally different and just another form of link gear of which some 36 were designed up to the year 1870, mainly to get around patents.


(taken from an I Loco E paper.)
With Gooch valve gear, the expansion link is carried by a link suspended from a fixed point and the radius rod is lifted and lowered as necessary to give the desired direction and cut-off. It was much lighter to operate than Stephensons as there was only the radius rod to lift . The arrangement gave a constant lead but the direct line of action between the eccentric rod and valve rod gave poor valve events.

 

This is the only loco with Gooch valve gear that ever existed in Sweden.
To make it even more curious it has the odd gauge of 43" (1093 mm), which is said to be the result of a combined misunderstanding of imperial and Swedish inches together with someone measuring rail c/c "gauge".
Resulting in a railway ending up with locos, waggons and track, all with different gauges!
This loco is preserved in a local museum in Surahammar, Sweden and it was built by Kristinehamn as their No. 1 in 1867.


Photo by Ola Almquist.

 

Now I just know you're not seriously expecting any of us to own up to that Al!

 

"Best" British locomotive is a purely subjective view and a vague question. Best in terms of what?

Objectively speaking, the best designed steam machine on the mainline was the 9F. The best designed Diesel engine was the Deltic. I don't know many who would argue otherwise.

 

Er... me! I knew many men who were not fond of the 9Fs. They were too big for much of the work they were doing and very coal hungry in those circumstances. Most preferred an 8F for the more normal goods workings.

Deltics - not the most reliable machines. The engines were designed for marine use, and didn't take too kindly to constant changes in rpm and power demand. I knew the men at Lime Street, from where some of them worked across the Pennines. Again, they weren't too impressed, although by then not only did they have the 3,300hp electrics and also the Class 87s as well.

 

Some things seem not to change. I met someone recently from a preserved railway who complained bitterly about what coal scoffers 9Fs were.

PH

 

Haven't the HSTs been the best diesels?

 

You are talking about a separate issue altogether. The best locomotive to drive.

I'm talking about design.

@ Lester Brown, debatable. The HSTs are like the Class 37 in terms of longevity, but they are not the most reliable. Powerful, yes. But I've seen many a train broken down, and have to be rescued by a Class 66. A "shed" of all things.

 

Whereas Deltics had an exemplary reliability record, of course

Tom