Fantasy Locomotive Trading (Warning: Contains WIBN)

A bit of harmless WIBN to keep us entertained during Lockdown. Needless to say, but if you don’t like WIBN, this isn’t the thread for you…

Imagine a portal opens up to the pre-preservation era. We can send five preserved steam locomotives through and trade them for five that are not currently with us. Which five do you bring forward into preservation, and which five do you sacrifice?

THE RULES:
-You can only send a locomotive back if there will still be at least one example of the same class left in Preservation. So no getting rid of Scotsman or Tornado if you don’t like them!
-You can bring forward any design of steam locomotive from any period of history. It can be one we don’t have any examples of in preservation, one where there is a new build project, or when where we already have some. Heck, if you want another Black 5 or Pannier, you’re welcome to it.
-The locomotives traded do not have to be of the same historical period (e.g. you can send back a BR standard and bring forward a Victorian loco)
-The locomotive you’re bringing forward arrives in the condition it was in when withdrawn, not in the same condition of the loco you send back.
-Trades must satisfy one of the following two conditions:
Either
-The locomotives exchanged must be of the same Big 4 company or its constituents (e.g. you could trade a Merchant Navy for a Brighton K Mogul, or an 8F for a Caledonian 4-4-0)
Or
-The locomotives exchanged must have been designed and built to do broadly the same job (e.g. you can trade a 9F for a Gresley O3, or a Castle for a GNR Atlantic)

You don’t have to pick the specific engine you send away, you can just designate a class.

Apart from suggesting this because I’m bored, I’m a little curious to see which locos people would like to see in Preservation if possible, and whether that matches up with the new build projects currently proposed!

To get things started, my 5 would be:

-Send back a BR 4MT Tank for a GCR 9N (LNER A5)
-Send back a Merchant Navy for a Caledonian Cardean 4-6-0
-Send back a GWR 5700 for a GWR 4700
-Send back a Black 5 for a Gresley K3
-Send back a 28xx/2884 for a GCR 9J (LNER J11)

 

Could I send back several class 47's for Lion, Kestrel and Falcon please?

 

Send back some Bulleid pacifics.
Get... whatever you like really, they're supposedly mixed traffic so I'll have GW Star, a GW 4700, an SR Z class, SECR D-1, and a Lynton and Barnstaple 2-6-2T

 

My five would be:

1 Trade the Bugatti-front P2 New Build for a Caledonian Conner 8'2" single
2 Trade an 8F for a Gresley P1 2-8-2
3 Trade a BR Std. 2-6-4T for an LMS Fowler 2-6-4T
4 Trade a Stanier Class 5 for a Caledonian Dunalastair 4-4-0
5 Trade a 9F for the Lickey Banker

Richard.

 

The rules above make it difficult for me as there are no LNER engines that qualify - all (apart from the 2 x B1 and A4s are unique! So I'm going to strech the rules to allow the preservation balance to be levelled a little! I'll narrow it down more - as an NYMR supporter I would exchange a West Country for a Gresley V1, 2 x S15s for an A8 and a B16, a schools for a D49 and the 9F for an L1. (Plus a load of Mk 1s for a selection of NER and LNER carriages!)

 

You can swap locos across Big 4 companies that are built for the same purpose. So you could trade a 4MT for your V1 or L1, a Black 5 for your B16 etc...

 

Where’s @LMS2968 when we need him? It’s his fantasy thread ...

Anyway:

1) Swap a 9F (or ideally all of the ruddy things) for a SER Cudworth standard goods. (Goods loco to goods loco swap)

2) Swap any remaining 9Fs for a Kirtley (Midland Railway) outside-framed 0-6-0. (Another goods loco to goods loco swap)

3) Swap a GWR 48xx for a LCDR second Sondes class 2-4-0T (small passenger loco to small passenger loco)

4) Swap a GWR 61xx for a Maunsell K class (large passenger tank to large passenger tank)

5) Swap a GWR King for an LCDR Europa class (front line express passenger loco swap)

Tom

 

Do you mean the 42xx as a small passenger loco? They're the big 2-8-0 Freight tanks...

 

Whatever those GWR 0-4-2 things are - 48xx I guess.

Tom

 

Wouldn't be a fair swap though would it?!

 

How about 5 Sheds for 5 Deltics...???

 

Would you have to send 2 4Fs through the portal to get one Garratt back?

 

9F for GSR 500 Class 4-6-0
29xx for GNRI Class SG
Modified Hall for GNRI Class SG2* (do you see what I did there?)
4MT for GS&WR 'Kerry Bogie'
Black 5 for HR/CR 'River' Class 4-6-0 .... just to keep the 'standard gauge' mob happy!

Tough call, I know, but if we're extending it to diesels, how many Pacers might we need to sacrifice to get a Blue Pullman back?

*actually, I'd be just as happy with a UG .... very tidy looking little 0-6-0s

 

I suppose that I'll get lynched for suggesting swapping Maindy Hall for a Claud Hamilton. (Belpaire boiler for Belpaire boiler)

 

Since the GWR has more preserved examples than anyone else, it would be a bit churlish to ship out a load of a neighbouring company's locos in exchange for even more, tempting though it is. On the other hand they are poorly represented in early locos, so a bit of in-house reorganisation:

• 28xx class for 388 class (Armstrong Standard Goods)
• 57xx class for 455 class (Metro Tank)
• King class for Queen class (Armstong's last express passenger 2-2-2 class, used as the GWR's Royal locomotive)
• Hall class for Dean Bogie Single (to go with the Dean Goods as mentioned before)
• Castle class for 111 The Great Bear (another possible Didcot retro-converson?)

 

Oooh, I like that list - it simultaneously upsets both the “paint it black” brigade and the “GWR means chocolate and cream chocolate box” brigade

Tom

 

I dunno, no shortage of polished brass and copper there...

 

Deleted

 

Like that idea of swapping anything GWR for anything GER