6023 King Edward 11

More excellent news! 2807 passed its hydraulic test last week too!

 

Good news about the hydraulic test (both 6023 and 2807). I think a Blue King will look fantastic and I've always loved that BR Express Passenger Blue liviery.

 

It will be great when 6023 is running again.

As an aside, not my main point, I never saw a GWR mainline engine in blue, and look forward to seeing it in the flesh. I love Sir Nigel Gresley in blue, but I must admit the pics on the 6023 website leave me a bit doubtful!!!!!! Anyway, i will stay open-minded.

 

A blue King on the mainline, bring it on.
Variety is the spice of life!!!!

 

That's brilliant news! And for 2807 too! Can't wait to see a BR Blue King gracing the mainline along with 6024. I look forward also to hearing a single chimney King for the first time as well.

 

if 5051 is anything to go by in the volume dept, than a single chimnied king will be very loud indeed

 

6023 certaintly will look the part! Does anyone know if it has retained the 4 row superheater or if that has been retrograded too? Also, i'm interested to see how it will compare with 6024 in terms of performance. Anyway, we'll see

 

Blimey...That single chimney won't like that! With all that superheated steam going to the cylinders won't the loco 'choke'???

 

IMHO it'll be the volume of steam escaping from the cylinders compared to the re-configured single blast pipe / chimney configuration thats more important than the addition of an extra row of superheaters. You can bet your first railtour ticket cost, they'll have certainly done their homework on that one!!

 

Kings ran with the single chimney & 4 row combo from 1948-58. A decade, in other words.

There seems to be a lot of silly chatter with regards to the King. The single chimney is not going to turn it into some time-bomb, which will cause the engine to catastrophically fail the moment you open the regulator, so you can all relax.

 

silly chatter on here - surely not!

 

But the colour may????

Ducks and runs away!

 

Sir Felix Pole was right about that!

 

Maybe not, but they were fitted with double chimneys for a reason, weren't they?

I'm looking forward to seeing it (and hearing it for that matter ) but it's not going to be anywhere near as good as 6024 in terms of mainline performance. I'm not knocking it, I'm just stating a fact.

 

Surely this was done to counteract the falling quality of the coal that was available.

Meic

 

Indeed it was. Unfortunately, the coal locos use these days isn't much better and Swindon products tend to be very very fussy.

 

This is completely out of the box, but I've always wondered what good a Lemaitre multiple-jet blastpipe and wide diameter chimney would have done to the performance of a 'King' class locomotive? Would it have improved steaming more than the fitting of a double chimney? Or was it actually marked out as unsuitable by Western Region staff?

 

I'm pretty sure it will have the "sleeved" single chimney which was introduced around 1952/53. This coupled with the four-row superheater apparently made the Kings stronger. Remember the 27 coach test runs with 6001 (I think)? The only downside, I believe, was higher than ideal back-presurre at speed. The double-chimney cured that. O.S.Nock timed a sleeved single chimney King at over 100mph, at Dauntsey (I think), so they could still move.

As for the sound effects. I remember Steve Underhill, one time 6024 stalwart, once saying to me "if you think ours makes a noise, what 'till you hear that one" (6023).