Bihar and Orisa

I have been doing some research on the LMS Jubilees and one name keeps appearing as being legendary , this is Bihar and Orissa ?
was this the best of the class , and does any one now how it appears to have been elevated to this status ??

 

One for Victor to answer, methinks.

 

Farnley's best and one of the finest of Jubilees. It deserved its worshipful status. Only Alberta surpassed it.

 

Is it just a coincidence that the Jubilees rated as the 'finest' just happened to be the last surviving members of the class. Have the people who are raving about these particular locos ever seen or travelled behind any other members of the class ?

Bob.

 

For me it stands out as one of the Jubilee's that used to haul expresses over the Pennines from Lancashire to Yorkshire in my schooldays, always putting in sterling performances.........and incidentally it is Orissa..........

 

I believe it would depend on the crew as much as the loco. My late uncle, Tom Merry who worked his way up the ranks at 25E later 56E. He worked on many jubilees from the war years through to the diesels arriving. His favourites were Boscawen 45642 and Mars 45698.
He moved to Bradford Hammerton street in his final years.
Regards, John.

 

Aah, Bihar and O, a legend. It was a good reliable regular performer, it could take anything that the Farnley lads could throw at it, It never got cleaned (well, hardly ever).
29th. February 1964 from a standing start at Hillhouse box with a footex special to Manchester from the Nth. East. It got the full beans, the stations foundations shook, the cat set off running, and you could still hear it miles away, all the way up the hill to Standedge, I think they must have been running a bit late, "c'mon lads, get it cracking, KO is at 3:00pm" I was on Huddersfield station that day, what a sight and sound, never to be forgotten.

 

Well, a bit of raving now and then doesn't do any harm.....................does it?? :rolleyes1:

 

Well, I only failed to see Wndward Islands but I admit that I only ever rode behind 45593. Then, I never was one for riding on trains other than getting from A to B and the bike usually helped me do that. Only done the S & C once and that was the legendary run behind 46247.

 

As a school boy some of the names of the Jubilee's used to set my imagination racing about the various countries/states that were named. Fortunately through my career I've been fortunate to visit many of them, Hyderabad, Seychelles, Mauritius, and many more. I always remember the Jubilees when I step foot in a country they were named after..........somehow I don't think I'll make it to Mars though.......

 

Like many Jubes. B&O was a province of the Empire.
Bihar and Orissa Province - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bihar and Orissa (Hindi: बिहार और उड़ीसा) was a province of British India which included the present-day Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa. The territories were conquered by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries, and were part of the Bengal Presidency, the largest British province in India. Bihar and Orissa was separated from Bengal in 1912. A number of princely states, including the Orissa Tributary States, were under the authority of the provincial governor.
In 1936, the province was divided into Bihar Province (which included present-day Bihar and Jharkhand states) and Orissa Province, and the princely states placed under the authority of the Eastern States Agency.

 

Well it was cleaned sometimes, as my pic shows it being done! This was I think in 1963, there was hardly anything else on shed at Farnley that day during a school shed bash - organised by our geography master Richard Wiseman who went on to be President of the National Tramway Museum at Crich.

Dave

 

At one time I rented a bungalow from a lady who was the widow of the last British Governor of Bihar & Orissa. There was a book of his speeches in one of the bookcases in the bungalow but it made incredibly dull reading, and I never got very far with it!

 

Could it not be the case that the fact they were "rated" contributed to their longer survival ?, if you had to withdraw loco's and there's no obvious failed ones that fit the bill, you'd pick the "difficult" ones to go first.

 

To me its nothing more than the grandeur of the name -- a far away place , the mystery of some place I would probably not visit --& yes I did see the loco in steam days....

 

Did you see 45559 then ?

Bob.

 

The educational value of locomotive names cannot be underestimated, sadly this looks to have been lost.

being in my 30's I missed steam, but studied my fathers abc's as a kid.
in 2009 in South Africa I was on a safari, looking at an Antelope, the tracker announced there was dozens of Antelope species, and how many could people name ... Que me and my B1's to the very impressed crowd. ( I couldn't pick them out in photographs.. Which somewhat confused the tour guide!)

 

Sadly no , but did see 45554 , 45556, 45557 , 45560 & 45562 -- all provinces of Canada . -- have to say that yes, looking at loco names did improve my geography - as others have alluded to .

 

They probably wondered what you were talking about when you mentioned that rare species, the Ralph Assheton. I think 45581 is one of the poorest parts of India. The loco had a rather ugly St Rollox nameplate. (Written from the airport in 45611 on my way to part of 45629).

 

Just to throw the Antelope among the Jubilees , here is a shot of 61039 Steinbok at Farnley Jct 55C depot with 45602 British Honduras in the next road over - not the greatest quality - but historical purpose only .