The 90+ Steam Hall of Fame

And I have hardly started yet!

Don

 

Would this be about 1996?

 

See post 16

 

I posted before reading the other posts but March 23rd's CME (the infamous one from Didcot with an 0418 start) had a rather quick start from Crewe not confirmation of 90+ but damn close!

 

It was a hell of a run and totally changed our perception of the V2's.

For the record the timings were taken using mileposts and a stopwatch.

 

How could you ever have doubted the capabilities of the "engines that won the war?"

 

Lets lay this one to rest shall we? The V2s were 7P/6F with a nominal TE of 33700 lb whereas the Bulleid light Pacifics were 7P/5F with a TE if only 27700. Both had 6 ft 2 inch drivers so why is it so surprising that a V2 did 98 mph when I timed two Bulleids at 100 mph and many at 90 plus? 34042 was also timed at 102 mph down Roundwood by a respected member of the Brighton design team and well known to us in the days if steam.

Don

 

Yes it would and to be fair the V2s were designed as a true MT engine whereas the Bulleids weren't but had to be given that status due to being built in WW2. The V2s were also much more at home on heavy trains.

Don

 

I'll have to dig out the relevant RCTS if I can find it. BR days IIRC.

 

Found this on Wikipedia. Usual caveats apply. The 101 is news to me though.
" One locomotive was reliably timed at 93 mph (150 km/h) on the Yorkshire Pullman while another attained 101.5 miles per hour (163 km/h) on a test train."

 

Right so here are my 90 mph + runs from 1965 but starting with one I had missed from late 1964:

05.12.1964-34018-90 at Winchfield/MP 38 on the 'Club Train' (1916 ex Soton). Redmund
30.01.1965-60007-90 at Cargill on 0710 Aberdeen
28.02.1965-35022-90 at Andover and Sherborne on the East Devon Tour. Spot King
02.03.1965-35022-90 Winchester Jct on 1830 down
13.03.1965-34064-93 Winchester Jct 0835 down Gordon Hooper
04.04.1965-35012-93 Winchfield/MP 38 and 94 Brookwood up Belle with Gordon Hooper
(Yes THAT run where we topped Roundwood at 76 mph with 455 tons 3,000 IHP)
24.04.1965-35022-93 Winchfield/MP 38 on the 1116 Soton Gordon Porter
14.05.1965-34006-95 at Winchester Jct on 2235 down Gordon Porter
15.05.1965-34008-90 at St Cross on the 0830 down Bert Fordrey
15.05.1965-35005-90 at Newnham Siding and 105 after Wallers Ash on the 2120 down Gordon Hooper
16.05.1965- 34089-93 at Brookwood on the up Mails Gordon Hooper
22.05.1965-35026-91 at Fleet on the up Royal Wessex Sooty Saunders
(Timetables slowed down for electrification works so lots of trips to Scotland but no 90s)
23.07.1965-35007-90 at Winchester 0n 1730 down Gordon Hooper
03.10.1965-35022-90 at Sherborne on down Exeter Flyer with Gordon Hooper
09.10.1965-34071-97 at Winchester Jct on 0835 am down Gordon Porter
01.12.1965-34013-100 at Hurstbourne on the 1800 down Matthews
11.12.1965-34098-93 at Winchester Jct on 0245 down Gordon Hooper

That's all for now folks. 1966 is next when the light pacifics feature more and more. Already though I can see that the engine I had most tons with was 35022.

Don

 

It really does show how useless tractive effort really is as a measure of performance, it's like comparing car engines on displacement alone when the massive differences in performance are shown. Also as regards to wheel diameter, surely not every locomotive used the same distance from centre regardless of wheel size?