60009

It's a shame the 4-6-4 was never given a crack at the whip, 21 percent more grate area... it would undoubtedly have been capable of breaking it.

 

Ooooffff - Spare a thought for the fireman!

Mind you they would probably be a darn site more proficient with a shovel than I was during a recent experience with Number 9...I seemed to be forever in a cack-handed muddle!

Thank goodness for those looking after me and Number 9 at the East Lancs - we had a fantastic day.

 

Same size grate as the P2, the Peppercorn Pacifics and the Duchess... just fractionally bigger than a Merchant Navy...

 

Good point - well made!

I never considered that the grate area on an A4 was (as a percentage at least) that much smaller than those that you have listed.

Every day's a school day!

 

Not if your Drifting past our Victors front door , that earns you a whole chapter in his book, and an very slow, lingering demise.

 

Looking forward to having a 'riding day' behind No.9 on the ELR on Saturday

 

All correct 112mph, and still rising, when he got the tap on the shoulder, Mr Hoole's view was that SNG was in good enough nick to challenge the 126mph.

Better track might also have helped with this, its all conjecture though, we will never know....

 

As said by Std Tank, Bulleid was Gresley's assistant for a number of years. I think it was Bulleid who came up with or designed the valances on the A4's as well.

 

I thought I'd read somewhere that the front end of the W1 was compromised with regard to the bore of its cylinders and not as free running. Happy to be corrected on this though....

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Lots of cylinder horsepower apparently but the valve/piston ratio was not as good as the A4s so not as free running - according to what I've ready anyway.

 

Supposedly much faster starting out of King's Cross, I remember reading either Townend or Hardy saying... how hard would it have been to bore out the valve chests?

 

It would probably be impossible to increase the size of the valves significantly as there would be insufficient metal left around the valve lines if you increased the valve diameter.

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Not normally one to post photographs - but I think this one turned out ok.

 

Grate area in itself is no guarantee of anything. The W1 was fitted with A1 pattern cylinders, 20" bore x 26" stroke with 8" diameter piston valves, these drove the nominal tractive effort figure up to 41,437 lb. in conjunction with a boiler pressure of 250 psi. The superheater surface was 706 sq. ft. which was less than that on the A4 at 748.9 sq. ft. which as a class had the advantage of a newer cylinder design with 9" valves which delivered a superior port area to cylinder volume ratio to the 18.5" x 26" cylinders. The W1 was not a high speed design though the tractive effort that it enjoyed did offer some advantages in other performance areas.

When the experimental design was being considered Gresley was wanting to work with a high pressure cut-off of 75% but was persuaded otherwise. He should have trusted his instincts, he pitched the working pressure correctly at 450 psi the amount of heat per pound of steam is high here, to get any improvement it is needed to head into the realm of supercritical steam. What would have been the advantages of using a long cut-off in the high pressure cylinders? Look across the English Channel, at 90% h.p. cut-off the number is a little under 4,000 if the lessons learned there are applied.

 

60009 at Ramsbottom Sidings , East Lancs Railway, 18/01/20. Thank you very much for the people who liked the photo

 

Was lovely to spend some time around No.9 today. More of a riding rather than photting excursion. Trains were very well filled. She was wowing her spectators like the true thoroughbred she is.

 

Interlude at Rawtenstall with 60009, 18-1-20. Why the wreath, anyone know?

 

According to a member of staff at Ramsbotton, the wreath was for a long-serving platform/train rubbish collector volunteer who passed recently.

 

Thanks John.