2999: Lady of Legend

Yes but the Castles were designed after Churchward time and the Castles were changed balancewise following the Bridge stress work 1923-28.
Churchwards four cylinder 4-6-0 were also harsh animals to tracks and bridges.
The gentleman writing as Courier has acces to the report as he used it for calculating wheel lifting speed of Saints (104 mph) I think.

 

The Stars were rebalanced as well.

 

Didcot has surely contributed more than any other site to heritage preservation and recreation.

 

For such a disastrous design failure they seem to have been extraordinarily successful.

 

Err I think there's a few places might disagree with that...

 

I came across this document which will warrant some study.

https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk/bitstream/10044/1/47350/2/Bardell-PS-1989-PhD-Thesis.pdf

"The Balancing of Steam Locomotives:
A Dynamical Problem of the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries
by
PETER SIDNEY BARDELL
A thesis submitted to the University of London
for the award of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
History of Science & Technology Group
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
December 1988"

Here's an extract.

 

Thank You
I am lost the next couple of hours

 

They were not disastrous dead ends built in big numbers,but improved Saints could maybe have done just as well and cheaper.
Having a working Saint and some four-cylindered locomotives enables a test of Churchwards 100 years old desicion.
Steam locomotive history is expensive, unnessecary,not PC and very interesting
The fastest european steam operated service was run by belgian two cylinder locomotives with big wheels in 1939.

 

If you can digest that in a couple of hours you're doing better than me...

It's an interesting insight into Collett and GWR practice that while always reluctant to design something radical and new he/they would set to and upgrade the entire fleet in a matter of months where they saw a clear advantage in doing so.

 

I've never quite got my head round how they managed the gauge change in what seems like an impossibly short timescale. Maybe their ethos of standardisation at the expense of free-thinking gave them an almost military-style organisation (and loyalty) which was then more capable then the others when challenged with such feats?

 

They'd actually done an awful lot of gauge conversions, and goodness knows they'd had enough time to plan.

I suppose the other thing is there was an enormous workforce of track staff in those days, so plenty of manpower given enough organisation.

 

Of course the Americans had already done it bigger and better. Converting the thousands of miles of the Southern States railroads from 5'to 4'9" in just 36 hours on 31st May and 1st June 1886.

Even on the GWR the 1872 South Wales gauge conversion was a much bigger task but was able to be spread over 3 weeks by first converting the up line then introducing the standard gauge trains while the down line was completed.
It doesn't say a great deal for the GWR progressing necessary improvements that it took another 20 years to finish the job in Devon and Cornwall.

 

You better lock your doors and windows...the GWR Mafia will be after you now!

 

Clearly reluctant to downgrade before they had to...

 

Isn't that essentially what Hawksworth's Counties were?

 

Short answer, yes

 

If I was manager of locomotive contests I would rather pit Counties against Kings .It is essentially the same questions 2 versus 4 etc but they match up better in time.

 

A lot of planning must have gone in to it!

There's a good article (link below) about the conversion - one interesting photo of the last down train through Teignmouth clearly shows that every other cross tie on the baulk road had been sawn through before the conversion, so as to speed up the actual process.

https://www.21stcentury-rail.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2-GW-Broad-Gauge-end-of-1892-1.pdf

One thing I hadn't appreciated, though it is obvious in retrospect, is that the dual gauge lines east of Exeter weren't converted at that time. When you think about it, there was no immediate rush to do so, though it leads to the question of just when was the last section of broad gauge track actually removed? Clearly it must have lasted for a few years at Swindon while lines of locos and rolling stock were still awaiting being cut up or converted (the conversions apparently lasted until 1894), but I wonder when the last bit of dual gauge track on the mainline disappeared?

Tom

 

ISTR there have been disconnected broad gauge sidings found in living memory. I imagine though they'd have been pretty keen to collect the scrap metal ASAP, but I shouldn't be surprised if the longer sleepers on cross sleepered ex BG lines lasted until they wore out.

 

The gauge change was prior to the push to standardisation as led by Chrurchward in the early 20th century.