2999: Lady of Legend

Long cone boiler, superheating and top feed would be about 1911 or 1912 on.

Trouble is the later boilers with top feed are just plain better. There are few details in RCTS, but I think few short cone boilers ran with superheat and top feed. You could also argue that unless you do the lot - no top feed, no superheat (=inter alia shorter smoke box) and short cone you may as well do none of them.

A non superheated short cone boiler with no top feed would look fine with the Atlantic option, and quite possibly be better for running round Didcot, but there are probably better uses for the money.

 

It would need to have a new barrel, there isn't really any cheap fix to it. It's unlikely that a boiler would become 'worn out'; while parts do become life expired, it rarely happens all at once, and needless to say, making a new boiler would be prohibitively expensive. There were actually three different lengths of smokebox, and fitting one of the shorter versions was looked at, together with removing the topfeed, but in the end I think that after 20+ years, just getting the thing running took priority.

Regarding the tender, it was simply what was available to the project at the time. If I remember right, it's something of an enigma, as the number found on it is from an early Churchward tender. Whether it had a rebuild during the Collett era, or just ended up with some bits from an earlier tender, I don't know, although the latter option is not as likely as you'd think, given the location of the stamp. Ironically, after work was started on the tender, one from the Barry 10 turned up at Didcot, which does have the correct frames for the era. Such is life!

 

I know taste is a very subjective thing, eye of the beholder and all that... but I find the long cone boiler considerably better looking. Might just be familiarity, but I think it looks better balanced and just more attractive.

 

Thanks for clarification about the boiler. It does seem entirely reasonable to be representing an early Saint as it would have been in the early 1920s, or indeed as it could have been if it had survived into preservation.

 

The only real "benefit" of building a unsuperheated short cone boiler would be that the livery fascists ought not to object to a pre 1906 paint scheme, red frames and all. As she is she's really quite OK for the pre WW1 period, which is perhaps the most delightful of all the GWR schemes. I'm not quite sure what the pre 1906 scheme would look like on a Scott, pleasant as it is on 3440.

 

.... which is why we so desperately need a 3031!

 

Don't quite follow your logic-"we've just got a lovely saint, so therefore we need a Dean single too", but your conclusion is spot on!

 

I have never understood the appeal of that livery. Personally I find it a little too...in-your-face!

Sent from my SM-A320FL using Tapatalk

 

Logic, Ross? Since when has logic had owt to do with the great livery debate? ... Or most 'new build' suggestions, for that matter!

 

Probably in a minority here but i like seeing Victorian and Edwardian stuff in their final form, at the end of their careers, black and working alongside diesels.

 

The original plan for the Saint was to build it in its later form with curved front end and cab framing and retaining the Hall cylinders with outside steam pipes. I think it would have looked better that way and would have been considerably cheaper to built but, hey-ho it's their engine not mine.
Ray.

 

Would not one of the GWR 2-4-0s be a little more practical than a Dean single? I believe that some of them had the Dean Goods/5700-class boiler.

The Tyseley Bloomer saga should caution against putting resources into building a locomotive that could only ever be useful for special events and film assignments.

 

Except the Bloomer was not the most beautiful locomotive ever built, and the Dean Single was. And there's a great many more GWR enthusiasts (and former Tri-ang enthusiasts) than London and Birmingham fans, who might think a 3031 is just what we all need.

 

Have a trawl back in the 'Current and Proposed New Builds' thread for what'd float my boat .... there just happens to be a certain Dean 2-4-0, but, 'cos the pre-grouping GW was far too organised and successful for my tastes, t'ain't even on page 1 of my delusional fantasy list!

 

Thanks for your thoughts. There are a number of "Steam Traction" threads on this forum that I want to wade back through - probably a task for a rainy Sunday!

The GWR persisted with 2-4-0 building into the 1890s, longer than most other companies, but they were all withdrawn before WW2. The 2-4-0s were overshadowed by other types and there was no stand-out class like the LNWR "Hardwicke", so little enthusiast recognition or interest today.

I do agree that the GWR 30XX class were fine looking machines, and it is a great pity that none reached preservation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_3000_Class

 

Really? I didn't think anyone admired the 30xx's. A case where "Swindonising"did no favours at all to a not-very-pretty-to-start-with design. They didn't seem to last well on the GWR, though the LNER liked them well enough.

 

.... and there's one at the GCR, near enough.

 

Isn’t the conversation about this type of GWR 30xx?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_3031_Class

Tom

 

the GCR/ROD 2-8-0 s were fine machines that stood comparison with any other heavy 2-8-0 including the GWR28xx and the LMS 48xxx
after WW1 the ROD sold some to the GWR where they lasted to the late 1950s.
the LNWR also had some but the LMS scrapped theirs by 1930 ish.
the GCR was a constituent of the LNER so naturally they were liked there , again lasting to the early 1960s' as class O4. some were rebuilt by Thompson
92 locos were requisitioned in WW11 and served in the Middle East

like all Robinson locos they were a very handsome design ……………..and I liked them

 

Nearly all of Robinson's engines were handsome, with the 2-6-4 goods tank perhaps the only misfire on appearance grounds. His earlier Waterford & Limerick engines even had GW-like brass domes and copper-capped chimneys!

The Robinson 2-8-0s were probably the best-looking among British 8-coupled goods engines, while their 4-4-2 sisters (LNER Class C4) would be on my shortlist for the "most beautiful locomotive" accolade.