The 9F as a heritage railway locomotive

A number of the posts above bring us back to the central question, covered many times before, about what a heritage railway is for.
Some might say the aim is to preserve/restore a historic line and run it as efficiently as possible for people to travel on, in which case use diesel railcars.
If the aim is as above but it must be steam hauled, arrange for a batch of BR tank engines to be restored/built and hired out to individual railways from a specialist engineering centre.
If the aim is to preserve/restore/run what has managed to survive, rejoice in what we have, find the best work you can for it and forget about being sensible.
Other options are available.

 

Addiction is not purely chemically induced.

 

It seems to me that it is a case of all things in moderation.

There are a number of lines where the capacity of a 9F can be useful - NYMR & WSR spring to mind, or in the case of the GCR where a large loco is needed to set the scene.

Also of course there is the desire to see a particularly iconic & significant loco in operation

BUT perhaps not too much, its the sort of loco that while you might want to get the most out of it when in service it might spend longer in the repair queue than a Class 3 or 4

That seems to me to be a sensible balance

 

Lets not forget that a 9F is a surprisingly compact loco and on the Big Chuffer Chart its around the same as larger 4-6-0 's, and smaller than a pacific...

 

Stop being a bloody fool Paul

 

Temper temper!

 

I don't think that Smallbrook Junction would be a problem, Wootton on the other hand is a tight fit for an Ivatt tank so you would need 9F power to move the buffer stops back.

PS - Didn't some 9Fs have air pumps for operating the doors on wagons?

 

It would be good to see and hear a 9F taking a train up the bank to Ipstones at the CVR but I suspect the tight curves on the bank may be too tight.

 

Just my opinion, but I think when David Shepherd sold Black Prince to the NNR he was happy to see it go to a railway that would care for it well, use it regularly, but not need to thrash it.

Though it must have been hard for him to sell his beloved 9F

 

Yes, those used on the Tyne Dock - Consett Iron Ore trains.

Re: Wootton. Remove the buffer stops, hire a snow plough, couple in front of the 9F, job done ...

Tom

 

Out of gauge. Even the two Ivatt tanks had to have their chimneys taken off and the shorter early type fitted.

 

Exactly. Unfortunately a certain person continually fails to understand this.

 

Yes,Please see my photo attached taken at 54 B Tyne Dock loco,04/08/1957

 

Appleby; 16.04.88.

 

Think what you are missing is enthusiasm. The passengers must be enthused enough to take a trip which is not that different from and probably less comfortable than that offered by mainline rail on the quieter backwaters, the supporters must be enthused enough to open their wallets and subsidise the line, and the volunteers must be enthused enough to staff it.
So ultimately everything about heritage railways relies on what will deliver enthusiasm, because without that the whole exercise is patently ridiculous.

 

30th September 1978, Appleby.

'The Lord Bishop', commemorative train in his memory. 92220, 35028 & 4472 all present on the day.

 

Interesting discussion on this thread about the relative merits of larger versus smaller engines for heritage railway use. Given that different posters place varying weights on the factors involved, the debate is obviously not going to reach a conclusion.

A couple of thoughts from me. The G&WSR tends to prefer the larger locos, but I do recall a commentary (possibly on one of the G&WSR's own blogs) in praise of the small prairie 5542, which had been visiting the line and was able to do the job of the larger engines but more economically. It should of course be pointed out that a 7-coach train on the relatively flat Cheltenham-Broadway line is not the challenge that it would be on hillier routes.

Secondly, an observation that the GWR & LMS built small and medium-power steam engines in very large numbers during the Grouping period, a practice continued to some extent in the early BR period. That created a large pool of relatively modern locos that helped to get standard-gauge heritage railways established in the UK. If standard gauge heritage railways had developed to the same extent in Continental Europe,they would probably have had to rely much more than us on large locos, and especially 2-10-0s (or 2-8-2s in the case of France). Most Continental railways seem to have built only modest numbers of small engines post-1920, no doubt partly the result of electrification projects and early use of diesel railcars. Whereas huge numbers of heavy freight locos were built during both world wars and after (and not just by the Reichsbahn).

EDIT: An early 1960s book commented that in West Germany at the time, Class 50 2-10-0s were found on branch and local passenger duties - simply because there were so many of them!

 

Of course, if you wanted a proper challenge for a 9F in preservation, you'd relay the Ilfracombe line - a little bit of 1-in-36 up to Morthoe would be a sound to stir the soul!

 

Could just get one on a stone train at Merehead again!

 

Yes for sure ,it made 34025 cough on the Devon Belle ,summer 1952.Summer weather was much the same as now.