Sandringham New Build(s)

You can make a militaristic connection to pretty much all engine names if you try hard enough.

As a moderate royalist this doesn't bother me (there are many worse republics and some nicer monarchies as well as vice-versa. IMO, the precise embodiment of ceremonial power is not an accurate determination of quality of life), but I can see the point.

 

I don't think rememberence was such a thing then. It permeated everywhere and everybody, so big things were not required. I would venture to suggest that festivals of remembrance are tied up with it being less common. Very few people alive today will have known people lost in war, but in the 1920s many people did. Every town, village and factory would have had fresh new war memorials with names of people well-known to the passers-by. We have to work at it now.

 

I think Remembrance was much more important between the wars, and for a while after WW2 - as I understand it, remembrance ceremonies were for a long time at the 11th hour of the 11th day, not just the nearest Sunday. My grandfather (a Home Office civil servant in the late 1930s) told of his office being taken over for the ceremony at the Cenotaph, as it looked down on Whitehall.

While the unknown solider wasn't necessarily the focus of attention, that didn't stop railway companies having "their" remembrance locomotive - there was an excellent article in Backtrack a few years ago about the GCR naming of "Valour", as a company memorial.

 

I agree with the 11th hour point entirely. My post was more about Festivals of Remembrance and the like (caps letters deliberate). When I was a kid (late 80s) we had church parade and armistice day parade with scouts. It was just something we did.

It's a question of emphasis, (I would never suggest that it wasn't taken seriously in those days). To have an engine as war memorial of staff of the railway company fits the idea of a more localised bottom-up view. A "national remembrance" engine is a more recent view of things, which seems to tie with that generation receding into memory. You didn't need a national reminder when it was your brother/neighbour/milkman who died.

 

Nice picture on the Clan thread showing the B17 frames next to the Clan frames.

 

Does anyone know if the two streamlined engines retained their v-fronted cabs after being un clad? Or did they get new flat fronted ones...

 

There are before and after photos of 61659 in the RCTS green book. The later cab was flat fronted.

 

Thanks Mr Standard, i dont have anything on ER 4-6-0's in my wee library.
Suppose if they flush fit the cladding it would have left a gap round the boiler - easy enough to fill but perhaps they had kept the old cabs to one side in case...

 

Sure i read somewhere this group was doing a zoom presentation - did i dream it ? have i missed it ?

 

Yes, you missed it. Last Saturday morning for the NERA, and very good it was as well. It overran by about an hour and they answered many varied questions from a knowledgeable audience. If you join NERA you might be able to watch an edited version on YT.

 

North Eastern Railway association ?

 

That's right, except give an A to association.
Lots of info. on their website.

 

And they gave another Zoom talk this week to the South Essex branch of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.

 

Looking at these three pages from the latest B17 Steam Locomotive Trust magazine, it seems good progress is being made on Spirit of Sandringham. It is particularly pleasing to see the collaboration with the A1 Trust with the use of several patterns from Tornado being loaned for a number of components. I hadn’t appreciated that the diameter of the driving wheels of a B17 and an A1 were the same.

 

Plus they’re benefiting from the expertise that CTL Seal have acquired from erecting the Clan too.

 

I’m very much reminded of the phrase ‘We achieve miracles every day, the impossible takes us a little longer’

 

Did the Sandringhams have divided drive? I though Gresley avoided that.

 

Yes, to keep the axle weights within permitted limits.

Richard.

 

Good encouraging news.
It does seem that a little ecosystem of newbuilds is evolving to everyone's benefit - sharing of parts/expertise etc. The new boys have a way of doing things they can follow.

I wonder if any other newbuild that is still in the pipeline could start making overtures to follow the two in CTL Seal's workshop?

 

Also to get a decent length to the firebox (grate area) but coupled with conjugated valve gear and monoblock cylinder it led to a rough ride.