Tornado

An enthusiastic post from DB Cargo UK. <BJ>

''When the past comes face-to-face with the future!
This week our colleagues had the pleasure of welcoming the prestigious Flying Scotsman to Toton TMD for tyre-turning!
And our cohort of young engineering apprentices couldn't wait to get up close and personal with the magnificent steam engine while it was on site!
A rare opportunity for them to see one of the historic icons of the railway in the raw!''

 

Shouldn't that be on the Flying Scotsman thread?

Dave B

 

Traction engines throw in a load more variables, OK they only use perhaps 2-3 tons of water per day, but with the driver also firing the steam pressure can vary considerably, cold water is often pumped in, so thermal shock is bound to be greater and steam can be raised from cold in a matter of 1&1/2 to 2 hours, now lets get to construction, firstly there's no frames on a TE so all the weight is carried by the boiler, give a thought for the throat plate and it's rivets, the side plates of the outer firebox wrapper carry on about 2' above the boiler barrell to carry the crankshaft, they also extend backwards about 18 inches to carry the gearing and rear axle, which is often unsprung, if the wheels are on strakes then they get a hammer blow every six inches of travel, and all this is transfered through the stays, the cylinder(s) are on top of the boiler where a dome would be on a loco, running at about 180 rpm, 3 beats forward and 3 beats backward per second. Lets look further, grate area of about 6 square feet, water legs about 3" how long are the stays?, firebox only just above a the centre line of the barrell, water glasses at about knee level.

I've only heartd of one TE with a copper box, it was owned by a boiler works who fitted copper box I think post WW2, eventually a hydraulic test collapsed the tubeplate off of the tubes, re-boxed in steel abouit 35 years ago, still in action

 

Whoops [BJ]

 

All LNER 4-6-2s look the same!

 

You are on very dangerous ground there!

 

This needs to reported to the "Coppers"...

 

Especially as some of them keep changing what they look like...

 

Re the side-on third photo down of 60103 above. Was this photo taken with a very wide-angle lens as the funnel seems to have moved back relative to the cylinders and the cab front and roof moved forward?

 

Possibly not quite a traction engine, but ploughing engines were not dissimilar and because the people crewing them were paid a bonus per acre ploughed they were utterly caned. They also got whatever water was available on the farm, interestingly they were known to be washed out hot - one engine of the pair providing the hot water for the other.

Compared to locomotives the boilers and their fireboxes were small which I think is probably an important thing: certainly since the Hunslet boilers in the early 1970s - both for Linda and Blanche and for the double Fairlies - the FfestiniogRailway has generally used steel for its inner fireboxes. Also until recently the only run I know of new boilers being built brand new for locomotives were from Israel Newton for LBSCR Terriers with steel fireboxes but only a grate area of 11 sq ft. (The misadventures substituting steel for copper in BR 2-6-4 tank engines were around and above a 27 sq ft grate - over two and a half times the size of a Terrier and the pressure 225 v 150 psi.)


[/QUOTE]

 

i must be going blind then! An A4 looks the same as a A3, really!!

 

I presume that also includes 71000 Duke of Gloucester ?

 

Oh well. So much for GWR-based sarcasm!

 

If you were to take the casing off an A4, you would see a lot of similarities between the A3, and A4, but the same could be said of all LNER 4-6-2'S there is a clear design linage going back to the first designs put down by Nigel Gresley, the A1, A2, and A3 all share certain design elements,

 

A streak streaking.

 

Good job its not painted green then otherwise there would be much confusion

 

Given the amount of work still needing to be done plus the necessary approvals I think it very unlikely that Tornado will be hauling its first train on 29 June. I wonder how late the A1 Trust will leave it before making the announcement this time?

Also, I wonder who will be operating the Aberdonians and providing the rolling stock?

 

Ahem. Not quite all of them.




PS: Images stolen from https://www.lner.info/locos/A/a.php

 

Always had a soft spot for these. Handsome looking things.

 

UK locomotive history might have looked very different had Raven got the top job on the LNER in 1923 rather than Gresley!

Tom