Class 22 Project

I just received my latest copy of "Icon", the magazine of the Ivatt Diesel Re-creation Society. It mentions on its front page that the group behind a new build of a class 22 has closed down its project.

I wasn't even aware of this group - was anyone else?

 

It was mentioned on here a very long while ago, from memory, but not a lot has appeared anywhere since.
Link to their website..... http://project22society.co.uk/

 

Memory is scratchy but I thought that an original engine survived from a 63xx which was going to form the basis of this reconstruction. Not sure where that engine has ended up if that was the case however?

 

Wasn't that possibly the engine that ended up in a container that's painted BR blue? Certain it lives at the bo'ness & kinneil railway.

However nothing has ever come of the project, guessing funding for it & costs of manufacturing parts.

 

As someone who is involved in the £££ figures for bus restoration, I wouldn't actually want to be involved in attempting to restore something like an operational diesel loco! One of our potential restoration jobs must be around £750K by now....

 

That's covered in this month's Railway Magazine - I'll dig it out later and quote it but yes, the engine survives.

 

From The Railway Magazine;

What I didn't know is that an example had been negotiated with BR to purchase but it was scrapped in error.

 

Thanks for sharing. I had a vague memory that D6332 was scrapped in error at Swindon and another loco was saved offered in-lieu? D821 perhaps?
The engine block at Bo'ness maybe the one that was saved from D6332 during this time?

Maybe @D6332found of this parish can confirm further?

 

D6319

 

It was indeed D821 Greyhound and as @TonyW has posted, D6319 was earmarked for preservation as it had not long had an overhaul.

 

Thanks for correcting my memories. It's prompted doing some follow up googling whereby I found some photographs taken at Bo'ness : https://realrail.smugmug.com/Trains/NBL-Type-2-Power-Unit/

Seems said engine also ran with D838 Rapid although it's not clear if it last ran with that or D6332 before onward sale? The only image of D6319 I could find at Swindon taken in the con yard shows it's power unit already removed.
Over the years I've chanced upon a number of 'spares' from Hydraulics (Warship Bogies at NYMR labelled D806/D818) (Western Bogies at Tyseley & Swindon) making me ponder what other major parts were saved?

 

Well, if anyone was going to take this project forward, transmissions would be useful.

What was it about NBL stuff that made it so seemingly terrible? Okay, they were scrapped at the wrong time for enthusiasts (see also LMS 10000/1) but no NBL Type 2 survived.

 

So d6332 engine is seperate from the abandoned project22. Someone would have to give me a free transmission to take d6332 any futther!¡ it's happy as an engine.

 

The D63xx were very unreliable and underpowered and like all diesel hydraulics very heavy on maintenance. I rather think NBL got a bad name because they were trying to build something that was flawed in concept while transitioning from steam to diesel loco building. As we know, this ended in failure. A common feature of the depots for diesel hydraulics was masses of oil drums and pools of oil and coolant. Attempting to create a new one would be, if nothing else, an interesting exercise but the project would require a lottery win for finance.

 

I’m not convinced this is fair on the diesel hydraulics, while it discounts the failures of NBL in other categories too. Sadly, I think NBL were simply incapable of making the transition away from steam.

 

I read somewhere that where the technology was licenced from Germany the measurements were in metric and NBL converted them into imperial with the consequence loss in build quality due to imprecise conversion.

But in any event there is no reason to suppose that a steam engine manufacturer can successfully transition to diesel manufacture.

 

That has the whiff of bovine ordure to me.

 

I believe it’s true, but of one engine design only.

 

For a company deemed to produce deficient engines, I'm thinking it's all the more remarkable that the engine from D6332 still runs fifty-plus years after used on the rails.

Two NBL ex BR shunters D2767 & D2774 exist in Scotland and have run in preservation. I have no view on their reliability or lack-of, though.

 

I believe the issue was less the power unit, and more the wider assembley of the locomotives.