Current and Proposed New-Builds

Got to say, I am absolutely sold!
What style.

 

I would love to say 5551 will be ready in 2026, but im not sure thats possible. Financially it is, but the man power available at Tyseley probably wont permit it (they cant just poor all their resources at us because we want it, they have other contracts/work too)

The boiler is due to be completed this year, by around july.

At Tyseley there are a kit of parts ready to assemble, but we are also waiting for parts from other contractors, such as Ian Riley, who you may have seen has had a big move onto his new works (looks great), so its often a case of having to wait your turn which can put delays into things, not anyone's fault. No different to your car breaking down and asking the garage when they can do it, sometimes they already have work on.

That being said we are as keen as ever to progress as quickly as possible so our members get to see it.

 

Not true. There is a fine collection of a dozen such examples in the Cite du Train, including examples built by Buddicom, Stephonson, Hallette, Cail, Fives-Lille, Schneider, Sharp-Stewart and SACM. Some of the 121 Forquenots, designed in 1864, lasted until 1945, sixty years after the death of their designer. When more modern locomotives were used as a possible replacement, the Forquenots were found to be their equal.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cité_du_train



France's first four cylinder compound, originally a 1111 prototype but rebuilt as a 2111, Built by SACM in 1885 and designed by De Glehn and Du Bousquet, the front pair of drivers are driven by the outside HP cylinders and the rear drivers by the inside LP cylinders.



A Forquenot type 121 in service in the 1930s!

 

Don't look very British............

Cheerz,

Alan

 

Where did you mention British? Most Cramptons were French!

 

Mr Crampton was british
See https://www.national-preservation.c...ileage-in-service.1417062/page-3#post-2527794

Just like art museums that lend each other Rembrandts,etc State railway museums could do worse than likewise.
Danish state Railway Museum have a Stephenson 2-4-0 from 1868 .Litra B.

Must have been best Danish steam locomotive investment ever.
https://www.jernbanen.dk/Fotos/Damp/DSB_B45_1962.jpg
https://www.jernbanen.dk/Fotos/Damp/DSB_B26_1925.jpg

 

In British terms, the real dark ages is 1850 to 1870. There are a surprisingly large number of survivors and replicas from before then, and from 1870
onwards you get ever-increasing numbers. But from 1850 to 1870 there are only 11 standard gauge locomotive survivors in the UK (*) and most of those aren’t really typical of front line motive power of the day.

I put this article together about ten years ago when the Bluebell was looking at a Craven locomotive as a new build; it gives a run down of what still survives from that era.



(*) In addition, there are a number of locos of British design / manufacture from that period preserved abroad.

Tom

 

Almost the complete period of Archibald Sturrock's term as the Locomotive Superintendent of the GNR.

Incidentally, it was a GNR 'Crampton' that took the first train out of the new King's Cross station...

https://www.gnrsociety.com/locomotive-class/cramptons/

 

Having seen various Cramptons on the continent they were successful and long lived and the French one is one of the most beautiful early locomotives in the world. But then I aspire to an A6 Whitby tank!

 

A puzzling feature of that particular design is that the crank shaft in the middle underneath the boiler was at the same level as the driving axle, and thus in the rebuilding could be changed to become the driving axle. That seems to defeat the basic idea of Cramptons, which was to allow very large driving wheels by having the driving axle behind the firebox where it could be higher than if it had to fit under the boiler.

Edit for clarity: obviously the crank shaft had to fit under the boiler, but the driving axle could have been higher, allowing larger driving wheels.

 

And a splendid aspiration that is too

 

Though aesthetically a B15 in NER green is probably the most handsome and yet little known beast, but these are very subjective points, wonder what everyone elese thinks?

 

Prefer a NER G/LNER D23 myself. Beautiful proportions,

 

Perhaps Triang might have something to do with it but personally the B12/3 is possibly the most graceful engine ever to run in the UK and thats from a S&D enthusiast!

 

On the Crampton, I slightly agree with @The Green Howards on this. I like 19th century stuff and agree that this 1850-1870 period is badly represented. However, to me, they were too much of an oddity, which were much more associated with European railways than Britain. We seem to have come to the conclusion very quickly that they weren't much good and abandoned the design. I liked that suggestion of the Cravens 2-4-0 and if you look on Transports of Delight, there's all sorts of interesting engines which disappeared long before the grouping, so lots to pick from that would 1, fill in this mid Victorian gap and 2, be of some practical use on a heritage line. I think 2-4-0s and 0-6-0s would be the ones to look at

 

Rigid frame 2-4-0s preferably! I'm a fan of Archibald Sturrock's work (and if it wasn't for that pesky MP Denison, "The Plant" would have been in Peterborough and not Doncaster!) but so much of his work was modified by Patrick Stirling it was lost even before preservation was a 'thing'.

I rather liked the look of his 2-4-0s such as the 264 series, which lasted long enough to be given an Ivatt classification of B6.

 

Please no more 0-6-0's! We have enough in Preservation, although to be fair the 6 coupled has been the 'go to' design for the humble freight locomotive for a very long time. More 2-4-0 or 0-4-2's would be nice as would some more 'Singles', a type vastly underrepresented in active form, a Jenny Lind as Tom has hankered after, would make an excellent subject for a 'New Build' although of course this is all likely to be WIBN territory.

 

Ramsbottom was great.
Father of split piston ring.
No car or aircraft engines without.
A Lady of the Lake?

 

Seems to me for a first pass at a distinctive mid Victorian type its hard to go past the Bloomer, and if that can't find funds to completion its unlikely something de novo will.

 

With one(?) new build and one(?) rebuild having been completed in 2024 and a few more likely to be completed this year or next, now is not an entirely silly time to speculate about what else might be built. But we clearly have many more WIBNs than there would be resources for. For any new project to have the slightest chance it will need a very convincing justification and a very competent team.

The Bloomer would be an excellent example from that period, and Tyseley have (had?) a plan to operate it locally. Completing it would not even need much more funding. But they have more than enough work with other projects for themselves or others, so they are not trying to raise funds for it. If it isn't finished when I die they will get a small bequest specifically for that project.