New builds - how many will ever really work?

And when there is a representative of every lost class what will we build then?

 

Some more track would be a good for a start.....

 

and then some rolling stock...

 

... And then a series of 1:1 scale replicas of several demolished railway works eg. Swindon (due to the amount that has gone), Crewe, Darlington and Doncaster. Or maybe not. But the mind boggles as to how far new-build 'heritage' schemes can potentially go...

 

This will be a task for our grandchildren and will not concern us.

 

... And I don't mean the latter part of my previous post in a negative context. It is truly amazing to see that it is now possible to go beyond the remit of preserving what's already there and start constructing things from scratch. As has been stated time and time again, there is a need to reinvent and look to new areas to attract greater interest. Whilst restoring existing locomotives and infrastructure is inherently fundamental to us, it does not seem to have the same sense of intensity and looking to the future that a new-build project has the ability to convey. The only risk as I see it is whether or not people become blase about it, and stop making it happen.

 

Resurrecting an old thread, but this seems the most appropriate "new builds in general" topic.

There's an interesting photo on the Bluebell website (Blog: What's New at the Bluebell Railway?) - the extension frames of the new build / rebuild Standard class 2 have been welded to the original frames. So it seems as of today, 78059 is no longer, and 84030 is born - in a kind of figurative way.

There is a newsletter with more information about recent progress, but written before the frames were welded together, here: Bluebell Railway - Locomotive Works News - 84030

Tom (Bluebell Railway rapid response unit; currently part of the extremely unpleasant minority)

 

Many thanks for the update and links. The 12th Newsletter on 84030 makes very interesting reading and shows the tremendous amount of work that has gone on over the last few years despite there being very little evidence of progress on the ground - to an ignorant bystander like me. This locomotive is about to "make its debut" so to speak, at least as something resembling an 84xxx tank and I'm sure it won't be too long before we will see it looking much more than a kit of parts. Something else to look forward to from the Bluebell Railway!

 

This photo says it all, ie A tank engine frame.

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/b...030-pics/frames_welded_tonys0231_20dec11h.jpg

 

It always amazes me what can be achieved. They've been beavering away without terribly much publicity, and all of a sudden, they produce the modified frames. Well done to all concerned, and hopefully this will raise the profile of this project even further.

 

How about a proposed design that were never actually built ;-)

 

Na, before they get there there's also all the various design variations and rebuilds to deal with: The GWS 4-6-0 or 4-4-2 Saint is just scratching the surface of the possibilities: there were probably a dozen significantly different configurations of Dean Single for instance.

 

Ooh, the Adams 8'2" single driver express 4-2-2 please Think outside cylinder bogie single like the preserved Stirling single, but with Adams styling of boiler, chimney, cab etc, somewhat similar to the existing LSWR T3.

The drawing office worked up a design and went as far as arranging to borrow a Midland single to assess its performance. (The LSWR and MR were on generally good terms). However, it emerged that this loco was severely heavier on its driving axle than the reported weight, and the civil engineer refused to allow it to run. He also required Adams to ensure an axle load of less than 17.5 tons on his proposed design, and at that point the design was abandoned as Adams didn't feel he could comply with that restriction.

Probably an evolutionary dead end and hardly likely to find much regular work these days, but such a beautiful looking machine!

Tom

 

Or the proposed Great Western 2-10-2 tank engine, with the standard 4'7.5" wheel diameter, with over 42,000lbs tractive effort. What a beast of a loco, if you could run it anywhere

 

Theres only one sensible mainline design that fits this criteria, and its not a 4-8-2 or a 4-6-4

 

the proposed but not built Stanier 4mt 4-6-0 perhaps? You can bet your boots that would have been the prototype for the BR std equivalent and would be a useful little engine everywhere

 

Er, I think the previous was referring to the proposed class that he has as his user name

 

Getting back to the subject, the answer to the question has to be the ones that are rebuilds of currantly availible parts , the saint for example , has most of the parts availible off the GW spares list you could say, but would it be a saint, no because none were saved, its a hall, given a retro rebuild into saint spec, undoing what was done when a saint was the base for the hall class , nothing wrong with that of course,its a good idea , where you can use bits of other engines , the more you can use, the better chance of success .

to me the only all new rebuild that will work has got to be Tornado, and how long did that take, its very unlikily that anyone else, who hasnt got the financial backing and project management right will succeed

 

I quoted the post I was replying too.

 

What about the Patriot? G5? 82045? these three are all doing extremely well and are all NEW