Flying Scotsman

Link - please ?

 

Had a look at the updates. Most promising. She's going to be the most sorted locomotive on the mainline no doubt - even a new fabricated smokebox saddle is going to be, made from the measurements of the original. It's been a long and arduous road but 4472 is getting nearer the finishing line.

 

Ian Riley runs his own forum, known as "The Works". I'm not sure whether you have to sign up to be able to read some/all of the topics. The 4472 thread is under "From The Works". The latest pictures show the new smokebox saddle fabrication, looking very much like the original casting.

 

Okay, I've been asleep at the back. Just when was a new smokebox saddle deemed necessary? Is part of the new frame/|cylinder sandwich, or was it just wasted away?

 

i should imagine that like 99% of 4472, it was life expired, or had been damaged by the increased stresses placed on it by the converting of the A3 to a super A3, i'm sure that if it didnt need replacement it wouldnt have been replaced , how old was the casting ? over time castings can develop cracks, add on this any vibration through the engine , and replacement could have been needed.

 

Tried to find Ian Riley's forum but link not working

 

http://www.intheworks.co.uk/forum/index.php?sid=2d9f5a63b396f26652334aef0fecff15

 

Its been mentioned before, but the only thing that grates is that most of the press releases relating to 60103's rebuild repeatedly use the word 'iconic', as though it justifies everything that has happened, good and bad. Its a bit like James Callaghan's 'what crisis' attitude in the late 1970s as Britain teetered on the brink.

 

Iconic is used not only about Flying Scotsman but so many other things these days it has lost most of its meaning. Its bit like unique in that respect.

 

Too true.

 

How else would you describe 4472 mind? She was an icon of the age and for many growing up from the 40s/50s onwards and into the present day, she is still an icon and is instantly recognisable. She pretty much fills the brief for being iconic - speed record holder of old, world record holder for longest distance travelled non stop, etc etc etc…she deserves that word, she IS an icon.

That should not justify the wastage and the problems, absolutely. I agree with you 100% on that and also agree her status as an icon shouldn't be used to justify things going wrong. However what more can be done at this stage? She's on the final run to steaming (I've said this before I know but come on - surely now…?) so let's enjoy that and remember that the various reports published may have prevented similar problems occurring elsewhere or in future. Some positives I hope from that at least.

 

Great progress. I had a little laugh to myself though when the report said sole survivor of her class. Surely she is now classed as a replica Class A3?

 

I wouldn't describe anything as 'iconic' in this day and age for it is unnecessary hyperbole. I'm coming from the angle that it essentially did precisely what it was designed to do (admittedly after various modifications), and that if any other locomotive was given the same opportunities as 60103, then they would have been accorded the same degree of hype. What I am trying to say is that I don't think its necessarily a good thing to measure an entire era against a single object. Yes, there was glamour, but concentrating on this risks hiding the hard graft and the socio-economic elements prevalent in railway history.

 

Basically. If they'd thought about it in advance, they could have kept all the broken bits with cracks in and stick them together so the NRM could have 4472 permanently on display at the same time as operating her on the mainline...
Given that it is usually the frames which define a loco's identity, how much of them have been cut away now?

 

Let's not go there ...

Tom

 

I don't disagree with your view at all - however, if it had not been 4472 but another locomotive I think we'd be having the same conversation about that locomotive instead. For whatever reason, 4472 was the poster boy and to be fair to the locomotive, since LNER and BR days, she has done a lot of things which other locomotives simply couldn't do - never mind mechanically, it was for the love of this specific locomotive.

We shouldn't begrudge success where it occurs and I like to think in 4472 her successes are deserved (and her misfortunes are undeserved for the locomotive but perhaps have been a long time coming for the way that locomotive has been treated).

 

With the amount of frames removed, will it come back as 447 Flyi Scotsm?

 

P

60097 Humorist would be more appropriate... Or hows about we go the whole hog and do a Thompson rebuild on it a'la Great Northern?

 

Oi! Wash out your mouth with soap and water. It's people like you what cause unrest.