35011 "GSN" to be restored

Will the KentYeti be travelling behind 35028 on the 22nd? I'd enjoy a chat with another 'black'n'red' afficionado.

 

Good point - I did!

 

i reckon they look better rebuilt

 

No. I had half thought about it. One reason I've loved German main line steam over the past few years has been because the running by "our" pacific, (and some others), has been as good as and often better than anything I timed in the 1970s. 35028 doesn't really get the chance to go like it did in the 1960s, and at present I don't want to travel behind such a magnificent locomotive when it is so restricted. I still may have gone along just for old times sake until I saw the timings for the day! Oh dear. Maybe some decent running from Worting to Salisbury, but there are 2 tsrs on that section. Before that I suspect an awful lot of local line running etc.

I have no doubt there will be some good thrash at times on the 22nd, and I plan to be somewhere to photo that action during the day.

 

Could not agree more!

 

I'd have to disagree, a bit of a pig's breakfast, what with both top-feeds on one side and the dirty great manifold shut off on the other, plus the oval smokebox door on a round smokebox.

 

I kind of think that they look better rebuilt, though that could be because I have never experienced a original.

I would be nice though to see one in as-built form, though would cost arm and a leg to unrebuild one.

 

OK if some of you think an Rebuilt looks like a pigs breakfast. You put 35028 or another Merchant or a lightweight for that next to a Brittania. Then see how much different they actually DONT look!

 

In the case of 35011 it would cost an arm and a leg to restore, full stop. However I wouldn't mind seeing an unrebuilt MN although I doubt it will ever happen.

 

That reminds me, is 6229 finished yet?

Jerry

 

If an unrebuilding were to take place, a rusting hulk like 35011 is with not much of it left, would the sort of engine it would likely stem from. I think it'd be great, I think unrebuil Bulleids are as handsome as rebuilt ones, especially if we could see a second one in Malachite like Blackmoor Vale

 

List of preserved merchant navies and there current status:
# 35005 Canadian Pacific - Operational, i think
# 35006 Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co. - Nearing end of restoration
# 35009 Shaw Savill - In bits and up for sale by owner (Because it's not black)
# 35010 Blue Star - Awaiting restoration
# 35011 General Steam Navigation - Restoration about to begin after years of nothing much happening
# 35018 British India Line - God knows
# 35022 Holland-America Line - Being used as spares but restoration not ruled out by owner
# 35025 Brocklebank Line - Under Restoration
# 35027 Port Line - Under overhaul
# 35028 Clan Line - Operational
# 35029 Ellerman Lines - Sectioned
A third of the class is still with us to this day but only three have run in preservation and only two others are anywhere near going to be in the near future. One is never going to run preservation and the others might be restored but not for a good long while.
To be honest i think there are enough examples for one to be turned back into the streamlined version. It would for all the bits that have to be taken away and added lighten the engine and show them as they appeared in SR and early BR days.
There is of course another factor that would support streamlining one and that is simply the fact that joe public might be more willing to give money to a restreamlining project than to a normal rebuilt version because it will recreate something unique that hasn't been seen since the last of the class was rebuilt by BR.

The argument is of course pointless because it is the owners decision what he does or does not want to do with his engine but it is a interesting argument none the less.

 

I'm with those who prefer the MNs as rebuilds. Lovely looking machines. But maybe if I'd seen an original.................

Oh, and re the status of 35005. The MHR loco roster a few days did show it as booked to work with 73096 this coming weekend. Was thinking about going down there, but the weather forecast is now rubbish.

 

I didn't realise what a furore my thinking aloud might cause. :-#

:-k Excuse me! Air smoothing.

 

The rebuilt Bulleids are amongst my favourite classes, aesthetically speaking. Especially looking through a long telephoto lens at one, near head on, it really does look the doggy's danglers, IMHO anyway...!

 

"Streamlining", "Air-Smoothing" or whatever, but according to Fry the reason for the "casing" was nothing to do with lower air resistance at speed, it was simply to facilitate the locomotives being able to travel through a carriage washing-plant!!.

46118

 

I would just like to wish the restorers well with 35011. Many years ago this would have been thought of as a job for nutcases, like 71000 was. But now nothing seems impossible what with 71000's outstanding overhaul, 60163 and the other new builds.
As to whether it's de-converted it's up to the owners. What would be the merits of this though? It would be nice to look at but would it be a pig to maintain and repair? Why were they rebuilt in the first place? Perhaps just a cosmetic de-conversion could be carried out. That's just my opinion anyway.

 

@ KentYeti: Off-topic, I know, but as another "Liebhaber der Schwarz mit roten Räder", I'd be interested to know which is the 01.10 (012) with which you were involved? As far as I can recall, 075 is in Holland, 066 is in Ulm, and 100 is burnt-out (temporarily, I hope).

 

012 100-4! Operated by the Rendsburger Eisenbahnfreunde of which I am, (maybe still), the only non German member. She's now been sitting at Neumunster two and a half years into a new boiler and without agreement with her owner's, German Railways Museum, to run again. Or, as I understand it, without an agreement that makes it commercially possible to run her. I believe she is still in tip top condition, just waiting for the oil burners to be lit!

Getting back to 35011. I have always seen a great similarity between the German 01.10 locos and the rebuilt MNs, (OK, UK purists will say that is rubbish), which is why I love the German locos so much. A three cylinder, non airsmoothed/streamlined pacific loco that can haul heavy loads at speed and makes a wonderful noise when being thrashed into speed! Especially as 87 mph was permitted sometimes in the preservation era, as were footplate rides: I did both big Kiel Canal bridges on the footplate as well as a wonderful thrash over the bridge to Puttgarden, leaning out of the drivers side of the cab to hear the roar, (you can't pick up the exhaust beat easily on the footplate of an oil fired loco), as we raced up to 83 mph.

Now that would be another idea for 35011. Cosmetic restoration as a "Flat Top" plus oil firing to make it a loco that can operate when the great heats return with fire risks etc!

 

There's only one thing looks wise that jars a bit with me on the rebuilds - when the driving axle is on bottom dead centre the return crank is angled towards the cab rather than the front of the loco due to their having outside admission valves - it just looks a bit odd on a large loco although fairly common on industrials.

Jerry