Isle of Man diesel "Viking"

Anyone got an update status report on this loco?

 

Yup, status: hideous.

 

Why oh Why didn't they go to Alan Keef or Boston Lodge?

 

serious enquiry peeps...it's not the new one I'm enquiring of. No 17 Viking.

 

Pics from last August here (not mine):
http://philsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/holiday-pics-viking.html
Seems it's just in storage.

 

excellent find, thanks. Probably that is the status quo

 

Because even if you replaced the obsolete engine and transmission with something you can actually get spares for, the loco isn't suitable for what the IMR want to do with it. It is too slow and under powered for passenger trains, and thrashing it around has had adverse effects on the track in the past. Also if it was rebuilt no doubt the press would have a field day after the IMR spent a fortune on a new loco, despite the fact that No17 isn't really comparable to No21.

Tim

 

how slow is it? How many coaches could it comfortably haul?

 

According to the IOMSRSA website, it's in store in the in-fill shed at Douglas.


http://iomsrsa.com/douglas-terminus/1352-inf-ls

It wasn't visible last week from passing trains, though it looked liked No. 1 Sutherland was. I counted 10 steam locos visible during my visit - of the remaining 6, two are sealed at the back of the carriage shed, 1 is privately preserved in the island, and the other 3 have been scrapped or are in pieces. Even the County Donegal railcars were visible one day when the carriage shed was empty. But no sign of Viking .

 

Unless it's been moved very recently 'Viking' is still stored unserviceable in the 'fill in' shed. Actually only one IMR loco, No2 'Derby' has been scrapped although its pony truck survives. The frames of No7 'Tynwald' were removed to Southwold a couple of years ago but all the others are still here. Of the locos currently dismantled No11 is awaiting the return of its boiler from the SVR and No15 is awaiting work on its foundation ring. I don't think a decision has been made regarding No1 but it has been suggested that, if there is no funding for a full restoration, (the boiler is life expired) that it might be cosmetically restored. As No1 'Sutherland' (and the IMR) will be 150 in 2023 it would be nice to think that, in the next year or two, a plan will emerge to celebrate this event with a full restoration - one can dream! Hope this helps.
Ray.

 

Sorry, what I meant was rather than order the new loco from the USA there are a number of UK firms that could have come up with something much better

 

IIRC when the first tendering process closed the only 'offer' was for a refurbished Romanian built Lyd. Bearing in mind the poor reputation of Romanian material/engineering the decision not to proceed with the purchase was the only sensible decision taken during the whole 'new diesel' fiasco. At some point the decision was made to offer the contract to a U.S. company which specialised in refurbishing standard gauge 'switchers'. Unfortunately the 'powers that be' decided to ignore the recommendations of the loco dept. on several key points which resulted in a loco that has been unreliable and has spent a lot of time out of service for repairs including a new engine. The original idea was that No21 would be an 'instant start-up' Thunderbird to rescue a failed steam loco. Ironically, a few weeks ago, the 140yr old 'Loch' had to be steamed to rescue its broken down new stablemate on an evening diner train - the incident even made the local press!
IMHO the 300k+ would have been better spent on repairs to the existing fleet.
Ray.

 

Well, AFAIK The Austrians have some nice NG Diesels - could they have been asked?

 

They should also have looked to Australia which has a couple of thousand miles of 2 foot gauge in Queensland for the sugar cane. Some of their trains can be 750m long with massive loads and have to run medium distances at decent speeds (sugar cane goes off in a few hours) so the loco's are utilitarian and reliable. From what I recall there are something like 300 two foot diesel hydraulic loco's in use, some being 30-40 tonne BO-BO's. The name Walker rings a bell as the main maker or more likely re-manufacturer

 

Useful info, it's just that IoM is 3' gauge


Keith

 

I'm happy to be corrected but I don't believe much 'shopping around' was done. As Keith says there is not much 3' (or 900mm) around in the U.K. or mainland Europe and the fairly restricted loading gauge excludes much of the available 3' g. stock available in the Americas. Unfortunately 'the powers that be' insisted on a double ended rather than a centre cab or hood unit. If I understand correctly the leading cab design restricted airflow to the engine and caused overheating problems when "the Cabbage" was first introduced but some remedial work was carried out including fitting a new engine by a crew flown in from the U.S. Since then there have been a series of more minor problems but it has been more reliable of late. To be honest I've lost interest in the whole sad affair.
Ray.

 

I think that Pesmo was referring to the 3'-6" gauge and even standard gauge locos that have been converted to 2'-0" gauge for use on the extensive sugar cane lines in Eastern Australia. Walkers are indeed one of the main companies involved in building and re-building of these locomotives. It is obvious that a conversion to 3'-0" gauge would be more than possible. However, theses conversions are still physically very large locomotives, as below:



It does look like they are defying the laws of physics with such large locos on such a narrow gauge, but as Pesmo mentioned, there are around 300 of these machines working in Australia, so they should be considered a very successful conversion.

Cheers

Alan

 

There are two sisters of Viking in Germany, as Viking they both came from a mining railway in Helmstedt, Germany: http://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?108,7404579

marshall 5: "a refurbished Romanian built Lyd. Bearing in mind the poor reputation of Romanian material/engineering the decision not to proceed with the purchase was the only sensible decision taken during the whole 'new diesel' fiasco."

Nonsense! In Saxony EVERY Narrow Gauge line (75 cm gauge) is using refurbished romanian Diesel Locomotives (Lyd2/L30H and Lxd2/L45H) as backup, with new engines and held in good maintenance these are perfectly reliable locomotives, I've never heard that any of these locomotives ever had a breakdown.

Philipp

 

Nonsense! In Saxony EVERY Narrow Gauge line (75 cm gauge) is using refurbished romanian Diesel Locomotives (Lyd2/L30H and Lxd2/L45H) as backup, with new engines and held in good maintenance these are perfectly reliable locomotives, I've never heard that any of these locomotives ever had a breakdown.

Philipp[/QUOTE]

And having seen one rescue a dead 2-10-2t + packed train of 6 or 7 coaches on the Fichtelberg line a year or so back in a snowstorm, I don't think they would have had any trouble with anything the IOM would be likely to chuck at them!

 

Apologies that I am following this off topic, but I think it is wrong to give the impression that there are 300 of those massive conversions working on the Aussie sugar lines. I suspect, and am open to be corrected, that 300 represents the total of all locos in the industry, from small 4wDH to massive ex 3'6" gauge bogie locos.

Not that that is to argue against the point that if the Australians are experienced with these conversions then perhaps the Isle of Man could have looked to them rather than an American firm with no experience (AIUI) in such conversions.