If you register, you can do a lot more. And become an active part of our growing community. You'll have access to hidden forums, and enjoy the ability of replying and starting conversations.

New built replicas.

Discussion in 'Steam Traction' started by 50044 Exeter, Jan 12, 2010.

  1. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    Have to respond to that before posting a photo of the one loco I would so love to see built as a replica. And that will surprise many here!

    Anyway, 35030. First run behind that loco 4 September 1963, last run 15th June 1967. Total of 2754 miles behind that loco. I am still sorting through my recently recovered timing logs but I think that may be a Merchant Navy I never had an outstanding run behind! September 1963 saw me time my three worst ever runs on the down ACE behind that machine, (MN runs that is, I had an appalling run behind 34109 once). Sid Burton driving and my notes don't reveal if he told me there was problem with the loco that week. Must have been.

    On December 22nd 1965 Gordon Porter and Tommy Moult had it on the 17.30 ex Waterloo. A heavy 12 car train and during the "Basingstoke speed trials". Good run to Woking and would have gone over MP 31 at 70 mph but for the start of checks all the way to the Basing stop. Still picked up 8 mins on the schedule to Basingstoke. 88 mph down Roundwood bank after the Basingstoke stop, with a time less than 20 minutes from Basing to the Winchester stop: very good indeed for a 450 ton train. At Southampton Gordon told us the loco wasn't steaming well. He'd have gone a lot faster if it was!

    His driving style was to "thrash the bo...cks" off the locos on the basis that if he was ever late anywhere it would be some other bug.ers fault and not his! Not sure how that approach would go down in today's railway, as he did run rather early sometimes. Also not sure how the Basingstoke speed trials would be received by today's railway. Some of the drivers decided to show that steam could equal or beat the proposed electric schedules. I'll say no more as brother Don and Dave, "dropgrate" Wilson who was a fireman at the time, are writing an article on that at the moment.
     
  2. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    OK. My choice of a replica loco to be built.

    Route availability a bit limited: St Pauls, (Minneapolis) to Chicago. Load limit? Very high!

    But the six locos of this class, the Milwaukee Road F7 4-6-4s ,set standards on passenger train running that no other loco in the world equalled. The only locos that got very close were the 4 Milwaukee Road Atlantics that also handled the famed Hiawatha trains on the same route.

    The F7s worked the fastest ever start to stop schedule for steam anywhere in the world: 78.3 miles from Sparta to Porta in 58 mins. Day in and day out with heavy trains. On some days they probably exceeded 100 mph more times than some entire British steam express passenger locos classes achieved in their whole lives! Indeed at one point the crews were told to stop running at over 110 mph and try and keep down to 100 mph as track maintenance costs were getting too high. And if only a European train timer had been a round the day, (there may have been more than one such days), when one of these machines is said to have reached circa 125 mph. On a normal service train.

    We have plenty of WCs. BBs and MNs left. So this is the one I would go for.

    Can any train timer try and imagine what it must have been like for the French timer who, in 1942, recorded one of these locos at the head of a 16 car, 780 (short), ton train, running 62 miles, pass to pass, at an average speed of 100.5 mph.

    [​IMG]
     
  3. class8mikado

    class8mikado Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2009
    Messages:
    3,610
    Likes Received:
    1,438
    Occupation:
    Print Estimator/ Repository of Useless Informatio.
    Location:
    Bingley W.Yorks.
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    Fantastic, mechanical stoked or oil burner ? do you have the stats on cylinders , preesures , grate area etc ? looks like thers a booster on the rear bogie ?
     
  4. KentYeti

    KentYeti Guest

    Some details:-

    Built in 1938 by ALCO.

    84 inch driving wheels.

    2 cylinders. 23.5" x 30"

    96.5 square feet of fire grate, coal fired by mechanical stoker.

    300 psi boiler pressure

    Loco and tender weight was 315 imperial tons.

    Designed to cruise at 100 mph with a design max of circa 120 mph.

    Colour scheme: yuk!

    Yes. I think there was a booster on the trailing bogie. Need to check up on that.


    Nine very similar locos were built in 1938 for the Chicago and North Western Railway as Class E-4s. But following a change of direction they didn't operate the fast passenger services they were built for! If they had I guess the story of the type would have become even more famous. And from my point of view a lot more very high speed data may have accumulated. But we have to be thankful that at least some of what the Milwaukee F7s did does remain. And from time to time I do start searching again in the probably vain hope that more data survives, including that 125 mph run.
     
  5. Steve from GWR

    Steve from GWR Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2010
    Messages:
    1,292
    Likes Received:
    14
    Thank you for that, never seen one before.

    Found a nice introductory link to the topic here: http://www.ironhorse129.com/Projects/Engines/Hiawatha/F7HudsonHiawatha.htm

    If they were going to build one of those as the A1 Trust's next project, I'd definitely donate

    Edit: mind you, by the time it was scaled down to Network Rail guage, I suppose it would feel a bit like being on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway!
     
  6. 242A1

    242A1 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2006
    Messages:
    1,558
    Likes Received:
    1,299
    Very nice the F7s but, if we are talking American locos, I must admit to a preference for the N & W class J, 110mph with 1025 short tons on the drawbar and this on 5' 10" drivers. No replica needed for this one, just the will to put 611 back into working order.

    My replica, well it would have to be a rather unusual French 4-8-4 (all too obvious), very unlikely to ever happen though, however it looks like my UK choice might just be on its way.
     
  7. Steamboat Bill

    Steamboat Bill New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2010
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    4
    Occupation:
    Translator
    Location:
    Braunschweig, Germany
    Why not build WHAT....? A Crosti 9F??

    Well, I hope you had your tongue firmly in your cheek. I think that would be the biggest waste of money imaginable - most people do want to build replicas of engines which at least performed, which the Crosti 9 certainly didn't once they blanked off the pre-heater boiler. Once they did that, the Crosti 9 would still PULL like a nine, but steam? Well, a Midland four was better, so I was told. If that was true, I have no way of knowing but what I do know is that, having fired three of the Crostis, they were very shy for steam, although they would chew up almost as much coal as a standard standard 9. Now THERE was an engine - very possibly better than a Brit, though I liked them both. I have to say in the last days of steam, a good black 5 would keep pace with most of the Brits - and we had a very good mix on the Manchester-Heysham boat train, so a pretty good basis on which to judge, I'd say. Unfortunately, we only worked it from Preston to Morecambe, but we did have the morning train all the way to M/c Vic, though that was invariably a "black 'un", and at least two of them survive - 45025 + 44871 if memory serves me right.
     
  8. 61624

    61624 Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2006
    Messages:
    5,294
    Likes Received:
    3,596
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    If the P2 doesn't prove to be a goer, how about a V4? An interesting alternative to a Black 5 that could earn its keep on both the main line and heritage railways and just the engine for the West Highland! I don't suppose that the monovbloc cylinder castings were the same as the V2 by any chance...... that would be a real bonus!
     
  9. theredtrain

    theredtrain New Member

    Joined:
    May 1, 2010
    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    i'm on the eastern region of britain's railways
    maybe a holden F5 tank engine would be nice? oh wait they're already building those engines... a P2? wow, they're huge, i'd like to see one of those on the railway
     
  10. jtx

    jtx Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2007
    Messages:
    1,868
    Likes Received:
    855
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Happily retired
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    Yes I am an active volunteer
    Now you're talking. Fabulous tool. Check out O. Winston Link's books for exquisite photographs of these engines and many other things Norfolk & Western, who seem to have got the job well sorted, before diesels were imposed on them by management. Emblematic of how advanced they were, is a night photo of a fitter with a grease gun on a mobile line, next to a Y6B Mallet, (about the size of three Duchesses) the caption noting that he would grease one of these behemoths up in 20 minutes. That would barely get you round the outside of a Black Five.
     
  11. Steamboat Bill

    Steamboat Bill New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 6, 2010
    Messages:
    32
    Likes Received:
    4
    Occupation:
    Translator
    Location:
    Braunschweig, Germany
    Further to my post of yesterday, I'm not quite as ambitious as some (!), and I'd have liked to see two much smaller locomotives replicated. Have a look at the Wikipedia pages on the Billinton "K" and the Gresley V1/V3, and see whether you agree these would both have been prime candidates for preservation anyway.
     
  12. Dan Hill

    Dan Hill Part of the furniture

    Joined:
    Aug 1, 2008
    Messages:
    2,576
    Likes Received:
    545
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Brick Machine Operator
    Location:
    Haywards Heath
    Heritage Railway Volunteer:
    No I do not currently volunteer
    I can think of a few the Bluebell could do after Beachy Head. A C2XX and a LBSCR K class considering they were used on the line and the line almost purcharsed a K.
     
  13. Gav106

    Gav106 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 29, 2010
    Messages:
    1,741
    Likes Received:
    2,017
    Location:
    Nantwich, Cheshire
    If money were no option i would build a gwr 4-6-2 Cathedral class loco so the gwr finally had a pacific. EXETER CATHEDRAL. this would run on my railway line from birmingham moors street down to cheltenham. And would be located at the engine shed at stratford on avon. Do i ask for to much???
     
  14. Miff

    Miff Part of the furniture Friend

    Joined:
    Jun 17, 2008
    Messages:
    2,857
    Likes Received:
    2,793
    Tongue definitely in cheek, but surely the point of a Crosti replica would be to demonstrate the original form - with preheater?
     

Share This Page