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Streamlined Duchess, past and future

Discussion in 'Steam Traction' started by tfftfftff86, Jun 21, 2009.

  1. SpudUk

    SpudUk Well-Known Member

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    I think thats a bit of a moot point, as that would only draw the interest of the general public who happen to be near you at the time...Mallard would perhaps even trump Scotsman. But its what draws the public interest AFTER media attention, rather then what names the public recognise...
     
  2. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    I think Royal Scot will be a household name before too long as well... Considering the engines never really ventured out in Preservation it's a name which many people have remembered for many years..stands for something..
     
  3. Jon Martin

    Jon Martin New Member

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    do the general public really know what the scotsman is famous for?

    I don't. It hit 100mph 30 odd years after a much smaller GWR engine. It's just got a mass of marketting behind it and became the first it-engine, famous for being famous.

    While it certainly draws in the money ... think of what the cash spent on it could have done

    THe Green Arrow and the Blue Peter could have been steamed, and probably a Claud Hamilton and most of a P2 could be built
     
  4. saltydog

    saltydog Part of the furniture

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    You're right Frank, I believe I posted on another thread that last year while we were stood at Stratford Upon Avon with 5043, a couple of people who just happened to be on the station asked if she was Tornado.
    This was amid the intense media interest in Tornado, and yet even after seeing all the pictures and TV coverage they still couldn't tell the difference between an A1 and a Castle. To the majority of the general public a steam engine is a steam engine.
    But then again a streamlined red and gold Duchess at full cry would certainly imprint itself on the public consciousness.
     
  5. Anthony Coulls

    Anthony Coulls Well-Known Member

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    Come on folks, let us get a bit of enjoyment out of the lady in the Great Hall for a bit. It's funny how we paint a loco (1247) or streamline one (6229) and people want us to steam it. It takes time, people and above all money, and these are straitened times. Please try to be patient - I know there are those who will say "we cannot be patient, time is not on our side" - and wait to see what else we have in mind for the collection...
     
  6. Avonside1972

    Avonside1972 New Member

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    Flying Scotsman was indeed a famed engine from day one. The first pacific of the new LNER, named after the companies new express train to Edinburgh, it was the first? to go non-stop between the capitals and the most significant, the first AUTHENICATED 100mph and IIRC thats in the world. Whatever you say about Truro it was NEVER authenticated and although many engines had probably exceeded that speed by the 30's, strangly no one had gone for the record. The publicity conscious LNER jumped at it. So IMHO Scotsman has a deserved place in our national collection but it should have been there from retirement.
    Like the Rev. Awdry's creation it has since suffered...
     
  7. saltydog

    saltydog Part of the furniture

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    Anthony, last year when we were at York it gave all of us great pleasure to sit in front of the Duchess and think yes job done. And just to sit there and see the looks on peoples faces when they saw her for the first time was a source of great pride not just in what Tyseley had done, but what the preservation movement had achieved.
    All I want now is to see her climbing Shap before I shuffle off this mortal coil.:rip:
     
  8. Anthony Coulls

    Anthony Coulls Well-Known Member

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    Spot on Kevin, I agree totally, she still wows the visitors today, and there are many who have yet to see it in the tin. She fulfils a real purpose in the Great Hall and shines more so without Mallard there. All of 2010-11 NRM publicity has 6229 at the forefront!
    As for the second point...that makes two of us.
     
  9. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    I would still like to see 6229 and 4468 lined up next to each other.
    To us young ones.. I was blown away when I saw 6229 and as a semi it never quite struck me what it was about until I saw it..

    to be really cheeky, an line up of 6229, 4468 a streamlined king and an unrebuilt Bulleid would certainly get the message across.
     
  10. Guest

    Guest Part of the furniture Account Suspended

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    Kevin is quite right - we bade farewell to a well known railway author a fortnight ago who was only seven years older than me. That is why some of us are more impatient than others, and determined not to live grey little lives unless we get noticed.

    It can be a bit of a bugger though! I climbed out of a cab at the top of Pulpit Hill in Oban to try to get a picture of Ocean Countes and the Black Five at Oban and someone immediately said "fotting ships and steam locos - you must be TBirdFrank"! There is obviously no hiding place.
     
  11. tfftfftff86

    tfftfftff86 Member

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    Well I'm pleased that Anthony has been reading the thread and is aware of the currents of opinion, and I'm also glad to see that I'm not alone in wishing to see 6229 steam again. It'll take as long as it takes, I guess. Some appeals for donations (not talking only about NRM) in recent years have left me lukewarm, but I'd sure contribute to a "6229 back on the track" fund.
    Just a shame that Olympics year is too close now, it could have been the publicity coup of the decade for preserved steam, to match Tornado in the "noughties".
     
  12. std tank

    std tank Part of the furniture

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    Kevin, the streamlining of 6229 was a great job, but what about the out of line grab handles on the front doors!!!
     
  13. Sheff

    Sheff Resident of Nat Pres

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  14. RalphW

    RalphW Nat Pres stalwart Staff Member Administrator Friend

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    I hope that remark is in jest.....
     
  15. SpudUk

    SpudUk Well-Known Member

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    I'm confused
     
  16. std tank

    std tank Part of the furniture

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    Ralph, I wish I could say it is, but I cannot. It was actually my sister that asked me why the two handles on the front were cock-eyed. This was some time ago. When I went to see the loco myself I was shocked that such a magnificent piece of work should be spoilt by what is a highly visible, and very noticable mistake. I wasn't sure about it myself at first, but once I had viewed the Coronation video which is there for everyone to look at alongside the loco, well what could I say.
     
  17. tfftfftff86

    tfftfftff86 Member

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    Well, std tank, I now searched out 6 photos or posters of Coronation Scot trains from the 1930s, and they all show either one handle only, or two offset as in the Tyseley re-creation. My guess is that the locking mechanism wouldn't have worked if they'd fitted them to be symmetrical.
    I think you owe saltydog (on behalf of everyone at Tyseley) and RalphW, at the very least, an apology.

    Need evidence? Try this: http://www.railalbum.co.uk/steam-locomotives/lms-coronation-streamlined-1.htm
     
  18. SpudUk

    SpudUk Well-Known Member

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    Is it the handles near where the whiskers meet?
     
  19. tfftfftff86

    tfftfftff86 Member

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    Ah, in that case I owe std tank an apology for identifying the wrong handles. In fact I never even noticed the little beggars, as I assumed that the handles are the ones you turn to open and lock. But quite honestly, my aesthetic sensibilities are more stimulated by that big shiny red and gold casing than they are offended by a detail like that.
    Some would call std tank's criticism quibbling, some even nit-picking. I couldn't possibly comment.
     
  20. std tank

    std tank Part of the furniture

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    Sir, before lambasting me I suggest you get hold of the book LMS Locomotive Profiles No 11 The Coronation Pacifics and firstly view the drawing D37-14897 Arrangement of Streamline Above Platform. The plan view shows two handles and the side view shows one handle. This means that they are supposed to be in line. Also every photograph of a streamliner in the book shows this to be correct.

    tfftfftff86 it appears that we posted at about the same time, so ignore my post. It is a magnificent machine, but to me one little mistake has spoilt it.
     

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