The Loco You'd Love To Put A Match To

Not entirely surprising considering Adams was CME at the Great Eastern Railway before he went to the LSWR. A lot of GER detail features (even on much later designs) have a remarkable resemblance to what you'll find on an O2, for instance.

 

It' ll happen one day my friend! Keep those pinkies crossed, I think we could be having a pretty decent New build gala in the next 4-5 years not sure where but Im confident it will happen

 

Someone mentioned the de Caso Baltic... Yes please, cracking loco and looks so dramatic too... Adams T3 and SECR D 737, yup, and the Radial Tank to go with the former. Oh, and an unmodified Merchant Navy please... Everything else on my wish list would have to be a new build from scratch...

 

Thank you for pointing that out. Being a bit ignorant of things Southern (and no expert in any area) I had always thought of the 02 as a bit like the big brother to the terrier, which was really a bit stupid as they are not the same railway company and now you highlight it, it is far more like a GER F4 or F5 (I realise that the wheel arrangement is different) or a NER G5. It's interesting the LNER encyclopedia credits Wordsell with creating the classic GER and NER outlines, whereas steamindex identifies that Adams must have had a hand in them. I think Johnson set the ball rolling though. His No1 class for GER (little sharpies) already have a look of the 395 and J15 albeit as a 2-4-0. He did also design 0-4-4 side tanks for GER and they were later improved by Adams, and there is a resemblance even in his Midland 1Ps. We (I) often think of these people as autocrats working in isolation and determined to revolutionise the motive power of their railway but in reality it seems perhaps that the Stratford 'house style' influenced the post's incumbents as much as vice versa. There is of course another alternative and that is that the CMEs of non-competing railways, particularly those based in the same city new each other socially and professionally and swapped ideas to promote best practice. For all I know Adams may have been Johnson's recommendation to succeed him.

 

Isn't it also that we tend to think of them as individuals hunched over their own draughting boards rather than executives giving sometimes quite remote direction to a drawing office team who quite likely learned their skills under a predecessor or even in another business entirely? Its interesting, for instance, that even the supposedly insular GWR only ever had one CME who did his apprenticeship at Swindon. Gooch & Armstrong learned the business in the North East, Dean came from Wolverhampton, Churchward trained with the South Devon and Collett with marine engineering company Maudslay Sons and Field.

 

I would really like to see either the J17 at Barrow Hill- or the J21........or both!

I have always been curious as to the condition of various 'museum piece' locos mechanical condition, how many of them received a 'cosmetic' only job and how many would (given the relevant inspections etc. etc.) be capable of actually working? For example, I am sure I read somewhere that the NRM Crab is in very poor condition but there must be others that are in better form!

Chris

 

Some are better than others...

 

Would it be possible to put together a list of NRM locomotives ordered by condition or cost of overhaul?

 

Thats just teasing!


Chris

 

My guess is that it starts with Coppernob, 42700 & Cornwall..........
Of British std gauge locos, both within the collection and without, I think that there are only two wheel arrangements that we have yet to see running in the post 1968 era. This must be a definite ground for a return to steam, Anthony! I'm sure that one only needs a new chimney and it'll be fine!

 

Atlantic and 2-2-4T?

 

In his place I"d be very reluctant to offer up such a hostage to fortune...
Seems like a good way to get a lot of pressure to steam x or y...

 

It all depends I suppose on what locos the NRM would like to keep original as possible. Perhaps a more interesting question to Anthony would be; if money is no object, which locos in the collection would you still prefer to keep in as original condition as possible (and thus not steam them)?

 

990's been in steam.
2-2-4T is one of them.
I should have thought a bit more about it, though. I can think of a third!

 

The originality argument is entirely bogus. There is not one single locomotive extant in the world which is wholly original. So, Lode Star has a BR era Swindon paintjob? Who cares, it's only paint.

 

Lanky 2-4-2T?

 

This argument has been repeated endlessly. A lot of folk disagree with you. Shall we leave it there?

 

I really don't care who disagrees. My post above is an objective statement of fact. There is precious little left in any of the locomotives now extant of their original incarnations.

 

I'd argue there's not much of 73755 the WD 2-10-0 in Utrecht thats not original, built for war in 1945, withdrawn in 1952 and had 2 years in store during that period....doubt it ever got as far as a boiler lift.

60163 Tornado can't be that far from "original" either...

on a side not interesting to think that Tornado has now been in service longer than 92220 Evening Star.. and is on it's 2nd boiler lift.

 

Tornado has certainly had major boiler surgery, can't speak for the Utrecht Dub Dee, but something like Lode Star which had a 50-year career cannot be said to be anywhere remotely near originality.