The sort of crazy idea you come up with at midnight on a Friday...

Just working my way through the Wikipedia pages on British Railways diesel classes, I noticed that the only class of BR shunter not to survive is the Class 13, the rather bizarre 'master and slave' combination of two 08s, specifically for working Toton yard.

I'm not a particularly Diesel-minded person, but it occurred to me that, with 08s still in service and a great many preserved, it would not be beyond the realms of possibility - at a not-too-eye-watering price (after all you'd actually be removing more than you'd be adding) - to recreate a member of this class, and 'complete the set'. It would certainly be a lot simpler than LMS10000 and the Baby Deltic (not that I'm denigrating these exciting projects, just noting the comparative simplicity).

What do others think?

 

Have you made your Facebook page live yet?

 

I thought the same a little while back. I don't know how they were MU'ed together, but that would be the difficult bit. What would you use it for though (other than to say you had one)?

If you wanted to save cost and complexity....buy a non working scrap 08, cut the cab off and couple it to a working unit, then you don't need to worry about the MU.

 

Indeed the problem is why would you do it?

08s across preservation are rarely "preserved" but "maintained" for working purposes.. consequently what you'd need to do is to take two usable and effective locos and turn them into one heavyweight, ineffecient loco that would be of little use to man nor beast. It is a shame because I for one would like to see one

 

Pretty sure it was Tinsley ?

The same could be said for any diesel bigger than a class 20 on a preserved line as being overpowered, use it for it's original purpose, ie shunting, even as a double unit 08's are not the longest vehicles.

 

It would be of more practical use if you 'cheated' and used Class 09 gears (or two Class 09s, but they are rare enough that 'wasting' two would be a shame). Less Tractive Effort, but with a double unit thats never going to be a problem. However you would get a locomotive with a more reasonable linespeed that might make it of practical use in revenue earning service on preserved railways (Top Speed 27.5 mph vs 20 mph for a 'real' Class 13). If Class 09 speeds still wouldn't cut it then a custom designed set of gears, to allow even more speed (within the constraints of the rest of the loco) might be worth it.

Reading on-line I find that the control system was a single electrical cable (no idea how many cores) plus four 'Diesel Engine Control Air Pipes'.

An alternative way to do the Multiple Working might be to use the 'Blue Star' equipment fitted to some 08's. Providing the relevant links at the vehicle ends would make the loco of marginally more practical use. This would allow the 'Master' to be detached and in use whilst the 'Slave' was being maintained or even to allow the two units to be joined only on an 'as wanted' basis with the 'Master' working as a normal shunter most of the time. The Slave had part of the lower cab retained to leave somewhere for crew to stand at it's 'Rear' so maybe something could be contrived to allow that to work independently, if you didn't mind the crew getting cold and wet.

And there we have the outline spec for Class 13/1, first loco being 13104, possibly comprising independent units 13104a and 13104b.

 

are you sure all other classes have survived or do you just ean those with class numbers allocated? There were several odd claases that didnt get TOPS numbers. Offhand Im thinking the Brush 0-4-0

 

I've got to say that I meant those that managed to get TOPS numbers.

Anyway, there's been some good ideas on here, especially those from sbt - and thanks for the reality check lil Bear! This isn't a serious proposal, really...I hope the thread title emphasises that!

 

(A personal view, not necessarily the view of the LMS 10000 project) I'd like to see this happen, so if anybody puts a project together, let me know. Also the LMS 10000 team might want a few of the left over bits (Gauges, door handles, window frames etc) as some of these seem to be the same a 10000.

MB
Secretary, IDRS
LMS10000

 

I'm just popping down to my local EMR branch now......