I always liked Scots. Virtually the only criticism I've ever heard of them is a tendency to ride a bit rough, with an uncanny ability to sniff out any uneven bits of track, though it didn't seem to bring them off the rails. And as they dated from just before the postwar aids to the iron horse mucking out process, they didn't have rocking grates etc.
I never saw a parallel boilered one. The last one got its new boiler a year or two before I was ever where they ran.
I've lived a sheltered life railway-wise, and very rarely have I seen any LMS locomotives, except for the occasional Black Five on through trains to the Southern.
We did see some of the later LMS 2-6-4Ts on certain lines locally, before the BR versions were introduced.
The big LMS Pacifics were very handsome engines, though not the streamlined version (IMHO).
I've lived a sheltered life railway-wise, and very rarely have I seen any LMS locomotives, except for the occasional Black Five on through trains to the Southern.
We did see some of the later LMS 2-6-4Ts on certain lines locally, before the BR versions were introduced.
The big LMS Pacifics were very handsome engines, though not the streamlined version (IMHO).
Not just handsome; they sounded lovely too. Long ago, my friend Pete and I rode our bikes to Leighton Buzzard, about 30 miles from our homes in what had been LNER territory. We had been used to hearing 3-cylinder locomotives with serious respiratory ailments (it must have been the worn out conjugated valve gear), and there saw and heard Coronations just purring at very high speeds. We had never heard anything like it - lovely! Not much later the Deltics would do the diesel equivalent of that nearer home.
Both brands of LMS Pacifics were lovely engines. And, as you say, they purred along. When some of them went back into red, it really suited them, the Lizzies especially.
The streamliners had had their casings removed long before my time, but there were still a few with an odd sort of chamferring at the top of the smokebox where it had had to fit inside the nose of the streamlining, which made them look untidy.
I'm now about to upset people, but I think the Southern Pacifics looked much better when they'd been de-spammed. A Rebuilt Merchant Navy looked how a big engine ought to look and did the things a big engine ought to be able to do.
I'd tend to agree. The spam can design never actually worked, from what I read, and if it doesn't work, as pleasant as it may look to some - and it does have a certain appeal, I readily admit -, it better be removed.
(The casing had been intended, it seems, to lift exhaust gases, and for better mechanical and thus cheaper cleaning of the sides.)
What truly makes me freak out, on the other hand, are the SR Q1 class, often referred to as 'Frankensteins'! - I just don't understand their looks! Perhaps I will one day...
The Q1s were designed to use as little material as was necessary, because wartime.
It was said of them that they could go anywhere, and pull anything that might be hung behind them - I can remember them clanking through Our Town with immensely long goods trains - though they could have had better brakes. Some heavy trains were provided with two brake vans, just in case...
I've never heard them referred to as *Frankensteins* - on the part of the Southern where I lived, they were called *Charlies*...
The rebuilt Bulleid Pacifics were splendid engines, but so were the original streamlined ones, many of which lasted until the end of steam. Mr Bulleid himself didn't approve of the rebuilds - on hearing a recording of one at work, he said something along the lines of *That is not one of MY engines!*.
Said loco (which I thought was one of the unrebuilt ones) departing Salisbury on a slippery damp day, reverser out of sync, steam leaking everywhere ... but it did pick up and get going!
I think I bored with this tale on the last thread, but I'll do it again anyway. Many years ago I went to a steam rally in Kent and there, in the middle of the countryside miles from the nearest rail line they had the boiler and driving wheels of rebuilt West Country Pacific "Eddystone". As I'd arrived the previous night and camped I was there long before opening time and I helped someone who was setting up a display of loco parts extract them from their shopping container and lay them out on a table. To tidy up a little, we rolled the three sets of driving wheels together on the very short length of track they were stood on, where I was surprised to discover that, if I put my hoof in one of the holes in those distinctive Bulleid wheels and put my weight on it, the wheel would slowly start to roll!
Far forward to 2021. We we br down to Dorset for our autumn break, overnighted with a friend in Swanage, and walked into the town. There on the railway, coaling up and watering, was the gloriously restored Eddystone! So we ran up to the station, booked tickets, and travelled to Corfe Castle behind her, having also bored the footplate crew with this tale!
One day I must travel on the extension to Northiam of the Kent & East Sussex Railway, having worked clearing trees from it in the late 1980s. I still have an SE&CR chair retrieved from there...
Said loco (which I thought was one of the unrebuilt ones) departing Salisbury on a slippery damp day, reverser out of sync, steam leaking everywhere ... but it did pick up and get going!
Bulleid designed wonderful boilers, that could produce any amount of steam, no matter what...and his Pacifics could go like the wind (and often did, even in their dying days).
No-one quite knows how he got permission to build the first Merchant Navy engines in the middle of World War 2 - it wasn't as if the Southern really needed big express engines just then - and I think he must have persuaded The Powers That Be (not just the directors, but the War Office as well) that they were to be mixed-traffic engines. The slightly smaller West Country/Battle of Britain class was very versatile, and could be seen hauling (tender-first) a couple of coaches on a local service in Cornwall, as well as hurtling down the South-eastern main line on the Golden Arrow...
Although for years the "Arrow" was headed by the two immaculate Stewart's Lane "Britannias" - "Iron Duke" and "William Shakespeare", https://tinyurl.com/4dsxsfxa
According to HAV Bulleid in his Master Builders of Steam, when Sir William Stanier saw the Q1, he asked Oliver Bulleid, "Where's the key?" I liked the Q1 and Bulleid's habit of making things look different.
He designed a rather similar locomotive - the Turf Burner - for Córas Iompair Éireann in Ireland, but this was a utilitarian beast with no pretensions to good looks, though it apparently worked quite well.
Not appreciating the railway at the moment! On a train from Bristol to Birmingham but have been stationary for 45 minutes as there is a broken rail ahead ☹️
Have you been to the preserved "Middy"? I went a few times when we lived in Ipswich. On the last occasion I was invited to ride on the footplate of the Cockerill tram engine - together with a lady who, the day before, had been firing a 9F on the North Norfolk Railway, a very different experience!
I'm a very armchair member actually - I don't live anywhere near it, but I read Love on a Branchline at a very impressionable age and it's only £12 a year!
He designed a rather similar locomotive - the Turf Burner - for Córas Iompair Éireann in Ireland, but this was a utilitarian beast with no pretensions to good looks, though it apparently worked quite well.
Thank you so much for reminding me of the Leader! I've (re-)looked at a couple of websites on this, indeed a mysterious beastie! In my hope for at least a short video of the Leader at work, I've found not the real-size version, but a 5"-gauge one, and pulling loads of people! See here!
The construction of the machine is described here, in two parts; I'm just reading up on it.
I love the sound of the model Leader, unlike a typical steam engine, more like a diesel! This is exciting stuff!
That is truly impressive, and seems to work better than the real one!
One major flaw in the full-size one was the firebox. This was surrounded by firebricks which left the footplate unbearably hot. Another layer had to be inserted but this then reduced the firebox size substantially. There were also major concerns about balance due to the off-centre boiler (extra weight had to be added to compensate) and safety (if the loco derailed and fell onto one side the fireman would be trapped in the firing compartment, basically a furnace - horrible to even think about).
@Wesley J - there are, sadly, no films of the Leader in action, though there are plenty of photos. I believe an 00 scale model is planned for early next year, by one of the smaller manufacturers, in various liveries - fictional, apart from the works grey, although 36001 was painted black whilst still in the works. There is photographic evidence for this, but for some unknown reason, it was repainted grey before being allowed out into the open.
@Baptist Trainfan - I've read that the footplate of the Leader, although very hot, was actually not all that much hotter than the cab of a Bulleid Pacific! The lonely fireman scenario was avoided on the Irish turf-burner by only having one cab, in the middle...
Here is the imminent Leader model: https://krmodels.net/shop/sr-bulleid-the-leader/ from a company in Canada that specialises in odd British prototypes. I am tempted - but not enough to buy my own - by their Fell diesel-mechanical.
Didn't the turf burner have some sort of turf-pulverising-automatic-stoker-thingy anyway?
I believe it did - it was, in fact, fairly successful (although it never worked in revenue-earning service) but came far too late in the history of steam traction. In any case, CIE was rapidly acquiring diesels, albeit not from the USA as Bulleid wanted!
Here is the imminent Leader model: https://krmodels.net/shop/sr-bulleid-the-leader/ from a company in Canada that specialises in odd British prototypes. I am tempted - but not enough to buy my own - by their Fell diesel-mechanical.
They've done the elegant 4-6-0 gas-turbine GT3 as well.
Thank you so much for reminding me of the Leader! I've (re-)looked at a couple of websites on this, indeed a mysterious beastie! In my hope for at least a short video of the Leader at work, I've found not the real-size version, but a 5"-gauge one, and pulling loads of people! See here!
The construction of the machine is described here, in two parts; I'm just reading up on it.
I love the sound of the model Leader, unlike a typical steam engine, more like a diesel! This is exciting stuff!
That's probably a better performance than the original, which wasn't really under any criteria a success.
Here's another video of the model Leader, apparently rebuilt, in 2017: Facebook video link. It seems people are still impressed 20 years later!
If I had a couple of 100k in cash, I'd be very much tempted to have a 1:1 replica built, of course with the slight changes and improvements that might've helped if implemented back then.
Mostly, he commits the unforgivable model railway sin by letting his trains run ON A CARPET! - Which is one of the first things you learn - never ever do that! Trains on carpets are NOT good for the innards of locos or carriages, all the fluff gets into the wheels and cogs and motors. Aaaargh!
If I had a couple of 100k in cash, I'd be very much tempted to have a 1:1 replica built, of course with the slight changes and improvements that might've helped if implemented back then.
I think you'd need to add at least another zero to that figure!
I have their GT3 - it’s not perfect but it's very good.
I have not heard much good at all about their Fell.
*Sam* can be irritating, but I've bought one or two items largely on account of the good reviews he's given them. I agree that running on the carpet Is Extreme Outrage, but at least his embryonic 0 gauge layout is on a shelf...
I hadn't realised that KR Models were from Canada. Full marks to them for attempting to recreate some of the oddballs of the past - pity about the Fell diesel, which, as you say, doesn't seem to be of particularly high quality.
I hope their version of the Leader is good, though. 36001 in lined black (or lined green) at the head of a rake of blood-and-custard Bulleid or BR Mark 1 coaches will look rather fine, I think...
Yes, those shots of the ex NER 0-6-0 are nice. Thank you for the link.
I never saw GT3, and would like to have done. Nor did I see either of the Western gas turbines. I saw the Fell quite often in my childhood. Ugly brute but I think quite reliable until it eventually caught fire. I've a slight query whether it really was ever painted green, or if it was, whether it ever worked in green. I only remember it as black.
The red counterweights were very distinctive, but I think KR Models have got the colour slightly wrong. It may just be that theirs is clean whereas nothing on the 1950s railway remained pristine for long. Theirs, though, look a bit bright, whereas I remember them as more the colour of a postbox or the red that was used on carriages before the switch to maroon.
About 30 years ago, I saw a scratch built model of it at a show in Swindon, whose maker had not realised the counterweights were red. He'd only seen black and white photos of the original and assumed they were black. Not much was recorded about it then.
I also saw 10000, 10001 - which didn't when I saw them have grey bogies -, two at least of the three Southern ones and on one occasion 10800 which I've since discovered was, even by early BR diesel standards, one of the least reliable machines there ever was.
10800 was known as "the wonder locomotive", as in "I wonder if it will work today?"
I don't understand the early diesel numbering: why 10000/1 but 10201/2/3? Why not (apart 10200/1/2? After all, the BR standards steamers such as the "Britannias" started at 0, not 1.
You did well @Enoch to see all those fascinating locomotives! Pity you missed the gas-turbines - an interesting dead-end technically, but some quite good-looking locomotives. The Western engines weren't that different from diesels, outwardly, but that GT3 was something else !
AIUI, the superb LMS diesels 10000 and 10001 had silver bogies when first ex-works, which must have looked splendid, but very quickly became grey...
The Southern diesels, designed by the ubiquitous Oliver Bulleid, but not introduced until 1950 (10101-2) and 1954 (10103) were IMHO handsome engines, too (but then, I am something of a fan of Mr Bulleid... ).
Without wishing to advertise, 00 scale models of the first two Southern Railway Bulleid/Raworth electric locomotives are on the way, but models of Bulleid's diesels - produced some years ago - are probably only now available secondhand:
If I had the space, I'd love to create a simple stretch of Southern-ish main line, on which I could run some of these exotic engines with suitable rolling stock! A double track, with up and down relief/goods loops would do - no need for a passenger station, though a signal cabin and perhaps a PW siding would add interest.
The early BR diesels were certainly a mixed bunch, but some lasted well - the D8000s (later class 20), immortalised by Hornby-Dublo, spring to mind. Down here on the Southern, the D6500s (later class 33) also had a good innings, and looked quite smart in their original livery.
I see that a few of the Bulleid diesel models are available on a certain online Emporium, at prices a little south or north of a quarter of a thousandpounds each...
If I had the space, I'd love to create a simple stretch of Southern-ish main line, on which I could run some of these exotic engines with suitable rolling stock!
But didn't the Southern diesels spend most of their time on the WCML?
A schoolfriend of mine saw (and took a photo of) 10001 at a Willesden open day c.1968. It shouldn't have been scrapped!
The bottom half of the Bulleid locos was, of course, the inspiration for the EE type 4s. I used to go to school by train at the London end of the Midland main line and still remember D384 on a down express emerging from thick fog - the train also notable for including the first blue-and-white coach I'd ever seen. But what was the loco doing there???
If I had the space, I'd love to create a simple stretch of Southern-ish main line, on which I could run some of these exotic engines with suitable rolling stock!
But didn't the Southern diesels spend most of their time on the WCML?
A schoolfriend of mine saw (and took a photo of) 10001 at a Willesden open day c.1968. It shouldn't have been scrapped!
The bottom half of the Bulleid locos was, of course, the inspiration for the EE type 4s. I used to go to school by train at the London end of the Midland main line and still remember D384 on a down express emerging from thick fog - the train also notable for including the first blue-and-white coach I'd ever seen. But what was the loco doing there???
The only prototype I ever saw was the lovely DP2.
No, no - they spent most of their time on their Own Railway, the Southern...
They only went to the WCML to show those Midland people How Things Should Be Done.
FWIW, I really like the original black-and-silver livery, although it was, of course, impossible to keep the silver bogies looking clean. Córas Iompair Éireann, over in the Republic of Ireland, painted their first diesels all-over silver (possibly influenced by Bulleid, by then enjoying himself in his retirement job? ) but very soon had the good sense to replace it with green...the Irish climate having meanwhile replaced it with...er...well...grime...
Córas Iompair Éireann, over in the Republic of Ireland, painted their first diesels all-over silver ... but very soon had the good sense to replace it with green...the Irish climate having meanwhile replaced it with...er...well...grime...
Not so much the Irish climate as the filthy exhaust produced by the 2-stroke Crossley engines.
Córas Iompair Éireann, over in the Republic of Ireland, painted their first diesels all-over silver ... but very soon had the good sense to replace it with green...the Irish climate having meanwhile replaced it with...er...well...grime...
Not so much the Irish climate as the filthy exhaust produced by the 2-stroke Crossley engines.
Yes, very true, and there is ample video evidence of the said filthy exhaust. I don't expect the prevalence of *soft days* helped, though...
The A class, at least, had replacement engines fitted in due course, and lasted well.
If Mr Bulleid had had his way, CIE would have bought off-the-peg diesels from the USA (they would need to have had the gauge widened), and it was years before CIE acquired the much better 121 class from General Motors:
At least CIE did better with their original AEC railcars (similar to those on the Great Northern Railway of Ireland) in the early 50s. The GNR(I)'s Oxford Blue and Cream livery was preferable to CIE's green, though, IMHO.
I like Irish railways - refreshingly different from those in the UK, perhaps due to the broad gauge - and could bore the pants off anyone who dares to engage me in conversation on the subject...I am, in any case, entitled to Irish citizenship...
One of the most characterful was the Dundalk and Newry line which, right up till closure in the early 1950s, was a microcosm of the LNWR in about 1880.
I believe that the LNER Tyneside Electric units were painted in a rather fetching scheme of blue and light grey during the 1940s. Were the pretending to be the "Coronation"?
If Mr Bulleid had had his way, CIE would have bought off-the-peg diesels from the USA (they would need to have had the gauge widened).
And the bodies made smaller, I guess.
When I lived in Portugal in the late 70s, the trains were a wonderfully varied lot: diesels from the US, Britain and France, electrics from France and Sweden, German and Dutch railbuses, carriages of many types including Swiss (recently returned to service) and Italian, Budd-style emus and carriages ... and (though I never saw them) some fantastically ancient stock on the narrow-gauge lines, one of which still used Mallett steam locos.
If Mr Bulleid had had his way, CIE would have bought off-the-peg diesels from the USA (they would need to have had the gauge widened).
And the bodies made smaller, I guess.
When I lived in Portugal in the late 70s, the trains were a wonderfully varied lot: diesels from the US, Britain and France, electrics from France and Sweden, German and Dutch railbuses, carriages of many types including Swiss (recently returned to service) and Italian, Budd-style emus and carriages ... and (though I never saw them) some fantastically ancient stock on the narrow-gauge lines, one of which still used Mallett steam locos.
One of the 2-4-6-0T Mallets has been preserved, and was at one time used on steam specials (along with an ex-Reseau Breton 4-6-0T) on the Nice-Digne line.
I have seen one of the lovely 0-6-6-0T Mallets, formerly used on the lines out of Porto, on the CF de Baie de Somme in France. Alas! the engine was in a dark grey livery - not a works grey - rather than the Portuguese glossy black...
A beautiful engine, nonetheless, and very elegant in appearance.
As to the CIE American diesels that never materialised, they may indeed have required modifications, apart from the gauge, but AFAIK they were to be more or less standard centre-cab switchers (shunters). Quite suitable for the fairly light trains being operated by CIE at that time, perhaps?
I have seen one of the lovely 0-6-6-0T Mallets, formerly used on the lines out of Porto, on the CF de Baie de Somme in France. Alas! the engine was in a dark grey livery - not a works grey - rather than the Portuguese glossy black...
Nevertheless you have created in me a spirit of quite unChristian enviousness.
I had a very brief visit to Porto (Trindade) in 1978, no steam by then but still a full suburban service. I was able to take a short ride, out in one of the lovely 1930s Italian carriages (with, however, wooden seats) and back in very comfortable modern DMU. All replaced now by the Metro. However one narrow-gauge line just escaped closure a few years ago and is steadily being relaid (the original rails being 100+ years old). There are occasional steam or diesel specials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EApW2u6NoEs
The CF de la Baie de Somme isn't that far from here - though Brexit makes it harder to get to - and their Open Days are always worth the effort. A group of like-minded friends and I went there some years ago, before I fell victim to disability, and rode behind a variety of interesting locomotives, including the CP Henschel 0-4-4-0T.
The railway is closely associated with the Kent & East Sussex, and on the occasion of my visit, one of the K&ESR's engines, along with a four-wheeled coach, were trundling up and down the dual-gauge line on the Quay at St Valery-sur-Somme.
You did well @Enoch to see all those fascinating locomotives! Pity you missed the gas-turbines - an interesting dead-end technically, but some quite good-looking locomotives. The Western engines weren't that different from diesels, outwardly, but that GT3 was something else !
AIUI, the superb LMS diesels 10000 and 10001 had silver bogies when first ex-works, which must have looked splendid, but very quickly became grey...
The Southern diesels, designed by the ubiquitous Oliver Bulleid, but not introduced until 1950 (10101-2) and 1954 (10103) were IMHO handsome engines, too (but then, I am something of a fan of Mr Bulleid... ).
Without wishing to advertise, 00 scale models of the first two Southern Railway Bulleid/Raworth electric locomotives are on the way, but models of Bulleid's diesels - produced some years ago - are probably only now available secondhand:
If I had the space, I'd love to create a simple stretch of Southern-ish main line, on which I could run some of these exotic engines with suitable rolling stock! A double track, with up and down relief/goods loops would do - no need for a passenger station, though a signal cabin and perhaps a PW siding would add interest.
The early BR diesels were certainly a mixed bunch, but some lasted well - the D8000s (later class 20), immortalised by Hornby-Dublo, spring to mind. Down here on the Southern, the D6500s (later class 33) also had a good innings, and looked quite smart in their original livery.
This is bringing back more memories. I also saw one of the three Southern electrics, 20003 on a goods working when we were on a summer holiday near Chichester. That is where I also saw Trevose Head, my only Atlantic tender engine. It was on a train that was going west of Havant where the electricity didn't go.
I also saw two of the very first 20s, on a summer's evening in 1957, within a few weeks of delivery working an express freight on the West Coast Main Line (WCML). It's amazing when one thinks of what has happened to most of the other diesels from that early era, that there are still a few operating now, 66 years later.
I agree with you about Irish railways. Since 2016 I've been very envious of anyone who can claim Irish citizenship. We had a holiday there in the mid-sixties. By then steam had gone, except for one blue 4-4-0 we saw too far from the end of the platforms at what was then Amiens Street to be able to read the number. The north's share of the division of ex-GNR(I) engines were still rostered on the through trains from Belfast. But the CIE passenger stock was still in three different liveries, including some in the distinguished GNR(I) scheme. I also saw a clerestory coach apparently in use and a lot of suburban coaches with double footboards which had long since disappeared here.
There are a few very good 00 models of Irish locomotives and coaches - no steam yet, though, alas - but AFAIK they run on the usual 16.5mm gauge track. The Irish broad gauge really requires 21mm gauge track, but that means a lot of scratch-building!
The old Triang TT3 range led to a fair few 00n3 layouts, some based on Irish or Manx narrow-gauge practice, as the gauge of 12mm was exactly right.
Comments
I never saw a parallel boilered one. The last one got its new boiler a year or two before I was ever where they ran.
We did see some of the later LMS 2-6-4Ts on certain lines locally, before the BR versions were introduced.
The big LMS Pacifics were very handsome engines, though not the streamlined version (IMHO).
Not just handsome; they sounded lovely too. Long ago, my friend Pete and I rode our bikes to Leighton Buzzard, about 30 miles from our homes in what had been LNER territory. We had been used to hearing 3-cylinder locomotives with serious respiratory ailments (it must have been the worn out conjugated valve gear), and there saw and heard Coronations just purring at very high speeds. We had never heard anything like it - lovely! Not much later the Deltics would do the diesel equivalent of that nearer home.
The streamliners had had their casings removed long before my time, but there were still a few with an odd sort of chamferring at the top of the smokebox where it had had to fit inside the nose of the streamlining, which made them look untidy.
I'm now about to upset people, but I think the Southern Pacifics looked much better when they'd been de-spammed. A Rebuilt Merchant Navy looked how a big engine ought to look and did the things a big engine ought to be able to do.
(The casing had been intended, it seems, to lift exhaust gases, and for better mechanical and thus cheaper cleaning of the sides.)
What truly makes me freak out, on the other hand, are the SR Q1 class, often referred to as 'Frankensteins'! - I just don't understand their looks! Perhaps I will one day...
It was said of them that they could go anywhere, and pull anything that might be hung behind them - I can remember them clanking through Our Town with immensely long goods trains - though they could have had better brakes. Some heavy trains were provided with two brake vans, just in case...
I've never heard them referred to as *Frankensteins* - on the part of the Southern where I lived, they were called *Charlies*...
The rebuilt Bulleid Pacifics were splendid engines, but so were the original streamlined ones, many of which lasted until the end of steam. Mr Bulleid himself didn't approve of the rebuilds - on hearing a recording of one at work, he said something along the lines of *That is not one of MY engines!*.
Far forward to 2021. We we br down to Dorset for our autumn break, overnighted with a friend in Swanage, and walked into the town. There on the railway, coaling up and watering, was the gloriously restored Eddystone! So we ran up to the station, booked tickets, and travelled to Corfe Castle behind her, having also bored the footplate crew with this tale!
One day I must travel on the extension to Northiam of the Kent & East Sussex Railway, having worked clearing trees from it in the late 1980s. I still have an SE&CR chair retrieved from there...
Bulleid designed wonderful boilers, that could produce any amount of steam, no matter what...and his Pacifics could go like the wind (and often did, even in their dying days).
No-one quite knows how he got permission to build the first Merchant Navy engines in the middle of World War 2 - it wasn't as if the Southern really needed big express engines just then - and I think he must have persuaded The Powers That Be (not just the directors, but the War Office as well) that they were to be mixed-traffic engines. The slightly smaller West Country/Battle of Britain class was very versatile, and could be seen hauling (tender-first) a couple of coaches on a local service in Cornwall, as well as hurtling down the South-eastern main line on the Golden Arrow...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SR_Leader_class
He designed a rather similar locomotive - the Turf Burner - for Córas Iompair Éireann in Ireland, but this was a utilitarian beast with no pretensions to good looks, though it apparently worked quite well.
http://www.bulleidlocos.org.uk/_oth/cc1_itb.aspx
I still recall the horrid accident at Hither Green, caused by a broken rail:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hither_Green_rail_crash
I'm a very armchair member actually - I don't live anywhere near it, but I read Love on a Branchline at a very impressionable age and it's only £12 a year!
Thank you so much for reminding me of the Leader! I've (re-)looked at a couple of websites on this, indeed a mysterious beastie! In my hope for at least a short video of the Leader at work, I've found not the real-size version, but a 5"-gauge one, and pulling loads of people! See here!
The construction of the machine is described here, in two parts; I'm just reading up on it.
I love the sound of the model Leader, unlike a typical steam engine, more like a diesel! This is exciting stuff!
One major flaw in the full-size one was the firebox. This was surrounded by firebricks which left the footplate unbearably hot. Another layer had to be inserted but this then reduced the firebox size substantially. There were also major concerns about balance due to the off-centre boiler (extra weight had to be added to compensate) and safety (if the loco derailed and fell onto one side the fireman would be trapped in the firing compartment, basically a furnace - horrible to even think about).
@Baptist Trainfan - I've read that the footplate of the Leader, although very hot, was actually not all that much hotter than the cab of a Bulleid Pacific! The lonely fireman scenario was avoided on the Irish turf-burner by only having one cab, in the middle...
I believe it did - it was, in fact, fairly successful (although it never worked in revenue-earning service) but came far too late in the history of steam traction. In any case, CIE was rapidly acquiring diesels, albeit not from the USA as Bulleid wanted!
They've done the elegant 4-6-0 gas-turbine GT3 as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGJzE6KXEjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZy9kQhg-iI
If I had a couple of 100k in cash, I'd be very much tempted to have a 1:1 replica built, of course with the slight changes and improvements that might've helped if implemented back then.
Totally agree.
Mostly, he commits the unforgivable model railway sin by letting his trains run ON A CARPET! - Which is one of the first things you learn - never ever do that! Trains on carpets are NOT good for the innards of locos or carriages, all the fluff gets into the wheels and cogs and motors. Aaaargh!
I have their GT3 - it’s not perfect but it's very good.
I have not heard much good at all about their Fell.
*Sam* can be irritating, but I've bought one or two items largely on account of the good reviews he's given them. I agree that running on the carpet Is Extreme Outrage, but at least his embryonic 0 gauge layout is on a shelf...
I hadn't realised that KR Models were from Canada. Full marks to them for attempting to recreate some of the oddballs of the past - pity about the Fell diesel, which, as you say, doesn't seem to be of particularly high quality.
I hope their version of the Leader is good, though. 36001 in lined black (or lined green) at the head of a rake of blood-and-custard Bulleid or BR Mark 1 coaches will look rather fine, I think...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM5yjNYSeyE
Reminds me of how railways used to look in the snow...
I never saw GT3, and would like to have done. Nor did I see either of the Western gas turbines. I saw the Fell quite often in my childhood. Ugly brute but I think quite reliable until it eventually caught fire. I've a slight query whether it really was ever painted green, or if it was, whether it ever worked in green. I only remember it as black.
The red counterweights were very distinctive, but I think KR Models have got the colour slightly wrong. It may just be that theirs is clean whereas nothing on the 1950s railway remained pristine for long. Theirs, though, look a bit bright, whereas I remember them as more the colour of a postbox or the red that was used on carriages before the switch to maroon.
About 30 years ago, I saw a scratch built model of it at a show in Swindon, whose maker had not realised the counterweights were red. He'd only seen black and white photos of the original and assumed they were black. Not much was recorded about it then.
I also saw 10000, 10001 - which didn't when I saw them have grey bogies -, two at least of the three Southern ones and on one occasion 10800 which I've since discovered was, even by early BR diesel standards, one of the least reliable machines there ever was.
I don't understand the early diesel numbering: why 10000/1 but 10201/2/3? Why not (apart 10200/1/2? After all, the BR standards steamers such as the "Britannias" started at 0, not 1.
AIUI, the superb LMS diesels 10000 and 10001 had silver bogies when first ex-works, which must have looked splendid, but very quickly became grey...
The Southern diesels, designed by the ubiquitous Oliver Bulleid, but not introduced until 1950 (10101-2) and 1954 (10103) were IMHO handsome engines, too (but then, I am something of a fan of Mr Bulleid...
Without wishing to advertise, 00 scale models of the first two Southern Railway Bulleid/Raworth electric locomotives are on the way, but models of Bulleid's diesels - produced some years ago - are probably only now available secondhand:
https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/pg/111/KMRC-Locomotive---BRs-Bulleid-Diesel
If I had the space, I'd love to create a simple stretch of Southern-ish main line, on which I could run some of these exotic engines with suitable rolling stock! A double track, with up and down relief/goods loops would do - no need for a passenger station, though a signal cabin and perhaps a PW siding would add interest.
The early BR diesels were certainly a mixed bunch, but some lasted well - the D8000s (later class 20), immortalised by Hornby-Dublo, spring to mind. Down here on the Southern, the D6500s (later class 33) also had a good innings, and looked quite smart in their original livery.
I see that a few of the Bulleid diesel models are available on a certain online Emporium, at prices a little south or north of a quarter of a thousand pounds each...
A schoolfriend of mine saw (and took a photo of) 10001 at a Willesden open day c.1968. It shouldn't have been scrapped!
The bottom half of the Bulleid locos was, of course, the inspiration for the EE type 4s. I used to go to school by train at the London end of the Midland main line and still remember D384 on a down express emerging from thick fog - the train also notable for including the first blue-and-white coach I'd ever seen. But what was the loco doing there???
The only prototype I ever saw was the lovely DP2.
No, no - they spent most of their time on their Own Railway, the Southern...
They only went to the WCML to show those Midland people How Things Should Be Done.
FWIW, I really like the original black-and-silver livery, although it was, of course, impossible to keep the silver bogies looking clean. Córas Iompair Éireann, over in the Republic of Ireland, painted their first diesels all-over silver (possibly influenced by Bulleid, by then enjoying himself in his retirement job?
Yes, very true, and there is ample video evidence of the said filthy exhaust. I don't expect the prevalence of *soft days* helped, though...
The A class, at least, had replacement engines fitted in due course, and lasted well.
If Mr Bulleid had had his way, CIE would have bought off-the-peg diesels from the USA (they would need to have had the gauge widened), and it was years before CIE acquired the much better 121 class from General Motors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIE_121_Class
At least CIE did better with their original AEC railcars (similar to those on the Great Northern Railway of Ireland) in the early 50s. The GNR(I)'s Oxford Blue and Cream livery was preferable to CIE's green, though, IMHO.
I like Irish railways - refreshingly different from those in the UK, perhaps due to the broad gauge - and could bore the pants off anyone who dares to engage me in conversation on the subject...I am, in any case, entitled to Irish citizenship...
I believe that the LNER Tyneside Electric units were painted in a rather fetching scheme of blue and light grey during the 1940s. Were the pretending to be the "Coronation"?
When I lived in Portugal in the late 70s, the trains were a wonderfully varied lot: diesels from the US, Britain and France, electrics from France and Sweden, German and Dutch railbuses, carriages of many types including Swiss (recently returned to service) and Italian, Budd-style emus and carriages ... and (though I never saw them) some fantastically ancient stock on the narrow-gauge lines, one of which still used Mallett steam locos.
One of the 2-4-6-0T Mallets has been preserved, and was at one time used on steam specials (along with an ex-Reseau Breton 4-6-0T) on the Nice-Digne line.
I have seen one of the lovely 0-6-6-0T Mallets, formerly used on the lines out of Porto, on the CF de Baie de Somme in France. Alas! the engine was in a dark grey livery - not a works grey - rather than the Portuguese glossy black...
A beautiful engine, nonetheless, and very elegant in appearance.
As to the CIE American diesels that never materialised, they may indeed have required modifications, apart from the gauge, but AFAIK they were to be more or less standard centre-cab switchers (shunters). Quite suitable for the fairly light trains being operated by CIE at that time, perhaps?
I had a very brief visit to Porto (Trindade) in 1978, no steam by then but still a full suburban service. I was able to take a short ride, out in one of the lovely 1930s Italian carriages (with, however, wooden seats) and back in very comfortable modern DMU. All replaced now by the Metro. However one narrow-gauge line just escaped closure a few years ago and is steadily being relaid (the original rails being 100+ years old). There are occasional steam or diesel specials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EApW2u6NoEs
The CF de la Baie de Somme isn't that far from here - though Brexit makes it harder to get to
The railway is closely associated with the Kent & East Sussex, and on the occasion of my visit, one of the K&ESR's engines, along with a four-wheeled coach, were trundling up and down the dual-gauge line on the Quay at St Valery-sur-Somme.
Their website is worth a visit, too:
https://www.chemindefer-baiedesomme.fr/fr/chemin-de-fer-de-la-baie-de-somme
The CP Mallet doesn't appear on their current list of locomotives - presumably it's owned by someone else...
I also saw two of the very first 20s, on a summer's evening in 1957, within a few weeks of delivery working an express freight on the West Coast Main Line (WCML). It's amazing when one thinks of what has happened to most of the other diesels from that early era, that there are still a few operating now, 66 years later.
I agree with you about Irish railways. Since 2016 I've been very envious of anyone who can claim Irish citizenship. We had a holiday there in the mid-sixties. By then steam had gone, except for one blue 4-4-0 we saw too far from the end of the platforms at what was then Amiens Street to be able to read the number. The north's share of the division of ex-GNR(I) engines were still rostered on the through trains from Belfast. But the CIE passenger stock was still in three different liveries, including some in the distinguished GNR(I) scheme. I also saw a clerestory coach apparently in use and a lot of suburban coaches with double footboards which had long since disappeared here.
I am currently reading a very good book on the Tralee and Dingle. Now that is a railway with quite a story!
The old Triang TT3 range led to a fair few 00n3 layouts, some based on Irish or Manx narrow-gauge practice, as the gauge of 12mm was exactly right.