Having seen mention of "City of Birmingham" in the Watt Engine post, I thought you might like to see the Streamlined version of the class in the form of "Duchess of Hamilton" which has been recently put into this form... Fantastic...
🔗Personal-Album-856-Image-35342[linkphoto]Personal-Album-856-Image-35342[/linkphoto][/link]
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WOW!!!!!

Ace pics Ian! and thanks for the PM.
I would love to see her with the throttle wide open on a nice long straight. Some good bits between Doncaster and York. The Deltics used to run late into Donny so they could open up and make up time to york. It blew the cobwebs out 😉 ...and most of the passengers.... 😞 Happy days. :thumbsup:

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I did some Deltic bashing and you are right... I once clocked Tulyar at 112mph on the footplate with her on a night parcels.... I'd blagged a run with a mate from DN to YK as a kid.... ahem...naughty even back then!

The streamlined duchess won't in reality perform or sound much different to non-streamlined Duchess of Sutherland I guess..... but the view will be splendid.... its a massive engine!! :thumbup:

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Absolutely beautiful! (My favourite standard gauge loco class...)

Grahami

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You're right. Magnificent, but... I still think a GWR 'King' at high speed takes some beating. (Ducks rapidly in order to avoid blunt heavy objects thrown by the east coast crew !!) 😮 😉

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East Coast crew... ? You will have me to deal with.... 😉
Just joking..... there are some great A1 vids out there on Youtube at mo...

Regards

Sue Ellen :devil:

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Will it be allowed out to play?!

Looks fabulous, but I reckon it'll be a lot happier moving than sat in a museum 😉

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Am told it is quite possible it will steam in this form. By all accounts the streamlined casing has had to be modified in order to keep the loco within modern UK loading gauge as it would have fouled otherwise... so they obviously have plans to move her around! 🙂

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Presumably the issue is with boiler certification?

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East Coast crew... ? You will have me to deal with.... 😉
Just joking..... there are some great A1 vids out there on Youtube at mo...

Regards

Sue Ellen :devil:

East Coast = anywhere east of Swindon

Sue Ellen indeed 😠

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Am told it is quite possible it will steam in this form. By all accounts the streamlined casing has had to be modified in order to keep the loco within modern UK loading gauge as it would have fouled otherwise... so they obviously have plans to move her around! 🙂

You mean the current loading gauge is smaller than the old one??????? 😮

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Grahami,
No not really... its just never changed in places!!!, ...if you imagine a duchess is a great long rigid frame with 6 wheels in the middle the throw over on curves etc is all at the ends as against mostly in the middle as on a bogied vehicle... I was on a train that hit the platform edges sometime ago!!! 😮 Modern trains are designed to be able to accomodate any operating zone!

Trivia time.... Ever wondered why there has not been a 9F working on the main line... as you know the centre wheels are flangeless allowing sharper curves... modern track can have check rails higher than the running rail which apparently could lead to problems at points and crossovers where the centre wheel might ride over the check rail... true I'm told!!!

Dear JR
Swindon.... Oh yeah ... they couldn't get the hang of pacifics if I remember.... built one ugly one and stuck with 4-6-0s ... how qaint.... mind you you don't need anything bigger for secondary mainlines.. 😉 😉

Regards

Yereverluvin Sue Ellen :lol: :flowers:

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My first thought was that it needs a re-paint due to being in obsolete EWS colours! It would not look so good in DB Shenker livery. But then I looked closer, and it seems that the yellow is actually gold.

But it is a very fine machine, and in streamlined form looks much neater than an A4. Not as fast though, as far as has been proved!

I seem to recall travelling behind it at least once, in the late 1950s or early 60s, in non streamlined form. The only reason I noticed is that when she saw the name, my mother made some remarks about the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton. I can't remember if there was some interesting history or maybe a family scandal, or something like that.

You are correct re the gold lines... I believe the fastest official speed for a Duchess was 114 mph for one of these on a full test load (a world record at the time!) ... my understanding is you can't get the coal in quick enough to get the max output out the boiler...

TE of an A4 being approx 34,000lb
TE of a Duchess being 40,000lb

The Princess Class though has the higher TE at 40,285 along with the King at about the same!

Typically the A4 was built for high speed light loads of say 220T and long range, whereas the Duchess was built for speed and brute power many believe, many trains being 400T plus...

The debate over which is aethetically the best is in the eye of the beholder... as for comparing performance of any of the express passenger types its like comparing apples with pears.... they were all designed with different objectives giving us a wonderful variety of express power over the decades.

Regards ICLOK

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No streamlining needed on this little cracker

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With any luck they will allow it to be returned to main-line use, especially since Sutherland - 6233 - is bowing out this year. someone would have to raise the money though........

An assault on Shap and the S&C beckons........

Of course in April Tornado did a full trip from London to Edinburgh, being fired by one Jeremy Clarkson...........

S&C would be nice.... Shap better!!! :thumbup:

I live near Sutherlands home shed so we should get her on a few of MRTs trains...:thumbup:

As for Clarkson- he could not have managed an engine of that size on that run with no experience, without a huge amount of help.... but we'll have him crowing now that he fired Tornado....
Personally I hate that type of hype, real Firemen spend years training and learning engine management..... :guns: just to have it look like some (pro car) celeb can turn up and do the job after 5 mins!

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Not having seen the Top Gear programme featuring 60163 yet, I'm sure that Mr Clarkson was just a "passenger" on the engine - he wouldn't be allowed to even touch the whistle without being passed competent by the Ministry.

As for Top Gear, that's just pure televisual entertainment, occaisionally informative, mostly humorous; I'm just glad that there will be an opportunity to see a long, fast run by a big engine on TV. If it means watching Mr.C goofing about, I'll have a laugh at him whilst savouring steam on the main line - can't wait to see it!!

Cheers

Alan

Each to his own mate... I find it pointless twaddle but there you go! Oh and he does pretend to get his hands dirty... and he even drives 😉

Regards ICLOK

Spitfire- Loved the picture.... Can't wait to see the Saint out of Didcot!

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