I’ve got a new favourite. As regular listeners will know I like an oddity. Something off the norm for me is just really interesting. I think it is the designer in me, I like to see the results of other engineers experimenting. Sometimes there are successes, and sometimes there are failures. But if you don’t try, you/’ll never know. My list of “one day in the future” models includes (for example) the LNER streamlined B17/5s. They only did two of them and I think they were probably a pig to maintain, but it was an experiment for publicity – something the modern railways can forget about sometimes.
Gresley B17/5 East Anglian
The list also includes the LNER C7 with booster tender. Booster tenders never seem to have survived much wherever they were tried but I love the experimentation that went into them
Gresley C7 with booster tender
My new favourite class is the Consett long boiler tanks. There is something about the way they look, almost narrow gauge in appearance. I also like the ingenuity that went into solving a particular problem. Again, it was an experiment, partially successful, partially not. At high speeds the long boilers, with their firebox behind the back axle made them waggle their arse – a bit like a salsa dancer waggling their hips as they walk. However, the tractive effort packaged into a small locomotive with small wheelbase made them ideal for hauling heavy loads on branchlines with tight curves and steep gradients. So that is what they were used for. Evolved over time, the details of the design changed although the concept remained the same. One remains, preserved by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association. It has just been returned to steam and looks fantastic. Railway Bylines has just done an article on them in the latest issue (Vol 20, Issue 4, March 2015). Worth a read.
My uncle reached the milestone of having volunteered on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway for 50 years. This is something to celebrate. So we did. On a train. With real ale. It really doesn’t get any better than that.
My parents hired a cottage for the weekend near Cullingworth and so on the Saturday we drank beer and on the Sunday we went walking on the Great Northern Railway Trail, a disused part of the Great Northern Railway. Possibly a theme to this weekend. Subtle, but you may notice it.
Anyway, here are a few pics from the weekend.
Our steed for the day, the SD160. Its whistle reminds me of a much missed American lco on the Ffestiniog…
The prototype diesel -electric shunter Vulcan. BR missed its potential, the Worth Valley did not.
The Volcano is back! Celebrating the original name, the newly outshopped SpamCan will carry the name Wells for 9 months until being renamed “City of Wells”
“A great railway,” says a friend of mine, “about one pint long!”
Mini-me watching the coal tank and GNR coach at the Vintage Carriages Trust at Ingrow.
No 72. I do like the USA tanks. Ugly but they mean business.
A walk along the Great Northern Trail is possible for most people
The two viaducts at Cullingworth are spectacular
Members of my family posing for the travel guide (no, not really)
Did I mention the “c” word? I think I might have done.
“What colour?” seems to be the biggest cause of argument on the railway. Occasionally you see it used for good such as in the case of deciding what colour to paint Duchess of Sutherland where punters could vote… for a fee, thus raising the money for the repaint in the process. By showing how the voting was going, and publishing it in the railway press, additional votes (and therefore revenue) were secured by people desperate for a particular colour scheme. Smart work, whoever thought of that one.
Duchess of Sutherland in the voted for Brunswick Green (c) RuthAS
One benefit of the younger brigade of railway volunteers starting to swarm some of the UK’s railways is the reduction in all things BR black. The upsurge in the late 90s and early 2000s was a direct result of those people who could remember the days of steam being in charge of the paintbrush. As they get too old to volunteer, or too old to be in decision making roles at least, we are seeing more colour come back, which is a good thing in my books.
A well applied livery can make such a difference. A bad one can look appalling. You can see on today’s railways the difference between those that get it and those that don’t in their livery applications. Some railways get it very right. Midland Mainline for example seem always to manage to provide a livery that works. The teal and tangerine livery, followed by the blue, followed by the latest EMT liveries all worked for their time (and continue to do so).
Midland Mainline’s second livery launched in time for Project Rio
East Midlands Trains livery (c) Phil Sangwell
As did GNER’s blue and red.
Much missed GNER livery (c) Phil Scott
Second from bottom of the livery pile for me are Northern’s class 333s. The original livery was smart. Very smart. On the lines they first ran where there hadn’t been anything new for donkeys years it was like seeing the Vulcan at Farnborough airshow in 1952 when all you were used to were Lancasters. Unfortunately they have since had several partial vinyl wraps and that red/blue mix just make you want to vomit.
So much potential… missed! (c) Peter Skuce
However, the winner (or loser) of worst livery ever is DOR’s East Coast. This is a good reason why the railways shouldn’t be under Government control. Brand awareness just doesn’t seem to be a Government skillset.
East Coast have one saving grace. It’s the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight class 91, 91110, the British record holding locomotive. You may not like the livery but it is distinctive so it ticks some of the livery boxes.
Yes I like it, and yes, I’ve got one
However, getting back to the East Coast norm, which civil servant nitwit thought a grey train (OK it’s supposed to be silver but it is grey in pretty much all light) would look good? Not only does it show up every single crinkle and dent on the Intercity 125s and 225s but the person who came up with it hadn’t been looking out the window that day and noticed the sky in the UK is uniformly… GREY! When you get a train you want to be cheered, spirits lifted, hop, skip and a jump, etc. Never before has anyone produced a livery (and I use the term loosely here) that can depress people more. The purple stripe doesn’t help either. It’s a small trickle of colour that has escaped the bland artist on the bandest palette immaginable.
A livery should be a symbol of the company. A beacon of advertising. A distinction from the world around it. If East Coast’s livery is a beacon of DOR, the sooner it is back in private hands the better. And the purple stripe? It reminds me of the scene from the Italian Job when they all jump in the Dormobile after they’ve done the raid. They’re all looking so glum and one of them says “Look ‘appy you b@rrstards…we won didn’t we?” and one of them responds with a limp wave of a balloon.
That’s East Coast’s livery: a sad, depressing, grey day punctuated with a limp purple balloon.
Penlowry 