A brand new what if for the new year.

[Bill Bedford]

Regarding the post of hq1hitchin for 16 January, Edward Thompson did not rebuild the B12's. Nigel Gresley did this rebuilding of the B12's in the 1930's. Mr Thompson rebuilt a few of the B17's into B2's, giving them two outside cylinders instead of the the three cylinders of the B17's. This rebuilding made the B2's generally similar in appearance to the B1's. This rebuilding of the B17's may be what hq1hitchin had in mind.

Thompson was CME at Stratford in the 30's and as such was responsable for the reboilering of the B12/3s and D16/3s. This was a Stratford project which Gresley did no more than rubber stamp. At one stage Thompson was admonised for rebuilding some locos without Gresley's permission.

[Malcolm]

I believe the word is "admonished". There is no such word as "admonised".

Malcolm

[hq1hitchin]

Regarding the post of hq1hitchin for 16 January, Edward Thompson did not rebuild the B12's. Nigel Gresley did this rebuilding of the B12's in the 1930's. Mr Thompson rebuilt a few of the B17's into B2's, giving them two outside cylinders instead of the the three cylinders of the B17's. This rebuilding made the B2's generally similar in appearance to the B1's. This rebuilding of the B17's may be what hq1hitchin had in mind.

Edward Thomson was a mechanical engineering graduate of Cambridge University. He was, therefore, a different kind of engineer compared with all the other railway mechanical engineers of his time. A characteristic of all the Cambridge-trained mechanical engineers that I have known is an air of supreme confidence, that can be misunderstood as arrogance. This may be why Edward Thompson has been regarded unfavourably over the years. I am not sure whether attending Cambridge makes highly confident engineers or whether only very confident people want to go to Cambridge in the first place. It could also be that the University authorities only accept confident people for their engineering courses. One thing is certain, and that is that Cambridge-trained engineers end up in most of the top jobs in the United Kingdom. I sometimes wish that I had gone to Cambridge instead of KCL, but there again, there have been many KCL engineers in top jobs too. Being a Londoner, I did not want to leave London and my girl-friend at that time in my life.

Sir Brian

Hadn't seen it that way but I think we can safely say that Gresley, Bullied, Stanier etc. also displayed supreme confidence without having had the benefits of a Cambridge higher education. Evidently Thompson was very quietly spoken and inclined to get upset very quickly if a member of staff didn't catch what he was saying and asked him to repeat what he'd just said!. As I mentioned earlier on, Peter Grafton's biography of him is an excellent read.

[brsince78]

As I mentioned earlier on, Peter Grafton's biography of him is an excellent read.

Agreed. It is a well researched and presented biography that puts into perspective some of the more emotional outpourings of railway historians who witnessed at first hand the turmoil on the L.N.E.R. during the 1941-46 period. It is also interesting to read R.H.N. Hardy's words on Thompson in his autobiography "Steam in the Blood". He devotes a chapter to him and met him during his early days on the LNER.

My hope is that a similar volume can be produced with Peppercorn as the subject. Although his reign was but brief it can be argued that the Pacifics produced under his guidance were the most successful, measured against all criteria, produced by the L.N.E.R. and overall in the UK. Peppercorn is covered briefly in Colonel Rogers' book:- Thompson and Peppercorn - Locomotive Engineers, but deserves further coverage in my opinion. Given the level of interest generated by the appearance of Tornado the time is right for this I feel.