Favourite LNER Locomotive

[69856]

My choices are fairly traditional but hey ho, I'm a fairly traditional LNER kind of bloke.

First pick comes from my earliest memory of steam in 1962, as a 3 year old being taken into West Ackland shed by my father who at that time would have been a Passed Fireman. The Q6 - simple design, reliability, longevity, powerful hauler of heavy mineral loads, it was the backbone of the 51F allocation, well liked by their loco-men.

Next choice is the A8 - an elegant pacific tank, excellent on suburban passenger jobs. Regrettably too young to have seen one in action, I admit to being influenced by my father in this choice - he loved firing them. 69856 was the last to go from West Auckland to be scrapped at Darlington.

However, in the beauty contest, my top prize goes to the A3. Elsewhere on this site is a photo of Flying Scotsman pulling into Saltburn for the town's Victoriana week in 1987. My father was the driver and the oohs and aahs from the big crowd on the station platforms as it pulled in said it all. It might not be a very original choice but the A3 looked glamorous and sounded perfect. It also gets my dads vote as a driver, over Mallard, though he admits it is a close call.

[Boris]

Flamingo,

If you wanted the sound of a V2 really working hard then you should have been at Darnall Loco when the "Whisky" as it was known came up from Tinsley WITHOUT a banker.

Mostly took one, but on odd occassions some drivers didn't bother.

Just breaking daylight and even with the background noise in the shed the "Whisky" could be heard coming up the cutting from Attercliffe once it had come under Staniforth Road bridge to Darnall East

There would be about 10 or more of us at the end of the shed watching this what can only be descibed as a "diplay" of power

Speed about 10 m.p.h. full forward gear and regulator wide open,Column of smoke and steam going straight up a 100 feet or more, that Gresley beat, engine more often than not blowing off as well.

Days before videos mores the pity

[Landscapes]

My favourite LNER locomotives were any of the A1's, A2's, A3's and A4's.

As a nine year old train spotter in 1962 standing at the end of the platforms at Kings Cross station seeing the back of a large green tender backing into the terminus from Top Shed 34A not knowing what locomotive it may be. Or standing at the south end of Finsbury Park station ( first station out of Kings Cross) when there use to be large carriage sidings seeing over the carriage roof tops a large plume of white smoke from a north bound express working hard up Holloway Bank again waiting to see what pacific locomotive was at the head of the train.

The LNER pacific’s were all magnificent engines, especially the Scottish based locomotives as they were very rear down in the London area around 1962.

Happy days

Regards

David

[PGBerrie]

If you press me, then I have to say the A1s, as this was the class most evident in my spotting days at Wakefield. I remember waiting for the bus under Westgate station after piano lessons and hoping that the 7.00 pm (?) KX would come before the bus. Alkazar, Osprey, Great Central, W.P.Allen ... you could just see the windshields and nameplate if they pulled up to the starter signal.

A4s, A3s, A2s and V2s, all super, but what about a J50 or J6 which were still pottering about in those days. And the K3s, O4s and B14s were handsome locos. Now ask me why I've always wanted a B1 on my model railway!

Peter

[bricam5]

dcstratman wrote:

Next choice is the A8 - an elegant pacific tank, excellent on suburban passenger jobs

While not denying their elegance and performance, they were just about the worlds worst for stabling.
Due to their conversion from Whitby bogies, the cab floor was raised almost a foot and to clear the trailing axle, the firebox was "humped" and that is or was the nickname certainly at Botanic. Humpies.

Cleaning the fire involved several movements just to get the clinker shovel at the cab door.

I have heard many an argument between the shed foreman and a stab and prep crew complaining of victimisation because they had more than one Humpy on their "ticket" .

Firing them was a different matter plus an excellent smooth ride and quiet but if you were booked to stable it at the end of your shift that took the shine off a good run.

[enterprise]

My favourite loco was 60108 Gay Crusader. During the 50s I was a fireman at Neasden and as a young past cleaner, with my driver, we were sent to relieve the "fast" at Harrow on the Hill and take it on to Marylebone. The train had left Liecester late and by the time it had reached Harrow it was only 3 minutes down. We made up the time to London and as I sat on the footplate people were coming up and saying what a wonderful trip it had been. One chap gave me ten bob,a fortune in those days! In those days Gay meant happy! I'm not so sure I'd feel the same about her now!

[Hilltrack]

My favourite are the B12s. I just like their look.

[sirbrian]

I agree with Hilltrack. The B12 is my favourite LNER locomotive also. I have a soft spot for the B12's because I rode on them when a teenager between Liverpool Street and Southend many years ago. The B12 was a surprisingly powerful locomotive, probably because of the improvements made during the extensive rebuilding that took place in the 1930's.

The B12 was an excellent riding locomotive because of its inside cylinder configuration, which reduced the inevitable nosing action produced by the cylinders being off-centre, compared with equivalent outside cylinder locomotives, such as the B1. The inside cylinder configuration also provides shorter paths for the steam flow, compared with outside cylinder locomotives, which should reduce thermal losses to some extent. The weaknesses of the inside cylinder configuration are having all the mechanism between the frames and the necessity of a cranked driving axle. Both these features make maintenance more difficult, compared with the outside cylinder arrangement. As in all engineering matters, there are pro's and con's for everything!

Sir Brian

[Old Tearaway]

Welso Brimtoy made a clockwork OO scale Y4 0-4-0T between 1967 and 1975. Why they picked the Y4 as the subject for a cheap clockwork kid's toy loco is anybody's guess. However, the clockwork mechanism & chassis may be terrible, but the body shell is pretty much spot on, apart from the rear of the cab and cab doors. It even has the front dumb buffers and toolboxes in the correct locations!!

A couple of years ago, I acquired one of these Y4 body shells and modified a Lima American H.K.Porter 0-4-0T yard switcher chassis. The result was a pretty passable Y4 loco, from the front and sides. However, I had to leave the bunker on the rear of the cab in order to clear the ringfield motor. I have recently acquired a Model Power American H.K.Porter 0-4-0T yard switcher, which has a smaller motor. This will allow me to remove the incorrect cab rear bunker and create the correct cab rear on the loco.

[Hatfield Shed]

I joined this forum after this thread 'ran out of steam' in 2010.
While the 'big stuff' was truly wonderful and always impressed, it's between the N2 and J6 for me. How did you usually get up to the smoke and return? Behind the formidable bark of an N2. But it is actually the closely related J6 that has my heart, because of how my Pa made use of a pair of them at Hatfield station: as the first I had seen that morning returned into view, while a second of the class stood at the down slow platform before us, and thus explained the mystery of loco numbers. (I was about 3 going on 4). And then the loco crew let me have a look at the even greater mystery of what happened on the footplate, the short cabside enabling me to see what was going on while I sat on Pa's shoulders. Smitten.

[65447]

I'd be hard-pressed to decide which of a number of GER types would be top of my list. But I do have a soft spot for Peppercorn A2 Bachelors Button. When much younger I had a jigsaw of it, stood in front of the main signal box at King's Cross. Never forgotten, although the jigsaw is long gone.