Must agree with Bill Bedford on this one. Britain may have seen the birth of railways and of steam power ,but it was not very long into the steam age before overseas nations were outstripping us in areas of steam design and practice. Indeed, Gresley and other British designers based many of their design features on overseas practice, with Gresley - the Pennsylvania K4 Pacifics - and Churchward before him influenced by American and also European design ideas. Possibly the great attribute of Gresley - and also Churchward - was that he was willing to seek ideas and solutions elsewhere.
Post -1948 Riddles and his team went for American ideas on accessability and ease of servicing in the Standard designs, but were timid and conservative in other areas, such as cast steel engine beds. Plate frames were simpler, cheaper, less complex to construct - and weaker! There was a great deal of "We've always done it that way!" and not only in the railway industry.
There was also a mistrust in Britain of the rational and scientific approach, possibly a throwback to the empirical methods of the early railway pioneers. Here again Gresley and Churchward were ahead of the field, with Gresley continually pressing for scientific testing of locomotives. Rugby Testing Station -when it finally arrived- was years too late.
In later days one of BR's undoubted design successes was the HST, yet it is arguable that much of the impetus for these trains was provided by the parallel APT project ,with its ideas and designers imported into B R from the aerospace industry in the mid 1960s, spurring on the BR designers and delivering a metaphorical and successful, 'kick up the backside'.
One for you Malcom
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