61027 Madoqua

[Ferrybridge Flyer]

Fine looking model Chaz-isn't O gauge the big one?The one you'd never fit in a bedroom?!

[Flamingo]

G'Day Gents
And whats a Gadwell or a Pochard?????
Well the LNER might have come out with some weird and wonderful names, but it's soooooooo much better than 3,000 'Castles' and 2,000 'Halls,Names like, 'Ormonde'--'Firdaussi'--'Papyrus' even 'Manna' roll off the tongue, and inspire, what can you say to names like 'Rusty Castle' or 'Long Hall'. Long live the LNER's incongruous racehorse names, inspired by genius
manna

The LNER had Castles and Halls too though. The platform enders at KX had some fun once at the expense of a Great Western fan who had obviously come to the wrong place. There was a B17 messing about in the loco yard and it was one with a Castle name, can't remember which one, then another one came in from Cambridge and it had a Hall name. The GW man went potty while we LNER fans sang the praises of our Halls and Castles and said if you wait long enough you might see a Manor too ( 61636 Harlaxton of that variety), but he did not take up the offer.

[chaz harrison]

Fine looking model Chaz-isn't O gauge the big one?The one you'd never fit in a bedroom?!

Yes FF, I'm very pleased with it, after a long wait! Need to spend a little time getting it to run quietly - it has a Maxon coreless motor so the CVs in the Lenz DCC chip need tweeking!
Bedroom? My layout is shoe-horned into the roof. 14 feet on the diagonal - so the B1 will never be running fast. Still it does look very well in BR black.

Harlaxton Manor? There is a photo somewhere of me as a nipper standing in front of it at Liverpool Street. I will see if I can find it.

Chaz

[52D]

I know im sliding away from Madoqua but remaining with B1s, were 61244 Strang Steel and 61245 Murray of Elibank named after withdrawn NBR locos if not whats the story.

[52D]

Chaz thanks for posting pics. Chaz & Flamingo remember this posting where we scratched our collective heads at the expense of the GWR.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1700&hilit=castles+and+halls
It should have included Kings, Earls, Granges and Counties as well.
Just remembered to go off on an LMS tangent and include Citys.

[manna]

'Day Gents
Nice model Chaz, looks right at home, fits the de'cor as they say.
I googled Pochard and Gadwall, and as you say there Diving Ducks, seems SNG had a thing about ducks, strange choice of names for such a fleet of foot locomotive, and the last thing you can say about an A4 is that they 'waddle'
manna

[giner]

That's a lovely model of 61027, chaz. I couldn't bring myself to actually say the name, I think we all saw enough of it up and down between Kings Cross and Cambridge to last us a lifetime. And speaking of the odd practice of giving names to machines, I once bought an old Hillman Husky for nine quid and variously called it "*^(&^%^" and "@$#$#!" on many occasions, although it did take my then future wife and I on a week's holiday around the Norfolk Broads. I only chose that area because there were no hills to challenge the old girl (the Husky, that is).

[chaz harrison]

'Day Gents
Nice model Chaz, looks right at home, fits the de'cor as they say.
I googled Pochard and Gadwall, and as you say there Diving Ducks, seems SNG had a thing about ducks, strange choice of names for such a fleet of foot locomotive, and the last thing you can say about an A4 is that they 'waddle'
manna

Yes, I am very pleased with it.

"strange choice of names"? The choice for the bird A4s was supposedly based on the idea of the speed of the birds in flight, and ducks do "get a move on". So why Bittern? Anyone who has been lucky enough to see this elusive bird would not describe its flight as rapid - languid might be closer to the mark (it is a type of heron).

As to the pronunciation of ten twenty-seven's name I believe it should be MAD-O-KWAR.

[Flamingo]

That's a lovely model of 61027, chaz. I couldn't bring myself to actually say the name, I think we all saw enough of it up and down between Kings Cross and Cambridge to last us a lifetime. :

Well we may have been fed up with the sight of 61027 in those days but times have changed, and even that picture of the model was good to see. The next in the class 61028 Umseke used to be based at Neasden and 61251 Oliver Bury was another common one. When I began watching on the GN main line I seem to remember 61005 Bongo was a frequent member of the Hitchin B1s but that would be before it moved across to the GE section.

[52D]

I think the B1s were with thier smaller brothers the K1s generally overlooked by enthusiasts. They certainly looked as though they were built by the NER with a typical Darlo look to them and did valuable work for the LNER and later BR. As mentioned earlier in the thread the naming was a bit dodgy but all in all i think the railway got its moneys worth out of these two classes except for one B1 written off in an accident quite early in its career.
It would have been interesting to have done a long time engine comparison with a black five as the later seem to grab all the headlines.
I cant remember B1s on passenger work but i saw a few on freight where they seemed to cope quite well. I wonder how long the two classes would have lasted if the modernisation plan did not happen. Would Peppercorn have kept them in service till he'd electrified the ECML

[chaz harrison]

I cant remember B1s on passenger work but i saw a few on freight where they seemed to cope quite well. I wonder how long the two classes would have lasted if the modernisation plan did not happen. Would Peppercorn have kept them in service till he'd electrified the ECML

My memories are opposite - I can only remember the B1s on passenger trains, particularly those to Cambridge, although I must have seen them on goods trains.
I do remember B1s from Immingham on the Cleethorpes run (before the Brits took over). Immingham had that awful habit of painting white the smokebox door hinges of an otherwise filthy loco. It only succeeded in making it look even dirtier! I could never figure out why they bothered.

Chaz

[stembok]

In the north east there was a large number of Pacifics and V2s- -it could be argued too many- and this tended to reduce the opportunities of B1s on fast passenger work. Before dieselisation they could be seen on the Newcastle-Carlisle, trains but otherwise a lot of their passenger work was on reliefs, holiday extras, or secondary work, such as Leeds- Scarboroughs or Leeds -Hull. . The GE and GC sections gave the B1s their best chance to shine, or the trains from King's Cross to Lincolnshire.
Between the B1s and LMS Class 5s there was little in it performance and economy wise, but the LMS engine was probably more robust mechanically. Thompson, in trying to get the requisite route availability, had perhaps cut things a little too fine with regard to axleboxes, bearing sizes etc. Bill Harvey's autobiography gives a fascinating account of his efforts as Norwich shedmaster to keep the Norwich B1s up to the mark mechanically.

[Flamingo]

I cant remember B1s on passenger work but i saw a few on freight where they seemed to cope quite well. I wonder how long the two classes would have lasted if the modernisation plan did not happen. Would Peppercorn have kept them in service till he'd electrified the ECML

My memories are opposite - I can only remember the B1s on passenger trains, particularly those to Cambridge, although I must have seen them on goods trains.
I do remember B1s from Immingham on the Cleethorpes run (before the Brits took over). Immingham had that awful habit of painting white the smokebox door hinges of an otherwise filthy loco. It only succeeded in making it look even dirtier! I could never figure out why they bothered.

Chaz

Cleethorpes to KX and back the same day with 11 or 12 coaches was a good day's work for a B1. Until the later 1950s the Immingham B1s on those jobs were kept pretty clean, far better than Hitchin's or even Top Shed ones. Even Gateshead A4s had a good reputation for cleanliness in the early years of BR - it was the 34A ones that looked shabby until Peter Townend took over there. In later years the less said about 52A A4s the better. Unfortunately many sheds found it difficult to recruit cleaners after the BR Modernisation Plan was announced.

[gentlegiant]

Hi Chaz,
Where did you get your O gauge Madoqua from please?
Could you tell me how much it was please?
I am into O.
Thanks G.

[kudu]

Proposals to name a B1 "Thomson's Gazelle" were rejected because of the risk of mis-spelling.

Actually, I made that up, but it OUGHT to be true.

Shame we never had one called Dik Dik.


Kudu (another one!)