New here, railroad artist

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:14 pm

Greetings,

I am new here and thought I would say hello. I am a railroad artist, have been for almost 20 years now. Recently I have turned my attention to European locomotives. Primarily unusual, historic, and streamlined versions of the UK. While not being too familiar with their types and workings I have been doing online research and have purchased numerous books. I am currently working on my first piece, the 4-8-4-4-8-4 Beyer-Garratt. I know this was mostly an Afircan and Austrailian locomotive but I really like it and wanted to do it. This has been a pretty steep learing curve since prior to this I have been doing only North American locomotives.

I did notice on the NRM site that a Coronation Class is being re-streamlined for the 70th anniversary next July. I am going to try to have 2 drawings/prtins of it as well. I will being doing quite a few of the others as well in the 4-6-2 Pacific streamlined class.

Anyway, good to be here and I may have some questions from time to time, that may seem simple and stupid to most but please bear with me as I learn about the history of your railway.

Here is a sample of one I just finished. It is a Duluth and Missabe Yellowstone 2-8-8-4 articulated:

Sorry for the copyright stuff but that is for posting only. The original does not have that on it.

By the way, everything is done in pencil on illustraiton board.

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 6:16 pm

Here are a 3 more and a better photo:

Post by **richard** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 11:57 pm

Welcome to the LNER forums!

The streamlined Duchess may well be a popular picture.
Also, as this is an LNER forum, I should suggest some LNER engines - A4s and A3s are always popular (an A4 still holds the world steam speed record; "Flying Scotsman" is an A3).
A completely new build "Peppercorn A1" has a good chance of turning its first wheel next year - so that might be a good choice.
(these are all Pacifics, btw).

For non-Pacifics, how about a P2 in its original shape - Cock O'the North or Earl Marischal? They have a cult following but are probably far too impractical for a new build.
The LNER also had a Garrett - the U1 (2-8-8-2).
And for really unusual, there's the W1 "Hush-Hush".

Back to the more conventional, I should think a Thompson B1 would be popular (2 survive in preservation).

Richard

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:08 am

Thank you for the suggestions and information. I will look into them and see what I come up with. I do plan on doing several LNER locomotives so if you think of more that would be of good interest as well please let me know. Like I said I am new to this area of railroading and all suggestions are welcome!

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:17 am

I just took a look at the W1 "Gresley". What version was more popular, the original or the re-built? I like 4-6-4 class engines. I have done a number of the North American "Hudson" class loco's for a variety of roads so this might be a great addition.

Post by **richard** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 2:05 am

The original was the most distinctive and famous. Only one was built as an experiment and it was not a great success - hence the rebuild. The rebuild made it look like an A4 - and many people would probably confuse it with an A4 if you did a picture of it like that.

Some argue that the W1 should be classed as a 4-6-2-2 due to the rear truck (bogie) arrangement. The "Hudson" arrangement wasn't popular in the UK - I'm not aware of any others although there might have been (does anyone know of any?). Although many of the US names made it to the UK, many did not - eg. we have Atlantics and Pacifics; but the very popular 4-6-0s were never known as "ten wheelers".

Richard

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:09 am

Well, I plan on doing a number of the A4's anyway so no sense in doing another like that since, like you said, some might mistake it as an A4. So, I guess I will do the original version. All I seem to be able to find are B&W pictures of it. Can you point me in the direction of a color one?

Post by **richard** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:42 pm

I don't think I've seen one!

Colour photographs of British locomotives in the 30s are rare - I don't think I've seen any of the A4s from the 1930s either.

The RCTS Locomotives of the LNER describes the original W1 as "dark battleship grey" ('appropriate for an engine partly assembled at a Clyde shipyard'). Steel clothing bands on the boiler and smokebox.
Numberplate had white numerals with 1,5in wide black shading picked out in white. Grey bufferbeam.

Richard

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 10:25 pm

Thank you for the information. I wasn't sure about the color photo or not, I could not locate one but that doesn't mean they might not be out there.

Two more questions, when they did the rebuild and streamlined the W1 did they keep it grey as well? And, what is the length from bumper to bumper?

If it is grey in the streamlined version both of these are good candidates for just black and white drawings and I can do them as a set for both versions of the same locomotive.

x568wcn · Post by **x568wcn** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:09 pm

The W1 entered traffic on 21/06/1930, and was rebuilt back to traffic 06/11/1937

as for colours, it went through the standard A4 Colouring after rebuild, (as it comes under the same yeadons)
I don't have a livery list for it, but I guess it started Garter Blue
12/10/1942 LNER Black
02/09/1943 NE Black
18/05/1946 LNER Black
14/12/1946 Garter Blue
11/01/1951 BR Blue
27/05/1952 BR Green

01/09/1955 Derailed at Westwood Junction Peterborough
09/05/1959 not repaired
01/06/1959 Cut up at Doncaster

hope this helps

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 3:34 am

Thank you for the informaiton, that does help out quite a bit.

60114 · Post by **60114** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:52 am

only other 4-6-4 "hudson" style locos i can think of are tank engines, and even then i think theres only one or two types 3-4 at most.

Might i Suggest a P1?

From Mike

x568wcn · Post by **x568wcn** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 6:30 pm

Found this picture of a model on an auction site (it's closed by the way!)

Hope this helps

art_by_lb · Post by **art_by_lb** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:18 pm

Thank you all for the pics and info, it will all help! I think I will do both versions of the W1, original and streamlined, should make a nice set. I will do a little looking at the P1, I had decided to do the P2 class, so I will look at the differences and go from there.

Post by **richard** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:09 pm

The P1 and P2 were very different - only similarity was the designer and the wheel arrangement.

The P1 was a "heavy mineral" Mikado. Only two built. Looked very simliar to an A1 (Flying Scotsman as built) except for the wheels. Arguably built before there was a full requirement, but intended and used on the "coal to London" traffic. Inefficient unless fully loaded, and slow when it was loaded and had to give way to all the expresses.

The P2 was a passenger express Mikado intended for the Edinburgh to Aberdeen run. Tight corners, steep gradients, etc. They proved to have excellent traction and adhesion qualities, but the coupled eight wheels were too much for the tight corners.
First two were built with a distinctive curved smoke deflector / sloping firebox shape. The later four were built with A4 bodies. The first two were rebuilt to match. Later, all four were rebuilt as (ugly imho) Pacifics.

Richard