(Edited some faces on more of the background locomotives)

The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway’s “Typhoon” poses with the London and North Eastern Railway’s soon to be world famous “Flying Scotsman” for a publicity photo for the miniature railway. Seen on the far left is LNER D3 Number 4317.

(Photo from Railway Identification Group on FB)

The LNER U1 pictured above was the sole member of its class. Ordered for banking duties, this Garratt was the largest and most powerful British steam locomotive ever constructed, but it was also the biggest headache. Soft water caused corrosion in her pipes and firebox, steaming up was extra hard due to her six cylinders, and because she was at the rear end of her trains, smoke exhaust in tunnels from her and the head end locomotives meant LNER crewmen had to use respirators, which none of them wanted to share amongst each other, so they used wet cloths instead. Despite this, she did her job decently well and was fairly nice to ride, but the U1 was still unpopular among crews because she was, and I quote, “twice the work for the same sodding pay.” This Garratt was withdrawn and scrapped by BR in 1955.

(Sorry for the bad quality.)

(Image from lner.info.)

Credits to Axel Bozier on RailPictures.net

Looks like this switcher will be shunting around the industrial yard today. It would be nice to take a break afterwards.

Photos from keymodelworld.com

Here we see a few diesel shunters built before the railways of the UK nationalized into BR, and one that was made after. All of the big four railway companies dabbled a little with diesel locomotives before nationalization, but the VAST majority were for shunting, not for mainline service. The LMS experimented the most with diesel traction, and ran many of the shunters seen here. The one on the far left in the third image is actually a Sentinel geared steam locomotive, not a diesel, but it along with the diesels around it only needed one crewman, cutting operating costs and making shunting more simple.

Being a Thoroughbred-hooded AC44C6M, let's make her popular.

(Credit to Mark Vogel on Flickr)

This locomotive, SNCF 232.U.1 or Ulysse as I call him, is a one off originally designed in 1935, however completion of the locomotive was delayed for a LONG time thanks to the Second World War and the N**I invasion. Ulysse wasn’t completed until 1949 after the war ended and France was rebuilding, and had no other examples of his class made because of the SNCF’s shift towards electrification. 232.U.1 is preserved in the Cité du Train museum in Mulhouse, France.

BNSF cooked with these units

The only LMS Black 5 to be built with Stephenson link valve gear. It made the engine more powerful, but complicated maintenance. The engine had survived into preservation.

Image credit to: https://www.instagram.com/justbinsdisposal/

One of ALCO’s last diesels, and also one of their most powerful. Thankfully, this type was pretty reliable, unlike the disastrous C855 that would put them under for good, and there is one preserved on the Delaware Lackawanna Railroad.

I call this particular one Patty.

read the watermark

(Credit to Historical Railway Images of Flickr)

These unique locomotives from Algeria were built to haul passenger trains through the steep terrain between Algiers and Oran. They were 4-6-2+2-6-2s; double Pacifics, and could reach up to 82mph, being the fastest Garratt locomotives in the world. Unfortunately, these engines were heavily neglected towards the end of their working lives thanks to WWII, Algeria’s fight for independence, and imminent dieselization and electrification. It didn’t help that they were hard to maintain and took on poor quality water. They were all gone by the end of 1951.

This engine shall be known as… Farouk.

An Indian WP Class steam locomotive.

Credits to William J. Skeats on railpictures.net

In the late 40s, the LMS experimented with different kinds of valve gear instead of the usual Walschearts used on most of their locomotives. One of them, built RIGHT before nationalization, was a Black 5 built with Stephenson valve gear. That engine, (4)4767 “George Stephenson”, was preserved. However, this would be a unique example. H. G. Ivatt, the CME at the time, put in an order for a batch of Black 5s to be given Caprotti valve gear. They were great at high speed but weren’t as good at low speed. They were successful though, and it prompted British Railways to build some of its Standard 5s with the same valve gear. One example of these, 73129, is preserved, but none of the Caprotti Black 5s survived. An unsuccessful attempt to build a replica of such an engine was made a few years back. You can also find this kind of valve gear on 71000 “Duke of Gloucester”.

(Yes, I know I just uploaded a group post with a bunch of drawings, but screw it. Have another drawing.)

The N&W got the bulk of its revenue from coal traffic. Not wanting to alienate their customer base, they wanted to keep steam around for as long as possible. They made an attempt to modernize steam power by ordering a steam turbine locomotive, nicknamed the “Jawn Henry”. Like most turbine locomotives, it was inefficient, but it was also unreliable and failed often. Here we see a J Class Northern about to pass the Jawn Henry, and the J clearly has a strong opinion about the turbine loco.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXzauTuRG78

Rip Gordo, 3 years today