Loco Projects that fell through?

[Ash Bridge]

Apparantly, they were going to squeeze a pair of 2,000hp MD870s and Mekydros into a suitably strengthened/redesigned Western bodyshell, Paddington was stopped however when Kestrel was on the drawingboard instead. A great pity IMHO. There was chatter of platework and part of the monocoque frames appearing at Swindon then being scrapped, but as I have never seen any evidence for these, I dont think it ever happened.

Fascinating stuff, like I previously said, I'd never heard about that proposal, many thanks for that information

That certainly rings a bell. I would have been made up.

Yes, me too! Traveled behind one from Liverpool Lime St. to Stafford on a special back in the late 90s non -stop, straight through Crewe on the centre up fast line, it went like a rocket start to stop and sounded just awesome!

Quite correct. I have a book on the Westerns (sorry, cannot find it) whch shows a drawing of the layout. It was basically two Hymek engines at their euro rating in a Western body shell. Was a bit of a squeeze as they were V16 as apposed to the normal V12.

Would have loved to have heard it at full chat.

Bet it would have given a Deltic a run for its money (in sound and performance terms)

And towards the end they (10000, 10001 and the SR trio) were regulars on the Manchester Central to Derby trains, often double headed. Sadly I AM old enough to remember them stopping at Cheadle Heath Station and running through the environs of Adswood and Hazel Grove.

And that's something else I've learned today, never realised the SR trio made it to these parts, what would have been latest year that any of the LMS/SR pioneer diesels ran on these Midland Line services? I can remember as a child being in Torkington park Hazel Grove in possibly 1967/68 and seeing what I thought was a LMS Co-Co passing over the Midland viaduct, or would I probably have mistaken a Peak for one by that time?

The Southern trio were basically class 40 prototypes. The 2000hp engine of the final one went into the class 40. The body of a class 40 was obviously different but the bogies were the same.

I've always wondered if 10203 had the sound, and especially the distinctive Class 40 whistle whilst idling?

 

[Pigeon]

Apparantly, they were going to squeeze a pair of 2,000hp MD870s and Mekydros into a suitably strengthened/redesigned Western bodyshell, Paddington was stopped however when Kestrel was on the drawingboard instead. A great pity IMHO. There was chatter of platework and part of the monocoque frames appearing at Swindon then being scrapped, but as I have never seen any evidence for these, I dont think it ever happened.

It was more the Germans' idea than the WR's; similarly capable machines were already operating in Germany, and the idea was that it would act as a demonstrator of hydraulic technology operating at high power outside of Germany. They thought the WR would be rather more enthusiastic than was the case. Swindon had already gone through two expensive and awkward iterations of squashing down a German design to fit within the British loading gauge, with the Warships and then the Westerns, and didn't fancy doing it yet again with something that was even bigger and more awkward. They preferred to put their resources into debugging the existing hydraulic fleet. They also had little need for such a powerful loco. But most of all, it was already clear that the hydraulic programme didn't have a future and there was no point introducing yet another design.

Really, the entire hydraulic programme is a fine example of a "loco project that fell through", and tragically so. There was nothing wrong with the basic idea, and the actual hydraulic transmissions themselves, although not flawless, gave very little trouble - as indeed we see today with the current DMU fleet. It was a combination of stupid politics (both government and railway), cockups, and half-arsednesses that did for it - none of which are acceptable reasons for the loss of a technically sound idea.