Brand New Class A1 steam engine up and running in the UK.

Run_to_da_hills

All the A1 Class pacific locomotives in the UK were scrapped in the UK by 1966. A group of enthusiasts decided to rebuild one from the ground up at a cost of 3 million. Its the first steam engine built for almost 50 years. Maybe something like this could be built at the inchicore works in Ireland.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7712796.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7536023.stm

L1011

Nice docu on this on the Beeb recently

Apparently its capable of faster operations than the original A1 Peppercorn's due to engineering improvements in the intervening period! Its got a better boiler for starters.

Run_to_da_hills

MYOB wrote: »

Nice docu on this on the Beeb recently

Apparently its capable of faster operations than the original A1 Peppercorn's due to engineering improvements in the intervening period! Its got a better boiler for starters.

Alloys and welding techhniques would have come along way since the war.

Judgement Day

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

All the A1 Class pacific locomotives in the UK were scrapped in the UK by 1966. A group of enthusiasts decided to rebuild one from the ground up at a cost of 3 million. Its the first steam engine built for almost 50 years. Maybe something like this could be built at the inchicore works in Ireland.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/7712796.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7536023.stm

With the current CIE chairman and CIE/IE management they couldn't even build a tea trolley in Inchicore. Gone are the days when every nut and bolt needed for the railway could be produced in Inchicore or Dundalk Works - now everything is imported from the far side of the World be it railcars or indeed tea trollies!:D:D:D

corktina

its the same in the UK largely.....the biggest challenge with the A1 was finding people with the skills and works capacity to perform the various tasks needed, As it was the boiler had to be built in Germany (Menagen Works,,,privatised ex-East German Railway works (DR)

This was a massive acheivement...check it out on the 'net. There are several other new-build projects underway too....LMS Patriot Class and GWR Grange/Saint/County Classes SR Brighton Atlantic and a few others

Run_to_da_hills

The Tornado makes its maiden passenger voyage this weekend. Brilliant.:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UJR6C8Q14Y

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/mailonsunday/article-1133109/The-Wider-View-Britains-steam-train-50-years-makes-maiden-journey.html

Capt'n Midnight

do they still build steam engines in India / China ?

fun and with personality

but very inefficient things though, replacing pistons with turbine would be more efficient at full speed , but boiler makes a nice way of storing energy , perhaps some vapour recomprression on braking ?

corktina

nope and they are all gone out of service on the main line too..Incredibly China was still building them up to a few years ago but then made a commitment to get rid of them all before the Olympics and more or less did....imagine how many locos that was in a country that size!

kingshankly

looks the part alright but impracticable you cant beat the railcars where there is no running round your train with an engine

Judgement Day

You don't even have to be interested in steam trains for this to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up - awesome!

Try this link from You Tube of a 75mph run through at Durham.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=jpXt7QX0NZM

This is the way things are done in the UK and elsewhere - where there's a will there's a way - not like our political and business leaders who can always give you ten reasons why something can't be done.

Back in the early 1980's we put it to CIE that they consider restoring No.800 'Maeve' - currently residing in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum - for mainline running from Dublin/Cork. Couldn't be done.... If a fraction of their marketing budget had been diverted into the project they would have had more publicity for inter-city rail travel than money could buy!

and if that doesn't make your hair stand up try this rail related link:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=gdz_G1VGJ4c&feature=related

fastrac

That is so true about the advertising.Lets hope that companies see the light and do something like this here.The Tralee narrow guage steam train is rotting in a shed after being taken out of service a few years ago.

corktina

Judgement Day wrote: »

You don't even have to be interested in steam trains for this to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up - awesome!

Try this link from You Tube of a 75mph run through at Durham.

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=jpXt7QX0NZM

This is the way things are done in the UK and elsewhere - where there's a will there's a way - not like our political and business leaders who can always give you ten reasons why something can't be done.

Back in the early 1980's we put it to CIE that they consider restoring No.800 'Maeve' - currently residing in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum - for mainline running from Dublin/Cork. Couldn't be done.... If a fraction of their marketing budget had been diverted into the project they would have had more publicity for inter-city rail travel than money could buy!

and if that doesn't make your hair stand up try this rail related link:

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=gdz_G1VGJ4c&feature=related

maeve was always a non starter due to its size and limited route availability...pity, id love to see her in action.

I rode behind Merlin to Belfast a few years ago and that was impressive to say the least! They really went for it!

Judgement Day

'maeve was always a non starter due to its size and limited route availability...pity, id love to see her in action.'

I beg to differ... I know that Maeve was restricted to the Dublin/Cork line and what we suggested was just that....NOT doing Santa trips to Mullingar but doing what Maeve was built for! Imagine the impact that even a once weekly super-duper, steam hauled express Dublin/Cork would have had?

corktina

pipe dream my friend...It would cost around 1/2 million to restore it, and there just arent enough passengers to make it pay. Shame but there you are.

Run_to_da_hills

Judgement Day wrote: »

'maeve was always a non starter due to its size and limited route availability...pity, id love to see her in action.'

I beg to differ... I know that Maeve was restricted to the Dublin/Cork line and what we suggested was just that....NOT doing Santa trips to Mullingar but doing what Maeve was built for! Imagine the impact that even a once weekly super-duper, steam hauled express Dublin/Cork would have had?

One could say IR purchased 34 Maeves in 1994, the 112 ton 201 class, ripping up tracks where ever they go. :pac:

Judgement Day

You see you just don't get it - and sorry I am not having a go at either of you. Now - how much do CIE/IE spend annually on futile advertising - I don't know do you? 800 could have been restored over say 5 years by the simple expedient of diverting money from the marketing budget. It is all a state of mind - Can do versus Can't do!

The 800 class did not damage the tracks and it was the unfortunate timing that saw their introduction at the start of the last War that lead to their premature demise, coupled with the move to dieselisation that followed soon after hostilities ended. They never had a chance to show their head. My point remains that had 800 been restored in the 1980s it would have been a massive publicity coup for the railway.

IE haven't a clue how to drum up publicity. Even when 201 was flown in to Ireland they made little of it whereas when it flew out of Canada it was front page stuff all the way - I have the newspapers somewhere.

corktina

sorry but what would such publicity acheive? It would be condemmed as IE being backward looking instead of looking to the future and wasting money "playing trains" that should be spent on new track/signalling/whatever.....the skills dont exist anymore in Ireland/the equipment ditto/the infrastucture ditto/the staff to drive it etc. Much as Id love to see it happen, it isnt a pratical project.

Judgement Day

Why are you so completely negative?

1.The driving skills still exist - how else do the RPSI operate mainline trains?
2.The locomotive rebuilding could be undertaken in the UK where such skills and engineering works still exist.
3. The infrastructure - turntables, watering points etc still exist.
4. Drivers could be sent to the UK for training or others induced to move here from existing UK steam railways.

But all this discussion is quite pointless when you cannot even see the publicity for travel by rail that such a project would generate.

Railways have become so remote from most Irish citizens at this point that the first contact many of them have with a train is an RPSI one!

As regards finance I wasn't suggesting that money that could be spent on new trains or lines be spent on the project but the diversion of of some of the marketing budget! This whole thread is pointless anyway as the powers that be in CIE/IE have no imagination whatsover and that is why the railway is the disasterous loss maker that is.

Does anybody know exactly how much IE is currently losing, and I mean including the enormous subsidy they are receiving as well as their projected operating loss?

kingshankly

Judgement Day wrote: »

Why are you so completely negative?

1.The driving skills still exist - how else do the RPSI operate mainline trains?
2.The locomotive rebuilding could be undertaken in the UK where such skills and engineering works still exist.
3. The infrastructure - turntables, watering points etc still exist.
4. Drivers could be sent to the UK for training or others induced to move here from existing UK steam railways.

But all this discussion is quite pointless when you cannot even see the publicity for travel by rail that such a project would generate.

Railways have become so remote from most Irish citizens at this point that the first contact many of them have with a train is an RPSI one!

As regards finance I wasn't suggesting that money that could be spent on new trains or lines be spent on the project but the diversion of of some of the marketing budget! This whole thread is pointless anyway as the powers that be in CIE/IE have no imagination whatsover and that is why the railway is the disasterous loss maker that is.

Does anybody know exactly how much IE is currently losing, and I mean including the enormous subsidy they are receiving as well as their projected operating loss?

you have some valid points there .
the steam trips are always very popular and there should be more of them organised.
but there arnt enough drivers trained on them and the few who are are near retirement,and the course take a number of weeks to run, there is also a lack of interest in drivers to get passed out in steam.
there is no problem regarding infrastructure, there are plenty of water hoses throughout the country, slight problem would be the steam train setting of the hot box detectors which can happen

corktina

Judgement Day wrote: »

Why are you so completely negative?

Realisitic old chap...its like the freight arguement..there isnt the demand.Dont you know that UK based railtour companies go bust regulary.The Uk steam scene is kept going mostly by volunteer input; ask the RPSI, how easy is it to get volunteers here?

1.The driving skills still exist - how else do the RPSI operate mainline trains?

I think its a bit of a struggle for them to find crews, Extra crews to operate Maeve once a week would be a huge problem to say nothing of finding paths for a slower steam service amongst the hourly interval service.


2.The locomotive rebuilding could be undertakenstr in the UK where such skills and engineering works still exist.

At a HUGE cost.

3. The infrastructure - turntables, watering points etc still exist.

The water colomns are mostly gone and are there turntables still in Cork? What about coaches?

4. Drivers could be sent to the UK for training or others induced to move here from existing UK steam railways.

for a once a week jaunt? cost cost cost

But all this discussion is quite pointless when you cannot even see the publicity for travel by rail that such a project would generate.

Yes, a once off buzz of publicity when she entered service and then what? Maeve is a non starter (regretably),but at a far lesser cost you could acheive the same by using an existing RPSI loco and it could be used on far more lines than Maeve could so acheiving better coverage and more publicity.

Judgement Day

I give up Corktina, with your attitude I can only suggest that you get yourself onto the Board of CIE, that's if your not already on it? Your real name isn't John Lynch by any chance. You come across like an economist - knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

corktina

your judgement is flawed...i dont agree with you, no need to insult me by calling me the E word...:D.