201 Class Locomotives

I was never too keen on the 201's original livery, thinking that the Orange Black and Yellow looked a wee bit too garish, and it did'nt 'match' the rake of Mk2's or Mk3's attached to them. I do like the new 071 colour scheme, it would be nice to see a few of the non P/P fitted 201's done out in that style, and the new Intercity livery on the 201's looks stylish also. My all time favourite though has to be the NIR Blue colour scheme. Simple and smart.

The 201's were not the most reliable on delivery, I remember tales of broken crankshafts and the likes. One suggestion at the time was that the obsession to get the weight down meant that a lot of 'meat' was trimmed off to get them down from the weight on what was essentially an Irish variant of a British Class 59.

What survived, and was successful:

Class 20, Class 37, Class 50 - All 3 are English Electric, although the 50's did have problems with their electronics.

Class 55 uses English Electric components but with a Napier engine.

Losty Dublin is correct. There were a lot of competing manufacturers with little expertise. In the post war climate, Dollars were scarce, as were the preferred option of Bulleid of going down the route of getting General Motors licenced equipment. There were political considerations, unions, pride, and stubborness, such as that amongst the Western region that screwed matters up a lot.

Hindsight is a great teacher. That would dictate the best option being to buy a mix of licenced General Motors and ALCO equipment, and going for a twin cab option of these. Likely you'd end up with something like the bullnose engines of the Danish, Norwegians, etc, and that Britain rather than Scandinavia would be the exporter. And many would be running reconditioned today.

It would be the roundnose design for first generation (equivalents to Class 40's, 37's, 20's). These emerging in the 1957-1961 period. I think the Bulleid cab design would emerge later. The European Sulzer designs heavily influenced early UK styling.

I have left the Germans out for an odd reason. I think their technology, while superior was unable to cope with the rough and tumble of what were mixed traffic depots in many cases.

Thanks corktina

This is going to be rather divisive. Frankly, until recently, Hydraulic transmissions with a single engine were unable to cope with power loadings above 2,000hp (1.5 MW) on a Single engine.

I have never rubbished the Western designs. Just that they were non standard, and a non standard fleet costs a hell of a lot more to manage. Manufacturing under licence unfortunately was a failure with the North British Locomotive produced diesels. There was a learning curve, and an expensive one at that. Britain wanted to run them constantly at 90mph speeds, despite the Germans warning them that they were not meant to be run at more than 75mph, hence the list of transmission overloads, bogie fractures and the rest. Meanwhile, the English Electrics and Sulzers, slogged on being beat up to ribbons, and still survived.

Two engines will always be more expensive to maintain than one. Even the Germans got rid of theirs by the early 1980's, and they are a design icon. What became the workhorse throughout Europe?

Diesel Electric.

We are reaching a point in time where its becoming two design philosophies, and its narrowing down to a railway parralel between the Airbus-Boeing battle.

On the left, for Heavy Freight and mixed passenger workings, its the Diesel Electric, using General Motors, General Electric, and to a lesser extent some German Manufacturers.

On the right for Express Passenger, medium to light shunting, we have MAN/Paxman/Voith.

The Western region in using Diesel Hydraulic was ahead of its time. Very much so. But longevity won out. Heck, we have the descendent of the original English Electric Engine still going strong in the latest locomotives exported to New Zealand and Malaysia in their purchases from Dalian Locomotive works in China.

Hindsight is a great teacher. Ireland has done very well from using General Motors. Given what was required, lets see:

Co-Co / A1A-A1A, Mixed Traffic, 80mph capable, 15 tonne axleload:
Bo-Bo....Mixed Traffic, Branch line, 60mph capable, 15 tonne axleload.

Our choices are for the A Class with 1,200hp and the C Class of 550hp.

Sulzer
English Electric
Maybach and other Germans
French Manufacturers
Metrovick
General Motors
Alco

The American offers are too heavy at the time for Irish track (1954). It was needless to say a system which needed Narrow gauge axleloads on Standard gauge or Broad gauge track. In fact, when we see what the 201's and 071's are, that is actually still the case, but it was far more extreme in the 1950's.

I'd personally have gone for English Electric in the economics of the time, but the idea of the boys at Inchicore having to manage something with English Electric written on it may have been unpalatable, bearing in mind we were barely a generation from saying 'burn everything British but their coal'.

The Germans would have cost an absolute fortune at the time, easily 25% more than the British competitor, but would last if maintained right. Not something which happens in Ireland, where its a case of fuel them and flog them. This is something the GM equipment has proven itself capable of time and time again from the likes of India to Latin America to Africa. The German equipment does not last in such areas at all.

Political considerations really screwed it up.