Pyewipe Junction wrote:
hq1hitchin wrote:
kudu wrote:
Interesting about those 2-8-2Ts.
Kudu
Pretty sure there is a drawing of them in 'Nigel Gresley, locomotive engineer' by FAS Brown. Always a bit wary myself of tank engines working heavy unfitted trains, not sure about the brakepower.
Surely it depends on what they were going to be used for.
The 2-8-0Ts and 2-8-2Ts built by the Great Western and mainly used in the Welsh Valleys were very successful locos for short-haul freights. Perhaps Gresley had these types of duties in mind.
Maybe so, but the tests with the Thompson L1 9000 in late 1945 - admittedly a six coupled engine - on heavy loose coupled trains produced some hairy moments on the GC section and it was deemed that, whilst the haulage capacity was satisfactory the braking power on severe falling gradients was inadequate. As someone on the recieving end in diesel days (train of 21t hoppers trying to push a Class 31 along when we really needed to stop), I would have thought that tender engines were generally a better bet. Whether a Gresley eight coupled tankie would have had that brake power, who can say?