OT: LNER plate

On Sun, 29 Jun 2008 11:11:01 -0700, Larry Blanchard said in :

Google is your friend:

Guy

On 29/06/2008 19:11, Larry Blanchard said,

If you google "mallard -duck" you'll find masses of information. The loco does still exist, and is an impressive sight "in the flesh". AFAIK the route still exists, although I would imagine it will have changed a lot in the intervening years, not least of which will be overhead wires. The record still stands for a simple reason - it was never beaten during the age of steam, and now we no longer have steam with which to break the record.

for it's current home.

As others have said its preserved and does run sometimes viewable at the national railway museum York. The record is for the fastest steam train. The stretch of line is very much in use and the HSTs that run on it have the world speed record for diesel trains, 148 MPH from memory achieved on a stretch of this line in the 1980's. Most trains are electric and line speed for both and diesel and electric is 125 MPH.

Chris

That may well be the same as the plate my mother gave me for my birthday in 1988 (50 years after the speed record was made in 1938). She would have bought it from Readers Digest who did a whole series of "limited edition" plates during the 1980s. They were very popular and there were quite a few companies like Franklin Mint, Davenport, Coalport selling them. A quick look on the internet didn't show this particular plate but if you keep an eye on

'll probably find it and similar ones will appear there from time to time. (The prices look low but then look at the shipping costs!)

Alan

"Chris" wrote

It is no-longer in servicable condition and the NRM consider it too valuable to restore to working condition.

John.

Thanks to all for their responses. Now I know a little more than I did. BTW, the plate is going to hang next to another commemorating the John Bull.

Well, she's being let out soon:

A quick perusal of this doesn't seem to mention whether she's under her own power or not.

Cheers, Martyn

"M Roberts" wrote

Mallard will be a static display only.

John.

What a silly idea!

Railway locos are nothing if they do not work.

It is the usual argument about the meaning of preservation for anything old. If every part is replaced by a modern component so that it still works, was it worth preserving it in the first place? Why not build a replica? (aeroplane anoraks do!)

Tales Of Festiniog

"Mallard" has had 12 boilers and 7 tenders during her career.

I believe that there is virtually nothing original left on "Flying Scotsman", but then it's 15 years older than "Mallard", and it's seen a lot more service since retirement by BR.

Mallard has spent most of her time since 1963 as a static exhibit.

Arthur Figgis said the following on 02/07/2008 18:50:

So do railway anoraks!

Tornado, Lyd & Taleisin are three that immediately spring to mind, as well as the Darjeeling replica. Duchess of Hamilton is pretty much a replica now as well.

Besides, how much of Mallard was even original when it left BR service?

A waste - I last saw it on the main line at Stratford with SNG. and a couple of 47s

"Original" is pretty meaningless with something like a locomotive. But something which retains components and evidence of manufacturing techniques of the past is often seen as "different" to something totally new. It is a philosophical point, rather than a practical one. Ultimately you could replace Mallard with a Class 91 and say it is the same thing :-)

It is possible to imagine the historians of the future being puzzled as to why a machine from the 1930-60 era was seemingly built using metric components and alloys which the books claim weren't invented for decades, using tools which were thought not to exist, or why bits are stamped "Made in China".

It comes up with things like paintings. Slapping some modern colour on an old master would give a better idea of what the artist and his customer actually saw, but galleries tend to avoid doing so these days.

I've been told that the Japanese are quite happy to replace old buildings with steel and concrete ones of similar outward appearance when things need fixing. Here we tend to like old stuff because it is old. Unless it is a Doric arch....

Remember that for most classes there was a pool of spares particularly boilers that got rotated when a locomotive went in for a general repair.

Boilers took much longer to repair than the rest of the engine so it made sense to use one from the pool that had already been done.

Other parts were replaced as they wore out.

They have a different view in America where for example there is a beautiful 1870s Baldwin "cowboy movie" 4-4-0 at the Nevada State Railroad Museum that still has its original boiler, operating at the much reduced pressure of 80psi. There is no way the curator is going to allow a new boiler which would not be allowed to use the original method of construction.

They didn't have a pool of boilers, and kept the engine out of service for as long as the repairs took. If an engine like this needed a new boiler it was either scrapped or rebuilt.

Indeed, which is why "original" is pretty meaningless. "Authentic" might be a better word. A boiler from the 94th People's Liberation Boiler Words in Shanghai (or wherever new ones come from) would no doubt be different to whatever Doncaster or Swindon made in the past, which would be different to what they had made before.

Think of all those modellers who would end up with the wrong number of rivets :-)

Sounds like a good example of the conflict between being in use and keeping the past technology. Though I've heard some stories about US attitudes towards boiler safety which make me happy to be a long way away!