The LNER A classes

The P2s were suspected of *spreading the road*, which is serious. I don't know how this got read as "poor riding".

AFAIK there was no testing of any solution, either of a different type of pony truck, or of any change to one pair of flangeless drivers. The locos were simply rebuilt as Pacifics.

 

So instead of investigating the true cause, the LNER simply removed both main contenders for that "title". I wonder what the state of knowledge in the A1SLT - and in the Doncaster group for that matter - is about this. If the driving wheelbase were the problem, flangeless wheels can no longer be the answer, see the fate of the preserved 9Fs.

 

Not so much as the LNER making the decision as Thompson himself. From what I've read he wasn't interested in keeping them as 2-8-2s and thus used them as a basis to develop his Pacific ideas.

 

I think this has already been covered on here and elsewhere (e.g. SR this month). I don't know about the Doncaster group, but a key part of the A1STL feasiblity study is to examine the dynamics of the chassis using a company with the latest state-of-the-art rail vehicle modelling software. The problem is believed to liw with the leading truck which is as per early V2's and would be changed in-line with succesful V2 mods.

 

I am old enough to remember A4's in BR days, and even travelled from Durham to KX behind one in the early 60's. My uncle Fred (who'd been a fighter pilot in the first world war) once travelled on the non-stop Elizabethan. He wangled his way on to the footplate for a brief look round, and then bought the crew who had been relieved a drink in the buffet car. I suspect he wasn't the only gentleman to have used his charm in this way. My question is: did all A4's have corridor tenders in later years, and was the corridor used regularly on any train other than the Elizabethan?

 

I think there were only 20 corridor tenders, so no not all the A4s had them. None of the 8 Gateshead A4s had corridor tenders, and not all of the Kings Cross ones either, though they were swapped around between the Top Shed engines. I don't think the corridors were used on any other duties than the non-stop, and even that was a summer only train.

 

The corridor tender was originally built for the A1 / A3s on the London - Edinburgh non-stop and were subsequently fitted to the A4s when they were built. As noted by 50002 not all A4s had them but Gavin Morrison records in his book ( Glory Days of the A4s pub Ian Allan 2001 ) that 10 tenders were built for the A1/A3s and subseqyuently transferred to A4s, 11 were built with the A4s and 1 was built for the W1 60700 which was transferred to 60004 when the former was withdrawn. This gives a total of 22 corridor tenders.

 

It's odd that so many were built, given that even in their hey-day only quite a small number of services actually needed to swap crews while running, and paying a top-link crew to sit in a carriage before or after their turn is an expensive method of securing a non-stop run. What was the difference in weight/coal/water between a corridor and non-corridor A4 tender?

 

Don't know about the weights without looking up, but coal and water capacity much the same. From photographic evidence it can be seen that the corridor version bodies were built to the full width of the floor plate whereas the non-corridor ones are narrower.

 

In his book Cook says "I think that going to Doncaster was a wasted effort ... Perhaps I was able to do a few useful things ... [several paras omitted] ... My [staff]... could not have received me more kindly nor worked with me more harmoniously. Perhaps I was able to heal a little of the discord brought in by Edward Thompson's tragic desire to obliterate Gresley." I don't know whether you would consider that hard evidence, but its certainly contemporary.