The LMS's pre-grouping express 4-6-0s - a question

I assume you don't include either FWW or HNG in that category?

 

I don't really know enough about the locomotives of other lines to make any kind of judgement on their CMEs.
The GWR were pretty well off I think. Gooch was brilliant, the Armstrongs very competent, Dean a bit erratic, but in general the classes he built in numbers were very good, GJC brilliant, and Collett, with his eye for detail, probably an ideal succcessor to GJC.

 

my GGF and 2 G uncles worked for the LNWR . they are all still in France

 

the GWR was recovering from the cost of converting to narrow gauge and were struggling to maintain viability . if GJC s engines had not been the early success they were things could have been very different . no wonder the board questioned the cost of the new locos .

re the Krugers , they were just as much an exercise in boiler design as The Bear. the early Atlantics owed a lot to the Krugers

 

Succession planning is another important thing for a company to get right. In the case of the GW I wonder whether in each case the Board listened to views of the outgoing CME - ie there was always a clear second in command who would become the next CME and he was always a protege of the outgoing one?