Swanage Railway new (old) steam loco

[Saleen836]

130 year old Locomotive arrives in Swanage
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2023/08/130-year-old-...

[Yertis]

In my opinion the T3 is one of the most handsome locomotives ever built. The proportions and detailing are just perfect.

However, and note I'm not an expert on LSWR liveries, but that green looks a bit vivid – I always associate the LSWR with a much paler shade.

[Bonefish Blues]

Why does the boiler stop so short when compared to the length of the bogey? (terminology may be wrong but I hope you understand the Q)

[Yertis]

The cylinders are situated directly beneath the smoke box (the black part at the front of the boiler) so that the steam ejected from the cylinders goes straight up the blast pipe (funnel/chimney) to enhance draught through the boiler, by the shortest route possible. The cylinders and associated hardware are heavy, and so the leading bogie (ie the small four wheels at the front) is positioned to support that weight while also rotate with sufficient clearance on curves. There are of course many exceptions to this general arrangement.

[Bonefish Blues]

Thanks

[2xChevrons]

Yertis said:

However, and note I'm not an expert on LSWR liveries, but that green looks a bit vivid – I always associate the LSWR with a much paler shade.

No.593 has been freshly turned out in the 1900s Drummond-era livery, which was the darker 'tartan green' with the brown/purple borders.

When it was at the NRM it was painted in the manner of a slightly earlier era, in late Adams-era green (the lighter 'sage green' with black lining) with early Drummond crest/lettering/numbering.

The LSWR had a quite remarkable sequence of liveries in a very short time - it seemed unable to stick with a scheme for a more than a few years.

The first engines turned out by Adams were in the then-corporate brown/umber colour. Then he went for the light sage green, then Drummond introduced the tartan green/purple, which after a few years (and it's still debated whether this was a deliberate change or on account of the LSWR changing paint suppliers) became a brighter, more vivid sort of 'grass green.' Then Urie rolled out a 'pea soup green', somewhere between the old Drummond and Adams shades, followed by the much darker 'holly green' which was adopted by the Southern in its early years before became the lighter 'olive green'.

And yes, I absolutely agree that the T3 is a masterpiece of Victorian form-and-function. Lovely, graceful lines from a Victorian 'small boiler' 4-4-0, big wheels, inside valve gear but outside cylinders. I particularly like a loco with tailrods protruding from the front of the cylinders - something you don't see very often in British domestic practice (and usually shrouded if fitted). Shame the Victorians didn't really 'do' outside cylinders because they nearly always managed to make them look superb.

Bonefish Blues said:

Why does the boiler stop so short when compared to the length of the bogey? (terminology may be wrong but I hope you understand the Q)

It's a confluence of a lot of different engineering requirements:

The frame has to be that length to accommodate the bogie, the wheelbase of which is dictated by the length of the cylinders (one wheel needs to be behind the cylinder, the other in front).

The chimney, ideally, has to be positioned halfway along the cylinders' length, so steam passing out the exhaust ports has a straight, unrestricted run through the blastpipe (in the bottom of the smokebox) and up the chimney. So that dictates where the front of the boiler is.

Also, the length of the smokebox should be matched to other aspects of the boiler (length of the boiler barrel, size of the firetubes, size of the firebox).

The length of the boiler barrel also has various proportional requirements related to the size/shape of the firebox. On a traditional 4-4-0 like the T3 the firebox length is mostly determined by the wheelbase of the driving wheels, since the firebox/ashpan can sit between the driving axles.

The maximum wheelbase is determined by the strength/rigidity of the coupling rods and the acceptable resistance in their bearings.

And so on, and so on. Plug all these requirements together and you get a locomotive with a very big 'front porch' between the smokebox and the buffer beam.

These are all 'ideals' and a lot of locomotives would digress from this for various reasons (favouring one aspect of performance more than others, reusing existing standardised parts etc.). One of the reasons why the T3 was so good was that Adams was able to hew very close to the 'ideal' of Victorian locomotive engineering.

Edit: Utterly beaten. Like a Drummond 4-6-0 climbing the bank out of Exeter...

Edited by 2xChevrons on Sunday 3rd September 14:07

[Yertis]

Thanks for the livery info. I wonder what they use for colour reference? It's not like they have a RAL number for 'improved engine green' or whatever. Personally I think the brunswick green used on big pacifics nowadays looks less dark than in the '60s, but that might just be film stock vs. digital.

Whether or not you like model railways you might enjoy this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45MvGDAPsQY