For those of you with short memories, this engine was designed in 1940 when the Southern Railway suddenly found itself on the frontline of the Second World War. Overwhelmingly a commuter and passenger system, the Southern was desperately short of heavy freight engines.
Genius Chief Mechanical Engineer Oliver Bulleid designed the Q1, an extremely robust machine that used substantially less material than any equivalent machine that even approached its formidable performance.
It was the most powerful 0-6-0 engine ever to operate in Britain, and it succeeded far beyond expectations.
An "austerity" design which was simply intended to help Britain through the war, its usefulness was such that it survived well into the 1960s and almost to the end of steam.
Its stripped-down appearance offended the sensibilities of many who were more at home with Edwardian design principles, but I rather like its Bauhaus minimalism.
They were rarely seen in a clean condition, since they spent most of their time on heavy freight work (although they did have regular passenger turns, including the cross-country Reading-Redhill route).
But it's doing this sort of work that was their bread and butter:
The Q1 was the last 0-6-0 designed in Britain, and the last design of inside-cylinder steam locomotive, too. One survives at the National Railway Museum.
9 comments:
You say that only one of tne Q1 survives... What happens to old models as they are replaced? Do they go to the scrap heap?
Old models went to the cutter's yard where the metal was salvaged, resmelted (is that what happens to copper, too?) and reused. It's a brutal process and little survives. But by the time they got to the yards, most of the old locomotives were completely knackered.
That's not true of the last few hundred steam engines built by British Railways, the last rolling off the production line in 1958; they were all scrapped by 1968 when steam was abolished from the network although, towards the end, fortunately people became more conscious of the need to preserve examples. Alas, most of the earlier ones did not benefit and so very few survive.
Anyone wanting a model of the Q1 can still buy the Hornby version for about £80-odd.
The wheels are the standout item for me. A nice little decorative flourish on an otherwise very minimalist and slightly slab sided design.
The wheels were not designed to be decorative -- they are a "box-pop" design where as much unnecessary material as possible has been removed from the wheel disk, reducing weight without affecting strength. Bulleid used the same design on the heavy and light Pacifics he produced after the Q1s.
It's the minimalism that I adore -- "form following function" and all that, but with an air of purposefulness that's rather striking, especially in the flesh.
They are reputed to have had two weaknesses: the tender was so lightly built that it was prone to develop leaks; and the braking capacity of the lightweight locomotives was barely sufficient for the largest, unfitted freight trains they hauled (they were fine on fitted freight, but Britain was slow at converting its freight traffic to fitted wagons). The fact they survived so long after the War tells you all you need to know about how useful they were.
And the Hornby model is rather sweet. I have, er, several.
There is something subversive about the boiler profile too. I like the almost asymmetrical shape - the rounded trapezoid - that is counter-intuitive.
I mean, wouldn't a circle be a stronger profile with a leaner use of material?
But of course Bulleid was thinking in a gestalt way wasn't he? The boiler needs to be attached to a frame etc.
Lovely series, LeDuc.
Cheers, Polomint
PS My verification word is "upbox" - how appropriate!
I think its about time you showed us your grand collection of locomotives and units!
lovely blog
great pics
i'm happy visiting your site
bernard
Regarding the question by Polomint: The asymmetrical shape i assume is the cladding to minimize heat loss (traditionally done in circular shape). The long boiler itself should be of circular shape i guess.
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