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356 Posts
I would be very happy to see a reincarnated P2, especially the Cock o' the North in its original condition - always one of my favourite locomotives. (A Highland Railway Skye Bogie would be my personal favourite, but it might not have such a broad appeal).
There is good information on the P2 class and its problems on Richard Marsden's excellent LNER Encyclopaedia website (http://www.lner.info/locos/P/p2.shtml). The "track smasher" epithet seems a bit surprising for an engine that spent its working life as a 2-8-2 on the Aberdeen route. However, it's often stated that it was the troublesome leading pony truck that put damaging stresses on the locomotive, and Newton's inconvenient 3rd Law means that the track would have taken the same beating. The Caprotti valve gear seems to have been insufficiently developed, but now this is beginning to sound like the story of 71000, the Duke of Gloucester. It would be a terrific opportunity to recreate a great engine and realise its potential while the expertise that restored the Duke and built Tornado is still available.
There is good information on the P2 class and its problems on Richard Marsden's excellent LNER Encyclopaedia website (http://www.lner.info/locos/P/p2.shtml). The "track smasher" epithet seems a bit surprising for an engine that spent its working life as a 2-8-2 on the Aberdeen route. However, it's often stated that it was the troublesome leading pony truck that put damaging stresses on the locomotive, and Newton's inconvenient 3rd Law means that the track would have taken the same beating. The Caprotti valve gear seems to have been insufficiently developed, but now this is beginning to sound like the story of 71000, the Duke of Gloucester. It would be a terrific opportunity to recreate a great engine and realise its potential while the expertise that restored the Duke and built Tornado is still available.
