Designed by genius engineer OVS Bulleid, these extraordinary machines were light enough to go anywhere but were the most powerful 0-6-0 ever to operate in Britain. They were a huge success.
Bulleid planned a family of "Austerity" engines including a tank engine and a full-blown express Pacific 4-6-2, but none were built.
Now, some genius has created a mock-up of what an "Austerity" Pacific might have looked like:
Quite extraordinary though, in reality, I think the tender would have been rather larger and the arrangements around the firebox (at the front) might have been a little different.
I don't have any images of the tank engine, but someone else has come up with a heavyweight 0-8-0 "Austerity" freight design:
And, cute as a button, an 0-4-0 microweight shunter:
Bulleid manufactured a series of "air-streamed" Pacifics instead of the "Austerities", but part of me wishes he'd gone with his original idea. What extraordinary beasts they would have been.
2 comments:
I'll keep the spam cans thanks. There isn't really room in my mind for more than one ugly as sh*t loco. I wouldn't give one layout room even if I modelled Southern.
Cheers
The Tigs
You are utterly wrong, of course. The spam cans have their merits, and I'm partial to them in full streamlined garb myself, but the Q1s were an extraordinary design. They are so austere as to be almost Brutalist, but their Bauhaus looks, to my mind, fit perfectly with the engineering-led design of the railway at its best (the original facade of King's Cross station is another fine example of this type of austere but glorious design).
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