Model Forum / General / Railroads / October 2006

   Though in the case of A4s at least, these freights were the
Aberdeen-London "Fast Fish" that ran to XP timings and was the LNER's second
most important train after the Flying Scotsman. Understandably so, it
probably made them more money!

   Though express locos were ideally diagrammed for express passenger
services, in practice anything powerful enough could be fitted into a spare
turn to haul stock around, especially if it was fitted or fitted-head and
could thus be run at more than 25mph. Publicity and swank was good for the
railway company's image, but making a profit and keeping available motive
power in use mattered rather more. (Bulleid got around wartime rationing of
materials by solemnly swearing that the Merchant Navies were a mixed-traffic
loco, though anything less suitable for the job you could scarcely imagine,
especially on the adhesion front...)

   It also depends in which period you model. When new, the big steam locos
were reserved for top-link work: if you model the mid-60s then all steam,
however fancy in its day, was officially regarded as third-division junk fit
only for freight, banking and stopping work. Latterly in their careers,
Jubilees were seen working four-van locals and the Britannias ended their
days sent to Carlisle Kingmoor to keep freight moving over the upper reaches
of the WCML while the diesels did the prestige passenger diagrams. A batch
of A4s were sent to work services north of Edinburgh, but meanwhile the
Eastern Region dieselised relatively early, so the remaining Pacifics were
ruthlessly scrapped at Doncaster and the V2s, a better all-round loco, were
caned into the ground on freight work before going the same way in short
order. On other regions, it wasn't so much that Pacifics were demoted to
freight, more that 9Fs were so much better locos that they were promoted
(against headquarters advice) to express passenger duties.

   Flying Scotsman was rescued for preservation in 1963 so didn't
participate in this scramble, but if you're modelling 1965-68 there's little
excuse to attach prestige coaching stock to Pacifics unless you're doing
railtours.

   Tony Clarke

Søren skrev:

Reckon 99.99% of the group could say "Never!"
Denmark more likely to win the World Cup  :)

Such coach/freight trips were seen occasionally on isolated branches
and were always hauled by smaller locomotives that were proper to the
line.

Cheers
Robt P.

Soren,

Certain freight vehicles were attached to passenger trains.  These
were usually vans and would be designed for high speed work and would
have fitted brakes as well.   I'm not sure if the Flying Scotsman
would have worked a passenger train with fitted vans,  but I reckon it
probably would have done since these types of trains were fairly
common.   The cargo carried would normally be one which required the
fastest delivery speed - such as perishable foods or newspapers.

Jim.

Mixed trains were very unusual in the UK and mainly limited to little used
branch line operations.

John.

A3s and A4s were used on goods trains in L.N.E.R. days, not just late BR
days.  Overnight fish trains were one of the scheduled goods trains that
used even A4s.

--
Cheers

Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway
http://www.highspeedplus.com/~rogertra/

But it's bad for their swerves...

Tim