Which British Steam <span title="Locomotive...................................?">Locomotive..................</span>

Question

...............................design is, in your opinion, the best and why?

Answer 1

Best looking would be a spinner, perhaps this Midland Railway one - http://www2.shu.ac.uk/city/community/bhe...

Answer 2

You&#039;ve opened a can of worms here: each pre-nationalised company built locomotives for a specific purpose, as did British Railways post nationalisation.

People will nominate the locomotives with which they are familiar and not necessarily the best ones, because in truth, there were no &quot;best&quot; ones. As I said, each design was based on requirements and although the 9F was a good all-rounder, it cannot be compared to the racehorses of the Great Western, the LNER or the LMS, all these locos being designed for express work.

Even the humble 2F deserves merit for its reliable but mundane work in yards and on short trips, so perhaps your question should have been which is your *favourite* steam loco and why.

Answer 3

The 90000 9F Class, personified by Evening Star.

The last class to built, and best proportioned, large British steam locomtive.

The 9F&#039;s were extensively used on the Summerset and Dorset line.

They were able to haul 2000 ton goods trains woth ease. They were capable of 90mph so the Western Region also used them on semi-fast passenger trains.

Answer 4

been a fan of steam loco&#039;s for many moons,A4 Pacific,going full chat is sheer bliss,

Answer 5

The &quot;castle&quot; class because i heard somewhere that its supposed to be the fastest steam locomotive in the world or something like that.

Answer 6

It has to be the Castle.

It wasn&#039;t the fastest, though it hauled the fastest scheduled train.  (This was the Cheltenham Spa Express and the section between Swindon and Paddington).

It just looked right.

It worked well.

It was a darn good locomotive.

(The Kings come a close second, though).

Answer 7

LMS 8F. If you&#039;ve ever had the pleasure of being able to unleash one of these loco&#039;s, then you&#039;ll know what i&#039;m talking about. None of this g*y &quot;Express loco chique&quot;, just balls out raw power.

Answer 8

has to be the duchess class or the possibly black 5&#039;s over powered and they were very reliable in all uses. Check out a video called duchess of sutherland on settle line...

Answer 9

Love all of them esp the bigger ones like th flying scotsman and Mallard.  Hoping the Weardale Railways&#039; steamer will be up and running soon.

Answer 10

It has to be the 9F class locomotive. It looked magnificent when hauling heavy freight trains up the west coast main line.

Answer 11

I would have to say the work-a-day 57xx pannier of the GWR. Why? Undervalued but a hard worker - just to listen to that exhust beat up an incline...

Answer 12

Battle of Britain class (92 Squadron)

9F (Black Prince)

B12

J15

or even a Peckett 0-6-0 saddle tank working hard up an incline on a wintery day!

Answer 13

Any of the Gresley Pacifics (A1, A3, A4 classes).

Why?

1- One of them, Mallard, is the fastest steam locomotive in the world.  

2- They are iconic- ask a lay person to name a steam locomotive they&#039;ll name either Flying Scotsman or Mallard.

3-They look absolutely stunning.

Answer 14

No doubt about it, the 9F.