For steam fans....

[johnmckenzie]

....this Thursday RSC launch the GWR King Class addon.

I reckon that this will be the best steam loco available for RW to date.

The GWR built 30 of these magnificent locos at Swindon works the first of which were delivered in 1927. A four cylinder design, it was deceptively powerful for it's size. The matching Centenary coaches are also included in the package. Simply beautiful!

[johnmckenzie]

Another view

[johnmckenzie]

I've always loved these!

[johnmckenzie]

On shed!

[johnmckenzie]

And for those people stateside, the first-built King class, No 6000 King George V, spent a month in 1927 visiting the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The good folks of the B&O were impressed with how powerful the little loco was. In recognition of the trip she was fitted with a US-style bell which she still carries to this day.

[Kali]

About 2000 hp and around 40,000lb ft of TE from rest, to put numbers to "deceptively powerful". At the time, was the most powerful express engine in the UK, but to compare with a few years later, a Stanier Duchess is something in the order of 3500 hp - however Stanier was a GWR man and took a lot of drawings with him, so you could call a Duchess the ultimate evolution of the King. To compare to a US passenger steamer, the NYC S-2 Niagra which is possibly the ( or at least one of the ) finest passenger steam locomotives ever was in the order of 6000hp, but I suspect train weights were at least double!

I prefer GWR Saints and look at it as a bit of a folly, but the King is a beautiful piece of engineering art ( like most GWR engines, it has to be said ) and this model looks brilliant.

[johnmckenzie]

About 2000 hp......., a Stanier Duchess is something in the order of 3500 hp

I think your numbers are a little out - the King is often quoted as developing around 2500bhp at the drawbar whereas the maximum Princess Coronation peak drawbar on test (being fired by two firemen simultaneously) was in the order of 3300bhp. However, the sentiment about power outputs is absolutely correct, Stanier's biggest designs ("Super-Kings" conceptually?) did develop more power - and were also much larger - than Collett's biggest designs. If I remember correctly, both designs had similar tractive efforts.

Interestingly enough, BR classified Princess Coronations, Princess Royals and Kings with an 8P power rating!

[Kali]

You're probably right, been a while since I saw any actual numbers. Steam engine power is a lot to do with steam production rate, so the rebuilt ones with bigger superheaters in BR days might produce more, even on worse coal. There is a limit to useful tractive effort at around 40-45,000 lb-ft, in that 3 link couplings will break if you go higher anyway.

Would have been interesting if Stanier was just a couple of years more senior; wonder what a Stanier King would have looked like...

[Chessie8638]

A four cylinder design, it was deceptively powerful for it's size.

Never heard of a 4 cylinder (outside articulates and mallets), only 2 and 3. Have anymore info, would like to learn some more about them. Looks like another DLC pack to add to the list.

[johnmckenzie]

4 cylinders whilst not exactly common in Britain, was not unheard of either - because we were restricted in maximum loco size we had to find other ways of increasing horsepower. As a result, we built several designs with one pair of cylinders inside the frames and one pair outside. The GWR had the Star, Castle and King classes with 4 cylinders, whereas the LMS had the Princess Coronation and Princess Royal classes and the Southern had the Lord Nelson class.

Here's a better explanation than I could ever give -
http://www.6023.co.uk/4%20Cylinder%20Lo ... rlocos.htm

Edit - reading that I just remembered something else I meant to mention - the square-topped Belpaire firebox should look very familiar to fans of Pennsylvania Railroad steam, I think they were pretty much alone in the US in adopting this style of firebox.

[Dan]

I've looked but I can't find any photos of 6000 in the US. I've seen photos of 'Royal Scot' on Kicking Horse Pass when that came out

[Kali]

Never heard of a 4 cylinder (outside articulates and mallets), only 2 and 3. Have anymore info, would like to learn some more about them. Looks like another DLC pack to add to the list.

It's nothing special; standard inside cylinder design with two more tacked on the outside :) the only variation is how much valvegear you use; GWR ones had inside valvegear only and drove the outside valves though arms, whereas some of the others had four sets ( or perhaps just outside, I don't really remember ). 4 cyl compounds ( like a proper mallet, but using the same set of wheels ) are a bit more special but you won't find any of those in the UK other than a few experiments.

The big advantage is that there is no hammerblow on the track, you can perfectly balance forces by using opposing pairs of cylinders. The enormous disadvantage, especially with UK sizes, is maintenance; just to oil everything up you need a pit, and you've got vast amounts of inaccessible machinery to repair. It's also not really necessary, there were plenty of less well balanced powerful and fast steam engines around.

Coronation ( although it wasn't really Coronation itself ) also visited the US just before the war, iirc.

[johnmckenzie]

We now have video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8uOD4hC4pQ

[johnmckenzie]

And KGV gets her bell!