Spencer/Mallard Conversion

I stumbled across this on eBay the other day, pretty good custom job;

Mallard Conversion Custom

[Super]

I would be more impressed with a Mallard like front end. Without removing the face it just looks like a blue Spencer with red wheels.

Yeah, I know what you mean, I would have done the same and removed the face, all you'd need to do is flatten the slope and paint it black and it would look pretty good.

Another approach could have been to give it a different number (can't remember it off the top of my head) on the sides of the cab, leave the face in place and re-name it 'Nigel' after the train of the same name - Sir Nigel Gresley (yes it was a real train of the A4 class)

[Super]

re-name it 'Nigel'

Just for the record 'Sir Nigel Gresley' was the designer of the 'A' class locos out of LNER, so includes the Flying Scotsman and Mallard among other famous locos.

Talking of which did you hear about 'Tornado'? Basically over a period we had a 'society' who built a brand new A3 (scotsman class) using the orignal blueprints. It has been in service now for a number of years and is regularly pulling special passenger services. I think there is talk of another 'new' steam loco too, but can't recall the details

[Super]

That 'Tornado' sounds like an interesting story Sir Nigel, might there be a video documentary of it?

Tornado is an A1 Peppercorn class. Still a Pacific and a sexy beast but not one of Sir Nigel’s designs. The same trust is now building a Gresley P2, which I presume means it will be in the original 2-8-2 Mikado configuration. All P2s were rebuilt as A2 4-6-2 Pacifics in the post-WW2 era.

*My son is a huge fan of British steam locomotives, so we did a lot of research on Tornado after he learned about it. The story of Tornado has been one of the catalysts for his desire to build and restore steam locomotives when he grows up.

one of these days, sir nigel, i am going to make it to the UK. so much train-y goodness!!

There were other designers of "A class" locos, even though A was only the designation for a pacific wheel arrangement used by the LNER. Among the more notable classes were the Thompson A2. As mentioned above by Off The Rails, the P2s were rebuilt to Thompson's A2/2 pacific design during the war.

Robinson and Worsdell also designed some pacific tank engines but they are generally forgotten about as they were for lesser passenger trains and freight work.

 

Google "azuazupapa mallard"