60163 Tornado

[VC10]

Tornado on the Cathedrals Express today, taken at Pirbright

Looks like the fireman needs some more training (no pun intended), he got too much air going through his firebox. Smoke should be light gray, not a blue haze.

[Tweek]

Very nice.

I've been meaning to ask, not being much of a train expert, but what are the plates (the things with Tornado written on them) either side of the funnel for? I always thought trains looked better without them, but I guess there's a reason for them to be there?

[fighterpilot]

The plates are smoke deflectors, and whilst they may not look particularly attractive, they do perform an important function in keeping the smoke from drifting down into the drivers view of the line ahead. They should lift the smoke up higher above the boiler although they are not always effective.

Great shot of Tornado, certainly better than my effort taken at Basingstoke, My excuse is she was travelling too fast.

Richard

[Fodda]

Smoke deflectors... Never needed on properly designed engines... Like those built by the GWR for instance. :o

Heh heh... Have we had a railway fight on this forum yet? CHEERS

[Filonian]

Lovelt to see.

Graham

[emfrat]

Well, the GWR didn't need deflectors, because they had those lovely tapered boilers which worked at a respectable pressure. As the lesser companies headhunted GW staff and expertise such as long-lap valvegear, they began to produce some good engines but didn't realise that fat parallel boilers meant fat smokebox fronts. As the air spills round the rim of the smokebox, it creates a drop in pressure which draws the smoke/steam down the boiler sides, obscuring the driver's view. On some modern 'soft-blast' designs, you can actually see the smoke being thrown forward, ahead of and below the funnel, even with the loco running at speed.
Smoke deflectors do not actually deflect the smoke; rather they capture air ahead of the smokebox front and direct it along the boiler sides, thus destroying the partial vacuum which draws the smoke down.
In case anyone feels I might be the teensiest bit biased, I should point out that the Caley 'Dunalastair' was the supreme engine of its day - Carlisle to Perth, 130 miles, without taking water - and of course we won the Race to the North

MikeW

[DaveB]

A good question Tweek and well asked

I'd not really considered what they might be for and am pleased to have learned something new. What a clever lot you are

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[delticbob]

Smoke deflectors... Never needed on properly designed engines... Like those built by the GWR for instance. :o

Heh heh... Have we had a railway fight on this forum yet? CHEERS

Never went fast enough to need 'em

Long live the LNER Coolio

BTW My really useless fact of the day....in my 6 years at Doncaster 'Plant' locomotive works, I spent the last 2 years of that working in the very building that saw the birth of the legends that are Mallard, Flying Scotsman etc.

Bob

[ajb]

Can't resist joining in on this one as my first love is railways. Look again at Tornado. The LNER/BR A1 class was (and still is) built with a taper not a parallel boiler. I personally think that smoke deflectors enhanced the appearance of most loco classes to which they were fitted. Look at pictures of the BR standard 9F (Evening Star etc) and BR standard 7 (Britannias) without deflectors - somehow they just don't look the part. As for the GWR not needing them on their locos I think that Delticbob hit the nail on the head . Yeah, long live the LNER - I'm a Yorkshireman too even though I live in foreign lands these days.

Andy

PS. To be fair to Fodda I do think that the Kings and Castles were some of the prettiest locos ever built. JEEZ!!! I don't believe I admitted to that one - must be the malt taking hold hehe!!

[VC10]

I personally think that smoke deflectors enhanced the appearance of most loco classes to which they were fitted. Look at pictures of the BR standard 9F (Evening Star etc) and BR standard 7 (Britannias) without deflectors - somehow they just don't look the part.

Andy
!

I couldn't agree more, I was only thinking the same about those two classes last night. I think the LNER classes fitted with the German SD's looked the best on LNER locomotives