Aesthetics
Just think about it for a moment. Locomotive design.
Over the years, British locomotive design has produced some absolute belters. Surely the stand-out has to be Misha Black's Type 4 diesel-hydraulic class 52, the Western. Simple, practical, made to fit the lines of the coaching stock it was to haul, those 74 locomotives perhaps represented the pinnacle of British locomotive design, albeit with a Germanic twist.
But boy have we thrown out some dogs too. Based strictly on design rather than if the locos were any good at what they did, what is the ultimate in bad design?
Well, go back and you could point your accusing finger at the Metro-Vick Co-Bo's, so awful they couldn't even decide what bogies to chuck under them. Or anything that managed to work long enough to escape from the NBL factory in Glasgow. Woof!
I'd go more modern though to find the pits. The HST? No, don't be daft, a design to be proud of in every respect. That wedge shaped nose has defined high speed rail travel across the world for 40 years now, every Acela, every TGV, even the soon to come Hitachi IEP's have a little ancestry in the HST.
As do the class 90 and 91 electrics, although it was perhaps stretched just a little too far with the 91's, the East Coast electrics never quite had the same appeal to me as the 90's, despite their obvious similarities.
No, for me, the ugly sister award goes to... well, it could be the class 67. Or the 68. Or indeed a class 70. Don't know. But you'll spot a trend of modernity there. It's like we forgot how to design practicality and aesthetic charm into one bundle. Now, you could say that none of the above are British locos and in one sense, you'd be right. The class 67 is just a scaled down generic one size fits all Euro abomination, the class 68 updates the design and gives it a more sculpted look, a bit like comparing original and current Ford Focus cars with all the angles and features it's gained in 20 years. And the class 70 is probably nothing more than a GE Dash-9 with Euro spec cabs gaffer taped to the ends. But all of those classes ply their trade on our shores, so in that sense, they are indeed British locomotives.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'll always choose that Chiltern 68 and mk3 combo over the alternative DMU nightmare. But couldn't we make locomotives look like locomotives again, rather than something thrown together at half three on a Friday afternoon by a graduate with a grudge?
I guess not... :(
The local boy, Crewe built 90018 and the import, 67003 from Valencia, part of an Arpley bound light loco lashup at Crewe on 28 March 2016.
I'm sorry if you like Co-Bo's, NBL's, Skips, Betty's...
Aesthetics
Just think about it for a moment. Locomotive design.
Over the years, British locomotive design has produced some absolute belters. Surely the stand-out has to be Misha Black's Type 4 diesel-hydraulic class 52, the Western. Simple, practical, made to fit the lines of the coaching stock it was to haul, those 74 locomotives perhaps represented the pinnacle of British locomotive design, albeit with a Germanic twist.
But boy have we thrown out some dogs too. Based strictly on design rather than if the locos were any good at what they did, what is the ultimate in bad design?
Well, go back and you could point your accusing finger at the Metro-Vick Co-Bo's, so awful they couldn't even decide what bogies to chuck under them. Or anything that managed to work long enough to escape from the NBL factory in Glasgow. Woof!
I'd go more modern though to find the pits. The HST? No, don't be daft, a design to be proud of in every respect. That wedge shaped nose has defined high speed rail travel across the world for 40 years now, every Acela, every TGV, even the soon to come Hitachi IEP's have a little ancestry in the HST.
As do the class 90 and 91 electrics, although it was perhaps stretched just a little too far with the 91's, the East Coast electrics never quite had the same appeal to me as the 90's, despite their obvious similarities.
No, for me, the ugly sister award goes to... well, it could be the class 67. Or the 68. Or indeed a class 70. Don't know. But you'll spot a trend of modernity there. It's like we forgot how to design practicality and aesthetic charm into one bundle. Now, you could say that none of the above are British locos and in one sense, you'd be right. The class 67 is just a scaled down generic one size fits all Euro abomination, the class 68 updates the design and gives it a more sculpted look, a bit like comparing original and current Ford Focus cars with all the angles and features it's gained in 20 years. And the class 70 is probably nothing more than a GE Dash-9 with Euro spec cabs gaffer taped to the ends. But all of those classes ply their trade on our shores, so in that sense, they are indeed British locomotives.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'll always choose that Chiltern 68 and mk3 combo over the alternative DMU nightmare. But couldn't we make locomotives look like locomotives again, rather than something thrown together at half three on a Friday afternoon by a graduate with a grudge?
I guess not... :(
The local boy, Crewe built 90018 and the import, 67003 from Valencia, part of an Arpley bound light loco lashup at Crewe on 28 March 2016.
I'm sorry if you like Co-Bo's, NBL's, Skips, Betty's...