4472 put in some memorable performances in NSW. It must be remembered that 4472 was approx 50 ton lighter than 3801. Yes hen 4472 arrived in Sydney we had to fit a spark arrestor in in the smoke box between the blast pipe and petticoat. A trial to Port Kembla found further mods that needed to be made before we took her to Melbourne. 4472 was able to lift a 507 ton train on her own and there was no better experience than being on the footplate at 70 mile an hour and listening to that 3 cylinder beat become just a roar.
Some great times were had and never will be forgotten.

Reards
Greg.

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From: Richard Youltressteleg@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...>
To:TramsDownUnder@...;
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] L classes (Was Harris trains etc) maybe TAN
Quite OT but re Flying Scotsman and the Blue Mountains, the train driver I referred to earIier was Jack Lawson who also worked with the FS.
He told me that the Brits learned a few things from their time here, including some modification to the smokeboxes here which were standard and improved performance. The Brits had never seen this before and were favourably impressed. It seems a fine camaraderie developed on both sides.
And no, the FS was not much use on steep hills.
Regards,
> On 9 Feb 2016, at 7:33 AM,prescottt@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:

>

> But I wonder how those European electrics would go on the Blue Mountains. I had a ride behind the famous LNER loco 4472 with another train on the return journey with a C38 as I recall. The 38 ate the grades, 4472 struggled with the relatively moderate grade from Mittagong to Bowral. We all thought for a while the journey was going to end at Mittagong. People waiting at Bowral could see the huge cloud of smoke rising above the Gib and thought there was a bushfire!

>

>

> Showponies a lot of those famous European locos. I noted once how British rail enthusiasts would rave on about the Shap gradient in UK and then I checked it - it is only about 1:70. Ossie Nock would have been impressed by the ride over the Blue Mountains as was another leading British railway type we took over there in a V set with Contura some years back. Stops them looking down their noses at "the colonies" - you can see them thinking "is this for real?"!

>

> I believe when they came over to talk with Comeng about adapting the HST design to what became the XPT they were shown the trip over the mountains and declared the HST would never make it. Of course, Comeng got it to.

>

> Incidentally, in Germany they have that 200 km/h limit on their "interurbans" so that they only need one driver - staff costs you see! And the trips, which are stopping not express, are fast enough at that speed. Certainly beats 50 km/h on dead straight track on the NSW south coast any day.

>

> Tony P

> (who believes that with trains as with trams, average speed is often far more important than maximum speed)

>

> ---InTramsDownUnder@..., <tressteleg@...> wrote :

>

> By European standards, no great achievement.

>

> In 1991 or 92 I had an official cab ride in an electrically hauled passenger train in Germany.

>

> Up to 200 km/h it could operate with one driver, but with two drivers it could go to 250 which has think it did IIRC.

>

> I knew a Sydney train driver who worked trains over the Blue Mountains who said to me one day "The day they put the wire over the mountains was the day they flattened the mountains".

>

> Regards,

>

>