Evening Star and the 9F's

[@philipholt9112]

Hi my name is Phil Holt.I started on the footplate at edgeley shed on the 4th of April 1961 as a fireman I did 50yrs on the footplate.I finished my time out at longsight as a driver.But on the 19th of February 1973 i fired the flying Scotsmen from Manchester to Darby works and on the 25th of August 1973 I fired lender from Darby to Manchester and a number of 9 fs Regards.Phil.

[@geraldhitchens8130]

Used to see Evening Star regularly at Hopwas,Staffordshire in the early sixties.What a beast !

[@merape99]

This was one of my favourite locomotives. I still have my Ian Allan Combined Volume from 1962. You have to be of a certain age to know what that is. I saw over 70 of them over time. Although I lived in Dorset I used to go to Crumlin in the South Wales valleys to stay with relatives in my summer holidays. Crumlin is on the line from Newport to Ebbw Vale and the first 9Fs, 92000 through to 92007, worked the iron ore trains from Newport docks to the Ebbw Vale steel works. Going up the valley the line through Crumlin is noticeably uphill and the 9Fs would work loaded iron ore trains with one engine at the front and another at the back. It was had going and they were a magnificient spectacle pounding steadily through the small station in Crumlin. Happy days.

[@larrybarker3815]

9Fs on the Great Central. Pure class.

[@gibbonspider]

I fired most of the 9Fs when they hauled iron ore from Totton to Corby via the LNE&ER (Oxord -Bletchley-Northampton). Brilliant engines and very nice to work with.

[@ianmcgregorhart9354]

The Evening Star along with Flying Scotsman and Black Five's my favourite steam Locomotives.

[@kobyisreallyawesome8328]

I like A4s, 9Fs, Castle classes, A1/3s, Black 5s, 7Fs, andBig Boys.

[@Oscar-xj1nd]

I really like 9fs a3s a4s Terriors and panniers

[@Doubledig]

Good to see David Shepherd the Artist getting a £3000 bargain!

[@ChristianSchonbergerMusic]

Beautiful, great and very reliable machines, yep! I have the old Airfix 00 scale kit, a friend of mine got it for me. I am planning on assembling it soon, scraping off most of the cast-on handrails and piping and replace it by brass and copper wire and stanchions, plus adding missing piping and perhaps some more detail. Love that steamer!

[@TurboJUK]

The 9Fs have to be my all-time favourite BR Class, and I am proud to say that I have driven 92203 Black Prince.

[@harrythegamingboi7974]

TurboJUK :O I love 9F “92203” Black Prince!! She’s an AMAZING Locomotive!!In September 1982, preserved engine 92203 Black Prince set the record for the heaviest train ever hauled by a steam locomotive in Britain, when it started a 2,178-ton train at a Foster Yeoman quarry in Somerset, UK.

[@littlegiant18794]

The 9Fs were the best British Steam engine, no other loco class comes close to being as versatile as these beasts. Heavy freight or fast express, unbeatable!

[@dannyproc]

these locomotives are simply amazing. these and the Q1's!!!

[@AllenORourke1954]

9f's pulled iron ore trains up gradients of 1/35 up to Consett in County Durham in the 1960's. I remember lying in bed hearing them labouring up the gradient to Annfield Plain where I live....

[@stevenbanaan]

Allen Durham Drona O'Rourke lucky, my country got rid of steam so fast, barely my grandmother could've ridden one

[@1951GL]

The Durham 9Fs were fitted with air pumps for opening the hoppers on arrival at Consett. Magnificent engines.

[@arthurmatthews9321]

Yes your right they used them on iron ore trains in the north east. Sunderland docks to Redcar lackenby steel works. They operated alongside the 280 austerities and all were fitted with air compressors to operate the doors on the wagons.

[@imautuber]

Great vid, I've been on the foot plate of the Evening Star in steam, sheer Awesome Power!!! The heat, the smell, you just can't beat it. She really is amazing!!!!!!!!

[@Trainsbigandsmall]

The 9F locomotive are the best ever! I love the evening star and have an HO scale model of the locomotive!

[@SuperDougstar]

i think that scraping all of our locomotives is one of the biggest disgraces this country has ever seen. along with removing concord from service. we are so lucky to have preservation lines because if it weren't for them i would never have lived to see a steam engine.

[@alexfogg236]

SuperDougstar , well said.

[@stevenbanaan]

SuperDougstar wish beeching wouldn't have buttfucked your railways so bad

[@dubsy1026]

SuperDougstar I think the scrapping of our battleships, every single one, stands alongside it, if not worse, absolutely none survived

[@dubsy1026]

I'd like to point out nothing was stopping the government giving stations single staff members to dispense tickets, and only running diesel railcars at a pittance. They should have at least preserved the infrastructure and land rights. And many stations closed down didn't need to be, there are many communities that were destroyed when the railways. There could have at least kept one of some of the more major classes that went extinct, mainly north eastern stuff. 1 A1/A3? IF BR had their way, the first loco to break 100 officially would have been scrapped as well, leaving us 0. Their preservation schemes were completely inadequate. As for preserving ships, they did preserve smaller ones, and there was again nothing stopping them cheaply mothballing Warpsite, or Rodney, or Nelson, or any of them. Preservation schemes got decent capital to the point that government subsidy would have to only be minor in order to make it work. The US preserved loads of battleships and kept the Iowa class in operation as late as even the Gulf war, there are still 2 in mothball today, ready for action. if the US can keep 9 battleships up to 58400t around, Britain could manage a singl 35000t one with ease. Aeroplanes actually have very little issue, they made an awful lot of the fellas. 20,000 Spitfires, 8000 Lancasters, 14,000 Hurricanes, etc. They require none of the infrastructure and are fairly small and light. there are still something like 50 Spitfires flying.

[@dubsy1026]

Aiden Teszke there's a difference between advancing technology whilst preserving locomotives,an actively trying to stamp out an old technology

[@kenharris5390]

I remember standing on the overhead bridge at Canton Cardiff shed and seeing Evening Star in the last days of steam.It's a pity that 9Fs have been excluded from main line running because of the one flangeless driving wheel as it may cause damage to the check rail. Thanks for the memories.

[@TheDuke-vb9cq]

The problem of the flangeless wheel is NOT the wheel itself, but the existence of points with raised check rails above rail height ! Hopefully this type of point will eventually disappear......

[@a44468]

I love the 9F, just as bigger classic as the A4 or princess corination.

[@lexthepikachu851]

its ironic that steam engines are more loved that our new diesel electric engines and draw in bigger crowds and not to mention we have started building new one steam locomotives. Tornado for one and LNER 2007 Prince of Wales is currently being built.

[@harold5337]

There's a new Patriot as well

[@thebignoob1569]

Prince of Wales was the name of a Gresley A3. Why are they using it again?

[@lexthepikachu851]

@@thebignoob1569 maybe because its being named after Prince Charled

[@davidantoniocamposbarros7528]

@@thebignoob1569 what? Where's the source for that

[@thebignoob1569]

@@davidantoniocamposbarros7528 ez search LNER A3 2553 Prince of Wales

[@BCSchmerker]

Nice documentary on one of the last 2-10-0 classes to be developed. Suppose the United States steam-locomotive market stayed open late enough for Lima Locomotive Works, Inc., to develop a 4-10-4 Super Power passenger locomotive! (GM and Alco were competing for the U. S. Diesel-electric market when the 9F's were built.)

[@timspiers6225]

Went behind 92212 on the Severn Valley and it knocked 12 minutes out of the schedule.

[@beeble2003]

Interesting stat in there that a 9F's driving wheels were doing 8 revs per second at 90mph. For comparison, Mallard's rather larger drivers were doing about 8.7 revs per second when it hit 126mph.

[@daystatesniper01]

A dear friend of mine once got a please explain interview after apparently caught speeding on the GC doing 92 mph !!! .

[@nigelkthomas9501]

daystatesniper01 92mph? WTF with? Hope he managed to stop before he got to the end of the line!

[@alanrogers3241]

In 1980 Evening Star had her second 10 year boiler exam, I was part of the team doing it at Didcot,

[@falcoameta7247]

Beautiful

[@RailMon]

The one currently based on the EAST LANCS, 92214 is fantastic to see in action as they all where, especially the strange, CROSTI boilered versions.

[@1946apps]

brilliant loco's,fired them on the gcr 'windcutters,annesley-woodford,happy days!

[@ukusagent]

As my dad said most of the older Fireman didnt go much for them as with the driver on the otherside it made traditional firing difficult

[@ChristianSchonbergerMusic]

Just building the Airfix-00scale kit (original Kitmaster Rosebud) Evening Star - with added, refined detail. Love this steamer! Beautiful to behold and technically as good as steam gets!

[@locoman1963]

@ukusagent there were a couple of 9fs which were converted with automatic stokers for a experiment making the fireman redundant I dont know if it was a succes

[@dubsy1026]

locoman1963 it was not at all a success

[@Welshman2008]

i got a 5 foot wide tapestry of this loco on my bedroom wall my mum made when i was a kid

[@MLManimasters]

Have you built a LEGO model of a 9F yet?

[@steampics]

nice footage of the 9F's.Very informative

[@theredraven]

That's because the 2-10-0 wheel arrangement wasn't as common in the UK as it was abroad. Also the fact that you have smoke deflectors and the body is raised up add to the perception you have. Hell, even the green that BR used was called "Brunswick Green".

[@amnistic45]

I just tested this engine on trainz. It is a beauty

[@exb.r.buckeyeman845]

Barrow Rd, was that Midland Lawrence Hill Bristol.?

[@larrybrennan1463]

From an American perspective, it is astounding to think of a decapod as capable of being a high speed passenger locomotive! In the US, the 2-10-0 was either a low-speed heavy freight hauler, epitomized by the Pennsylvania's 598 I1 (The Pennsy's motto: We do nothing small. PRR had more I1's than many Class 1 railroads had total locomotives!), or they were smaller, low-speed freight haulers, like the Russian decapods, hundreds built for Tsarist Russia but orphaned by the Revolution and quickly re-gauged to be sold to American lines. The Russians were used on lines with light rail, similar to other smaller deks. The Strasburg has a former Great Western (a sugar beet line in Colorado) 2-10-0, and the Illinois Railroad Museum in Union has an operating Russian. Other than on branch or short line mixed trains, I dont think any other American decapod hauled passengers.

[@griffinellis1666]

Absolute unit

[@JimTLonW6]

Very interesting, I didn't know the 9F's performed so well on passenger trains.

[@silasfatchett5693]

One shed master said that he could easily run the railway with just 9Fs and diesel shunters.

[@harrythegamingboi7974]

I love 9F 92203 Black Prince

[@produKtNZ]

Fantastic footage and indeed likewise for the commentary :) One for the archives for sure :-)

[@hatakashi1900]

May I know which DVD does this clip come from? I've got to buy it!!

[@oliviaalwen2142]

were is the eveing star now ? isnt it at idk york RNM

[@harold5337]

Yes, she is part of the national collection. She was the only engine earmarked for preservation from the date of construction.

[@MrB590]

In a museum

[@GreatWestern175]

She is based at the National Railway Museum at York.

[@288jh]

where this video and mallar and the gresley A4's on the same dvd

[@wongtszshing3795]

if steam engines have kept advancing, it might not be surprising that they crack 300mph while using much less fuel than A4s

[@dubsy1026]

Wong Tsz Shing it definitely would be a suprise, there are many problems that made the fundamental physics of steam locomotives a dead end. The simple concept of combustion boiling water is less efficient than directly using the combustion to drive the train, and you also don't have to carry a huge volume of water. Face it. Steam locomotives, how ever beautiful they are, have reached their dead end.

[@rucarnuts13]

One never truly knows. Had they continued development, I'd wager that they would have no doubt evolved beyond what we currently know steam engines to be. Especially during the twilight years of steam, some drastic innovations were brought to light to try and compete with the rapidly-evolving diesels. Steam-turbine locomotives saw a brief period of development by many countries during that time, with Stanier making the Turbomotive and the Union Pacific testing the General Electric Turbines just as a few examples. And even then, if we go further back in time, there were the geared steam engines that the Americans produced in an effort to get more traction, power and stability on the twisty, steep and badly-made logging railroads across America, in addition to a few in Australia and New Zealand. Had they designed a locomotive with a gear system that increased the ratios instead of decreased them; maybe we'd have seen a steamer crack 200mph - but we'll never know.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

@@rucarnuts13 They are still only 10% efficient even with superheaters and all the gimmicks. Whereas internal combustion is 20 to 30% or more. Added to the fact they took 2 hours to start up and were a pain to clean and maintain. The best thing we could do was scrap as many as possible and introduce better traction. And we must continue scrapping them and limiting their use today due to pollution and carbon emissions causing global warming and climate change.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

@Jon Aschenbrenner He is correct. Slice steam locos with cutting torches and send the scrap debris for melting and recycling.

[@rickbear7249]

What's this, the still photograph clearly shows 92220 "Evening Star" with an F55 "CAPITALS UNITED EXPRESS" nameboard! Was this one of the famous "Red Dragon Express" runs she's famed for. Any more information, please.

[@BlackmooreRose1938]

3:00 this 9f sounds like number 55 'stepney'

[@essexcapri25]

@StarTux you are so true withdrawing steam locomotives is the worst thing britian has done

[@tassamade9750]

5 years thats shorter than his other brothers.

[@3NUNS]

now we saw a preserved loco choo-choo-ing its way along preserved metals ... the commentator said that it had "rusted away" in a scrapper's yard for 'x' number of years ... so what happenned ? It slightly rusted but it did not rust away !

[@RailwayFanatic92220]

the 9Fs are my absolute fafourite engine (hense the username "92220") Great Video!

[@MLManimasters]

Black Prince still works now in 2012, but I'm sure you knew that. Unfortunately, Evening Star is now out of service.

[@harrythegamingboi7974]

MLManimasters Black Prince still works in 2020

[@legdig]

even the good reverend hated the 60's

[@theshedrailway]

was the 9F hand fired?

[@silasfatchett5693]

Yes.

[@SteamMasterGaming]

Has a 9f been back on the main line

[@themidlandcompoundarchive9430]

no sadly it's down to network rail not realising that the middle wheel was flangeless.

[@themidlandcompoundarchive9430]

And that the check rails inbetween the points are higher then they uesd it be.

[@60103FlyingScotsman]

Not since the 80s

[@nounoufriend]

9F's had fairly bad route availability when they were in use as well . My dad fired and drove them said they were smooth and deceptively fast

[@stevenbanaan]

..... Are perfect

[@Owentheguitarist666]

ma 3rd Fav train

[@AEM7andthomasfan]

Can't beat the 9F steam engine

[@paulcrockett6105]

9f iron ore trains Bidston Dock to Summers Steel works working hard

[@trainboy00]

9220 beautiful engine

[@ukusagent]

@locoman1963 My Father said thay where not too succsessfull, Just before my Dad made Driver, He and his Driver tested a Oil burning Steamer . The inspector that was with them Kept interfering,saying they had the Fuel air mixtures wrong , as it was making heavy black smoke . The Driver hit the brake stopped the Locco and kicked the inspector off the footplate

[@arthurmatthews9321]

RIP David Shepard

[@trainmanjg611]

@TurboJUK that is awesome

[@MLManimasters]

(Evening Star rushes past at top speed) It's a shooting star! Make a wish!

[@Siege-v3m]

Imagine electric steam train where firebox be giant electric heater, while has same function like electric tram line.

[@PreservationEnthusiast]

Very inefficient to use electric current to heat water to make steam. About 10% efficient. Whereas if you use electric traction motors it is 80 to 90% efficient. Or put another way the locomotive would be 9 times as powerful for the same electric input energy.

[@zacharylegaspi7594]

Give the 9f a less glossy paint work and they will look like a goods engine, like murdoch

[@stevenbanaan]

Zachary Legaspi or make murdoch better and make it look like a 9f

[@littlegiant18794]

@trainlover658 another 9F

[@falcoameta7247]

🚂💛😌🌟

[@davidantoniocamposbarros7528]

Fantastic machinery,but also a great waste. Not that they are bad and all,is that i don't get why BR decided to build a new steam engine class just so to have a short life spam

[@michaelmcnally2331]

Because already ordered when made the decision to go diesel/electric. In effect Concorde also preceded because it was realised that when the UK govt looked at pulling out that would cost more to pull out of the agreement then to complete. Much is made as to why UK retained steam post WW2 however what need to remember is that UK post WW2 still had large coal reserves but no natural oil supply to go diesel. Too broke (think how long rationing lasted) to go electric and diesel. Existing infrastructure to support steam in place. So steam continuation made sense at the time. Europe however practically had to be rebuilt from ground up in comparison so would have had to build the facilities to support steam anyway in which case why not build new to support what is seen as the future ie diesel and electric as opposed to support what already recognised before WW2 that diesel and electric was the future. The big 4 were already experimenting with diesel and electric with look to moving from steam before WW2. BR08 effectively based on LMS locos built 1934 to 1936. The southern had started to electrify main routes in the 1920’s so it isn’t as if UK was not aware that Steam would become legacy. So UK embarked on building new steam loco so would have “standardised” loco’s as opposed to the different engines with all differences between what inherited from the big 4, much the same way as the big 4 did in the 1920’s after the grouping process. Beeching being an economist and private enterprise recognised that it was not cost effective to maintain all of the infrastructure for steam with the coal and water and thus a rapid switchover was required and steam removed as such from the national network. However orders would have already been placed and provided jobs that would have been politically damaging to cancel orders and have jobs lost. Thus the 9F and other BR standards still constructed even though by the time they rolled out would be destined for a fraction of working life that intended for.

[@theshedrailway]

the 9F dont look like a britsh loco

[@theextremeanimator4721]

Even though it is

[@markmerryable]

TO BLOODY RIGHT>

[@black5f]

Lovely engines. But ... at the same time the likes of Bayer and NBL were building far far more advanced engines for export. Auto stokers, cabs were clean, polished and devoid of coal, even with cabs sealed from the elements? The SA class 25 condensing versions had a range of 500 miles without needing to fill up water or coal and had a TE of 50,000 lbs, 8 coupled wheels... on 3ft 6inch gauge. Built here in the UK in 1953 for export while BR "latest tech" were still building engines that came with a shovel and the elements? Nice, love them but when compared with what we were building for export. .... And that's a sin.

[@rockyfanatic6846]

She is a slow engine since she is a good engine

[@davidantoniocamposbarros7528]

Idk,90 MPH for a goods locomotive doesn't seem slow

[@skyexe9474]

I hate the barry scrapyard

[@thairatcatcher]

Not sure why you'd say a thing like that. Dai Woodham did more for the preservation of British steam that we enjoy today, than any politician. He was a businessman first and saw the ease with which he could scrap ore and coal wagons first, before cutting steam locos.. When enthusiasts started showing up, he was more than glad to get rid of locos at his cost.

[@alexfogg381]

@@thairatcatcher ,well said. Even the locomotives that were scrapped there were only cut up ,when there was a shortage of old railway wagons, rails, or coaches.

[@nigelkthomas9501]

Evening Star’s working life of just a few years was a scandalous waste. Steam should’ve been more gradually withdrawn not cut off completely in 1968. That loco, along with many others, could easily have stayed with BR well into the 1980s.

[@robw7676]

Steam operation is a bit all or nothing - think of the infrastructure needed. Coal, water, ash plants, steam sheds for maintenance - a mainline excursion now is a major logistical exercise just getting water and coal to the right places.

[@nigelkthomas9501]

Rob W Steam tours are only seen as a huge challenge because that’s what BR and now NR see them as. Why should everything be a walk in the park, a breeze or easy as pie? If something’s worth doing; make the effort, and don’t always look for the easy way out. If everyone did that no-one would get out of bloody bed 🛌!

[@robw7676]

@@nigelkthomas9501 I didn't suggest the steam tours shouldn't happen. I enjoy them & go on one every year with my Dad - but they are a lot of work & even at hundreds of quid a ticket rely on an army of volunteers. Steam traction is a major endeavour, not something that was economic to continue on a limited commercial basis just to get a bit more use out of the late build BR locos as you seem to think.

[@nigelkthomas9501]

Rob W Fair enough. I used to go on steam tours now and again, but the price puts me off now!

[@skyexe9474]

Actually when diesels exist also create pollution coz they use gas or oil and thats the end of e2(thomas)locomotive story

[@SniperBoy-hp6xr]

considering that you have stated you hate a scrap yard as they scrapped steam engines and wagons tell me how old you are. The burning of coal is less efficient that burning petroleum through to drive an engine, and to further add to your incorrectness , you said that coal is better for the environment when it is actually worse for the environment than petroleum.

[@jihadjefry3764]

go go city of truro

[@andyg3]

it was criminal to get rid of steam

[@kasonic12]

lol

[@geoffsimms3097]

P

[@Andrew-gv4bh]

Bad engines👎 for that time

[@davidantoniocamposbarros7528]

What? They proved to be one of the most successful locomotive designs in Britain

[@harrisonaard1]

It's in Swindon steam Museum NOW. Go see.