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the Standard Steam Locomotive Company

Loco nameplate


Some time ago, I stumbled across the webpage of the Standard Steam Locomotive Company, a group who hopes to reproduce the final production classes of steam locomotives built in Britain. I recently received the following message and photos from Sam Denley detailing the progress of the project:

"Please find attached photos of 72010 Hengist being built at the Swanage Railway loco works in Dorset England. 72010 was to be the next British Railways Class 6 light Pacific. The drawings for Hengist incorporated some 'fine tune' improvements over the first batch of 10 engines. These were not anything 'revolutionary' the whole concept of the BR Standards was economy from easy maintenance, common parts and ability to work well on poor grades of coal. One unusual point shared with the larger boilered (same chassis) sister class 7 Pacifics, the 'Britannias', as part of the simplification and cost conscious design, was the use of 2 cylinders only. British express locos were usually 3 or 4 cylinder machines. There were to be 45 Clan class locos but politics overtook the building programme with the demise of steam. There are 40 plus preserved BR Standards in the UK representing 8 of the 12 BR Standard types, Hengist will fill a gap as there is no example of a class 6 light Pacific. There is of course a wealth of patterns and parts available to help the project as well as a complete set of drawings 800+ at the National Railway Museum. The pictures attached are not up to date and shortly we will have a completed smokebox and cab. We are not as advanced with our efforts as the A1. As always with steam preservation its a question of funding and lots of it. The doctored included photo was taken by D. Anderson of an original Clan in Scotland and altered with his permission. The biggest visible difference is the larger capacity tender to hold more water, the next 5 Clans to be built were to be for the Southern Region (includes Hengist) and the Southern region did not have water troughs from which locos could replenish their tanks without stopping, and therefore required extra capacity - for peace of mind for the crew I should think! Other changes unseen, coil springs on rear trailing truck to soften the ride, blast pipe diameter and peticoat choke size reduced to sharpen blast and large cast steel frame stretchers incorporating the spring hangers between the plate frames like a hybrid plate frame/steel bed set up to prevent frame cracking which the larger Britannias (same chassis) suffered from a lot. This is a jumbled email but may I am sure be of some interest I will forward more pictures as they become available if you wish. Let me know if the ones sent open OK, let me know if you want to read more. Please feel free to display the pictures on your website.

Sam Denley
Feb. 4, 2001

Brand-new chimney casting

Smokebox door and hardware

Front end

Bogie Frames

Cab floor

Cab assembly from the rear

and, last but not least....

How the completed locomotive will look!

Visit the group's website at: The Standard Steam Locomotive Company- http://www.br-standard.co.uk/