Everytime the Longmoor Military Railway is mentioned I get sad, it should never have closed.

Smoke in my eyes, soot in me' hair, cinders in my shoes I'm watching the needle fallin' away and singing the *WD* Blues

Excellent as usual. Thank you for reminding us of our selflessness in those days, helping to get an ungrateful Europe back on its feet.

LMR no. 600 'Gordon' is no longer owned by the Army; ownership of the loco was formally transferred to the Severn Valley Railway in 2008.

There's an interesting story involving a WD 2-8-0 on the Somerset & Dorset Railway in January 1959. Story goes that when the Western Region gained control of the S&D, they started looking for a suitable replacement for the old 7F 2-8-0s. They first tested WD no. 90125 on the 11am down goods(consisting of mostly unfitted wagons) to Evercreech Junction. Long story short, the WD's braking power was woefully unsuitable for the steep grades that the S&D was known for. The train ran away, and even with the six vacuum-fitted vans added, it was a harrowing downhill ride and they were just barely able to stop the train. As a result, the test was declared a failure and the WDs were never seen again on the S&D; their braking power just could not compare to the good old 7Fs.

As a spotter in the early 60s the 2-8-0s were seen all over the North West and on the old Lancashire & Yorkshire routes. A driver at Wakefield depot told me, without being asked (!) back in 1965, "there's nowt wrong wi' these lad. Hit um wit'th'ammer they'll go." Excellent, as usual, Ruairidh.

Although basic, I was told by an ex fireman that the 2-8-0 austerity loco was a good steamer and rode well too.

I remember these loco pulling fast freights down the Midland "Old Road" through Woodhouse Mill and Beighton on the Yorkshire Derbyshire boundary. They could be heard clanking all the way along the Rother Valley way before they actually passed. Always filthy and numbers sometimes unreadable. One particular loco passing through had the name Flying Emma chalked on the tender. All these years later, I have never lost the memory of hearing their clanking.

I remember the old "Dub Ds" as we called them when I was a boy in the late 1950´s. I saw these locomotives regularly on the main line which comes out of Hull and goes in the direction of Goole. They always looked uncared for, scruffy and dirty and seemed to clank more than other "Posher" steam locos at that time. I used to take down the numbers but any records I had were lost long ago

They were steam engines that could’ve continued up to 1999 or so. This is one “austerity” I approve of. Thanks for yet another enthralling video Ruairidh.

Similar to the 9Fs, the WD Austerity 2-10-0s are also designed for freight trains and they are also banned from running on the mainline in preservation.

The speed of the designing and building of these locos, the recovery in reopening the line in Soham, this country really was incredible. Sound is so much better Ruairidh

21 2-8-0's we're allocated to my nearest shed Frodingham and served up to the shed closure in 1966. I lived three miles away from Frodingham viaduct and on a summer evening you could here them tackle the 1 in 93. You could hardly see them lineside as many leaked steam at what seemed every steam pipe joint. They were in a terrible state in the 60's but one must have had a major overhaul early sixties and made a splendid sight in shiny black compared to the rest. All three Scunthorpe steelworks were going full pelt back then and as long as you liked freight engines it was a spotters paradise. If the nett zero brigade get their way there'll be no steel industry left in a few years only memories.

only18 hrs to get it up and running, we used to be able to get things done back when we were a determined nation

Thankyou for posting all these insightful articles. I experienced the Austerities in the Wakefield area in the late 60s.

Ahh the Jeep (2-10-0) and little Jeep (2-8-0) Those were the nicknames given by the crews of those classes of WD locomotives in the Netherlands

Definitely an underrated snippet of history, that deserves to be remembered 😌👍

These locos are by far my favourite design locomotives from Riddles as I’m a fan of locomotives been built in the 1940s. These locos are really fantastic to see in action and I’m glad during my visit to the North Norfolk Railway to see the 2-10-0 in action. One exciting news of one of the 2-10-0s is 3672 is going to be burning oil on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, I in my opinion, really want to see these engines burning oil as now I now know that the LNER did trial out a 2-8-0 version to burn oil, well I really like to see these engines to be burning oil instead of burning coal. Mainly because they along with the Bulleid, A1s & A2s Pacific’s are perfect to burning oil.

I clambered under and around these at Rosegrove Shed, Burnley in 1965 as a teenager with other boys interested in locomotives. Very different from my later academic career and interests. They hauled coal trains from the local pits. In the final days of steam they were generally filthy as were most locomotives and rolling stock. 👍🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Great footage ! And took me back to my trainspotting days during the 1960's shed bashing around Wakefield, Farnley, Stourton. Low Moor, Leeds Holbeck MPD's. My uncle was a platelayer at Healey Mills (Near Ossett) marshalling yard, so I was allowed to operate the 'retarders' sorting the waggons one evening in 1965. I remember climbing onto so many footplates of these great locomotives that were in a terrible state but they kept on going until the end. I remember these WD's on double headers hauling very heavy ballast trains out of Healey Mills and it's a sight I will never forget. Thanks for uploading.

YAAAAYYY A VIDEO OF MY FAVOURITE LOCOMOTIVES AND THE ONE I’M GETTING A MODEL OF TOMORROW!!!

Very nostalgic! in 1950, aged 12, my pals and I would cycle the 16 miles from Cambridge to Huntingdon, the nearest point on what is now called the ECML. They used to take ages coming down the long southbound straight because of course all the wagons were unbraked.

My home village Barnetby had dozens of Dubdees each day until diesels took over - mostly on coal trains, but also iron ore, slag (ballast), steel, mixed trains... They were shedded at 34E New England, 36A Doncaster, 36C Frodingham, 36E Retford, 40A Lincoln, 40B Immingham, 40E Colwick, 41D Canklow, 41F Mexborough mostly.

Thank you for providing the background of WD 73755 "Longmoor" (2-10-0), the only locomotive at the Utrecht "Spoorwegmuseum" one was allowed to enter in my youth. (I haven't visited that museum for "ages", but I do plan to.)

There is a picture of my late father driving WD 2-8-0 Sir Guy Williams on the Bullit Expres in the recently published book on Longmoor.

wonderful interesting video , it never ceases to amaze me that model manufacturers just stick to common locomotives to manufacture as youve just shown there are rare and far more interesting models far more worhy of modelling

Excellent video honouring an extraordinary loco. Looking forward to the Ellis Clark model that's due next year.

15:12 that loco 600 Gordon is the loco I still see at the Severn valley railway

An extremely well researched and well made video. I really enjoyed this one. Thank you!

15:03 work is now underway to get that loco 3672 dame Vera Lynn named after the lady singer herself to return to steam

The two classes were scientifically tested by British Railways in 1953, running on the Settle and Carlisle route.

Thank you very, very much to all four of you. It's so good to see people thinking and working in such a positive and constructive spirit. It's quite inspiring. Kind regards from Germany

Driver Gimbert and Fireman Nighthall were commemorated by British Rail each having a class 47 loco named after them. I believe they were Stratford locos and would often be seen on the London - Norwich services in the 1980s

As a Swede, it's always interesting to hear you say anything about Swedish SJ

Superb video of a unsung loco' that did what it said on the tin thank you for this video .

15:41 90755 was the loco I saw on the tv called train spotting

Great vlog as always! Have you done a vlog on the Liberty ships? Keep up the good work!

Damn, the narration sound qualify is significantly better ever since that upgrade. Glad to see you getting better at your craft

I lived not too far from Sutton Oak 8G (St Helens) shed and regularly saw 90212 of 8G. My overriding memory of 90212 was the clanking noise it made which is perfectly demonstated by the last clip in the video. Robert Riddles designed some of the best steam locos ever to see service on Britain's railways and yet many were only in service for a very short period of time. Such a waste.

Fascinating as always, thank you again.

14:18 90733 is the loco I saw 9 years ago on the Severn valley railway during the spring steam gala

I didn’t know that these had so many issues in their design

The new mic setup sounds fantastic! Great work

a video on the electrostars/turbostars would be cool especially since they're a derivative of the networker design

I note a difference in audio fidelity, but it does sound an improvement Pardon if I’m mistaken

The new mic is a great improvement while still keeping similar audio style as before. I like it.

Good job, chaps.

A most interesting video, thank you very much.

Just to say WD 600 Gordon is not owned by MOD it’s now owned by the SVR Trust, it’s cosmetically restored at the Engine House in Highley.

Many fond memories of these locos - known locally as Dub-dees amongst us youthful trainspotters locally. A popular spot was on the wall at Islington Yard, just up from Blackburn Station on the Preston side and the Dub-dees were a common sight as they worked coal trains in and out of the large coal yard just a short distance further along the line. In fact we often heard them starting out well before we saw them as they started their journey towards Leeds including the long, hard slog over the Pennines which no doubt contributed to the common problem of a loud clanking of worn coupling rod bearings. They were well-liked by local crews and even substituted on passenger workings for annual holiday excursion trains when Rose Grove shed would turn out anything capable of turning a wheel to handle the traffic! Glory days indeed!

You got thet right< the "bullet appeared in two movies"top secret and melba" i was there 1951/53

As said, underreported. And there's quite a story to be told I think about engines sent out to North Africa and Europe even during the war and used post war before the local rail services recovered.

The 2-10-0s were as you mentioned in a prior video developed into the stellar Class 9F.

If I may make a suggestion, a companion piece on the 2-10-0 Kriegslok would be interesting.

good interesting stuff !!😊

I always knew if a "WD" was coming by the clanking noise they made.

The Soham loco 7337 spent many years at Longmoor.

Nice subject again! But this time some not fully correct information has slid in. The Dutch state railways NS did indeed buy many of the 2-10-0 WDs, but they weren't the only ones. Actually the 2-8-0 was more numerous at a certain stage. 236 of the 2-8-0s got NS numbers 4301 to 4537, though not all were in service at the same moment as some were swapped with locomotives of the Dutch State Mines, a body comparable with the British NBC in need of locomotives which could provide steam heating, a thing the WDs couldn't and strangely enough some of the larger pit locomotives could as they operated workers trains as well.. In 1946 50 of the 2-8-0s were swapped for 2-10-0s, the 2-8-0 being more suited for the UK conditions. In the Netherlands with its wider loading gauge the overhang of the 2-10-0 was no issue. The 2-10-0s got the numbers 5001-5103. The noted preserved locomotive with the fictive BR number 90733 was not directly sold to SJ, it was first sold to NS and had the number NS 4464, and was sold together with 4383 to SJ where 4464 got the number 1931. All other WDs in the Netherlands were withdrawn by 1958 at the end of steam operation on the national network and scrapped besides WD 73755/NS 5085 named 'Longmoor' which was preserved in the National Railway Museum in Utrecht.

Y'know I'm suprised no one has taken steps to get one of the derelict greek examples and parts harvest it to put around a new boiler and frames to make a second 2-8-0 out the remains of a 2-10-0 given the commonality of parts.

Hey A Southern Q 0-6-0 is also Wartime locomotives too

Wait wait- I swear these WD locos once worked in KCR Hong Kong as well. Where did that mention went?

Oil conversion. That is something that one needs to know how it is done correctly. You can't just take a cole burner and run it with oil.

Somewhat Ironic that more 2-10-0's would be preserved than 2-8-0's

What could be a interesting video the nsw standard good engines d50 53 and 55 class on one video

I do like your videos, and hope you do more steam...UNRRA would also be a good topic to cover

Well, this is awkward. The one time I get a video done in advance for next week, you go ahead and post a video not only covering the same subject, but with better footage too

You should do a video on the german war locomotive br52

Where did you get those Longmoor clips at 1:49 ? In all my years of researching the LMR I’ve never come across them, unless I’m misremembering.

Love all that Smoke..fun

Fascinating. A good machine that did the job well. Not really an evident thing to happen in Britain.

"Dubdees" as we spotters call.ed were the mainstay of coal haulage around the now defunct coalfields of North Notts and South Yorkshire. They were particularly prevalent on the L.D & ECR - does anybody have any sources of information and photos of that particular line ?

One word I have a very special loathing for: Austerity. It is in the head. It is not a real thing. It only applies to Britain, ever. Austerity and Recession are two things that are constantly blamed for all sorts of cock ups. It is YOU, not austerity or the so called recession. It never is. Make due or die.

No mention of the ones exported to Hong Kong? 🙃

hi, why didn't the clowns keep one for the Lickey incline , unless Big Bertha was more powerful.

Looks a little bit like the german Kriegslocomotive DRG 52 class

What is the locality of the shot commencing 16:13?

Since now i can ask because im not 50 hours late , is the move into more Uk based rail vehicles a partial byproduct of me listing these railway documentaries in an informal and unofficial fanplaylist?

The audio/ commentary in this sounds a bit off compared to your usual. Not quite sure what it is but it's odd compared to your normal.

What about the Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0 st ?

Are the Q1 Class of war locomotives also on the list? 🙂

More evidence of us giving our stuff away,it’s clearly not a contemporary phenomenon such as us throwing millions of pounds at Ukraine whilst my my has to choose between heating or food. Beautiful train but c’mon British people what was it all for, in 100 years there won’t be a channel such as this because we simply don’t invest in ourselves!

AI voice?

This new AI version of your voice is very distracting

we had the BR 52, still in use in some countries... but we also have high speed train services, so we dont need steam locomotives anymore.... if you reelect the Tories, you will have them back before the decade is over!

Could you cover the class 08 shunters next please?

These remind me of all the locomotives I've seen here in America like the Big Boys and the M3 Yellowstones. While they pulled far heavier loads during World War Two than the late Robin Riddles's warhorses were ever designed to, these locomotives are truly amazing.

Sorry for correcting, it is Jaworzyna Śląska [javɔˈʐɨna ˈɕlɔ̃ska] and Chabówka [xaˈbufka] . I understand this is difficult for a native non-speaking polish, still Your pronunciation is very, very far away from the original.