what year was the duke of gloucester locomotive first built?

Answer 1

1954

Answer 2

When 'The Duke' was first built in 1954, Tom Daniels, Chief Design Engineer for Associated Locomotive Equipment Ltd offered British Railways the choice of two exhaust cam profiles, giving different release events. After deliberation they opted for the profile giving an earlier release event. Had 'The Duke' been more of a sucess in BR days the exhaust cams with profiles giving a later release event might have been substituted. Now such cams have been made and fitted to all three camshafts of 'The Duke'. They will keep the exhaust valves closed for a longer period in the cycle, giving even greater cylinder efficiency than before.

Answer 3

1954

The fifty years between the date newly built 71000 Duke of Gloucester first emerged from Crewe works to August 2004 when it left the same works fully restored, marks a unique chapter in the history of British steam locomotive development. A story surrounded by myth and speculation throughout its brief period of mainline service until withdrawal from British Railways in 1962. In preservation, the story of 71000 Duke of Gloucester is one of truly heroic achievement against the odds to produce a machine answering many of the questions posed regarding its original design and, above all, performance.
71000’s claim to uniqueness comes from not only being the sole Class 8 Pacific locomotive designed and built by British Railways, but also, from designer R.A. Riddles choosing to equip the locomotive with Caprotti valve gear. This feature alone sets the “Duke” on a different platform to that of other preserved Pacific locomotives found in the UK. Also, whilst the “Duke” shares many features common to the Class 7 “Britannias” and other BR “Standard” designs, 71000 is considerably more than just an enlarged “Britannia”.

The request from Riddles to design and build a Class 8 locomotive came after the tragic Harrow train crash in1952 where LMR Pacific Princess Anne was destroyed. Replacement, 71000, emerged from Crewe works in 1954 to take its place alongside “Stanier” Pacifics working heavy express trains between Euston and Scotland. Allocated to Crewe North (5A) motive power depot, and frequently rostered for the “Mid-Day Scot”, 71000 was expected to accelerate 500 ton trains over the demanding gradients of Shap and Grayrigg. Day to day performances and those produced during locomotive trials were mixed. It is claimed that, stories abound of engine crews preferring their established Duchess Pacifics to the new and comparatively novel “Caprotti” Duke. However it should also be noted that, to this day, enginemen can be found who encountered little by way of the struggles that went into forming the Duke’s reputation in BR days. A more balanced insight comes from E.S. Cox’s 1966 work “British Railways Standard Steam Locomotives”, which highlighted 71000’s problem with steam production: “with this one feature rectified, this engine could have been a world beater”.

Answer 4

Duke of Gloucester, built in 1954 as the forerunner of a 'new generation' of three cylinder 'Pacifics' but discarded in 1962 as an erractic misfit, had proved 28 years on, to be every bit the high performance, pedigree machine that designer Robert Riddles had always intended.

True, one swallow doesn't make a summer, and one should be cautious about drawing too much from a single load trial on a test circuit of just 90 miles - but the pointers were all there. On this, the first opportunity to 'open out' the 8P on a long cut-off since it returned to steam four years ago, the engine displayed a greed for hard work, more power in reserve and a steaming capability the makes a mockery of the old, tainted image of 71000.

Reproduced by kind permission of Steam Railway Magazine

Above: What a magnificent spectacle! The immaculately turned-out 'Duke', with no fewer than 507 tons hung behind the tender roars out of Derby on its test run on 14th March 1990.


May 1991
'The Duke' was the chosen locomotive for the inaugural train of The Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust, which ran on 28th May 1991. There was a ceremony on the platform of Settle station prior to the departure of the train.

Top Left: At Garsdale the Right Reverend Ian Harland, Bishop of Carlisle waves from the driver's seat, which he is occupying while the driver has a cup of tea.

Top Right: Also at Garsdale are shown (from left to right): Lord Inglewood, Heritage Minister, Dennis Vernon, Chairman of the Trust, and Stan Abbot, author of the book - "To Kill a Railway" (about the Settle and Carlisle).


December 1991
The Oxford Mail


April 1992
'The Duke' was the Guest of Honour at the opening of the new Great Hall at The National Railway Museum. It revisited the Museum in 1993 and was on display there for four months, interspersed with main line railtours.

Top Left: 'The Duke' is shown on the turntable in The Great Hall.

Top Right: 'The Duke' is lined up with two other prototypes - that of the High Speed Train (Intercity 125) and the "Deltic"


Granada Telethon 1992
The Great Engine Pulling Competition


The BBC Children In Need Specials
'The Duke' is seen waiting to take the special of 2nd November 1995 from Liverpool Lime Street to Wembley.

Photographs by Keith Jackson


November 1992
The Great Central Railway Share Issue Ceremony at Marylebone


November 1995
There is a well known painting "Duke on Camden Bank" which portrays the engine hauling a train in the 50's outside Euston. No-one would have dreamed, in 1980, when the painting was done, that such a scene would ever be seen again, nor that it would be re-enacted in spectacular fashion with a sprint up Camden Bank faster than anything achieved before.

Above: 'The Duke' awaits departure from Euston Station - The first steam locomotive to do so for 30 years.

Photograph by John Beesley.


Conquering Hero
A moment in history is captured as the unique three-cylinder BR '8P' 4-6-2 No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester, rebuilt from a Barry Wreck, passes Tebay in the wind and rain of Monday October 2nd at the start of one of the most stirring steam-powered ascents of of Shap ever recorded. The 'Duke' was the undoubted hero of the Days Out organised 'Shap Trials' which took place over the three days of September 30th, October 2 and 3. Had it not been for the terrible Harrow & Wealdstone railway disaster of 1952, Duke of Gloucester might never have been built. It was constructed to replace another unique 'Pacific' - the 'Princess Royal/Duchess' hybrid No. 46202 Princess Anne, itself a rebuild of Stanier's unique 'Turbomotive' which was destroyed in the accident.

Reproduced by kind permission of Roy Avis & Steam Railway Magazine


August 1996
Once Crewe's most ignominious failure. Now its great pride.

Crewe Men Coax A Royal Performance From "Duke"
The Adtranz Newsletter - Summer 1996
'The Duke' of Gloucester has been written into the history book as the most powerful steam locomotive on British tracks - with two Crewe men on the footplate. The 'Duke' had a resounding victory over Stannier's 'Duchess of Hamilton' and Erescey's 'Sir Nigel Greasley' in the Shap Performance Trials on the West Coast Mainline. And proudly on the footplate were Crewe-based driver and fireman Ray Hatton and Pete Dykes.

Keith Collier from Crewe's Erecting Shop plays a major role in the maintenance of the 'Duke'. Crewe works other entrant in the trials 46229 Duchess of Hamilton came a creditable second place. The trials recreated the atmosphere of the 'Great Races to the North' of 50 years ago and were organised to test the designs of three great railway engineers - Greasley, Stannier and Riddles.

A rigorous course covered three peaks - Grey Rigg, Shap and Aysgill on the Settle-Carlisle Line. Each engine had to pull an identical load weighing in at 430 tons and the speed allowed at given mileposts at the start of each climb was 60 mph. On the notorious Shap Fell (1 in 75) the 'Duke' hit the milepost at 60mph and achieved a speed of 51 mph at the summit. The weather was appalling but the performance of the locomotive was stunning with both ascents breaking records for steam power with these loads.

During the run the firebox temperature reached over 3,000 degrees fahrenheit with steam temperature at 760 degrees fahrenheit, burning coal at a rate of 65 lbs per mile. The winning of the Shap Trials represents a highlight to a record year in 1995 when the 'Duke' went over white ball Summit in the West Country in a performance never matched by steam or diesel before.

After the trials the 'Duke' steamed back to East Lancashire Railway in Bury where it is stabled in Ian Riley Engineering Ltd's workshops.
http://www.dukeofgloucester.co.uk/index.php?page=gallery2

Answer 5

It was first built in 1954