Railways of the UK

Episode 1: Trials of the Olympic's

William Stannier rose to become the CME of the LMS in 1932, however prior to this he had designed a class of engine he had desired to have tested for express trains and heavy goods alike. As the GWR didn't need his design he was given permission to pitch his design to the LNWR works in Crewe, and in early 1908 he presented the design to the LNWR chairman Lord Richard Grosvenor who approved the design be built. In March 1909 the engine was complete.

He was the first in a new fleet of engine, the London North Western Olympic class.

August 13th 1909:
Carlisle engine sheds:
An LNWR Precursor class, an LNWR 1400 class, an LNWR Watford class tank engine and a Midland railway 1000 class were resting in the shed when a blue engine puffed in slowly.
"Hello there." The blue engine said.
"Hello, who are you?" The Precursor asked.

"My name's John." The engine said.
"Are you a new build, I've never seen an engine like you before?" The Midland engine asked curiously.
"Indeed I am, just came out the works last week, I'm supposed to be doing a trail express train from are to Euston tomorrow." John said.
"Might I ask your names?" John asked the engines.

"Certainly, I'm Eve." The Precursor said.
"My name's Noah." The 1400 class said.
"I'm Irene." The Watford tank engine said.
"And I'm Sarah." The Midland engine said.

"Aren't you a Midland railway engine?" John asked curiously.
"Yep, but I run express trains from here to St Pancras in London." Sarah explained.
"Are you excited for your run tomorrow John?" Eve asked.
"Indeed, though admittedly I am a bit nervous." John said.
"Don't worry about that lad, you'll be fine, just be confident in yourself." Irene said.
"That's good advice, thanks a lot Irene." John said.

"If you'll excuse me, I need to assemble the next goods train." Irene said before heading out to the station.
"Wow, she's nice." John said.
"She's a good engine Irene is, she's the most experienced of all of us, trust me, her advice is definitely worth listening to." Sarah said.
"I'll take note of that." John smiled.

The Next day:
John was at carsile ready to head out on his test train to Euston.
The guard blew his whistle and John steamed out of the station.
John puffed along the mainline making excellent steam, he couldn't help but smile, he was greatly enjoying himself.

"You're beginning to lose speed John." His driver said.
"Odd, I feel fine so far." John said confused.
"How's the fire looking?" The driver asked the fireman.
"Fine so far, I'll add some coal and see if that helps." The fireman said.

John continued on but he was beginning to notice something was wrong.
"I'm starting to feel tired, how's the pressure looking?" John asked his crew.
"Still dropping, this doesn't look good." John's driver said.
"That's not good." John panted.
"We're doing about 50 now, but I don't think I can keep it up." He added.

Soon John had slowed a lot.
"You're slowing down John." His driver said.
"I can't do anymore." John panted tiredly.
"Alright we'll bring you to a stop." John's driver said.
John continued on for a little while before evantually coming to a stop near Crewe.
"Oh no." John sighed sadly.

Eve soon arrived.
"John, what happened?" She asked worriedly.
"Oh, hi Eve, it turns out this run was never meant to be a success." John said sadly.
"What do you mean?" Eve asked.
"Well, I ran flat out, which I don't think should happen when I'm an express locomotive." John said.
"Indeed, that's a bad sign." Eve said sadly.

Eve shunted John into the works, meanwhile Stannier and Grosvenor were talking.
"What happened?" Grosvenor asked.
"Good power, but it didn't last, records show no' 2052's steam pressure dropped dramatically due to a fault with his system when running at high speed, evantually leading to him stalling and stopping on the line, his drivers also seem slightly too small as they're based on some of the smaller express engines, which means his efficiency is rather mixed at best, not to mention a rather high fuel consumption as he seemed to burn a lot of coal throughout the run." Stannier said.
"I see." Grovsner nodded.
"I'm sorry Stannier." John said.
"Don't be John, it's my fault, I should have done my calculations more carefully, we'll see if we can fix it." Stannier said.
"Thank you." John said sadly.