The original W1 was a remarkable experimental steam loco, like nothing else before it - and so is the new Hornby OO Gauge model. Both of these have both just been freshly outshopped from the weathering studio for ‪@BlufferstoBuffers‬ .

The real loco and the models were extremely brave and ambitious projects that resulted in a massive and unique machine in both 1:1 and 1:76 scales respectively. The marine style boiler was completely different in form and function to any other that had been fitted to a UK steam locomotive and was constructed by a Ship Building company - Yarrow & Co.

The original locomotive was completed in 1929 and had water tubes (instead of fire tubes surrounded by water), an extremely high pressure of 450psi (at the time the highest was 180psi fitted to the Gresley A1's) and had "steam drums" connected via vertical water tubes (all conventional locomotive boilers had longitudinal fire tubes surrounded by water). Thus, the boiler was a completely different shape to what had been seen before, or since, and along with its unique streamlining and smoke deflectors, is what gave the loco its distinctive appearance.

BUT WHAT DID THE REAL ONE SOUND LIKE?

Well, I don't know for sure, and I'm not aware of any sound recordings of it. So in this video I've had to improvise.

What recordings are out there that would best suit the original "Hush Hush"? PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!

Again, unique for the LNER who preferred 3 cylinders and Gresley's conjugated valve gear, the W1 had 4 compound cylinders and Walschaerts valve gear. This would ensure a completely different sound to any other LNER locomotive. It also had a single chimney which would likely have given the exhaust a crisp "bark".

I've therefore opted to use recordings I have of a hard working and similarly sized Stanier Princess which ticks several of these boxes, and combined them with other recordings of LNER whistles to give the edit more of a Gresley feel.

Let me know what you think! I suspect I'll need to look further afield - perhaps a Chapelon compound would better fit the bill? I must confess my knowledge of non - UK railways is very limited, so any help finding suitable audio recordings for future videos would be most welcome!

The rebuilt W1 "Hush Hush" is far more straightforward. At least I think so! I don't have any sound recordings of it in my collection, but for all intents and purposes, the front end that generates the various sounds was very similar to that of a Gresley A4. The double Kylchap blast pipe and chimney, 3 cylinder conjugated valve gear and familiar chime whistle are characteristic of both types.

The original W1 was of limited success. Its performance was pretty good, but it had much time out of traffic compared to conventional locos due to unreliability. When in works for repair, the opportunity was consistently taken to incorporate various modifications to improve steaming capacity and reliability. Sadly these were not enough to prevent the end of the line for the water tube boilered engine, but, it was rebuilt into a more conventional locomotive.

When No. 10000 emerged from Doncaster in November 1937, the new design had three cylinders, a fire tube boiler boiler pressure of 250psi, and A4-style streamlining with a double Kylchap chimney and blast pipe. I seem to remember reading that in BR days, the rebuilt W1 had the best mileage record (time in traffic between works visits) compared to any of the Gresley, Thompson or Peppercorn pacifics. If true that is remarkable considering it was still a one off! However, its uniqueness paved the way for its inevitable early withdrawl from service which was in 1959.

A twist of fate was that the original W1 water tube boiler was retained at Darlington and used for pressure testing and space heating. In this repurposed function it lasted in use until 1965 - a full 5 years longer than the rebuilt one!