Alright US railfans and historians. We need to step our game up.

No doubt. I'm running out of fingers to count the UK new-builds and replicas...

Hmmmm, Interesting concept. I'm starting to visualize 1218 with a big "Washington Redskins" emblem on the A-Tank. Or, since we're down here in the south, doing things Nascar style. After the trip have the engineer, wearing patch-covered bib-overalls, address the passengers. "I'd like to thank everyone for riding the Depends/Viagra/STP/Chevron/Krispy-Kreme Number 611 Steam Excursion".......Just a thought

Where will you run it around in the same circle, over and over, all day long...........NASCAR is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

dave

Here you go... :-)

Hmmmm..... I think you have missed the point- they are not trying to get sportsfans to help sponsor a restoration, they are building a new loco. And being very pro-active instead of waiting for someone else to do it.

Wes

The LNER B17 "Footballers" were a fleet of heavy, powerful, and fast 4-6-0's which had several members of the class named for football teams served by the LNER. An important thing to remember is that back in that era it was common for football support clubs to charter entire trains from one city to another for an "away" match, and thus there was a closer tie between the railways and the sports teams than typical. (Of course, in later years football "hooliganism" became such that some trains were heavily vandalised en route home after a match.)

I should point out that there are many solid and committed proposals to replicating lost British steamers, and that aside from the A1 Tornado Project, none have yet been fully realised after several decades, save for one or two smaller private projects and a replica of a GWR broad gauge steamer.....

Two of the things the English take most seriously are football and heritage railways. Pick your favorite team, the Yankees, Cowboys, Steelers, etc... The supporters in the UK are way more serious than their counterparts here in the US. As for their heritage railways, there are a number of ones there that simply have no counterpart here in the US.

No, Wes,

You missed the point. I was being facetious. As has been discussed many times in this and other forums, it is very unlikely that a large "mainline" replica steam locomotive will ever be produced in this country, especially with there not being near enough work for the restored or easily restored original power already out there.