Most rebuilt/re-engineered class?

[asylumxl]

Was just wondering, reading about the class 57s, which class of loco/unit has been most extensively rebuilt or re-engineered compared to its original construction or configuration?

I was thinking a 57 would ranK pretty highly, but admiatedly am not all that clued up on locomotives rebuilds/conversions.

So, anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Oracle]

Class 30/31?
Class 37?

 

[furryfeet]

bulleid pacifics
rebuilt by jarvis in the late 1950's

ALL the merchant navies were converted.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Are any of the Class 57s ex-class 48s?

 

[sprinterguy]

Are any of the Class 57s ex-class 48s?

Reasonably sure that none are; given that there were only four of them, the odds were always going to be low. That would definitely put them high up the league of conversions.

 

[90019]

Reasonably sure that none are; given that there were only four of them.

Five

47114-47118 IIRC.

 

[sprinterguy]

Five

47114-47118 IIRC.

Darn, one out. Maths fail.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Five

47114-47118 IIRC.

Yes, I just checked and 47117 is the only class 48 extant and it is preserved as D1705 at the GCR.

I guess 43167-43170 have also had Valenta, Mirlees, Valenta again and MTU engines. And many HST PCs have had many different Valenta units in their time, the GC ones seem to have gone through a few of late!

Not to mention 43089, which has been a Valenta, Valenta-electric hybrid, Valenta and VP185.

 

[12CSVT]

I guess 43167-43170 have also had Valenta, Mirlees, Valenta again and MTU engines. And many HST PCs have had many different Valenta units in their time, the GC ones seem to have gone through a few of late!

Not to mention 43089, which has been a Valenta, Valenta-electric hybrid, Valenta and VP185.

43167 has had Valenta, Mirrlees, VP 185 and MTU. As far as I am aware the only HST power car to have 4 type so engine during its existence.

 

[David]

Would a 142 count? New brake system, transmission, engine, and even doors, following a few criticisms and a "minor prang" or 2 ....

 

[E&W Lucas]

Got to be the "England" Engines on the Ffestiniog. Since 1860 something: new boilers, frames, wheels, cylinders, re designed tanks & tenders, cabs added, and I'm someone who knows the individual machines first hand could add an awful lot to that list!

 

[kestrel]

43167 has had Valenta, Mirrlees, VP 185 and MTU. As far as I am aware the only HST power car to have 4 type so engine during its existence.

43167/168/169/170 all had Valenta,Mirrless,VP185 then MTU, 4 engine types

as an aside 47901 had 3 engine types, oringinal Sulzer then the 2 Ruston types (16 cylinder then the 12 cylinder)

 

[moonrakerz]

bulleid pacifics
rebuilt by jarvis in the late 1950's

That is of course Mr R G Jarvis - not the Jarvis of Potters Bar fame.

 

[LE Greys]

I'd go for the LNWR Claughton class. Some of them got "rebuilt" into LMS Patriots, with three cylinders instead of four, new boilers, independent Walschaerts valve gear, new bogies, new cabs and front-end frame replacements. Basically, a new loco. Some got "rebuilt" again with taper boilers, new running gear and bigger cylinders. Again, basically new locos. Not sure if any of them got rebuilt twice, but there wasn't much left anyway.

Incidentally, the Royal Scots had a similar rebuild to the second, producing the odd question as to whether Royal Scot is an imposter. The engine was originally No. 6152 The King's Dragoon Guardsman, but swapped identities when in original parallel-boiler form with No. 6100. They never swapped back, but the massive rebuild that happened to "Royal Scot" effectively produced a new loco anyway. Is she really 6100 or 6152?

 

[rail-britain]

I would have thought the Class 37 would be the "most"
We started off with complete rebuilds during the 1980s to give us the 37/4, 37/5, 37/7, and 37/9
As a result very little was left of the original
We then had the "cheapo" 37/3

 

[LE Greys]

Keeping with my LMS theme, the Stanier Class 5s

• The first seventy had domeless boilers with top-feed
• The next three-hundred-and-seventy-seven had domes combined with the top-feed
• The remaining three-hundred-and-ninety-five had their top-feeds moved forwards on the boiler
• Of those, No 44767 had Stephenson link motion (and survives as George Stephenson)
• Twenty had Caprotti valve gear, ten of those also having roller bearings
• Twenty-eight others had various forms of roller bearings on the driving axles
• Some of these had double chimneys
• Ten more had steel fireboxes
• Finally, two had improved Caprotti valve gear, roller bearings and double chimneys, with extra-big steam pipes that led people to call them "Gorillas"

Since boilers tended to get swapped about between locos, various combinations sometimes occurred. This seems very similar to the situation with the Class 37s, where some of the redesigned versions were experimental (like the 37/9s) and others were long-lasting modifications of type (like the 37/4s if they had been built from new that way).

The BR Standard 5s were so similar that they were almost an update of the same class, so you could add them as yet another version of Stanier's 1934 design. They came in two variants, Walschaerts valve gear and Caprotti valve gear.