Andre Chapelon CME of the LMS

WI Sir Josiah Stamp had thought even further out of the box in 1931 and instead of bringing in William Stanier from the GWR instead had asked Andre Chapelon, then at the Chemin de Fer de Paris a Orleans to bring order to the LMS?

Chapelon had already revolutionised the performance of the de Glehn compounds and as a proponent of compounding would probably have had an easier start with the old Midland faction. Is this feasible and given the full backing of Stamp what sort of engines would he have designed for the LMS?
 
WI Sir Josiah Stamp had thought even further out of the box in 1931 and instead of bringing in William Stanier from the GWR instead had asked Andre Chapelon, then at the Chemin de Fer de Paris a Orleans to bring order to the LMS?

Chapelon had already revolutionised the performance of the de Glehn compounds and as a proponent of compounding would probably have had an easier start with the old Midland faction. Is this feasible and given the full backing of Stamp what sort of engines would he have designed for the LMS?

4 cylinder 4-8-4s with automatic stokers to absolutely flatten Shap and Beattock with the heaviest trains available? :)
 
The first rebuilds

Chapelon would start with something with which he would be somewhat familiar. So his first project would probably be the LMS 4P Compounds.
Streamline the steam passages, outside valve gear (probably Walschaerts but just possibly Stephenson as they already had inside Stephenson gear), Kylchap chimney (if he worked for them would the LMS have to pay for these?) and long lap valves. This could well produce something on a par with the early black fives.

Next task rejuvenate the Royal Scots. So streamline the passages,Kylchap chimney, improved firebox, much bigger bearing surfaces and again long lap valves. Produces something as powerful as the GWR Kings. New boilers would be required in the not too distant future but that design would probably be tested on a rebuild of the Fury together with compounding.
Would he bother with rebuilding any Claughtons that were left? The Patriots (the "rebuilt" Claughtons) would almost certainly get the Royal Scot treatment.

I can't see him wanting to bother with a Pacific but Stamp would have an eye on the PR value of a Pacific to counter the Gresley Pacifics. So dust off the plans for the Fowler Compound Pacific and thoroughly "chapelonise" it. Get something at least as powerful as the last 2 OTL Duchesses as built by HG Ivatt.

Any other thoughts?
 
I can't see him wanting to bother with a Pacific but Stamp would have an eye on the PR value of a Pacific to counter the Gresley Pacifics. So dust off the plans for the Fowler Compound Pacific and thoroughly "chapelonise" it. Get something at least as powerful as the last 2 OTL Duchesses as built by HG Ivatt.

Any other thoughts?

Obviously, he has to work within the loading gauge which will be tough. But there was a 2-8-2 Freight Compound set of drawings by Fowler which went alongside the Compound Pacific. Those might come into play rather than the 8F, I wonder what he would have produced instead of a Black 5 or the 4MT 2-6-4T's, he didn't really do "small".
 
Obviously, he has to work within the loading gauge which will be tough. But there was a 2-8-2 Freight Compound set of drawings by Fowler which went alongside the Compound Pacific. Those might come into play rather than the 8F, I wonder what he would have produced instead of a Black 5 or the 4MT 2-6-4T's, he didn't really do "small".

It probably would be the compound 2-8-2 instead of the 8F (modifications as per pacific). He doesn't need to produce a 4MT 2-6-4T. By immense luck(?) there wasn't much wrong with the Fowler 2-6-4T (How did it avoid being the dog that the 2-6-2T was?). All Stanier did was modify the design to take tapered boilers (after playing with a 3 cylinder version for the London and Tilbury services) and then Fairburn shortened the wheelbase to produce the end result (all the standard 2-6-4T was was a Fairburn version dressed in standard "clothes").
If he successfully modernised the 4P compounds would there be such a pressing need for Black Fives as there was OTL?

EDIT: The thought occurred that the compound 2-8-2 as improved by Chapelon might be too powerful as per Gresley P1 (which could pull anything but if it was to be used efficiently needed trains longer than those with which the avoiding lines could cope). Then I remembered that George Hughes had designed a 2-10-0 which pushed the loading gauge to the limit for the Lancashire and Yorkshire (not built because of the war), perhaps the West Coast lines could cope with a freight engine that powerful.
 
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Here are line drawings of both Fowler's proposed compound pacific and the freight 2-8-2. Both are taken from E.S.Cox's 1946 paper on LMS Locomotive Development 1923 to 1932.

View attachment Fowler Pacific.pdf

This paper also has some other interesting LMS WI such as the Hughes 2-10-0 mentioned in a previous post and a proposed 4-6-0 Compound.
 
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