UK Screenshots for Pre BR Blue. High resolution warning.

[KotangaGirl]

#3600. Excellent screenshots Frank. I particularly like the first one.

[lewisner]

Great shot Lewsiner. More has gone on at Cox Green than merely allowing trees and weeds to grow, since the footpath and bridleway seem to be significantly narrower now than in 1961. Some encroachment or sale of land seems to have gone on. At best a single line might fit on the alignment now, which is the situation further east where the Metro line terminates. There is a rather faint possibility that the Metro may yet be extended to Washington, though the realisation of a loop by extension through to Pelaw may be a total flight of fantasy. That would clash with the concept of relaying the Leamside route, which currently is only slightly behind the Metro extension to Washington in the maybe possibility stakes.
My NW Durham route does not extend to the Fencehouses - Philadelphia district but it does include Harraton Colliery between South Pelaw junction and Washington. Here, somehow Class A7 4-6-2T of Hull Dairycoates shed has found itself bringing empties to Harraton NCB Colliery. It was at Darlington works for 4 days in early 1954 for an unclassified repair, so may be accumulating mileage with Darlington shed post-repair and has been "borrowed" by the Tyne Dock shed foreman after bringing in a freight from Darlington overnight. It does not need to head back to Darlington for several hours and can fit in a trip to Harraton. There had better not be a derailment (the NCB PW gang are at work on site - note the tool van) or else there will be a very unwelcome phone call required to be made to Darlington shed.

Thanks and as always your shots are a standard I can only dream of ! I very much doubt that the Leamside will be reopened or the Metro extended from Hylton although when they built the Hylton Metro station they did so in a way which would allow it to be extended. However when the A19 was built crossing the line in 1970 the bridge was only wide enough for single track and with a concrete slab foundation making it more or less impossible to reopen the line without a rebuild of the bridge. In 1962 British Rail replaced all the wooden signals on the line with tubular steel posts and steel brackets; when it closed in 1967 they were cut down with oxy acetylene torches. Here's the Q6 returning empty past Hylton.

Q6 Hylton Station 23.2.2021 by A1 Northeastern, on Flickr

[KotangaGirl]

More Minehead WIP.

[KotangaGirl]

I asked Paul if he would number one of his 45xx small Prairies as no 4545 which was a Penzance engine during the BR era. These 45xx's are really old models though and I had IM Editor running hot fixing all the faults that SP3 didn't like. I had to redo a normal map and fix some other texture bits and bobs as well, but at the end of it all I now have a really useful engine.
A quick look over the 45xx page at The Great Western Archive http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/262_4500det.htm showed me that 45xx's were no strangers to Penzance and Truro so I'll no doubt be introducing some more to this route as I continue to get rid of its incorrectly assigned engines and rolling stock.
It's interesting though to see that more than a few 45xx's were withdrawn at about the same time as the the first of the new 2MT 'Mickey Mouse' Moguls were being introduced.





Last week I purchased a couple of Gary Price's 51xx large Prairies for research purposes. There's large Prairies all over this route, but in actual fact they were a rarish bird with Truro having a couple of them at odd times, but no more than that.

[evilcrow]

Re post #3604 KotangaGirl

Well done with the IM Editor Annie, it's good to see old locos being given a new lease of life (I'ts a pity the loco lamps are a permanate fixture on GP locos).

LBSCR WIP TANE



Cheers. Ken

[Tanker46]

I'm really liking your Cornish Route Annie! Question though - if the 5100 tanks didn't work the locals in Truro then what class of engine did? i'm going through my GWR books and I can't seem to find it.


Finally a new screenshot from me!

In 1923 the Southern Railway received permission to reopen the Bucklenor Branch that ran from Bucklenor all the way to the mainline connections at Casterford in the south. Although the GWR and LMS maintained control of the general suburban traffic in the region the Southern was permitted control of the boat trains and goods contracts on the branch.

In order to satisfy the need for motive power on the branch, the Southern began experimenting with different passenger tanks from their three constituent companies to find a general locomotive class that would be sufficient for the task.

LBSCR I1 Class 4-4-2s were a Atlantic Tank designed by D.E Marsh as part of his new LBSCR program out of Brighton. The class could reach incredible acceleration speeds but suffered from poor draughting issues thanks to the undersized boiler.

Surprisingly however, the Marsh Atlantic Tanks worked excellently as their introduction to Dearnby granted them access to the Welsh Coal that St. Bennet had to offer. The locomotives became very popular with crews due to their rapid acceleration and reduced turbulence.

Engine No.600 is on an afternoon commute today and she it shining with new paintwork to christen its new career in Dearnby.

As Ex-Midland 1P 1361 pulls in so the ferry passengers can meet 600 at Bucklenor. The guard blows his whistle and 600 stars its journey to meet its connection at Casterford.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[2995Valliant]

There were quite a few (usually about 12) 4500/4575 prairies based at Truro. Branch line speeds were relatively low so they didn't need anything with bigger wheels so the small priaires were the default motive power for just about every GWR branch in the south west and Wales where the traffic was too heavy for autotanks. That said, Cornwall didn't seem to use the 0-4-2s anywhere.

Oddly the Minehead branch, whihc was much longer and had higher line speeds tan many branches saw panniers used quite extensively alongside both small and large prairies, so a lot of it may have been down to local preference.

[tailight98]

According to the Loco shed book as at April 1957 83G Penzance had the following small Prairie tanks allocated. 4505,4545,4547/8,4563,4566,4570. 83F Truro had 4508,4554,4561,4574,4587/8,

[borderreiver]

Hello Valiant. In the current issue of Steam Days magazine page 126 has two shots, one of 1400 Class 0-4-2T No. 1421 waiting with the autotrain for Fowey on Monday August 18 1958 and the other of No. 1419 waiting to depart Fowey for Lostwithiel on Wednesday august 20th 1958. The caption on the latter states that BR continued the GWR service of seven trains a day, with the Fowey branch being the last branch being worked by autotrains in Cornwall. The inference there is that there was at least one other branch in Cornwall where they were used.

[KotangaGirl]

According to the Loco shed book as at April 1957 83G Penzance had the following small Prairie tanks allocated. 4505,4545,4547/8,4563,4566,4570. 83F Truro had 4508,4554,4561,4574,4587/8,

With Truro the MPD is in the right place even if it's too small not correct for any era. At Penzance this is missing entirely.........



.......... so the problem with me finding where to put six or so 45xx's would be a worry. (I seriously need to get a Loco Shed book)

Re post #3604 KotangaGirl

Well done with the IM Editor Annie, it's good to see old locos being given a new lease of life (I'ts a pity the loco lamps are a permanate fixture on GP locos).

I like running older legacy engines Ken. It's more than likely because I used to work in coarse scale 'O' when I was still able to do real world railway modelling.

I'm really liking your Cornish Route Annie! Question though - if the 5100 tanks didn't work the locals in Truro then what class of engine did? i'm going through my GWR books and I can't seem to find it.

Thanks Tanker. I would say the answer to that would be the 45xx's.

There were quite a few (usually about 12) 4500/4575 prairies based at Truro. Branch line speeds were relatively low so they didn't need anything with bigger wheels so the small priaires were the default motive power for just about every GWR branch in the south west and Wales where the traffic was too heavy for autotanks. That said, Cornwall didn't seem to use the 0-4-2s anywhere.

Oddly the Minehead branch, whihc was much longer and had higher line speeds tan many branches saw panniers used quite extensively alongside both small and large prairies, so a lot of it may have been down to local preference.

My interest with Minehead is the last two decades or so of the 19th century so no Prairies just '850' class saddle tanks or ex-B&ER BG 4-4-0 saddle tanks at the moment. Things didn't really change much along the branch until after WW1 and then a lot more houses started springing up, but that's well outside my area of interest.

With my own 1880s Cornwall Railway project stalled at the moment I am really reluctant to start doing any rebuilding work on Robert3a0's Cornish Mainline & Branches. I thought it would be likely 45xx's would be shedded at Truro since they would be really useful on that section. I would have thought 14xx's would be too small to be useful in Cornwall so the article Frank mentions in 'Steam Days' comes as a surprise.

[tailight98]

83G Penzance shed also had sun sheds under its jurisdiction at Helston & St Ives so iunlikely all the allocation of 45xx tanks at Penznce at the same time.

[KotangaGirl]

83G Penzance shed also had sun sheds under its jurisdiction at Helston & St Ives so iunlikely all the allocation of 45xx tanks at Penznce at the same time.

Yes that's right. I forgot to mention those.

[Paulsw2]

It's that large Prairie and that train of vans again.

That train of vans appears to include a number of my reskins Annie, so I'm delighted to see it again (and again!)

Paul

[KotangaGirl]

That train of vans appears to include a number of my reskins Annie, so I'm delighted to see it again (and again!)

Paul

It's certainly an interesting and very nice collection of vans Paul that are just the job for the 1950s BR era. With me testing various engines at the moment the vans have been whisked off up the hill to Cambourne so often they most probably don't know whether they're coming or going.

[borderreiver]

According to the BR Database:
No. 1419 was a St Blazey loco between December 1949 and April 1961
No. 1468 at St Blazey from December 1960 to August 1961.
No. 1421 was a Laira loco between June 1958 and July 1960 - on loan to St Blazey for the summer of 1958?

Other Laira 14XX were:
No. 1408 from May 1955 to March 1958.
No. 1434 from May 1955 to July 1962.

With 1421 being caught at Lostwithiel in August 1958 while officially a Laira engine I have to consider that Laira 14XX were at least occasionally sent to work in Cornwall while remaining on Laira's books.
I am now curious about Steam Days referring to the Lostwithiel - Fowey autotrains as ultimately being the last branch in Cornwall to have them, since I have so far only identified five 14XX at least as far west as Laira and three of them were at Laira.