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Kernow GWR steam rail motor


DJM Dave
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Well I am quite delighted by this announcement. The steam railmotor was at the top of my wishlist for a very long time, from long before preservation was complete.

 

I hope Kernow hits a home run / scores a goal / insert your favourite sports analogy here / with this particular product.  I doubly hope that it doesn't get lost in the shuffle with the long list of other items that have been announced.

 

I have duly placed my order for at least one two.

 

Dave good luck with designing the power bogie. getting balance, traction and the motion sorted will be an interesting design challenge. I look forward to seeing your reports of progress as appropriate.

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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  • RMweb Gold

Curious to know, Dave - Was there any hint from Kernow about making a trailer for the railmotor? Is this something we need to be emailing to them and suggesting...? :) I could see these selling just as well.

Edited by 57xx
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Hi Mikkel,

 

Sorry but I truly don't know as I havn't been given a decoration matrix yet.

I'll ask Chris on Tuesday ( to give him a chance to get home and unpack) and report back hee accordingly if that's ok?

Cheers

Dave

 

Do you have any clearer descriptions of the liveries to be applied to each model? I contacted Kernow directly and all I got was a brief reply pointing me back to their website. I would very much like to place a pre-order but unfortunately GWR Chocolate and Cream can mean any of several liveries depending on the date and of the prototype. 

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Do you have any clearer descriptions of the liveries to be applied to each model? I contacted Kernow directly and all I got was a brief reply pointing me back to their website. I would very much like to place a pre-order but unfortunately GWR Chocolate and Cream can mean any of several liveries depending on the date and of the prototype. 

Does this give a clue as to which era of choc and cream?

 

"By the mid 1920s most Railmotors had been converted to auto-trailers to allow longer trains to operate in conjunction with a more powerful steam locomotive"

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Do you have any clearer descriptions of the liveries to be applied to each model? I would very much like to place a pre-order but unfortunately GWR Chocolate and Cream can mean any of several liveries depending on the date and of the prototype.

Great question Matabiau.

 

I would direct you to Mike's comments here:

The Kernow announcement is linked below.  Obviously for them to confirm but linking the numbers shown with the liveries they are wearing in the pictures I suggest the following is likely -

 

K2302 No. 97 - one of the later (simplified) 'chocolate & cream' liveries

 

K2305 No.61 - the illustration is clearly in the original lined chocolate & cream livery as shown by the scrolled insignia.

 

http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/page/79/gwr_steam_railmotor

As Mike says in his original text Kernow is the place to go for confirmation, but Mike's synthesis of the wording in the Kerow site along with the accompanying illustration should give a pretty good indication.

 

My guesswork (which is indeed what it is) would place K2305 in the early 1920s (or possibly 1900s) and K2302 perhaps in the mid-1920s or early 1930s.

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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"By the mid 1920s most Railmotors had been converted to auto-trailers to allow longer trains to operate in conjunction with a more powerful steam locomotive"

Ian, expanded with a quick cut and paste from the wikipedia page:

Most rail motors were converted into driving trailers for push-and-pull trains (sometimes referred to as autocoaches) serving a separate steam locomotive, and the original power units were scrapped. Autotrains offered many of the benefits of rail motors but, because they were operated by separate locomotives, were much more flexible in operation and easier to maintain. The first of the original rail motors was withdrawn in 1914 but sixty-five survived until 1922 and the last was withdrawn in 1935.

Edited by Ozexpatriate
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A bit of research on these tonight has found them to be diagram R under two lots 1140 and 1142.Numbers 84 -90 and 91-99 respectively,.My source was Great Western coaches pages 53 /54 and it also shews the interior layout.No.92 is shewn in photo.

 

Also shewn is the 1927 style of painting.

 

Kernow models no.K2305 number 61 is from an earlier lot 1100 of 1906 under diagram O (61-72)

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Great question Matabiau.

 

I would direct you to Mike's comments here:

As Mike says in his original text Kernow is the place to go for confirmation, but Mike's synthesis of the wording in the Kerow site along with the accompanying illustration should give a pretty good indication.

 

My guesswork (which is indeed what it is) would place K2305 in the early 1920s (or possibly 1900s) and K2302 perhaps in the mid-1920s or early 1930s.

 

Needs to be a bit clearer I think Michael.

 

The prototype illustration which accompanies K2305 is that of a car in the original fully lined 'Chocolate & cream' which was applied between 1903 and 1908.  The all over brown livery was introduced in 1908 but I don't know which month - although the highest (running) numbered cars were outshopped in February that year.  

 

The coach livery changed to lined lake in 1912 and then reverted to a lined 'chocolate & cream' scheme in 1922 which was simplified in 1927 and further modified in 1929.

 

Thus if you assume a particular date of painting you will get a particular livery but what I don't know is the precise differences between the three post 1922 'chocolate & cream' schemes apart from them being progressively simplified and the amount of lining reduced and that K2302 appears to be in one of them while K2305 is clearly in the pre-1908 scheme.

 

I would however again emphasise that exact livery details are still subject to confirmation by Kernow and that might not happen this week  

 

The vehicles are indeed from Diagrams O and R and the running numbers have been carefully selected with advice from the GWS expert on the cars to ensure that they are all similar except in various minor details (which changed over the years); the detail variations for each car are known against the livery in which they are illustrated in the photos and in which - subject to Kernow confirmation - they will be finished.

 

So if you want a definite post-war one it looks like K2302 although vehicles in earlier livery might have managed to survive through the war, especially in the model world but if you are interested in pre-war you've got a choice of three liveries as things stand at present.

 

BTW the drawings in 'Great Western Coaches' are, so I understand, somewhat on the suspect side

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BTW the drawings in 'Great Western Coaches' are, so I understand, somewhat on the suspect side

Rather than refer to Great Western Coaches, I would have thought that the best work of reference for these items would be John Lewis Great Western Steam Rail Motors and their Services (Wild Swan Publications Ltd., 2004).

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Rather than refer to Great Western Coaches, I would have thought that the best work of reference for these items would be John Lewis Great Western Steam Rail Motors and their Services (Wild Swan Publications Ltd., 2004).

 

I agree but that's quite specialist book wise whilst the Russell coach books are more likely to be on a GWR modellers shelf.I think John Lewis is a member on here too.

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Would there be an appropriate DCC sound unit and smoke unit to go with this ?

Not yet, probably, due to lack of demand, but one of the usual suspects will be looking for an early chance to get some sounds in the can in 2015, I bet. It does beg for sound, it's true.

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I see the livery descriptions have been updated on Kernow's website. It is now a lot clearer which one is which. Thank you for all of your inputs.

Thanks - notice folks that the official description of K2305 puts it into a later livery than my previous suggestion.

 

Back as you were - note that K2305 has been amended on the Kernow website and is now confirmed as the original (1903 - 08) fully lined 'chocolate & cream' livery.

 

http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/page/79/gwr

Edited by The Stationmaster
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Thanks to Kernow (and Dave) for clarifying this. A very tempting trio there for the pre-grouping modeller.

 

I knew I would regret selling this:

 

Dsc_9299b.jpg

Edited by Mikkel
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