Hi Mark.

I'm going to apply LMS decals and then dirty it

a bit. Given that the 2-4-0 was built as a passenger/ express engine

and as far as I can tell rarely if ever pulled freight, I need the excuse

of a forgotten bywater in the1930s. Maybe someone could prove

me wrong with a photo!

Hi Mikkel.

Well I've not been busting a gut over that time, it's largely down to the ease and speed of modelling with plastic kits as opposed to soldered brass...

Johnson engines were really very aesthetically pleasing designs, the 179,800 and 156 class of express 2-4-0s being one of the finest in my opinion.

I'm not sure that even GWR locos have that natural balance of features, but the again I'm biased!

I think what made Midland design special was Johnson's rebuilding of Matthew Kirtley's work. And then of course there is the livery ...

Funnilly enough I didn't want this particular engine in Lake.

I may reluctantly have to agree with you :-)

Steady on, Mikkel! I entirely agree that many of Johnson's engines have a simple elegance rarely matched by others and that Kirtley produced some uniquely odd looking engines, but have you already forgotten the wonderfully evolutionary sequence of Gooch, Armstrong and Dean locos that gave the 19th century GWR it's character? Of course, it all went wrong under Churchward with those funny tapered boilers and Belgian fireboxes...

Nick

Chaps, I didnt this thread to descend into disputes over

form and style!

I am fond of some early western locos - Dean goods, Panniers , City class

for instance and no doubt if Id grown up in

The West I would likely prefer the green, chock and cream...

Did another railway co./designer have one of their locos

Entered into an exhibition as a design classic though, ref

Johnson Spinner at Paris Exhibition?

Chaps, I didnt this thread to descend into disputes over form and style!

Sorry, Chris, just trying to keep Mikkel on the straight and narrow (or perhaps broad)