Miss Prism

Up slips at Reading were dropped off with the train going through, if somewhat sedately, the main up platform road. http://www.gwr.org.uk/slip-coach.html

Nice pics of 9466. The safety valve cover is short in both cases.

Bachmann's 9487 has a short safety valve cover. Bachmann is not doing a tall safety valve cover. I have not seen a tall safety valve cover on a standard 10 boiler, except for Collett Goods 3206. So tall covers did exist on standard 10s, but must have been very rare. I think the valves themselves were all short ones on standard 10s. But yer never know with Swindon boilers...

You'll need some rainstrips on the cab roof.

Or, putting it another way, if a passenger was stepping between a compartment and a platform face, the Hornby footboard would be a deathtrap.

I can't find any bunker-leading yet.

Not quite sure when the loco paint shop closed (even guru Stationmaster doesn't know), but it was early on in Churchward's regime, who wanted to free up more erecting space. I don't suppose it was an overnight change though. It's not mentioned in Alan Peck's Swindon Works book afaik, but I've just ordered a copy (for the princely sum of £1.94 !) to check.

The coloured view of 98 lacks some credibility in my opinion - red splasher sides, red crossheads, red tender axleboxes, green splasher tops. The coloured view of 171 is better, but the splasher sides are red. (But where do those clerestory roofs come from!!!!??) Both are quickie postcard views and are not as reliable as the pic in Stationmaster Mike's earlier post. That said, given that we now know 179 did have red frames, it seems logical the rest of the Scotts (February to December 1905) had the same or similar treatment. The key phrase in Holcroft's memoir of the change from red to black

I was surprised how few late crests featured in that collection. I guess many locos really didn't notch up significant mileage to warrant major works visits, and possibly ended their days with their early crests.

No trick. Sometimes it's a right pain, but it's always good practice to check the BB of any wheelset, and adjust if necessary. Twist and move, twist and move...

Yes.

GWR fans have never needed to worry too much about different roof profiles:

I hope I am not giving that impression, and it certainly is not my intention. What the 189 picture demonstrates in my view is: - a validation of Stationmaster Mike's pic of No 40 earlier in this thread (i.e. it wasn't a flight of fancy in the colourists mind, or the colourist applying wrong information) - a repudiation of Lee Marsh's assertion that the outside face of inside-framed locos for 1900-1906 was black Where all this gets to is I think a confirmation that painting practices were changing rapidly at Swindon during the 1903-1905 era, and

Thanks everyone. I was previously unaware the DCIII exemption was carried within the 1911 rules. I think I have managed to update gwr.org's wagon brakes page accordingly, trying to keep it as concise as possible.

Excellent. Never seen that before. (Actually, I probably have, in the DN&S book, but have forgotten about it!)