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Diesels come to Pendon! Form an orderly queue!


Andy Y
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Somehow I doubt that. Pendon is more a "time capsule" firmly set in the 1930s. Trains just happen to run through "The Vale".

 

Of course, they (whoever "they" will be) might in the future build a scene to depict more modern times.

 

I might be wrong, but when Pendon started, they were only modelling a period some 20 years earlier. So a future addition might skip the hydraulic-eraaltogether and focus on what we term the present scene.

I suppose the thing about Pendon is that it isn't (despite the Madder Valley)  a museum of railway modelling or even a model railway, it isn't  a museum of country life and it isn't even a centre for developing modelling techniques as they were the means to the end of creating a truly authentic scene, It has activities related to and contributing to all those themes from modelling workshops to tours and walks in the real Vale of the White Horse but you couldn't define it by any  of them. It is simply Pendon and unique which is what I like about it, why I'm a Friend and why I go there a couple of times a year.

 

Pendon enables you to "visit" a particular area and period that its original creator saw and wanted to preserve, at first in notebooks and photographs but then in very detailed models,  I don't see a reason for Pendon to include whole scenes from other eras  any more than Didcot needs to look beyond the GWR for its themes nor the Shuttleworth Collection to add aircraft designed after the 1940s. 

Old Warden Aerodrome, the home of the Shuttleworth Collection, isn't spoiled by more modern light aircraft flying in, nor Didcot by the modern trains passing a few yards away, so running a few diesels through the Vale well separated from the "proper" trains of its period won't subvert it. 

Edited by Pacific231G
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In a sense I'd describe Pendon as total modelling, in that the scenes add up to a cohesive whole and replicate a location. The disadvantage of that approach for those whose principal interest is the trains themselves (and there is nothing wrong with just wanting to see model trains) is that the trains are actually a small part of a much bigger whole and can almost get lost in the overall impact of the scenes. The advantage is that the impact of those scenes and the recreation of the vale and Dartmoor is phenomenal and quite unlike any other model railway layouts to the point where I really found it didn't matter at all that the trains were almost incidental.

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I think that if Pendon were to be a representation of railway modelling rather than landscape, there would be a room dedicated to box opening with Youtube videos on continuous loop and when you exited the room you filled out a Wishlist  (crossing out the previous Wishlist)    entry would be by staged deposit and your entry ticket would simply be 'for some time in the future' with no guarantee of being able to gain access.

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In a sense I'd describe Pendon as total modelling, in that the scenes add up to a cohesive whole and replicate a location. The disadvantage of that approach for those whose principal interest is the trains themselves (and there is nothing wrong with just wanting to see model trains) is that the trains are actually a small part of a much bigger whole and can almost get lost in the overall impact of the scenes. The advantage is that the impact of those scenes and the recreation of the vale and Dartmoor is phenomenal and quite unlike any other model railway layouts to the point where I really found it didn't matter at all that the trains were almost incidental.

i have to disagree with your suggestion that all the trains are almost identical. The variety of stock, all making up prototypically accurate formations makes each train unique. No out of the box uniform rakes to be seen.
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i have to disagree with your suggestion that all the trains are almost identical. The variety of stock, all making up prototypically accurate formations makes each train unique. No out of the box uniform rakes to be seen.

 

Incidental, not identical.

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I think that if Pendon were to be a representation of railway modelling rather than landscape, there would be a room dedicated to box opening with Youtube videos on continuous loop and when you exited the room you filled out a Wishlist (crossing out the previous Wishlist) entry would be by staged deposit and your entry ticket would simply be 'for some time in the future' with no guarantee of being able to gain access.

Obvs you would eventually be allocated a time, once you'd achieved the challenge of posting on Facebook and RMweb about the unreasonable delays, but then have the time delayed due to "manufacturing issues in China" and when the ticket finally arrives it would be scrunched up and thrown at you by a random courier!

Edited by Clearwater
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And if you want to build a loco you start with

7916%20Wantage%20Road.jpg

 

Ah, a post-war picture of course but very firmly in the Vale (although some might debate that point) as the train is on the Down Main Line at Wantage Road so a fairly appropriate picture for this thread even if the era is a bit out.

Edited by The Stationmaster
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Pendon is like so may other 'attractions' in that, on first sighting, is almost overwhelming in its' content and views. Think of, say, entering Kew Gardens or maybe seeing Snowdonia and area for the first time. Almost too much to take in in one go. However, if you then revisit several times with, perhaps, a particular target to admire or view for quite a long time, then you start to notice the detail and differences.

This is why I find large exhibitions or guided tours of places a challenge and maybe not so exciting these days as I am not good at spending long periods standing and therefore I tend to not spend enough time just 'leaning on the fence', as dear Geoff Brewin used to say, taking enough time at a layout or site to really look into it and appreciate the whole story.

Some layouts of course don't really have a story but may have really excellent prototypical trains on parade and as long as they are run well and not like a race track, then I actually really enjoy that sort of viewing. Here we can mention Peterborough North, Little Bythem, Grantham, Leicester South, A Nod to Brent and then, on a much smaller scale, The Sheep collection, along with a host of other really well thought out projects.

I suppose then that I am suggesting that Pendon needs several visits, probably not too far apart, with a chosen target or two on which to concentrate. This is how I see it anyway.

All the best

Phil

Edited by Mallard60022
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Ah, a post-war picture of course but very firmly in the Vale (although some might debate that point) as the train is on the Down Main Line at Wantage Road so a fairly appropriate picture for this thread even if the era is a bit out.

That must have been a bit of an experience riding in that Cupboard at the front at around 70mph.

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Pendon is like so may other 'attractions' in that, on first sighting, is almost overwhelming in its' content and views. Think of, say, entering Kew Gardens or maybe seeing Snowdonia and area for the first time. Almost too much to take in in one go. However, if you then revisit several times with, perhaps, a particular target to admire or view for quite a long time, then you start to notice the detail and differences.

This is why I find large exhibitions or guided tours of places a challenge and maybe not so exciting these days as I am not good at spending long periods standing and therefore I tend to not spend enough time just 'leaning on the fence', as dear Geoff Brewin used to say, taking enough time at a layout or site to really look into it and appreciate the whole story.

Some layouts of course don't really have a story but may have really excellent prototypical trains on parade and as long as they are run well and not like a race track, then I actually really enjoy that sort of viewing. Here we can mention Peterborough North, Little Bythem, Grantham, Leicester South, A Nod to Brent and then, on a much smaller scale, The Sheep collection, along with a host of other really well thought out.

I suppose then that I am suggesting that Pendon needs several visits, probably not too far apart, with a chosen target or two on which to concentrate. This is how I see it anyway.

All the best

Phil

totally agree. Everytime i visit i find new things to admire. Whether it is rolling stock, new developments in the vale or noticing views or details i hadnt seen before. There is always something to inspire.
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That must have been a bit of an experience riding in that Cupboard at the front at around 70mph.

The people working in the "indicating shelter" would have been rather less comfortable than their colleagues in the dynamometer car behind the loco but I'm not sure how cramped it would have been. That probably depended on the amount of instrumentation in there but it would certainly have been very noisy and I doubt if they had any ear protection in those days. Apart from taking the indicator diagrams (assuming that was actually done in the shelter rather than in the dynamomer car using data sent back to it) does anyone know what was being measured in the shelter? Samples of smoke perhaps.  That would be what they'd have spent most of their time attending to rather than peering out of the portholes though at least one of them can be seen doing just that.  I don't know whether they'd want indicator diagrams covering the entire run or just various parts of it    You can also see a skein of cables running back along the boiler handrail obviously taking various bits of telemetry (though I'm sure the GWR didn't call it that!)  back to the dynamometer car. 

 

There was a thread on all this in 2012 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/56313-indicator-shelters-on-steam-locos/

Edited by Pacific231G
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i called into pendon yesterday as i was a couple of hours early for work, thoroughly enjoyable as usual, i think the exhibition at the entrance was new since i last went, i think it was being set up last time, and it gave a fascinating insight into the history of the museum

 

the vale scene was breathtaking as usual but what was the first train i noticed, an LNER steam loco at the head of a rake of GWR coaches which was explained by a guide as a traction trial swap between regions, it wasn't unnoticed by others too!

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i called into pendon yesterday as i was a couple of hours early for work, thoroughly enjoyable as usual, i think the exhibition at the entrance was new since i last went, i think it was being set up last time, and it gave a fascinating insight into the history of the museum

the vale scene was breathtaking as usual but what was the first train i noticed, an LNER steam loco at the head of a rake of GWR coaches which was explained by a guide as a traction trial swap between regions, it wasn't unnoticed by others too!

it is authentic. Following the Wembley exhibition, the exchange trials between the GWR and LNER took place. Before the trials, 4474, then un-named worked an ordinary passenger train to Swindon. The train consisted of 4 gwr carriages and 2 syphons.
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Wasn't there a daily working off the ex-Great Central line via Oxford to Swindon, using LNER locos? The engine returning north on

a late evening / overnight service.

They changed locomotives en-route, I can't remember where now. A GWR loco did venture further up the GCR in error, until its cylinders came in contact with a platform edge.

Edited by PhilJ W
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231

 

I’d expect them to be measuring smokebox pressure/vacuum, and maybe something to do with valve events, and possibly live and exhaust side pressures? Be interesting to know what transducers they had then; maybe it was all rather mechanical, perhaps driving tiny little actuators and rheostats.

 

Kevin

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it is authentic. Following the Wembley exhibition, the exchange trials between the GWR and LNER took place. Before the trials, 4474, then un-named worked an ordinary passenger train to Swindon. The train consisted of 4 gwr carriages and 2 syphons.

yes, thats pretty much exactly as it was described

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They changed locomotives en-route, I can't remember where now. A GWR loco did venture further up the GCR in error, until its cylinders cam in contact with a platform edge.

On the service from Sheffield the LNER loco worked through to Swindon. The working was photographed many times by Maurice Earley. There is a shot on eBay of an LNER Atlantic in Swindon roundhouse at the moment

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PHOTO-GWR-LOCOS-8300-4934-AND-GREAT-CENTRAL-C4-5263-SWINDON-SHED-4-32/192637155619?hash=item2cda11b923:g:KNEAAOSwODFaUX8R

 

Mike Wiltshire

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