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The Stationmaster Goes Train Spotting Part 1


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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Mike,

 

Fantastic shots...   What is the vehicle behind D7076?

 

Bill

Not really my area of expertise alas Bill but it has a distinctly LNER (or part thereof) air about it to me.

 

Incidentally as far as the 'chosen' 'Castles' were concerned the best ones were the ones that worked the train although as indicated above 4079 was a substitute - although it always had a good reputation with enginemen from what I have ever heard.  I believe very good things were expected of 5054 but for some reason it simply didn't go as hoped, equally pat Whitehouse always held the view that 7029 was well capable of high speed running.

 

Incidentally I have long understood - from Don Green who was the Mechanical Foreman there - that certain 'Castles' gravitated to Worcester in later days because they were well thought and reckoned to have enough mileage left in them to see out steam working on the Londons.  Don certainly did a lot with very little to keep them in as good a running order as he could.

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  • RMweb Gold

My God - reading this thread and I've started to become interested in GW steam engines.....................

 

I have long trod the path of seeking converts to our cause - it is nice to hear of the occasional success :sungum: 

 

BTW I hope to do a bit more scanning today if domestic duties allow - and I have a feeling it will not be a wholly Western feast which results.  I also have quite a few 'infrastructure' photos - mainly of signals although some more general views and these are, from this tranche, largely Western although there are occasional interlopers.  These can also be scanned assuming there is any interest in seeing signals that were demolished nearly 50 years ago?

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May 9 1964 Castle Special

 

7032 Denbigh Castle was the other engine sent to St Philip's Marsh in the week prior to the trip.

 

Here she is inside the roundhouse on May 6 next to 6908 Downham Hall, which survived for a year longer !

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/5499433791/

 

It had been hoped to achieve 100 mph - would double chimney 7032 have been more likely to achieve that ?

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  • RMweb Gold

This is getting near to the end of WR steam subjects although there are still a few to delve out.  We start off on 28 July 1963 visting first 81E Didcot, at that time increasingly becoming a spot for engines in store and almost invariably waiting condemnation but of course also some in steam - which which we will start our look around -

 

1630 - still with early emblem

 

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2261

 

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2852 (which has appeared previously elsewhere on RMweb)

 

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6868

 

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Now to those in store, starting with 1007 - shame it wasn't left there, it would have saved the GWS a bit of work ;)

 

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And 1018 would have been useful for spares

 

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1445

 

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5025 - still with at least one nameplate and numberplate in place

 

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And finally 5746

 

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And then on to 81F, Oxford

 

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5987

 

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4105

 

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74054 In store

 

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And for a touch of colour 7029 at Bristol TM on the WR's 'Farewell to Steam' special in 1965 with Insp Jack Hancock leaning over the cab side sheet (by strange coincidence the boiler suit I am wearing in my avatar came from Jack - a spare one he didn't want any more!)

 

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Now to pastures different and first of all 46235 in the gloom of the old Euston train shed on 27 December 1963

 

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And finally WD 90540 running through Chester General on 21 October 1963

 

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And on10 January 1965, 1658 dumped outside the Stock shed at Swindon

 

1658

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Hi Mike,

 

Yep - one of the 10XXs would have been useful - as would the 68XX...

 

Lovely shots yet again and in some instances, those of 81E could be recreated either now or in the relatively near future. Thanks for posting this lot - as a child of the 1970s, I missed all this and I am very great full to people such as the great bunch here on RMWEB (yourself included) that have these unseen collections and give up their time and energy to share them with us for our enjoyment and education.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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Another great selection Mike - many thanks for continuing to share them here. That first view of Oxford Shed is nice... not much to see there now of course, and off to the right there are now some new student accomodation buildings, going all the way back to the river bridge at the north end... Oxford Station is certainly a lot more 'hemmed in' than it used to be.

 

Didcot of course is instantly recognisable... ;)

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  • RMweb Gold

Still delving out a few more from the Western you lucky people but a few cuckoos in the nest this time.  But first the sad sight of 4079 sitting dumped at Westbury after that fated day in 1964 

 

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Then back to Taunton for a couple I missed last time round - still on 06 September 1964 and starting with a rather strange 7337 alongside the shed

 

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4989 in the roofless part of the shed

 

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Now up to the London end and a view from the signalbox window at Kensington South Main of 92220 heading towards Latchmere Jcn on 19 September 1964

 

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And a regrettably un-noted shot of, I think, 3822 at Swindon

 

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Now a much wetter Swindon on 19 April 1964 during the period when the works was being given 'foreign' engines to shop in order to keep up the workload having drastically over-budgetted for work on WR steam in that year - hardly any need to mention the identity of 76041!

 

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And steam at Maidenhead as 7926 passes on the Down Main with a Worcester train on 31 July 1963

 

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And, inevitably a return to Reading seeing first 7808 on a railtour to, so i was told, Craven Arms, on 21 June 1964 m

 

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Next D1051 on the Up Main Through Line on 25 June 1064 - and just look at the Reading as was to its left

 

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And finally at Reading 6938 on pilot duties (probably the Down pilot) in the Fish Dock on 28 November 1964 with the Southern station vaguely visible at left background

 

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And we close this post with a pair of foreigners at Didcot as coupled light engines 44829 and 48005 pass on the Down Avoiding Line on 28 November 1964

 

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  • RMweb Gold

They were there earlier when I 'liked' them but they've disappeared. Maybe something to do with posting two copies and then editing, Mike?

 

Nick

No - only one copy this time Nick and posted with no subsequent editing - until now.  Went into it to edit to reinsert the pics and they were there so simply clicked it back to life and there are the pics, maybe that Standard at Swindon upset things?

 

BTW if I have time this evening a batch of 'foreign' engines on foreign' railways will be appearing on Part 2 later this evening - foreign as in the likes of Black 5s and 8Fs at places as diverse as Matlock and Chester.

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All fine and dandy on my monitor Mike - lovely view of Western Ambassador on the Up Main with that distinctive bracket on the Down Main platform - at the time only eighteen months old (D1051 of course, not the signal!).

 

All good stuff ;o)

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Hi Mike,

 

Yet another excellent selection - thanks very much! Three great shots of 3 of 81Es current 'allocation' there too - it is always nice to see the locomotives in service rather than just as the prized museum pieces they are today. Sad though it is, I prefer to think of the picture of No. 4079 simply as 'the lady in waiting...'

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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Lovely stuff Mike, and thanks from me too for sharing these memories with us.

 

I guess 7337's pony truck was away in the shed for fettling - HAB perhaps.

 

Also spotted the prototype BSK 34000 at Euston behind 46235.

 

Some facinating piccies Mike which really help to construct an illustration of the railway in that period. Those P way men working at Reading while the D1000 rattles through - HASAW these days would be having kittens.

 

Great stuff, and reinforces my thirst for a 54xx / 74xx pannier !!!

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  • RMweb Gold

The shots at Reading bring back some memories particularly the one looking through the gap between the southern station. I used to stop by the fence there on my bike going home from school.

Don

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