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The Stationmaster Goes Train Spotting Part 2


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And so to the steamy part.  Initially this will be wholly(ish) Western but as other pics are scanned and added the net will widen a tad.  There will also be a few oddments of rolling stock creeping in for those who like that sort of thing - yes I have some bananas ;)

 

So we'll start with a once typical bit of Westernry - a large prairie on banking duty.  In this case it's 4156 at Pilning on 21 June 1964, and just look at that loading gauge!

 

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Now we move up the scale to Reading's Down pilot (yes, those are pilot lamps) on the Relief Lines middle siding on 06 July in the same year.

 

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And  September 1964 takes us off to the west and invasion territory - the scene is Wadebridge and this is 1368 which had come to the area to replace a Beattie Well tank, 10 September 1964

 

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Now we have those bananas - as 6988 darkens the Reading sky on 06 July 1964 with a banana special on the Up Goods, and just look at all the Great Westernry all around including at left what was by then Reading West Main's Up Relief Starting Signal (long time previously Reading Middle's Up Home Signal) which was at least 50 years old at the time of this photo which was taken on 06 July 1964

 

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And still at reading we see the Up pilot on 15 June 1963, have a good close look at the tender

 

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Now a quick drop back west, to Plymouth, where 41317 is arriving 'off the Southern route' on 04 September 1964

 

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Finally a touch of rolling stock with Collett BG W111W at Reading on 25 June 1964

 

post-6859-0-21836100-1358439474_thumb.jpg

 

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Mike,

 

Those photos around Reading in 1963/64. Did you ever come across Cecil J Blay? His photos of the Reading area used to turn up in the Modeller during the '60s. Not that Cyril Freezer was an aficionado of the Great Western, you understand  :no:

Your banana train seems to be slightly more uniform on this occasion with just the fifth vehicle looking to be a bit of an oddball.

It always struck me that, for a small class, the Manors seemed to get to all parts of the region, almost like they were being shared out!

 

David

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Mike,

 

Those photos around Reading in 1963/64. Did you ever come across Cecil J Blay? His photos of the Reading area used to turn up in the Modeller during the '60s. Not that Cyril Freezer was an aficionado of the Great Western, you understand  :no:

Your banana train seems to be slightly more uniform on this occasion with just the fifth vehicle looking to be a bit of an oddball.

It always struck me that, for a small class, the Manors seemed to get to all parts of the region, almost like they were being shared out!

 

David

They only look more uniform, David; the first one's got 8-shoe brakegear and no diagonal side bracings, then there are three with 4-shoe brakegear and side bracing, before we get to the one that Hornby-Dublo modelled; this latter is the 'BR standard', though the others were also built to BR Diagrams. As an aside, LMS, SR and BR Banana vans seem to have lasted until the end of the traffic (early 1970s?); what happened to the LNER and GWR vans? I can't recollect seeing any.

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Excellent stuff Mike, thank you. Do you know if the dock tank at Wadebridge was just moving empty stock or was it actually working a passenger train?

 

Ed

It was the station pilot Ed

 

 

 

Mike,

 

Those photos around Reading in 1963/64. Did you ever come across Cecil J Blay? His photos of the Reading area used to turn up in the Modeller during the '60s. Not that Cyril Freezer was an aficionado of the Great Western, you understand  :no:

Your banana train seems to be slightly more uniform on this occasion with just the fifth vehicle looking to be a bit of an oddball.

It always struck me that, for a small class, the Manors seemed to get to all parts of the region, almost like they were being shared out!

 

David

 

I never came across Cecil Blay (whose house backed onto Sonning Cutting as it happens) but by a strange quirk of fate I know his son who I met through my wife when she was a Classroom Assistant and the late CJB's son, Tim, was teaching.  By then his father's extensive  (Western Region) model railway was long gone and I don't know what happened to any of his photos but I'm sure if they had still been around Tim would have offered them in my direction.  I'm not sure of even Tim's whereabouts now as his son was working in South America when we were last in touch (nearly 6 years ago) and Tim was spending an increasing amount of time out there.

 

A number of 'Manors' passed through Reading in their later years - probably seeing out their mileage in the same way as Southall's latterday allocation of 45XX tanks.

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And still at Reading we see the Up pilot on 15 June 1963, have a good close look at the tender

 

 

For a closer view of the tender lettering

 

 

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/8226199291/

Interesting picture but I suspect it might be incorrectly captioned - the engine is not arriving anywhere but is stationary (regulator is closed and the engine is in mid gear, looks too as if the brake is applied) and has a lamp on the rear of the tender plus the canopy edging is not the same pattern as that at Temple Meads (and much more like that at Reading as it happens).  BTW my pics above can of course be enlarged by clicking on them.

 

As far as the tender is concerned I'm now more convinced than ever that the 'GWR' visible on it was a consequence of rubbing through later paint rather than anything else as the tender had clearly received works (r possibly main shed workshop) attention in the 1960s.

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I am sure that your technical expertise is correct and that the caption is in error.

 

Not all of the photos in my collection had information on the back, although most can be dated by the records I have from the time. I remember the engine arriving at Platform 6 at Temple Meads and assumed the photo was taken from Platform 5, but on closer examination that does not appear to be the case.

 

Thanks for the correction

 

Patrick

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Hi Mike,

 

Those are some ace shots - thanks for posting them! The picture of No. 111 is particularly timely as I have a kit in my position to build this very vehicle from. The real thing is now safely stored away at 81E ready for its time through the C&W workshop to come. It is unrestored but in very original condition.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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Hi Mike,

 

Those are some ace shots - thanks for posting them! The picture of No. 111 is particularly timely as I have a kit in my position to build this very vehicle from. The real thing is now safely stored away at 81E ready for its time through the C&W workshop to come. It is unrestored but in very original condition.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

81E's day is approaching - not in the next batch but in the one after ;)

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...The picture of No. 111 is particularly timely as I have a kit in my position to build this very vehicle from. The real thing is now safely stored away at 81E ready for its time through the C&W workshop to come...

You had me quite excited there, Castle. I was just about to go back through the topic to look for Mike's photo of The Great Bear when I noticed the bit about the C&W workshop :O

 

Nick

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That's right Nick,

 

Didcot will blow the preservation world away this year by revealing that they have been into Box Tunnel to the strategic reserve to liberate Viscount Churchill for the ultimate backdating project. You thought the Hall to Saint was good...*

 

All the best,

 

Castle

 

*none of this is true - Stationmaster Mike has it in his garden shed...

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And now we go elsewhere - off the Western to some of the Regions or areas you've had a taster of already in these two threads.  This Part 2 will concentrate on 'foreign' Regions henceforth.  So not in anything like either date or geographic order we'll start with Matlock - where both trains were on the Down line but photgraphed from different viewpoints on 20 July 1964, first comes 48073

 

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and then, in a curious coincidence of digits, 48370

 

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Now Something completely different with 31543 on a regrettably unrecorded date at Tunbridge Wells West in either 1962 or early 1963 I think

 

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Next comes Chester and we'll start on my first visit there on 21 October 1963 and kick off with 42247

 

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and 44765

 

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Now moving forwards to 04 April 1964 kicking off with a distant view of 44956 crossing the Dee Bridge

 

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Then on to 70026 working the 16.15 to Manchester Exchange

 

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From which train I got this distant view of a Down freight on the WCML

 

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Next come a few at Skipton 12 August 1963 starting with 48636 passing as I occupied myself creeping round the shed yard

 

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Followed by 47434

 

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and 42938

 

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Then, on 11 August 1963, 42063 first at Ulverston and then at Lakeside

 

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And before we leave the West Coast a more silhouette than anything else view of 45383 arriving at Grange Over Sands on a Down train

 

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And to round this post off a dash over the Pennines to see 65809 at Newsham.  I have this noted as 20 August 1963 and while I am sure the day & month are correct I have a feeling that the year is incorrect and it was taken in either 1962 or 1961.

 

post-6859-0-94246100-1358972917_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

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