'Diesels On Cornwall's Mainline', a Bradford Barton classic...

[Rugd1022]

Seeing as this fine little book gets mentioned hereabouts from time to time I thought I'd do a little thread on it, with corrections to some of the captions - I hope Kernow inclined folk find it helpful / useful....

 

The cover shot - this pic appears twice in the book, on the front cover and again on page 29, as Geoff Endacott said earlier it is captioned as being D815 'Druid' but is actually 805 'Benbow'.

 

Frontispiece - a lovely shot of 807 'Caradoc' and a Western at St.Erth this one, but again miscaptioned saying the Western is D1072 'Western Glory' when it's actually D1010 'Western Campaigner', the appearance of which matches other photos of it seen in other books, the nameplate is too long to be D1072, plus the lack of cabside nametag clips means it's a Swindon built machine for starters. Datewise I'd put this shot as being March / April of '72, as per the majority of photos throughout the book. The photographer turned round and took another shot of 807 'Caradoc' in the same spot which appears on page 28 described as being 843 'Sharpshooter' which is bogus, it's clearly not an NBL and is one of the 803-812 Swindon batch, all the details match another shot of 807 spread across pages 24 and 25 and various other photos published elsewhere. Putting the frontispiece and St.Erth shots together it looks to me as if D1010 has arrived light engine from Penzance to cross over onto the Down Main to assist a failed 807... if you look closely at the pic the ground disc signal is off for this move and it looks like the secondman has just been on the lineside phone to the Bobby in St.Erth box to ask for the move to be set up. In this same shot it appears as if the driver of 807 has deliberately stopped short of the platform signal to give D1010 enough room to drop on top and get in clear. Also, in the pic on page 28, 807's driver looks as if he's removing the vacuum pipe from it's dummy, ready to couple up. Hope that all makes sense! 

 

Introduction - there's no caption for this shot of a Western passing Burngullow light engine but I have a sneaky feeling it may be D1027 'Western Lancer'.

 

Page 9 - the 47 disappearing round the corner at Par is said to be 1662 'Isambard Kingdom Brunel' but it's actually plain old unamed 1712, a photo of which appears in another Bradford Barton album taken at Truro Yard during a break in shunting.

 

Page 18 - the 47 climbing the last few yards into Bodmin Road station is captioned as 1650 when it's actually one of the last built batch, fitted with ETH, in the 19xx series.

 

Page 27 - The Warship on '1M95' is 805, not 855 as described in the caption.

 

Page 30 - The Western passing clay dries near St.Austell is not D1056 as it doesn't have the square air vent on the cab front, although it is a Crewe built loco.

 

Page 31 - Supposedly D1002 'Western Explorer' on the up afternoon milk to London is in fact D1064 'Western Regent', the small scars on the bodyside match other shots of 1064.

 

Page 32 - The Western at Truro with the dirty roof is not D1026 'Western Centurion' as described but is a Crewe built machine.

 

Page 35 - The Warship on the 6A17 up vans at Scorrier is described as being NBL built 846 'Steadfast' but is actually Swindon built 814 'Dragon' minus it's nameplates. It was withdrawn for a while but reinstated in 1972 without the plates when motive power was short on the WR.

 

Page 44 - The Western departing Penzance is supposedly Crewe built D1034 'Western Dragoon' but is an unidentified Swindon built machine.

 

Page 48, bottom pic - Supposedly Crewe built D1047 'Western Lord' but is a Swindon built machine.

 

Page 58 - Supposedly D847 'Strongbow' but the style of blue livery is wrong, it does look like another NBL built Warship though judging by the raised rad fan grille housings.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Edit : Oops! I've posted this in the wrong area! Can one of the Mods please move it to the Cornwall section please.... ta!

[chrisstiffer]

Rugd,

 

It's quite a coincidence you posting this as I've just purchased and taken delivery today of this very book.  Hoping to get a little more accuracy to my Cornwall based layout.

 

Interesting to read the corrections, in my version (reprint 1974) the caption on page 9 now just says 'A 'Brush' Class 47...' so someone must have realised the error. 

 

And fascinating to read your analysis of the picture in the frontspiece - spot on I'd say.

 

Chris.

[Rugd1022]

Mods - ta for moving this!

 

Chris and Paul - thanks for your comments.... not sure which books you may already have Paul but as far as the Warships are concerned it's a no brainer, you really need to splash out £25 on 'Book Of The Waships' from Irwell Press, it tells you about / shows all of the differences between the various batches of D800s and the photos are terrific. 'Heyday Of The Warships' from Ian Allan is a good one too. As for the Westerns... just buy as many of the vasrious books on them as you can, they all have good points derspite some of the earlier ones repeating general mistakes here and there. Adrian Curtis's 'Western Mythology' is definitely worth getting if you can find a copy, as is his 'Western Liveries' book, also not easy to find but worth the outlay if you come across a copy. The various Bradford Bartons are essential for a visual Hydraulic fox although as per the Cornwall album the captions are sometimes a bit vague. 'Power Of The Westerns has been reprinted and is well worth having, but don't pay too much attention to the colour livery drawings in the middle!

 

Certain myths about the Westerns still persist in book form, namely the often repeated claim that all 74 locos wore 'standard' maroon which is wrong, as D1004, D1036 and D1037 never carried this livery. The 'Diesels In Depth' book on the class is very good but still contains one or two small errors... the color photos in it are excellent though, especially the double page spread of D1000 at Exeter in tatty maroon livery with it's original cast alloy crest on.

 

;O)

[Rugd1022]

Another correction for you to add to your list, page 29 is described as 'Druid' but as I recall it (I've got the old lima) this warship was scrapped in maroon. Chris.

 

Cheers Chris but I mentioned it at the beginning of the first post!

[cornish trains jez]

Haven't heard of this one before so looks like I'll need to track down a copy.

[Rugd1022]

There are plenty of copies about Jez, anything from £2 to £10, try Robert Humm's shop on Stamford Station, ebay etc, and they do turn up at preservation gala stands as well.

 

Well worth a punt!