The omnipresent Western Region

[John_Miles]

The best place for railway photographs IMHO is Kidderminster Railway Museum. They make access easy and their charges are reasonable.

[DCB]

I am sure one of the reasons for the (G)WR's popularity is the standardisation of the locos.  You could see a 57XX (Gaiety) or Castle (H/D) anywhere from Paddington to Birkenhead, Penzance or Carmarthen if not Fishguard, not something any other railway could equal and the 57XX was at home shunting or on local freight or local passenger either on main line or branch.

GW locos having separate number plates made renumbering relatively easy so in the days when locos cost a weeks wages and many modellers had very few the GW made sense, especially where the alternative was pre group 0-6-0s on freight and 0-4-4Ts on local passenger.

 

However the WR we model is heavily into rose tinted specs territory, Warships were on the CRE  even as the Kings were getting double chimneys,  to match their new 4 row superheater boilers and the Chocolate and cream livery returned circa 1956/7.

The branch lines shut as their redundant 14XX went through Swindon works to emerge in lined out green, and a BR lined green 14XX may very well never have run with chocolate and cream Auto Trailers and B sets, which does not stop me using this combination.

 

The summer Saturday procession of Chocolet and cream expresses along the sea wall at Dawlish is romanticised, many of these came from the LMR and were Maroon LMR stock and much of the rest was maroon WR stock.

 

But that procession of expresses inspired a generation of modellers, now in their Mid 60s or older, much as Far north line 1987 inspired my garden line.

 

However the long trains of PO wagons were pre war. When Dean Goods roamed on local passenger and goods, work taken over by 57XX post war, and a hundred or so Double framed 4-4-0s bustled around the network.   

 

The nice fixed rakes of coaches with a brake 2nd at each end beloved of H/D catalogues only really happened as steam was phased out.  The model -able stations Newt and Abbott, Tiverton Junction, North Road, etc were swept away and replaced with sprawling monsters.

 

So really you want 1930 stations with 1930s wagons and 1957 liveried locos working 1957 liveried coaching stock.   Well I can't be bothered with PO wagons so everything is quasi 1957. Fixed rakes of coaches, Kings on the best expresses, Castles and Halls on the lesser ones, together with a Star  (The last one) Granges/ Manor/43XX.   I have 14XX and 64XX on Autos.    45XXs on locals, 41XX Banking.  Castles/ Halls/ Granges/43XX/47XX/42XX  on goods.  57XX/94XX shunting, a 15XX and 2012 under construction as is Cwm Maur, or Kidwelly.

Its not accurate but its how I imagine it should have been when I was too young to take any notice.

 

For GWR accuracy you need those Dean goods, the non standard Panniers, 850s, 2021etc ,and the double frame 5'8" 4-4-0s, even the double frame Aberdare 2-6-0, Saints,Stars, less Castes few Manors(1938) / Granges (1936), 

 

Like I said rose tinted goggles.

[Phil47gwr]

 

Also goes back to the time when Felix Pole was the GM - he knew the value of good quality publicity which has lingered down through the years.

 

I have an original hardback called Abbeys written by none other than M R James (he of the ghost stories) which takes as its theme those abbeys accessible using the Great Western Railway. To emphasize the point there is a paper map of the network included. The book is magnificently produced with line drawings, photographic plates (some in colour) and folding plans of some buildings. It was printed in 1925.

 

Did any other region go to such lengths to encourage and educate their clientèle?

[Edwardian]

 

For GWR accuracy you need those Dean goods, the non standard Panniers, 850s, 2021etc ,and the double frame 5'8" 4-4-0s, even the double frame Aberdare 2-6-0, Saints,Stars, less Castes few Manors(1938) / Granges (1936), 

 

 

 

For the south Devon mainline in the early-mid '30s, Saints are hard to justify, but not impossible, Aberdares rare, the odd ROD, but, yes, some earlier Pannier classes. Castles, Kings, and Halls abundant. Stars still frequent visitors. By 1935, 4400s and Buffaloes are going or gone. Dukes have gone.  But, Bulldogs, Moguls, 517s,Large Metro, and 3150s will still be found in numbers.  

 

Your main problem is that approx. 50% of your express coaches should be 70'.  The 57' stock is almost as likely to be LMS as GW.