Another Mystery Locomotive

[28XX]

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNzq3dRUqMGKFMQ5ZKewb_XlQf58pnC9sFf1nTp-RDFW8v49UXMFWSsJx15RCHPpw?key=aktaczZabmVMNWNEY3UxRmd6aGl6S2E2dmM4b1ZB

 

You know you love these. On the Blaenau Ffestiniog to Bala line.

[Phil Bullock]

Ha ha

 

After the last fail you need not think I am falling for that again.......!!!!

 

Phil

[AberdeenBill]

Note to modellers: interesting enamel advertising signs on the bridge.     Sorry, no idea on the loco.

 

Bill

[steve1]

dibber25 should be able to answer this one!

 

steve

[TheSignalEngineer]

The profile looks to me like a GWR 2-4-0 'Metro' tank. These did get to far-flung parts of the Paddington empire in their final years, but I have not seen a picture of one in the north of Wales or with a cab backplate like that.

[New Haven Neil]

Or a 517?

[phil_sutters]

I have a suspicion that the image is slightly laterally compressed - maybe in processing or just from the angle it was taken. It could be a Metro. I have come across this photo which has similarities. 

http://thumbs2.picclick.com/d/l400/pict/391544565837_/GWR-2-4-0T-Locomotive-No-1492-Real-Photographs-Broadstairs.jpg

[TheSignalEngineer]

Or a 517?

I was just about to add the 517 class 0-4-2T. They were a Wolverhampton product designaed by George Armstrong and were basically a Northern division loco so more likely for the area of the photo

[wagonman]

I was just about to add the 517 class 0-4-2T. They were a Wolverhampton product designaed by George Armstrong and were basically a Northern division loco so more likely for the area of the photo

 

 

Not so. Though built at Wolverhampton, they were both Wolverhampton and Swindon maintained locos so also very common in the south. There were design differences particularly to things like bunkers, chimneys etc, that appeared over their long lives.

 

That said I do think the loco in the photo is a Metro – a few acquired weatherboards on the rear of the bunker – as there is no obvious sign of the front wheel splasher, the toolbox is at the front of the tank (517s usually had it in the middle). That said, 517 itself was a Northern Div loco which had the rear spectacle plate and front mounted tool box! For me the clincher is the apparent lack of front splasher – though I can't see the spring either.

[phil_sutters]

Not so. Though built at Wolverhampton, they were both Wolverhampton and Swindon maintained locos so also very common in the south. There were design differences particularly to things like bunkers, chimneys etc, that appeared over their long lives.

 

That said I do think the loco in the photo is a Metro – a few acquired weatherboards on the rear of the bunker – as there is no obvious sign of the front wheel splasher, the toolbox is at the front of the tank (517s usually had it in the middle). That said, 517 itself was a Northern Div loco which had the rear spectacle plate and front mounted tool box! For me the clincher is the apparent lack of front splasher – though I can't see the spring either.

The lack of spring may be due to a solid infill in the bridge railings. It is hard to see whether the railings were open, except where the adverts were, or had solid infills.

[Nick Holliday]

Looking at the relevant RCTS book, I would suggest it might be Metro tank No 617, of which there is a photo in said volume. It is fitted with the Wolverhampton bunker and backplate, and a Belpaire boiler. The words note: "while No. 617, which was at Aberystwyth about 1931, was probably the only engine of this class ever to be stationed in the Central Wales Division."