Pentewan railway

[Killian keane]

Does anybody here know the livery carried by locomotives on the pentewan railway in Cornwall, in particular the very characterful Manning Wardle tender engines of 1874 and 1886 respectively?

[John_Miles]

Does anybody here know the livery carried by locomotives on the pentewan railway in Cornwall, in particular the very characterful Manning Wardle tender engines of 1874 and 1886 respectively?

 

There is a book published by Twelveheads Press. I thought I had a copy but I can't find it (no surprise there though). If you don't already have it, it's probably your best chance of finding what you are after.

[pb_devon]

I have a book by MJT Lewis on the Pentewan published by DB Barton Truro in 1960. There is no mention of livery in the loco details, but the one coach was 'brown'. The one photo of coach and loco in the book (source L&GRP), in B&W, seems to indicate a similar shade.

You could always drop an email to Twelveheads Press (later publisher of the Lewis book) to ask.

[Killian keane]

Thank you gentlemen, that book is on my ever growing list of books to get round to ordering,

Not often you see a brown railway engine

[ady77014]

I happened to have a copy of the book in question and an aritical that was published in BackTrack (Vol. 8 No. 5), both brought on a whim.

 

But... no details of livery are made as such. The pictures (and a reproduction of a water colour) show a dark livery with a light lining around it, but being in black and white that's is about as useful as a putting wheels on a tomato.

 

Maybe if people can track down where this water colour went....

[pb_devon]

Thank you gentlemen, that book is on my ever growing list of books to get round to ordering,

Not often you see a brown railway engine

As a footnote, the Twelveheads Press website says the book is 'under consideration for reprinting'. Also they did a book 'Rail & sail to Pentewan' by a former loco fireman and his father driver, which could have the answer. Both are OOP. See the Twelveheads webpage for their OOP books, which gives details.

[brianusa]

In view of what the Pentewan Railway was all about, most likely it was basic black. What they transported would soon dirty up any loco and pictures, even black and white would confirm this. It is doubtful if anything like fancy lining would have been employed as the PR was not very rich.

If this question had come up a few years earlier, my Grandmother would have had the answer as the railway passed by her old home in Polgooth and she used to tell me of the railway. Sadly she didn't mention any colours!

 

Brian.

[br2975]

Iain Rice described his scratchbuilt model, built in 4mm scale, in Model Railways during the late 70s early 80s.

.

Brian R

[£1.38]

Most likely in the Manning Wardle standard livery, which was some shade of green, I would have thought.Here's a model, but I don't know how authentic the livery is

 

[Killian keane]

Up until now, I had assumed that the livery was something like the loco in the picture, having seen one very like that (possibly the same model?) on a Bob Symes program on youtube, as for lining, I could swear I saw something resembling lining looking at the photo of no. 1 on the trestle, but maybe I need glasses!

Edit: if you zoom way in on the cab sidesheet and tender in this photo, that looks like lining (?)

Edited June 1, 2017 by Killian keane

[eastglosmog]

As a footnote, the Twelveheads Press website says the book is 'under consideration for reprinting'. Also they did a book 'Rail & sail to Pentewan' by a former loco fireman and his father driver, which could have the answer. Both are OOP. See the Twelveheads webpage for their OOP books, which gives details.

I have that Rail and sail to Pentewan book.  Been looking through it, but no mention of livery that I have found (although it is mainly concerned with the period of Canopus and Pioneer).  It does contain an RPC photo of Trewithen, (can be seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentewan_Railway#/media/File:%27Trewithan%27_of_the_Pentewan_Railway.jpg ) which certainly looks as though there is lining on the cab.

[£1.38]

If you look at very old photos of Manning Wardles in general, they all seem to be lined. I would have thought it was a standard feature, not an optional extra.

 

 

 

[brianusa]

Interesting picture, never seen it before!

 

Brian.

[Neil S]

I've just looked in an original copy (1960 print) of the Lewis book and it states 'like Pentewan and Trewithen, she (Canopus) was painted green and black' (p.43, line 2), later in the same text it also states that Pioneer 'was painted black' (p.44, 4th line from bottom of page). The picture of Pentewan on p.19 seems to show lining (as does the painting on p.20). If you're still modelling this railway then I hope that helps - I'd say Rice was about right!