Western Times

[St Enodoc]

On 15/10/2023 at 10:41, St Enodoc said:

You naughty man! Now I shall have to buy the whole issue just for the article starting on page 68!

Ordered!

[St Enodoc]

On 19/10/2023 at 08:50, St Enodoc said:

Ordered!

Arrived today - amazingly quickly compared with what we're used to over here. Pages 68 to 73 are absolutely excellent from my perspective (I haven't read the rest yet!).

 

Thanks.

[Ian Hargrave]

On 22/09/2023 at 19:56, Ian Hargrave said:

Thanks for the reply. In 1961 the South Wales main line was still steam.  Displaced Kings were used between Paddington and Cardiff but got no further west  so I suspect 5048 is on a Paddington bound train but maybe only as far as Cardiff. The Hymeks came quickly after in 1962. Doing a job they were never designed to do…but doing it well despite being thrashed to near extinction with 13+ Mk1. I saw many Castles as a very young boy from the spot where this image is taken .Some of them disappeared in the early 50 ‘s….’A1 Lloyds “ and “The Somerset Light Infantry,Prince Albert’s Own “ being two curiosities.Converted “Stars”  I believe. All in Dylan’s Lovely Ugly Town….

This special does not disappoint.IMHO an outstanding and good value immersion in well illustrated and researched nostalgia.The converted Stars I mention above feature as do many in this encyclopaedic cavalcade through the history of arguably the most successful and most loved express passenger locomotive ever to run on British tracks.

[Andy M]

23 hours ago, Ian Hargrave said:

This special does not disappoint.IMHO an outstanding and good value immersion in well illustrated and researched nostalgia.The converted Stars I mention above feature as do many in this encyclopaedic cavalcade through the history of arguably the most successful and most loved express passenger locomotive ever to run on British tracks.

Ian,

 

Thank you for your kind words, which are very much appreciated.

I wholeheartedly agree with your last comment, the Castles were indeed very special. I unearthed some outstanding images in the archive during my research for this WT Special, which I just didn’t have the space to include. So I intend to revisit and use the best of these in a regular issue during 2024. Some of the black and white portraits are exquisite, dare I say of George Heiron quality!

 

Regards,

Andy.

[Mallard60022]

On 18/09/2023 at 19:58, Andy M said:

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL: Castle Class Centenary

 

I am pleased to advise RMwebbers that the first WT Special has gone to the printers and should be available shortly. Below is a brief synopsis of the publication and a sample of a page spread to whet the appetite! 

 

 

'In this inaugural Western Times Special we look to mark and celebrate 100-years since the introduction into service of the legendary ‘Castle Class’. Over an enlarged issue of 96 pages, the life of these much admired locomotives is explored and explained utilising over 180 black & white and colour photographs, many appearing in print for the first time. The book is chaptered in such a way as to investigate the diverse and surprisingly complex history of the class, and the comprehensively captioned imagery is augmented with works drawings and an array of data presented in tabular form.

 

From an appraisal of the Great Western Railway’s motive power situation before the Castles, we examine their introduction into service and establishment as the mainstay of express passenger operations. The design development and improvements made throughout their careers is charted, including the successful application of double chimneys towards the end of their lives.

 

Unusually for a company noted for its regimented locomotive naming policy, the Castles experienced a number of identity changes over the years, and many of these ‘Non-Castles’ are highlighted. The class is extensively featured at work, on shed and in works throughout their service, and special attention is afforded to the final years leading up to withdrawal and scrapping. Finally, we chronicle the eight survivors, that avoided the cutter’s torch and made it into the preservation era.

 

This is the first of what is hoped to be the regular release of a Western Times Special, that will augment the regular series, but concentrate on a particular topic in greater detail than in the usual articles'. 

 

 

I got this just the other day. Lovely Volume. Thank you.

Phil

[Andy M]

17 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

I got this just the other day. Lovely Volume. Thank you.

Phil

Thanks Phil,

 

Glad you have enjoyed it. It was really nice to put this one together, finding out new things about a class I thought I knew reasonably well, and reminding myself about stuff I had forgotten!

 

Regards,

Andy.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Andy M

[Andy M]

WESTERN TIMES Issue 8 - Update

 

Dear RMwebbers,

 

Final checks are pretty much complete and Issue 8 will be rolling off the press imminently. Contents shown below for your information and it should be on sale by mid December. I will post another update once the physical copies have arrived.

 

Regards,

Andy.

[The Stationmaster]

It will be nice if the Cornish semaphores article capturese some of the real gems that once existed in the county at places like Bugle,  Bodmin Road (which must have been onen of the last survivors of a form of signal that was obsolete by the mid 1920s), and the gorgeous bracket at Onslow Sidings.  Fortunately the tubular steel version of the, I think possibly unique in form, Up Main Starting Signal at Liskeard survived until relatively recent years so hopefully will be included.  I look forward to the article.

[longchap]

I await this issue with particular interest, as I lived in Princetown from 1959 to '66 and knew the station area well and walked the trackbed for miles across the moor with my chums. Such a pity that only the stable building remains, at least I hope it still does and I look forward to paying another return visit before too long.

 

 

 

[Mike_Walker]

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

It will be nice if the Cornish semaphores article capturese some of the real gems that once existed in the county at places like Bugle,  Bodmin Road (which must have been onen of the last survivors of a form of signal that was obsolete by the mid 1920s), and the gorgeous bracket at Onslow Sidings.  Fortunately the tubular steel version of the, I think possibly unique in form, Up Main Starting Signal at Liskeard survived until relatively recent years so hopefully will be included.  I look forward to the article.

The Up Main Starter at Liskeard is till there, Mike, alive and well thanks.  And, the good news it will survive as Liskeard is not part of the current Cornish resignalling.

[Mikkel]

Impressive how one issue just follows the other with no fuss and no hype. 

 

The "Slip-Ups with Slipping" title has me rubbing hands in anticipation.

[The Stationmaster]

22 hours ago, Mike_Walker said:

The Up Main Starter at Liskeard is till there, Mike, alive and well thanks.  And, the good news it will survive as Liskeard is not part of the current Cornish resignalling.

Are you sure - I've found two photos on the 'net where it is noticeable by its absence and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't there the last couple pf times I've been through Liskeard/.  In fact one of the onine photos is dated 2013 and I've just made. a sectional enlargement of it and the Up Main Starter definitely isn't there.  This  is the photo, and the original Up Main Starter definitely isn't there -

http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/latest-input--news--old-pictures-etc/trains-turning-back-at-liskeard-kjenkin

 

You're not by any chance confusing the Starter with the Up Main Home at the end of the Up platform?  I.E. the one with the underslung (from a bracket structure) centre pivot arm plus the elevated disc which was added to it when the trailing connection to the Looe branch yard was altered from a trailing connection into the Down Main, through a diamond crossing in the Up Main, to the present facing connection off the Up Main?

 

Underslung arms were quite a common Western feature even in tubular steel replacement signals (e.g. Goring Up Main Home, Hillavington Down Main Starter) although it was unusual to find them with centre pivot arms.

[Mike_Walker]

Yes Mike, we were talking about different signals - I was thinking about the Up Main Home.  🙄

[Halvarras]

I first got interested in railways in 1966 and did a week's Cornish Rail Rover that summer which included a trip down the Looe branch (oddly that line wasn't initially included in the RR, but we noted a change of mind announced via a chalk board at Par station during that week!) I couldn't remember seeing an underslung signal like that one at Liskeard anywhere else at the time, especially overhanging the platform allowing a close examination, and was quite fascinated by it - and find it incredible that it's still there 57 years later (although now visually compromised by a steel safety platform added in recent times) - and that despite the changes going on elsewhere in Cornwall this signal's time is still not up yet!

[The Stationmaster]

 

Another often overlooked fact about Western centre pivot arms is that they were the last running signal arms in Britain to be made of wood with examples still being installed new well into the 1950s (and possibly even into the very early 1960s).  Where they had had the chance to survive modernisation and rationalisation schemes they have been more than capable of lasting at least 60 years with no problems.

[Mike_Walker]

An interesting example is SBJ11/16 at Shrewsbury where the centre pivot arms are mounted upside down to the normal arrangement, that is with the green spectacle above rather than below the arm.  Both are wooden and whilst doing survey work in advance of the Wrexham & Shropshire start up, we were told by the proud local NR Operations Manager that one of the them is nearly new - I forget which.  It seems the original was suffering from age so the local S&T made a new arm from scratch in their workshop and transferred the fittings over on site. 

So, Mike, you can revise that to "early 2000s"!

 

[The Stationmaster]

On 14/10/2023 at 18:44, Andy M said:

WESTERN TIMES SPECIAL: Castle Class Centenary - Out Now

 

I am pleased to advise that the inaugural Western Times Special  has arrived from the printers and is available to order now at https://ttpublishing.co.uk/product/western-times-castle-special/

 

This 96-page bumper edition has been prepared over the summer and slots in between the regular issues. It should prove a treat for those with an affinity to Collett's magnificent centenarian. I amassed so much new imagery that a follow up feature on the class looks likely in Western Times during 2024. For now though its back to working on Issue 8 due in December.

 

Regards,

Andy.

 

Finally git iver to ,y 'local' model shop yto vcollect my copy oon Friday.  interestingly he received the 'special' because he has a standing order for the regular issues of the magazine - so no need for a special order from me or from him on my behalf.

 

Very impressive although I've yet to soak up all the dertail and excellent photo reproduction.

 

One minor aside - am I the only person around who knows where West London yard was?   Alas it seems to be a much overlooked location notwithstanding its considerable importance as a passenger yard including even at one time some sort of DMU servicing facilities.   West London dealt with suburban stock while Old Oak dealt with stock for mainline long distance working.  I was reminded of it when I noticed its northern boundsary, above a retaining wall, that appears at the left hand edge of the photo of 4079 at the foot of page 91 in the 'special'.

[Siberian Snooper]

Hi Stationmaster,

 

Not heard of West London Yard,  before your above post, any information on this probably very important location would be most welcome. I'm going to assume that like locos, people of the age concentrate on express locations and formations, rather than the humdrum local stuff.

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

17 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Hi Stationmaster,

 

Not heard of West London Yard,  before your above post, any information on this probably very important location would be most welcome. I'm going to assume that like locos, people of the age concentrate on express locations and formations, rather than the humdrum local stuff.

 

 

I think you're right about the resaons for it being overlooked.  The 1914 25" OS map shows various buildings as 'Wagon Works' which might be a reason it was overlooked but, as I said, it became the 'London end' base for suburban coaching stock among other things.  One of the buildings, or possibly a modification/rebuild of one of them, definitely became a carriage shed.

 

West London Carriage Sidings Signal Box was a more or less ground level structure and I can remember seeing the back of it from passing trains; it was also referred to in some official sources as a ground frame.  Apart from access to some of the sidings the ground frame also controlled part of the route from Ladbroke Grove Signal Box round to the West London l Linewhich it  joined by a connection at North Pole Junction.  

 

Some of the yard, including the ground frame/signal box survived into the late 1960s but by then I think the place must have been near moribund from a coach working viewpoint as local services were in the hands of DMUs with Southall able to take a much larger stabling and servicing workload following the closure of the shed to steam in December 1965.  I worked in the London Division Train Office in 1969/70 and can't recall any use at all of West London for coaching stock by then although plenty of other DMU overnight stabling locations were at that time still in use but have long since vanished.

 

All being well I will shortly be in a position to do a bit more research into the use of West London for coaching stock stabling etc but it always strikes me as odd how this once busy - and still so within living memory, location has been almost completely overlooked by historians.  Old Oak Common was bigger and busier although its importance as a major location  for freight train marshalling is also seemingly overlooked.

 

The site was left emoty for many years after closure with a persistent rumour taht it was reserved for site of a depot for Channel Tunnel trains.  Fr once a rumour was true and it became part of North Pole International depoy for Eurostart with stabling sidings, a large stores o plus the heavy lifting shop.  But that in turn closed with Eurostar's ' abandonment of Waterloo as a terminal.  It has subsequently acquired a new role as part of Hitachi's depot for the Class 80X IET's working on the GWML and as a result it was once again connected to the GWML in the vicinity of the former West London ground frame

 

The RCTS website is our friend as it has brought forth this picture of West London Carriage Sidings Signal Box aka ground frame.  (It was officially described as a signal box in 1960 but by 1967 it was being referred to as a ground frame

 

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/buildings-and-infrastructure/signal-boxes-and-crossings-gwr/hA0E63C55#ha0e63c55

 

 

[Miss Prism]

While we are discussing this area, I cannot make out the location of this picture (with a nameless Bulldog on what seems to be a perishables train), apart from assuming it's Bishops Road bridge in the background.

 

[The Stationmaster]

The shed on the left suggests to me that it is most likely that the phoyogtapher was standing beneath Lord Hills Bridge and the bridge in the background is Ranelagh Bridge.  Definitely part of Paddington goods yard layout as all the points appear to be handpoints and the line on the right is also occupied by wagons

[Miss Prism]

Thanks. I should have mentioned the pic is, apparently, 1928, i.e. before the big early-30s station rebuild.

 

[The Stationmaster]

34 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

Thanks. I should have mentioned the pic is, apparently, 1928, i.e. before the big early-30s station rebuild.

 

I thought that it might be 1920sish as I suspect that goods shed went when the  modern (in its day)  building was provided at Paddington New Yard  which I think was part of the 1930s scheme for Paddington. (I'll have to check the Railway Gazette article which I think mentions it).

[Not Jeremy]

It is Bulldog number 3345, at the head of an empty milk working, at Royal Oak in 1928, as others have said.

 

This image appears in the forthcoming Siphons book from Wild Swan, and is a Great Western official image that came from David Hyde's collection.

 

The book is now days away from being sent to the printers. I am having a printed proof produced first that we will also check before "pressing the button", as it is a complex book  and I want there to be as few mistakes in it as is possible.

[Andy M]

WESTERN TIMES Issue 8 - Out Now

 

I am pleased to update that the new issue of Western Times has arrived from the printers and is available now at https://ttpublishing.co.uk/product/western-times-issue-8/

 

As always we hope you enjoy this offering and await your feedback and comments.

 

Regards,

Andy.