A Nod To Brent - a friendly thread, filled with frivolity, cream teas and pasties. Longing for the happy days in the South Hams 1947.

[Mallard60022]

Social Realism AND Dirty Engines. Ughhh.  Now you see why I prefer the 1930s: mass unemployment, yes, but they cheered themselves up with inanely optimistic songs, and kept their engines clean!

 

Mind you, there are always exceptions to the clean engine age, 30 May 1937:

I thought that were the old Vic before I clicked the caption. 

Lucky bl**du spotters up there. We never got ER engines down Plymuff sept on specials. Not even on Footy stuff when some teams' supporters actually used to come by charter train. 

P

[Edwardian]

Yes, it's an interesting picture in a number of respects.  If the caption is to be believed, the date is 30 May 1937, which would make this engine - No. 5973 Rolleston Hall - a mere 25 days old!

 

The location given as .... Nottingham Victoria!

 

Apparently she was working a Bournemouth via Oxford excursion - she must have been thrashed all the way judging from the state of her!

 

Shocking.  Though, to be fair, she is stranded amongst the Heathen. Needless to say, I won't let any of my shiny green engines get in that state!

 

Tender swops; never ending on the old GWR!

 

I have even seen a County - that is a 4-4-0 County - coupled to the Great Bear's tender.

 

No locomotive/tender pairing can be too improbable on the old GW.

[Mallard60022]

Ah, so new engine with temporary tender whilst it is run in (to the ballast by the looks of it). It has been priming quite badly and that's possibly due to over indulgance of the injectors? The Reading/Banbury/Oxford (where it probably came on) Nott'm Vic run was quite a flat race if I remember correctly, but a wiggly way up to Woodford Halse then full tilt up the straight! Driver probably enjoyed himself but if was a GC man, didn't quite know the machine well enough as would have been the case with the fireman. (Note safety valves).

Ar8e.

Edited August 22, 2015 by Mallard60022

[gwrrob]

A busy morning at Tigley Junction shed.Two prairies, a mogul and a City.

 

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

Interesting that the Tender appears to be a different shade to the loco. Trick of the light or a tender swap?

Don

It looks to be the way the tender has been cleaned  (the amazing thing being that both tender and engine have been cleaned   ).  That 'Hall' at Nottingham Vic shows clear signs of 'new muck' over recent paintwork with odd patches where the muck has been 'brushed off' by people working on or moving about the engine and there are some signs on the smokebox of the engine priming. Incidentally virtually every picture I have of that era shows that other than when newly ex-works most GWR smaller tank engines were absolutely filthy.

 

Anyway one from a much better era for my 'good morning everyone' in the form of yet another from the collection.  An expert on coaching stock livery change dates will no doubt date it pretty accurately but the engine is obviously a 'Star' and the location is equally obviously Twyford East with the train on the Down Main Line.

 

[Edwardian]

Lovely shots.  Nice to see this bit of the layout featuring again.  I am still impressed and incredulous at how good you have made that track look.  The more I see and read, the more obvious it becomes to me that if the track does not convince the viewer, nothing on it or beside it will save the layout. 

 

I admire the effect achieved in weathering the Mogul, though I realise that I could not run a locomotive weathered to that extent because my Modeller's OCD would kick in and I would keep wanting to wipe it clean, you know, like people who have to straighten crookedly handing pictures!

 

Quick question:  Can you tell from a, ahem, non-destructive, test whether the City's top feed "shoulders" will detach from the safety valve cover, and, whether the pipe is a separate detachable moulding or whether it is moulded on to the boiler?

 

It struck me that, if separate parts, one has the potential for a City in her original condition without wrecking the superb cosmetic finish.

 

(I know, it's 1947, not 1904, but I claim to exist in the 1900s when not inhabiting 1935, so please indulge me).

 

It strikes me that, when it comes down to it, my real interest is in pre-grouping railway companies, which is why, of course, I choose to model the Great Western in the mid-nineteen thirties. 

[Edwardian]

Lovely shot, Stationmaster.

 

Not one of the early series, judging from the inside cylinder casings.   Lack of O/S steam pipes, tall safety valve bonnet  and small tender are not decisive in dating terms, but, top lamp iron is on the top of the smoke box, rather than on the door and the porthole cab windows have yet to be filled, so, I would say a 1920s view. Congruent with that, I can't see a shield to the whistles, but it's a little hard to tell. If those first 3 coaches are Lake, as opposed to absolutely filthy, that would seem to argue for early in the 1920s.  From the third coach on we are certainly back to chocolate and cream.  Can't tell whether that's a crest or a garter on the tender, which would have helped.

 

I bl**dy love Stars.

[Mallard60022]

I forgot my Good Moaning shot...

..........sorry, my era, not ANTB.

P 

[gwrrob]

The City safety valve looks like it comes apart but I'm not going to try !

 

I agree the weathering on 9318 is too much but I never imagined it would be so popular on here.

[Edwardian]

Not, I suspect, too much for the period.  Not, I suspect, too much for the 1930s on occasion.  Just too much for me to cope with!

 

In the contest Accuracy v. The Ideal, Accuracy does not always win in the insane little world in which I dwell! Purely my problem, that.

 

(MRJ contributors Look Away Now) Accuracy isn't everything.

[gwrrob]

Reading shed allocated 9318 is seen in the South Hams.I mentioned accuracy last weekend, how wrong was I.

 

 

 

 

 

[Siberian Snooper]

A repeat of that last batch in black and white, please,

[gwrrob]

A repeat of that last batch in black and white, please,

Happy to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mallard60022]

Who weadered dat one innit?

Q

[Alister_G]

Who weadered dat one innit?

Q

 

I wish you'd post in English, not Duckish...

 

[gwrrob]

More of 9318.Weathering has been discussed before. I was young and inexperienced.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2015 by gwrrob

[Edwardian]

And he was doing so well, given that Great Western is his second language...

[Edwardian]

Well now, cab handrails on Halls; important topic, I'm sure you will agree.  Either that, or, God help me, I'm having my own little MRJ moment.

 

When introduced, Halls had a single, horizontal, handrail under the cab side window.  On the picture of 5973, notice the vertical hand rail.  This isn't the 'L'-shaped handrail of the Modified Halls.  There is a separate vertical handrail.  It looks to stand proud of the horizontal one.  

 

One commentary states that this second handrail was applied from 5921 onward. I model 1935 and 5921 was built in May 1933, so this point does concern me. I had not noticed the extra rail before now (!).  Looking back at my Hall piccies, the earliest after 5921 I have a view of is 5934, Kneller Hall, built June 1933.  5934 and every subsequent Hall I have a picture of has the two handrails.

 

So:

• 4901-5920: single horizontal rail
• 5921 on: a horizontal and a  vertical rail

So, no one now can suggest that Great Western locomotives lacked variety!  Two handrail variations on a single class!

 

 

 

[coachmann]

Social Realism AND Dirty Engines. Ughhh.  Now you see why I prefer the 1930s: mass unemployment, yes, but they cheered themselves up with inanely optimistic songs, and kept their engines clean!

 

Mind you, there are always exceptions to the clean engine age, 30 May 1937:

It's not the eaten-in grime familiar in postwar years. The loco has been priming badly and scuff marks on top of the reverser cover and the lower boiler side show where one of the crew has brushed the muck off with his overalls while attending to the sand boxes etc. So It looks to me like the paintwork is basically in good condition under the road grime.  

 

As a postscript, i used ot have the full collection of 'Railway Magazines' right back to the 1890's and there was a note in a 1930s edition scolding the GWR for thinning its green paint too much and it was turning Khaki. Another reader complained about lack of the usual attention to loco and coach cleanliness. 

Edited August 22, 2015 by coachmann

[Edwardian]

Agree all.  I think it is possible to find dirty engines throughout history. 5937 was clearly newly painted, a chronological fact, and her appearance contrasts with pictures of line GW locomotives that have, presumably, got gradually dirtier over time, where I would expect to see details like lining fading under grime until all but lost to view.   

 

The point was made earlier that the GW let tank engines get filthy before the war.  I have spent a lot of time looking at pictures of GW coaches in the Thirties and some, especially on stoppers, are gopping. Sometimes the cream upper part barley looks any paler than the chocolate.

 

Nothing should really look ex-works (unless its depicting an item ex-works), evidence of lubricant and a layering of track dust will inevitably be present on the lower parts, however much the upper works are cleaned.  I suspect most of us run stuff that is too clean. 

 

In principle, I'm a light weathering man, but, steeling oneself to put any weathering over some models is another matter ....

 

Thank you for the image you have conjured up of the proto-MRJ correspondent writing to complain that the Great Western's green is no longer accurate.

[gwrrob]

9318 heads West with a train of empties.

 

 

 

 

 

[Stubby47]

Some of you may have noticed the complete absence of a coal bin beneath the signal box steps.

 

Some of you may not.

 

So, here is an attempt at providing such an item.

 

 

 

Be honest, is it too rough ?

[gwrrob]

 

Edited August 22, 2015 by gwrrob

[Alister_G]

Some of you may have noticed the complete absence of a coal bin beneath the signal box steps.

 

Some of you may not.

 

So, here is an attempt at providing such an item.

 

20150822_132255.jpg

 

20150822_132315.jpg

 

Be honest, is it too rough ?

 

 

Love the weathering, but the metal strapping looks a little crude - too heavy, I think?

 

What did you use?

 

Al

[Stubby47]

I agree, but it is a very large close up. It measures 20mm x 12mm and about 13mm high.

 

Just some micro strip, about 15 / 20 thou, reverse punched with a compass point for the rivet heads.