The Stationmaster Has Been to an Auction -

[trisonic]

I agree with Jonathan. GER man through and through until I started reading Mike's post's on RMWeb. Also getting interested in the combo Taff Vale. My late brother lived close by at Ton Teg.

 

Best, Pete.

[The Stationmaster]

First an interesting couple of views - plus a crop of one of them - showing 5396 with what I have now traced to be 'the last train at Tidworth' on 17 Sept 1955

 

 

 

 

And staying with the moguls, in earlier years, 4360, noted as Westbury, undated -

 

 

And up to Craven Arms shed for 9014, again undated -

 

 

and a bit of trimming and exposure adjustment reveals its bedfellow in the shape of Fowler tank 42385

 

 

And a nice looking 0-6-0 in the shape of 2292 at another unknown location

 

 

2380, looking in nice condition, noted as Worcester 

 

 

5967, noted as Chester

 

 

5311, which appears to be at Oxford

 

 

And finally - fairly certainly at Oxford - is what appears to be 2930

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BG John]

Is it me, or is there some strange animal sitting on 9014's smokebox?

[buffalo]

And finally an interesting 2-8-0, the picture is noted as 3816 and al the details indicate that is correct but looking closely at an enlargement it looks to me more as if the cab side window is plated over rather than being ordinary sheet.  The location is unknown - until somebody, hopefully, recognises it?

I'd go with 3816 as it has the flat-top motion plate above the running plate, as fitted to 2884s and different from the continuous curve on the 28XX. According to RCTS, 3814-66 were built during wartime with solid cab sides, the windows being inserted after 1946. What you are seeing as plating is probabbly just the handrail. A couple of photos of these wartime builds show the same L-shaped handle as would have been fitted if the window were present.

 

Nick

[sparks]

And a brief look up the Valleys as 8444 runs into Hengoed High Level  (I was a bit wary of the note on this one which said Hengoed Low level and after a bit of delving I'm now convinced that it is actually the High Level station, the caption has also been altered on the original scan but not the compressed 'net version)

 

img392 - 8444 runs into Hengoed Low Level.jpg

 

I know this has already been said, but this is definitely Hengoed High Level, not Low Level. The underbridge in the foreground carries the NAH line over the Rhymney line below, and the low level platforms on the Rhymney line are cut into the hillside below to the right. The photo faces west towards Nelson & Llancaiach; Hengoed viaduct (or Maesycymmer viaduct if you lived on our side of the valley!) is to the east behind the photographer.  The underbridge was missing for many years but was replaced as a footbridge when the viaduct was opened up as a cyclepath - it can be seen in this shot of the low level station (looking south):- http://www.flickr.com/photos/gartcosh37884/7420211628/

 

As you may have gathered this was my local station when I was growing up. Thanks for posting these!

Edited October 29, 2013 by sparks

[jwealleans]

the dry side

 

Doesn't always seem like that from a pushbike... it isn't as flat as they say either.  However anything in that direction is welcome.  Shame you can't get the smell which used to come from the Spillers factory when they were boiling up as well.....

[The Stationmaster]

I know this has already been said, but this is definitely Hengoed High Level, not Low Level. The underbridge in the foreground carries the NAH line over the Rhymney line below, and the low level platforms on the Rhymney line are cut into the hillside below to the right. The photo faces west towards Nelson & Llancaiach; Hengoed viaduct (or Maesycymmer viaduct if you lived on our side of the valley!) is to the east behind the photographer.  The underbridge was missing for many years but was replaced as a footbridge when the viaduct was opened up as a cyclepath - it can be seen in this shot of the low level station (looking south):- http://www.flickr.com/photos/gartcosh37884/7420211628/

 

As you may have gathered this was my local station when I was growing up. Thanks for posting these!

Thanks, and glad you liked it - I thought it was quite a nice picture but was rather puzzled b y it saying 'Low Level' although I only did the route once (well once in each direction) between Quakers Yard and Pontypool Road.  As it happens a former colleague of mine, hmm, 40 years ago, was the last Stationmaster at Hengoed Low Level.

[The Stationmaster]

I would go with 3816 as well.  If you click on the photo and enlarge it, it is definitely  a Collet style cab, but without the side window.  The rear cut-out is the 2884 shape and the roof extends back further than the Churchward design.  Compare it to the cabs on 5396 &4360 in post #135, which are Chruchward style then look at 2292 lower in the same post, which extends backwards.  Some confusion may have occurred because Mike has typed 2816 in post #133 ??

Thank you Paul - Post 133 will be corrected folks (sorry about that but I keep seeing Stars, and so will you later all being well with the checking etc process of the most recent batches of scans).

[The Stationmaster]

True astrophysical ones or 4000 class ones.....  ??  If the later, I along with many others cannot wait!!!

The latter 

[Rugd1022]

Nice selection you've blagged there Mike... regarding '2920' in post #135, it's most definitely Oxford, the gantry is still in use today albiet with colour light heads attched and the brick base of the water tower is still there, butting onto the rear face of the up platform

 

Edit : I'll wager '5311' is Oxford too...

 

Edit number 2! Looking back through the photos it's clear that the cleanliness of locos was not quite what a lot of us would like to belive it was in 'Company' days... it's easy to see that some of them have been cleaned but there are smeared oily rag marks aplenty, particlarly on the what would have been green painted areas of the locos... how many GWR era layouts have pristine locos and coaching stock with pure white roofs on them... too many, probably! Each to their own and all that, but most BR are layouts we see have a fair degree of weathering scattered about them... there seems to be a perception that the GWR in it's entirety was like a shiny new pin before WWII!

Edited October 29, 2013 by Rugd1022

[br2975]

Apologies for posting this singleton (and for it being a bit large) but it intrigues me.  A note on the back suggest that it might be GW No.52 which would make it exRR No.10, an A Class engine which received a taper boiler in 1933 (if I'm reading the RCTS book correctly).  The staff do look a bit pre-war-ish but two wagons don't so the suggested number could be wrong.

 

Penrhos has now added the following, very helpful, information about the engine -

 

Definitely an ex Rhymney A1 class.  The sandboxes are the give-away.  The first 2 batches of A class and the M class where the only inside frame 0-6-2T Rhymney locos with sandboxes above the footplate sand boxes.  M class side tanks over hung the footplate.  At sometime (sorry I don't have my books to hand) the boiler was changes to a Belpaire firebox type which made it almost the same as the latter batches and it became an A1.

 

Given what has been said about the first wagon of pit props I reckon it might be 57.  I have various photos of 57 with the correct GWRified bunker.  Only one is dated (1938) but it had a flush riveted smokebox.  A much later photo shows it with proud rivets.  It's not 53, as 53 received an inverted V shaped rain gutter on both sides of the cab roof.

 

The second wagon is a GWR iron mink with post 1927 doors.

 

The next question is location and I am minded to think that it could well be the top end of Aber Jcn yard round the curve towards the Senghenydd branch - the number of through lines is correct, the dead end sidings on the left look to be correct but I haven't counted them but there should be allotments over on the right if the only maps I can find are correct.  Any help with identifying the place gratefully received.

 

img392 - GWR No.52, ex RR No.10 pre 1933.jpg

 

Mike

 

I've pondered long and hard, and think this is Aber Jct. and the lines curving away right are those to Beddau Loop Jct. and behind us the line would continue curving toard Penyrheol - which means Aber Jct 'box should be just out of shot to the left.

.

The line to Caerphilly would bear away left, the other side of the light coloured building which appears to look like a goods shed.

.

The Rhymney tank would be to the left of the box, and facing us, in this link.

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/auchlander/6784136101/

 

 

All conjectural, of course !

.

Brian R

Edited October 29, 2013 by br2975

[The Stationmaster]

Sorry for the late running - operating difficulties (like I couldn't operate the 'puter because Mrs Stationmaster was operating it).

 

So those 'Stars' - well it's back to April 1925 but a very familiar spot by the sea.  In the first view the engine on the Down train has not been identified on either the print or by me; Nidge well be interested to see that this top ranking engine working a Class A train is distinctly grubbyi, I have lots of pics/postcards of pannier tanks from the inter-war years and most of them are filthy! (the engines that is, not the postcards).

 

In the second picture the engine is noted as 4044 and the train as the 11.50 Liverpool - it was probably taken on the same day.  And finally a centre enlargement of the second picture with a slight adjustment of the exposure.

 

 

 

 

A bit further west and, it would seem, a few years later we have an unidentified 45XX shunting at Newton Abbot

 

 

And winding the clock back 3021, a Dean single at an unidentified shed

 

 

4130 (but not a prairie) noted as being at Slough - which it indeed appears to be

 

 

And staying with that theme 4137 noted as Oxley (Shed), 25 May 1927

 

Edited October 29, 2013 by The Stationmaster

[Ravenser]

Nice selection you've blagged there Mike... regarding '2920' in post #135, it's most definitely Oxford, the gantry is still in use today albiet with colour light heads attched and the brick base of the water tower is still there, butting onto the rear face of the up platform

 

Edit : I'll wager '5311' is Oxford too...

 

Edit number 2! Looking back through the photos it's clear that the cleanliness of locos was not quite what a lot of us would like to belive it was in 'Company' days... it's easy to see that some of them have been cleaned but there are smeared oily rag marks aplenty, particlarly on the what would have been green painted areas of the locos... how many GWR era layouts have pristine locos and coaching stock with pure white roofs on them... too many, probably! Each to their own and all that, but most BR are layouts we see have a fair degree of weathering scattered about them... there seems to be a perception that the GWR in it's entirety was like a shiny new pin before WWII!

 

2380 at Worcester being a case in point - the top of the boiler is matt not gloss - is that soot?

 

Some fascinating and remarkably early material

[The Stationmaster]

We start with a couple of visits to Reading Shed and first we come across ROD 3027 (according to the note on the print) at the depot on 13 April 1927.  As the location is correct I'm trusting that the rest of the information is too

 

 

And then on 19 September 1931 a gentleman named Arthur Smith had his picture taken standing in front of 3286 - this one isn't (to me at any rate) so obviously Reading but I'm again trusting the notes on the print.

 

 

Now down the line to Swindon Shed where we find 5926 in August 1958

 

 

Still at Swindon but now outside the works on7 June 1953 we meet BR Standard 78009

 

 

And also at Swindon, outside the works, is BR Standard 92005 in this undated view

 

Edited October 30, 2013 by The Stationmaster

[jwealleans]

Cracking shot of the ROD - still got the 'continental' buffers fitted (does anyone do those in 4mm?) and the bufferbeam holes where the safety chains have been taken off.

[The Stationmaster]

And another mixture of big engines starting with an impressively angled view of 4703 which is noted to be (and appears to be) at Laira, date not recorded

 

 

Now a bit up the line, at where I'm reasonably sure is Exeter St Davids we come across 1019 in its single chimney form.  This engine is a bit of a favourite with me as I back when I was a lad I cabbed it at Challow when it was on its running in turn after being fitted with a double chimney - dad and I were offered a cab ride to Didcot and back but fearing we'd be missed at my grandparents we had to turn it down - before we walked back the 2 miles plus to the farm.  

 

 

Still heading up country our next stop is Bristol Temple Meads for another 'County' in this case 1028 noted as 30 June 1956

 

And 

 

Now the starting point, almost, of the line of 2 cylinder development at Swindon which ended at Hawksworth's 'County' - 'Saint' Class 2908 at an unidentified location although I think it might possibly be Swindon

 

 

And to round out the GW 'big' engines we head for the Northern Division starting, rightly, at Stafford Road with 5026, undated

 

 

Then down the line to Salop as so many Western men knew it with 6803 and 5061 on shed, date noted as 29 August 1937  which would make 6803 hardly a year old

 

 

Finally we get to Chester and 6815 in this undated view

 

[The Stationmaster]

Now for something completely different SR 574 which I thinks is an Adams T3 Class engine but no doubt those from south of the border will soon put me right - clearly in SR days, date and location not noted but I wondered if it might be Fratton?

 

[jwealleans]

I'm getting dangerously outside my comfort zone here, but is that an Adams 'Jubilee' 0-4-2 behind the T3? LNER van with what looks like an almost complete new end in the right background as well. You don't see that modelled in pre 1948 days very often.

[Richard E]

Sorry to be flippant but the vans to the right of the T3 instantly made me think of troublesome trucks from Thomas the Tank engine with the way the paler planking almost creates the 'face'.

[petethemole]

That's actually two light cloured (grey?) wagons in front of the vans, the new planking on the right hand van is darker in tone.

[Coach bogie]

Oxford, for the Metro tank??

Metro tanks worked the Fairford branch.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Graham_Muz]

Now for something completely different SR 574 which I thinks is an Adams T3 Class engine but no doubt those from south of the border will soon put me right - clearly in SR days, date and location not noted but I wondered if it might be Fratton?

 

Hi Mike 

 

Yes indeed an Adams T3 she was withdrawn in July 1933

 

I can't fully confirm that it is Fratton as I am away from home and reference material at the moment but it looks possible to me.

 

I'm getting dangerously outside my comfort zone here, but is that an Adams 'Jubilee' 0-4-2 behind the T3?

Yes Jonathan that is an Adams A12 'Jubilee' behind.

Edited October 30, 2013 by Graham_Muz

[The Stationmaster]

So - just to show Jonathan it was worth the wait here is an E4, noted as Kings Lynn 23 April 1933 and the number is noted as 7462 but I'm not entirely sure about the 6 when the pic is enlarged although a withdrawal date of 29 May 1937 is also noted on the print.  (btw I presume the 'A866' was possibly a negative or file number?)

 

 

SR 900, very obviously if Class V ('Schools') and noted on the back of the print only as 'first day in service' but it would be interesting to know if anyone can identify the station - note the poster board extreme right - my suspicions are Victoria, Eastern side, but that is more of a guess than anything else.

 

 

Concluding the steam 'foreigners (there some more Eastern ones and LM to come but no more SR apart from a coach and a wagon) is an SR ex LSWR Drummond T14 looking very spick & span, at Waterloo but date unknown.

 

 

And now a real foreigner!  The GWR's first gas turbine delivered in BR times of course and numbered 18000.  Worth including I think because although of poor quality it is interesting in showing the loco at Oxford - standing on the Down Main at the middle crossovers and lacking a tail lamp which suggests it might have been uncoupled from a train.  In his book about the gas turbines Kevin Robertson notes that 18000 worked a test train from Swindon to Oxford on 24 April 1950 but a photo suggest its train might have been too long for it to run round at the spot seen in the photo below.  So quite what the photographer captured here is not entirely clear - unless someone knows better?

 

Edited October 30, 2013 by The Stationmaster

[The Stationmaster]

I'm getting dangerously outside my comfort zone here, but is that an Adams 'Jubilee' 0-4-2 behind the T3? LNER van with what looks like an almost complete new end in the right background as well. You don't see that modelled in pre 1948 days very often.

The van has definitely got 7 new planks visible Jonathan - they can be clearly distinguished on the original scan but below them there are an indeterminate number which have not been renewed.

[gwrrob]

The van has definitely got 7 new planks visible Jonathan - they can be clearly distinguished on the original scan but below them there are an indeterminate number which have not been renewed.

 

OT Mike.Trying to pm you but your inbox must be full as it won't accept it ! Sorry to post here.