Miss Prism

Some spectacular scenery, but a lot of spectacular gradients as well...

A turntable?

The proposed plans are inspiring might-have-beens, but the aspect that struck me (and to a lesser extent with the 'Calne to Hungerford' exploration) was the sheer number of new signal boxes needed. Expensive! There is also the question of who pays for, and operates, the new boxes - there doesn't seem to be a traffic advantage to the GWR for example.

7 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

What, what ... what on earth is that?

It's a slightly modified GWR 517.

Probably a simplification, but horse traffic and cattle traffic tended not to coincide at smaller wayside stations.

9 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

The 1930's short of Paddington is magical - I take it, its early 1930's as that looks like a County tank in Platform 1 and obviously they went around 32/34.

The shot is earlier than the 1930s. The Collett stock is uniformly in 1924 livery.

I think it is just the light catching the rivet heads at a particular angle.

On colours, I guess varnished black, varnished dark green and varnished dark red look very much the same, tonally, on the photographic emulsions of the day.

157 with a roundtop firebox, at Leamington. It might have been shedded at Stafford Road at the time, which could account for the Wolverhampton chimney.

That's quite a conversion, and the moving of the moulding for the eaves panel depth has worked out a treat.

Regarding the kit headstock's square ends, I get the impression the early O4s were like that (as per the official diagram) whilst the later ones had angled headstocks. Not sure when the change happened.  The O3 build window comes after the O4, and I think the angled ends had then become established.

The plates/straps on the insides of the ends (to match the supporter bits) are very logical, but I haven't spotted them on any prototype pics yet.

On gwr.org.uk, I make the statement "The application of the crest to locos and tenders passing through the works was abandoned from 1916."

Not something I would have made up, so I must have got it from somewhere.

2 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

If the loco concerned survived into the BR period and wore black livery, early crest and a smoke box number plate, I think I would definitely go for one,

Quite a few 1854s did make it past 1948, the last one going in 1951. It is possible a BR repaint occurred, but there's no record of any 1854 getting that treatment. I suspect all the survivors were wearing their last GWR body colour.

I can't recall seeing a Pannier without insignia. (Albeit grimed over in many instances.)

Ah yes, I see now - I was misled by the brake lever going between the Vs, which is wrong. And the brakes are the wrong way around.

9 minutes ago, Cwmtwrch said:

You may wish to look at -2, where there is a photo of the wagon inverted.

Sorry, I missed that. Where is it?

The brake gear is ok. The end of the brake lever has a tumbler on it, to reverse the rotation on the main brake shaft (a la Moreton).

96 again, its rear buffers now solid wooden ones, lurking in a shed, possibly Birkenhead, Croes Newydd or Chester.

65 prior to becoming GWR 1324

Very imposing!

I meant only the fittings rather than the tank itself, which looks like a truncated 5-segment one.

The inaccessible side of 45. Rodless, presumably withdrawn on the scrapline, but I don't know when. 850 class tank/boiler fittings, with a cute top feed.

27 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

What colour did you use for the red, please?

Mikkel's recipe

Great pic! Note the mixture of lamp iron types at the front, old style on top, new style on the footplate.