Miss Prism

A pic of 1324, after it became 1324 but before Swindon fittings were added:

https://picclick.co.uk/Steam-Railway-Photo-1324-Ex-RHYMNEY-CARDIFF-393115370772.html

The space between the leading and front driver looks very similar to the innards of a standard Metro tank to me.

608 in GWR days. The Swindon smokebox looks to be longer than the RR original. Belpaire box. Tapered boiler of course, but not sure which one it is - the short safety valve cover indicates it is probably a later type. The cab is original, but the bunker is a Swindon thing. The centre balance weights have holes in them, rather like the Rhymney 52. The cab vertical handrails are knobless, but this characteristic seems to be common on many Rhymney locos.

31 on the scrapline, so probably sometime in 1951. Not a great pic, but it shows the topfeed routeing and a prominent front sandbox. The cab steps look off-centre to the cab aperture.

Why the Westinghouse?

52, in front of an old Duke, probably on a scrapline c 1949. It's got cab shutters and has picked up a set of Collett tapered buffers. Toolbox adjacent to the large front sandbox. The 'admiralty' joints on the rods have been retained. The centre wheel balance weights have some odd holes drilled in them.

I'm getting all the images (and it's not because they are in my cache, as I cleared that first thing this morning).

Probably in its last days. Extended smokebox. I don't think any of these A Class got Belpaires. Looks a bit like a Jinty to me!

48 minutes ago, N15class said:

I'm updating my blog, but as soon as you edit anything it seems to repost it.

I was happy to be reminded!

I agree that 19th century boiler swapping was not regular, because the dimensional interchangeability had not been so well established at that stage, and besides which, trains of boilers to-ing and fro-ing between Swindon Wolverhampton smacks of bad planning, so I guess it was a comparatively rare singular event.

There's another angle to this, which is the blurring (probably not the right word) of Swindon and Wolverhampton product. RCTS does a valiant job in trying to describe the complexity of the 645 class boiler situation, but suffice to say the impression I came away with was one of boilers being swapped between the different works. I wonder if there were trains going between the two places with boilers on Crocodiles?

Coincidentally, I was sorting through some Armstrong Goods pics, and this one jumped out at me: for what is ostensibly a Swindon-built loco, everything above the footplate is distinctly Wolverhampton.

http://www.gwr.org.uk/armstrong-goods/391-worcester-small.jpg

40 minutes ago, JimC said:

According to RCTS a lot of them lived at Swindon.

Presumably to work the carriage and wagon shops. The CMR workings were rarely photographed, and I really don't know what locos the GWR used for the mineral workings - presumably small and medium-sized saddles. There was always a smattering of Buffalos at St Blazey.

40 minutes ago, JimC said:

RCTS states that the frames were lengthened at the back to fit in the bunker, but when I line up this photo with my drawing it seems as if in fact they didn't. Instead the cab entrance was moved forward. At least I'm finding that the cab spectacle plates and wheels only line up with the photo if you assume they didn't extend it. What does the panel think?

I'd certainly go along with the cab entrance being moved forward - the bodywork was a complete rebuild.

There's a strange phrase on the Wiki pages regarding the locos - "they were intended to be used in pairs, bunker to bunker". Are those rear buffers short ones?

Looking at a CMR map, I'm not sure those engines ever encountered a high-level coaling stage (unless there was one at Newquay?). Probably done with buckets from low-level stages.

Probably not long before withdrawal in 1933, 1397 has a lower, fatter chimney (which would be transferred to the 1361s when these 1392s were withdrawn), and is looking very 1361-ish, with a 2-segment 1361 tank. Note the wrap-around handrail.

What tiny bunkers these engines had!

(image re-instated)

Here is an un-Swindonised 154, except for insignia and perhaps the safety valve cover. I don't know whether it was ever Swindonised. According to John Daniel's site, it was withdrawn in June 1934. There is no obvious sign of the long tanktop handrail, but maybe it is obscured by the angle of the picture.

On 16/02/2022 at 21:11, Brassey said:

Maybe an Atbara or two.  Dean Single?

I may be wrong, but I don't think the Dean Singles worked over the Reading to Taunton direct line. Not quite sure why - although not as flat as the London-Bristol billiard table, I'm sure the Singles could have coped with it.

I look forward to discovering when window frames changed from the dark colour to white!

I did mean sandbox (rather than toolbox) in my earlier post, which I have now corrected.

Yes, the buffers are unique.

In the later pics, the handrails have been truncated at the front.

Larger version:

The valence shape at the front looks different to that of the drawing. The springs are more substantial. The toolbox sandbox is in a different position (to clear the injector).

I haven't got anything more square on than:

http://www.gwr.org.uk/pannier-pics/795-small.jpg

(image re-instated)

The luggage is very eye-catching. I want to know more.

Lovely work.

I think this was originally a Monmouth Models kit.

Were the steps really white?  (Good for visibility though.)