LMS2968

Probably. It was a common way to save a path all over the country.

Now that is unusual! Granted, it was unusual to see a Stanier pacific double heading anyway, but when it happened there were three basic rules: The assisting engine had to lead The assisting engine had to be a 4-4-0, 4-6-0 or 2-6-4T Two (Stanier?) pacifics could not be run together. Whether or not this last prohibition included other classes of pacifics or if here the rule was being broken, I cannot say.

Ye gods, they take me back! I was a volunteer at Bridgnorth in 1970 (As I am yet again!). C309: 5110 was a new arrival then and I remember changing the exhaust injector with a direct replacement. I imagine she has two live steam ones now. The Lady A(rmadale) - she never got her full title - looks well; I fired her many a time. In fact, apart from 813 and the Peckett, and W22, of course, I had firing turns on all these engines. C310: I'd say the engine at the back is Jim McNally's Peckett 0-4-0ST

I too would comment on this, but unfortunately I used up my stock of superlatives a long time ago!

ScR engines were generally overhauled at St Rollox, and while English works tended to keep the same TYPE of boiler with an engine, Scottish works didn't. The top feed could migrate from one end of the boiler to the other following each Heavy repair, or even disappear altogether.

Collin Giffard, eat your heart out!

I think the one of 5553 is at Red Bank on the Winwick Jct - Golborne Jct cut-off.

Totally off topic, but possibly of interest. There was a strange system of working off Bamfurlong Sidings, Wigan for traffic on to the ex-L&YR at Hindley No. 2. The train would epart with a loco, brakevan, train of wagons and another loco at the rear, without a brake in between. This would depart over the Whelley Line and run past De Trafford Junction, where it would reverse on to the spur up to Hindley No. 2, the former train engine now banking up the grade. On joining the L&Y, the erstwhile bank engine would drop off, leaving the train to what had been the banker on starting out, which was often a WD!

It was the late 1970s - early 1980s, presumably when they were displaced by HSTs, when Deltics were regularly used on the Liverpool - Newcastle services. It wasn't a one-off special.

When the Horwich Crabs were being designed, George Hughes ordered a suitable tender, based on the later ones attached to the Dreadnoughts, to go with them. Needless to say, these would have matched the width of the cab. Henry Fowler, on taking the CME's position late in the engines' design process, ordered that they be paired with the LMS Standard 3,500 gallon type, derived from the Midland article. The Horwich and Stanier Crabs often receive criticism for the mismatch between their cab sidesheets and tender sides, but they weren't alone. When built, the Royal Scots also got this tender, as did the early Jubilees (some of which had them very late on), although some of the 5Xs managed to dump them on to 8Fs, which therefore also share the ignominy.

There's just no pleasing some people!

Yes, Coach it does. There's such a wealth of detail in the layout I'd never got around to looking for a backscene!

I'll reserve my comments for when the other photos are uploaded, otherwise I'm in real danger of running out of superlatives! Beautiful work, Jason.

It is most certainly a Black Five heading north out of Preston under the Fishergate bridge.

A friend of mine was a driver for Virgin at Longsight, but had been a driver on BR since the early 1970s and worked over the MSJ&A regularly; he was a bit surprised at the idea that a check rail was needed as he had no recollection of there ever being one. I've seen a photo by Jim Carter (copyrighted) of a Class 40 at the same spot, but it does not show one.

Nah, not dirty enough: you can still read the number! Sorry, Jason!

I'm not aware of any Stanier engines ever running with the non-triangular rims, but concede that it might have happened. These wheels were amongst the first things Stanier introduced on his arrival in 1932, and applied them not only to hias own engines but to left-over builds to earlier designs: Horwich Crabs, Baby Scots and, I think, Fowler Class 4 tanks. These wheel sets would then move around different engines within the class at overhauls and a mixture on the same engine was not unknown. On rebuilding, the Scots received many new parts as well as the boilers, and some seem to have picked up Stanier type wheels while others retained their originals. The only non-Stanier wheels I can recall on a Stanier engine were on a couple of 8Fs which received WD 2-8-0 wheels, for some reason.

Ahh, good old 4767, for some time a resident of Bank Hall, so whether or not she might ever have found her way to Bacup, I couldn't say. That valve gear looks just the sort of thing you'd lap up though, Jason!

Your assumptions are correct: Tare = unladen weight. The three figures were just for precision. There were 28 pounds (lb) in a quarter, four quarters in a hundredweight (cwt; 112lb), twenty hundredweight in a ton (2240lb). Considering that no-one was that bothered when the wagons were being loaded, such precision seems a waste of time!

They're rough looking signs, are they? I'd better ring Specsavers!

They sat on the former shed site, but in the open! South of the L&MR main line and east ot the Edge Hill - Wavertree curve. The line from Wapping on to the Circle dissected the shed yard, but at a higher level, of course.

Cab interiors were painted cream in the works, and this happy situation lasted until the first fire was lit, after which they became noticeably darker. Back in 1968, like many an enthusiast, I spent a lot of time on various footplates. In 1969, I became involved with the 8F Society at Bridgnorth, and was amazed to find out that all those black cab interiors I'd seen should have been cream all along! Basically, unless you got an ex-works engine, you'd never know!

And I thought I was only one old enough to remeber that!

I'd say quite a while yet. I've just been asked to provide drawings of the class, whicj I've done.

No, they have to do all the route in between first!