bluesparkdave

In which areas of the UK was limescale staining of steam locos more prevalent?

And its arrived!

The balance has just been taken for my pre ordered weathered version. The wait is nearly over!

Me too! Hope it comes before Christmas!

Thanks for the reply confirming this as being the case in 1958. Would anything have changed between 1958 - 60? I'm not completely sure when red nameplates were introduced, but I think it was later than 1960?

I'm looking to portray my Clan Stewart as it would have ran in 1960. I'm guessing it should have black running boards, black cylinders, black nameplates, an early crest, and no electrification flashes? And possibly still fairly clean? Does this sound about right?

Yes, I've had my pre ordered Clan cancelled.

Yes, I've had a Clan cancelled

Its roughly 19' x 9'

Thanks for all the information, very interesting and useful. I was born and lived in Ayrshire until I moved to Rochdale in 1984. I used to travel on this line on visits back to Ayrshire, particularly on the Euston - Stranraer train if possible, as it stopped at Ayr which was the nearest station to my hometown and meant not having to go via Glasgow. I'm a bit too young to remember the heyday of steam in SW Scotland but I can just about remember the last year of the Crabs on the Waterside coal trains. (1966) My dad worked at Waterside and once got me an (unofficial) footplate ride on a Crab from the reception loop to the exchange sidings and back. To a 4 year old, this engine seemed enormous, and I can still remember that smell of heat, steam, and oil that you only get on the footplate. I was hooked on steam locomotives from that day! Anyway, even though I travelled on the GSWR line in the 80s, it just didn't have the amount of traffic that was there in the 60s so I have decided to model it in 1960 when, I gather, almost any kind of loco could turn up! So I'm collecting Duchesses, Princesses, Britannias, Clans, Scots, Jubilees, various Standard classes, Black 5s, Crabs, and even an A3 Pacific! Just need to get the garage cleared and make a start! Again, thanks for all the information.

Thankyou for the information. My aim is to model the ex Glasgow & South Western Railway main line in 1960, so it would seem to be that any Duchesses, or Princesses(?), on a diverted WCML service would be AWS fitted by this time.

Were all Stanier Duchesses fitted with AWS by 1960, or were some fitted later, or some not fitted at all?

On the Waterside branch in Ayrshire, the British Rail loco carried out its own shunting.The BR line was protected by a set of trap points at the closed Waterside station and the length of line between the trap points and the reception loop effectively formed a long headshunt. The BR loco would bring it's train into the complex via the trap points, then along the "headshunt" into the reception loop,which could hold 58 16T mineral wagons plus brake van. It would then go into the exchange sidings,pick up the loaded wagons, and then come back past the empty wagons into the headshunt. It would then shove back, couple onto the brake van, and go back onto the main line via the trap points. The NCB locos had access to all of the BR owned track within the complex buy couldn't enter the BR branch to Ayr because of the locked trap points which could only be operated by the BR crew. Incidentally all the NCB locos had plates attached which denoted that they were allowed to run on BR owned track, obviously allowing them to collect empties and deposit loaded wagons to and from the exchange sidings and loops. Hope this helps.

Has anyone fitted a Lenz usp1 inside a Hattons Barclay? If so, where was it located?

Just fitted a Lenz mini gold decoder to my Barclay NCB No.10 today but I think it would benefit from a USP1 stay alive module as well. Has anyone managed to get one of these into this small loco? I'm really liking these pictures of weathered locos and I'm going to weather No.10 at some point. In NCB days my father worked at Waterside, Ayrshire, where No.10 was based and I used to spend some of my school holidays getting footplate rides on the pugs. All of the Waterside pugs were kept fairly clean and dirt wasn't allowed to build up to a great extent so it should just be a fairly light weathering to portray a loco that is hard-working but cared for. Happily No.10 is still at Waterside today and is preserved in working order. Although its good to see her still running, my mind goes back to the mid-1970s when she moved her fair share of coal along with the other pugs!