MatthewCarty

I'd be interested in hearing other's opinions on this, but one area that has always stood out for me on models is shiny silver crossheads. On most engines I've worked on the crossheads have usually been painted black, and are often quite grubby after a day's service due to dirt sticking to the oil which naturally ends up on them. Having made this point, I equally dislike the plastic looking thing on Dapol's pictures. When up close, this part of an engine has so much detail which (to my knowledge) has never been well captured or represented on models. At the same time I don't believe in adding detail for the sake of detail, but a little thought could go a long way in this area. Either way, these models are certainly looking wonderful and shiny silver crosshead or not I will certainly be purchasing. Edit: Just seen pictures of cab detail as well, definitely got to be one of the best yet, but for completeness the following stuck out to me, but probably too late to make changes. The brake handle would never be left pointing straight up, would probably be best in the brakes 'off' position, as even once stopped (to correspond to the 0 readings on both pressure gauge and dual brake gauge) most drivers will put it back into the 'off' position. Personally I think I would model with boiler pressure showing and brake gauge showing brakes off, but this is very subjective. Even more minor would be the shiny mason valve and pipework to steam heat pipe. In preservation there is almost always insulation round the pipe, but I certainly wouldn't want to claim any knowledge of whether this was done 'back in the day'.

I have fitted a standard plux22 DCC decoder to my two. The only catch is that a standard plux22 decoder only has 21 pins so without making a simple mod you can't get one of the lighting functions to work (from memory it might be the Cab interior at 1 end). The SLW sound chips are a special 22 pin version which allows for this extra function. From memory the change is a simple reversible change of just moving the connection onto an alternative place non-used place. I can't rate mine highly enough with the only weakness being the nem coupling design which for some reason can start to sag, but again this can be fixed quite easily.

Austin 1 has been in steam twice over the last week (I posted a video on the railway's unofficial Facebook group for those interested) and will go on hire to the S&D at Midsomer Norton for the summer. 7754 was always unlikely to be sold due to the huge amount of volunteer time and money that has gone into its overhaul. Hopefully this overhaul will be completed over the next 12 months and will then be an important engine for the line. Jennifer's future will become clearer over the next month, but should be steam tested at Llangollen in a few weeks time.

Not visible to you in the quote?

Here is the official press release. For those who may be interested, the coach purchased by the trust is TSO 4858. The 2 coaches purchased by a supporter were the function coach and TSO 4472.

Those in charge will comment with exact details when everything is fully confirmed, but overall the outcome was probably about as good as could be hoped for given the very competitive nature of the auction. I believe some were slightly shocked that the bidding went as consistently high as it did. £38 000 for a MK1 certainly makes the 1:76.2 scale Bachmann models look cheap at roughly a thousandth of the price!

As a volunteer at LR, I can tell you that things have been feeling ‘brighter at Llangollen’ since the new board took over and gave some clear and frank updates as to what the financial situation was. Only way is up now! The auction ends middle of next week, with the accessible adapted TSOs, 12 ton crane and road railer being the priorities for the trust to purchase. After this we will really be able to start to think about getting things ready for services to begin again. A lot of work has been taking place in the background but work should start to be more visible soon (particularly with the easing of COVID restrictions as well). Thank you to anyone who has made a donation. If anyone feels able to make a donation no matter how big/small, they are appreciated. The appeal page can be found here https://llangollenrailway.enthuse.com/cf/rolling-stock-appeal

I'm sure you're right about the use of 'standard', I was just interested to see the drawing of the intermediate tank, as I'm not sure I've seen any drawings (even simple ones like these) of this tank before.

Interesting to see the intermediate tender pop up here, referred to as standard in the text, also the frames seem to be what we’d expect on an intermediate.

Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to these tenders? My first thought was Collett 3500 because of the height and fenders going round the back, but they're on Churchward frames with Churchward style handrails.... Also found pictures of 2927, 2931, 2933, 2937, 2945, 2971 with intermediates, can post links if wanted...

Similarly here is 4092 with what is presumably tender 2376 https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=S&id=4092&loco=4092 A slightly confusing one is 4032. According to https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&id=4032&type=S&loco=4032 4032 was never fitted with a 'standard' Churchward 3500g tender. Yet there are photos showing it with one at the time it was supposedly with intermediate 2381!

Interesting you mention 4089 with tender 2210. This is one of those reported to been converted to an intermediate pattern. This tender is now preserved with 4073 but has standard sides (http://www.ten.rhrp.org.uk/tens/TenderInfo.asp?Ref=19). According to https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&type=S&id=4073&loco=4073, this was also the tender 4073 was fitted with from new. Coincidence?!? Also strange is that when you click on the tender details on br database, 4073 isn't listed... only 4089 as you mentioned. Maybe a picture of 4089 between 08/07/1925 and 04/1926 when it gained T1785 can be found. Here is a picture of 4016 in 1926 with what presumably is 2380 according to https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=locodata&id=4016&type=S&loco=4016

It's an interesting question to consider. I suspect the only way to get an answer now would require a lot of research to try and find a period of time where you could pinpoint high sided tenders connected to more than 10 locos. I don't think this is quite impossible but would certainly be very difficult. The other thing is (as with 7812 above) there are plenty of questionable identifications. I've just another one here which claims to be of 7822, but the absence of any other pictures of 7822 with high sided tenders makes me doubt it (Picture from The Transport Treasury)

Yes I think a similar angle photo of a manor with a standard Chuchward tender is required to be sure either way with 7821. I've just been having another look at the Waters Manor book and he similarly misidentifies 7814's Collett tender as an intermediate, but the Collett frames and fender round the rear are clearly visible in both the book and this one Another interesting point from the Waters book is he mentions at the start that the intermediate tenders were nos 2374-2383, and that tenders 2210 and 2222 were converted to intermediate pattern tenders (presumably just the tanks, not the slightly different frames as well). If correct it would seem 2210 was converted back again as I think this is the tender now behind Caerphilly Castle. There is also a picture of 7806 with an intermediate tender which he says is 2343, so either this was another convert he didn't mention at the start or the number is misquoted. Either way I'm often shocked by how frequently these pop up in pictures given there were so few of them.

Is that not the Collett 3500g one? I think it's the only Manor to have been recorded with the Collett tender. The more I look at that picture of 7821, the more I think it must be an intermediate. The join between the tender side and fender looks to be about in line with bottom of the cab window and the characteristic row of rivets is just about visible (in line with where the top of the numberplate would be).