Wickham Green too

Judging by the company it's keeping I'd guess it's escaped to somewhere beyond its namesake !!?!

Must admit I was totally gobsmacked when I saw something that looked very much like an SECR van on Rails' stand at York ...... yes, I've got two but it's not a prototype that I ever dreamt of putting on my Christmas/wish list !

According to the British Locomotive Catalogue 4-4-0 No.485 & 0-6-0 No.150 were completed in July '21 and 0-6-0 No.151 in December - so the latter should be the loco you're looking for !

In Bradley's words "It is true that motive power problems did arise in 1912-3, but these were caused by the directors' insistence that Longhedge Works be closed before its capacity had been fully overtaken by the extensions at Ashford. As frequently occurs with directorial errors, the blame was allowed to fall elsewhere and Wainwright was asked to retire .... " ......................... no, I've no idea whether you're right or Bradley - but the quality of the locos produced & rebuilt by the team that Wainwright inherited / assembled is in little doubt.

All right - if you insist " ... apart from the tender and number, of course, is there any way to tell a B1 from an F1 ?." ( I didn't really think that needed saying ! ) Yes, a D1 would use the same mechanism and basically the same tender as the D but - while it is, indeed, 'another SECR 4-4-0' - it's a very different looking machine ..... and suitable for very different operating conditions.

Or a 2-8-0+0-8-0T would make it a Beyer Garratt ......... but I think Andy WD probably hit the nail on the head : without the final '0' the second '8' must be carrying wheels ( Would have been simpler to make it a tender loco ! ).

Their origins are earlier, they are stylistically earlier and production could probably be back-dated to the Stirling originals should there be a proven market ............... but yes, I hadn't strictly checked my dates. Incidentally, apart from the tender, of course, is there any way to tell a B1 from an F1 ?.

Mansell on the S.E.R. comes to mind ........... another political appointee.

.... my personal preference would be the other way and an 'E' would be a relatively simple re-hash of the 'D' - though commercially a duplication ! ............ jumping forward in time I'm still amazed that a certain well known manufacturer never resurrected their 'L1' in any ( Railroad ) form - presumably the tooling's gone ; it would be a fairly simple re- hash to backdate it to an 'L'. ( Earlier ? ...... 'O1', 'F1', 'B1' yes please ! ............................. and while I'm compiling my wishlist .................. )

........ or a Meyer ?

..... maybe different film manufacturers interpretation of bauxite too !!?!

I WILL, I WILL ................ an' if Hornby are listening you can be certain they'll announce exactly what I want the moment I commit !

Hmmm ...... gone are the days when 'the railway' didn't need planning permission to do what it wanted on 'its own' land ! Looks like my last visit was to an open day a few days over twenty eight years ago !

Ah - yes - Chart Leacon ! ............. anyone know, off hand, why that site was abandoned ? - it hadn't been sold off for housing last time I passed.

Sorry - yes I was aware of that but it would need LOTS of changes !

Nobody's mentioned the loco valances yet ...... all Hornby's garter blue issues have been fully skirted as far as I know ( not sure about anyone else ) - which makes my quest for a 1948 'Mallard' equally frustrating ! ...... nobody except Graham with his Bachmann ......... !

The one saving grace of the Bulleids is that all the tenders are fully welded and there's no need for - literal - rivet counting ........... mind you, they do come in several varieties : a) weeping at the first seam, b) weeping at ...............

Anyone know what this device was ? ( photographed at Beckenham Junction in 1991 - but I remember others ) .............. I can only guess that it was some sort of ( experimental ? ) transponder for identifying a train to the station - or identifying the station to the train !!?! : clearly not compatible with OHLE !

Have you shortened the platform ? ....... without Southern Nouveau in front of me, I'd guess the legs are in the region of 1.5 sleeper apart in the Light Pacific photo - maybe 4' or 16mm.

Which loco was that for ?

Yes it's confusing when the manufacturers/retailers refer to 'Southern Black ...... if this is No.1294 with green-shaded 'SOUTHERN' on the tender and the number on the cabside it is, indeed, the wartime / post-war livery. The first S.R. livery would have been green-lined black with brass cabside plate and the number ( 294 ) on the tender - prefixed A for Ashford - beneath 'SOUTHERN' in an Expanded Egyptian script ...... from 1931 the 'A' would have been superseded by renumbering as 1294 and a few years later the "barely visible on photographs" lining would have been dispensed with. Needless to say, this is only a generalisation and changes across the fleet would have taken time : the forthcoming 'Southern Style' volume will give further details.

48775 was, indeed built at Crewe and started out as ( LMS ) railway property - whereas the other two only carried LMS livery while on loan and didn't become ( nationalised ) railway property until they returned from travelling the world with the Forces.

..... though you could argue that that accolade could go to 48773/4 in 1957 !

Yes there is a LOT of unexploded ordnance scattered around the Light Pacifics in particular ..... but there ARE people who've devoted time and effort into researching and publishing far more info than could be summarised on here ; Richard Derry's "The Book Of ...." contains an awful lot of info but I'm sure the late Albert Goodall collated other differences that aren't fully listed therein ( smoke deflectors, ashpans, water treatment ). Yes, steam locos were, undoubtedly more 'hand built' than the types that followed and - without doubt - that's why they still have such a following.

Steamport has given part of the answer for the LSWR workshops : 34110 was the last Light Pacific to enter traffic in January '51 ( a whole six months after 34109 ! ) and the last rebuild was 34108 in April '61 ( approx two weeks after 34096 ) ........ the final loco completed at Nine Elms in 1908 was a little smaller than those - BUT it is available ready-to run in 4mm scale if you wish to celebrate its place in history : B4 No.84 ( BR condition ).