melmerby

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Condensing Jumbo? I didn't know. I'm struggling to think of another example of a condensing tender loco.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Even more with tanks as well:

1 minute ago, Neal Ball said:

I bought mine as a set of 5 (I think) from Squires - only thinking I would use them for my Metro tank build. They are proving invaluable.

I can find 6 and I know the largest one was an individual purchase for loco axles, so possible the same pack of 5 + 1 extra.

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Pretty much the same thing - The one(s) I am using are called a 5 sided reaming broach.

You learn something every day.

I've never heard them called reaming broaches before, I've got 6 or 7 of them and find them very useful.

To me the difference is the way they open out holes, a broach scrapes away material, a reamer is a proper cutting tool (and as Miss P said, a lot more expensive)

I'm following the thread with interest as I have never built anything brass, although I have some new brass sides for the Ratio 4 wheelers, when I can get around to it.🙂

BTW, that's not a reamer, it's a broach

This is a reamer:

On 16/10/2023 at 17:30, MikeOxon said:

It seems that it was first used on the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, where it was named 'Cheltenham' and was built by Stothert & Slaughter to designs by Bury. 

Would've run as Midland No. 264, (then 364, then 464)

The BG locos were sold after the Midland converted the line to mixed gauge from broad only.

Would it be in books on the Midland BG locos?

Swich on point motor for frog switching:

Another thing, all track will need power feeds

Is that a passing contact changeover switch? You need one if you are using 12vDC (or AC) to switch solenoid point motors

From the 12v supply you feed one wire to the common on the switch, one wire to the common on the point motor, the other two wires on the switch go each to the other two wires on the point motor.

You should've put this into a forum topic, not a blog.

You will need insulating fishplates between the frog rails and the next piece of track and  a switch (e.g. on the point motor) to switch frog power to which ever direction it is in.

Otherwise it won't work.

Looks like the Great Western Way is far from complete in it's livery notes (latest edition as well)😞

12 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

The last 5 are pannier tanks. Post-WW1 photos of panniers that I have seen all show just the simple "Great Western" insignia as on my 1854 PT (although I suppose it's theoretically possible that one or two of the originallly fully liveried locos could have survived without repaint through the war). It is still unclear to me how big a proportion of the early pannier  tanks were given the full livery treatment, and why. At some earlier point we debated possible explanations, e.g. station pilot duties - but nothing firm.

In "Great Western Way" It states that the first post WW1 livery was applied from 1921 with Just the words "Great <space> Western", in 1923 the garter grest was inserted in the space but never on tank engines, but they kept the spacing as if they had.

Prior to WW1 all repaints would be in the full livery with whatever crest/device was used, there is no mention of "Great <space> Western" being used before 1921

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Was "matchboxes" really a widely used term?

It certainly was in the 50s

Most of the other spotters I knew called them "Matchbox Tanks"

2 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I already have Steropes on the back burner.

Bring it on.👍🏻

17 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

I can't recall seeing a Pannier without insignia. (Albeit grimed over in many instances.)

 

One or two possibilities

1490 (4-4-0PT) it has obvious lining but if there is insignia it must be dirtier than the rest of it, in the photos I have seen.

2120 ("the coach") after being shorn of its coach body and when first re-fitted with proper panniers it doesn't look like it has insignia but it could be grimed over.

(With the hybrid saddletank pannier it definitely had no insignia, when first running after removal of the dummy coach body.)

The crane tanks. They had names where the insignia should go.

Most panniers were just too dirty to determine whether they had or did not have insignia.

It's amazing that the venerable Triang Hornby R059 (I've got one) can be made to look like a proper pannier!

Very nicely done.

Quote "No. 1899 is part of a scheme to expand my Edwardian timeframe to allow occasional 1919 workings on my Farthing layouts. "

IIRC wasn't the "Great Western" insignia used from 1922-34.

Many GWR tank engines didn't get any company markings at all. I'm doing a Milestones dual pack of 850 & 633 tanks, neither of which need insignia for my use.

Quote"Medium handrail knobs and wire from Eileen’s Emporium, which sadly had to close shop recently"

You can get handrail knobs (4 different types) and wire from Alan Gibson.

I've had this so long that I can't remember it's origin.

It's too old to have such modernisms as USB, it runs on 4 xAA and has a brush attachment (if I can find it!🙂)

According to RCTS, 92 was originally changed to an 0-4-0 at Chester in 1878, by removing the trailing wheels and lopping off 2' 0", It's coupled wheelbase was 7' 4".

It had received the cylinders and frames from withdrawn 91 the year before. 

In Dec 1883 the 14" cylinders were replaced with new 15" ones.

In October 1893, No. 92 was completely rebuilt at Wolverhampton into it's later appearance and had it's wheelbase shortened to 7' 2"

It was withdrawn in July 1942 whilst being used as a stationary boiler at Wellington. The 50 yr old boiler lived on as a steam raiser there for a few years more.

At withdrawal it had run 785,000 miles in 84 years.

Not bad for such a small engine.

5 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

The inaccessible side of 45. Rodless, presumably withdrawn on the scrapline, but I don't know when. 850 class tank/boiler fittings, with a cute top feed.

 

 

Hi Miss P

Any pictures of 850s with that type of tank?

I've only ever seen 3 panel or 5 panel versions.

(Or do you mean just the fittings so applied?)

Why the steps and handrails on the inaccesible side of these locos?🙂

33 minutes ago, Dana Ashdown said:

 

One thing's for sure, this particular exercise has proven that you cannot rely on the camera, or posted images online for that matter, as true colour guides — as Mikkel has so ably shown us.

You cannot rely on anything for the correct colour, when new, because we don't have a time machine to go back and inspect a newly painted vehicle of the period.☹️

It will always be a "best guess" approximation.

4 hours ago, Brassey said:

Not so rare. You can tell it's the brown scheme from the lining and the cream cab insides:

 

 

RCTS lists all the brown 517's.  Most if not all had full cabs and outside bearings to the trailing wheels.  Most were probably also autofitted at some time.

 

PS: just the clarify, the lining on green locos was 2 orange lines whereas this has only one.  You can see that around the cab the lining is edged in black

A little detail:

The toolbox has it's padlock hooked over the end handle.

Presumably it's unlocked?

4 hours ago, Brassey said:

 

The previous picture to this in Edwardian Enterprise states "the first GWR auto-train at Southall" so the colour scheme possibly dates back to then.

 

 

 

The 'clothed' 517 is No. 833 according to RCTS, which has the same picture.

15 hours ago, Mikkel said:

 

 

 

Incidentally, there's an interesting variant of the post-1912 livery in Michael Harris' "Great Western Coaches". There is a photo of a Clifton Down set on page 51. The leading coach was not rebuilt to the shewn condition until 1913, yet there are two "GWR"s in the waist band, although one crest is not positioned beneath it. The coach behind it appears to have the "standard" post-1912 livery with one "GWR" in the middle.

 

 

 

Which  Harris "Great Western Coaches"?

P51 in mine has a Truro Express with a Dean Single in charge and  Dean Clerestory First Sleeper!