Here is an ex-LNER class B1 at Edinburgh Haymarket station in 1959. There were over 400 of these locomotives and they were found over the whole Eastern, North Eastern and Scottish Regions.
ex-GWR "Castle" class. Waiting to back down to Old Oak Common depot after bringing an express into London Paddington. The 86C shed code on the smokebox door shows that this engine was allocated to Cardiff Canton depot.
Another GW 4-6-0 arriving in Paddington. This time the more powerful "King" class. Pity about those route identification numbers the Western Region put on the smokebox in those days Note that the wet weather does not deter the 'train spotters'
Alan, what were the driver diameters on the Castle and Patriot classes? They look enormous, like 84 inches or so?
Alan, GWR 5051 that I saw at Didcot looks similar to the Patriot, King, and Castle classes, and it also is a four-cylinder engine. However its nameplate reads "Earl Bathurst". Is 5051 a different class of GWR 4-6-0? Also, I believe you are refering to the lettering on the front of the smoke box as the "Route Identification Numbers". What would "YO5" on the front GWR 5051's smoke box represent? Does it have something to do with its status at Didcot? [ 15. February 2005, 13:46: Message edited by: Hytec ]
Thanks Graham, that's a very nice photo. The original Earl Class is an interesting design mechanically. Outside rods, yet inside cylinders and valve mechanism...a mechanics worst nightmare I would think.
Greetings LOL, absolutely.. The GWR were famous for putting all the valve gear and everything else on the inside so it didn't distract from the appearance of the Loco. Everything was done to make the lines clean and appealing to the travelling public. I can only think of a couple of classes of GWR Locos which had all the valve gear etc, on the outside, one was an Atlantic type 4-4-2 which was bought from France as an experiment, number 101 - 104 (I think.. don't quote me on that) which was later converted to a Saint 4-6-0 (yep another 4-6-0 Class) and everything was moved inside, and at the very end of steam, they had a shunting loco which was done with outside valve gear, but that was a BR design not a GWR design so doesn't really count Having done my time at Didcot, servicing Locos, then I can assure you that crawling between the wheels of a steam loco which is "HOT" and ready to roll to lubricate the valve gear is not one of my favorite jobs Regards
Graham...my deepest sympathies! I hope your duties at Didcot were less punishing than those given to this poor chap, especially on New Year's Day....
Thanks Graham, for the picture and for the first hand insight The Great Western Railway was very image-concious, they put copper caps on most chimneys (smoke stacks) and brass beading wherever possible
They would have been carried to identify the specific train to signallers and station staff along the route. The GWR handled so many long distance summer saturday trains that the usual 'Express Train' headcode was pretty useless. With trains coming in to GWR/WR territory from all over the country as well as their own trains it would be fairly likely that some would be running off their schedules, and so assuming that an express train at a given time was the correct one would have lead to confusion, trains being announced wrongly at stations or even being sent towards the wrong destinations!
Martyn, thank you. I can understand where the merging and diverging of so many lines and trains, especially if many were running extra, before the days of radio could cause quite a mess.
