K&ESR Yank Tank - LMR No.300

Our volunteers have been busy applying the lining and lettering to our newly overhauled USA tank. The engine is being turned out in Longmoor Military Railway livery as scrapped sister locomotive No.300 and will eventually be named 'Major General Frank S Ross'.

The engine will enter traffic this weekend and work our Santa Special trains throughout December. The final details including nameplate and whitewall tyres will be added early next year ready for our 2018 season.

Doesn't it look fab?

 

A freshly painted loco always looks smart; well done to all concerned.
However which loco is it please; 30070 or 30072?

 

Are you going to remove the "modesty panel" for the sake of authenticity or is it too useful?

 

Looking forward to seeing her in the flesh. Been quite a while since I had some Yank Tank thrash.

 

I was going to ask the same sort of question, except 30072 is based at the KWVR.
The two USA's on the KESR are 30065 and 30070

 

It is 30070.Note the other one the K&ESR is 30065.

 

If you look at the photos of the " real" LMR 300 the cab is wrong, if you want to be authentic the only authentic livery this engine can carry is the Departmental livery it carried up to withdrawal

 

Brilliant to see Wainwright back in service and I know it's only paint, but pretending it's another loco makes me sad. For years I've wanted to see it (and/or Maunsell) in proper Ashford livery - i.e. the correct shade of green and number style, with painted name.
https://www.rcts.org.uk/photographs/archive/380/FRE/FRE0322C.jpg
But alas it's not to be.

Martin - the cab and bunker (which have been modified post-preservation) are 'wrong', whatever livery it carries. And what has happened to three of the lamp brackets on the front?

 

30072 is based at Ribble no longer at KWVR.

 

Didn't take long for someone to say the livery was "wrong", did it?!

 

Actuallly in this case the livery isn't wrong, the loco is,its had post preservation mods done that were not changed i was part of the group who worked on this dont forget, and that question was asked several times by people with in the restoration and maintenance team ,

 

Nice to see another loco return to traffic, the majority of passengers will love the new livery.

 

For someone like me who is red green brown colour blind blue is an excellent colour. I know someone will always find fault with the authenticity but I think she looks wonderful and am really looking forward to seeing her.

 

Now you *are* being pedantic. Maybe a more positive response, rather than picking holes in everything, would be nice.

 

At the end of the day, I feel like if an individual or organisation has put many thousands of man hours and tens (or potentially hundreds) of thousands of pounds into restoring a loco, they have the right to paint their loco whatever colour they want! While I admit I wouldn't like it if a loco came out painted pink with yellow spots (which is an extreme example), this is a loco carrying a livery which some of its classmates would have carried in 'active service' as it were, which AFAIAA has not been seen in preservation (although I am happy to be corrected on that, I've not been around for preservation's entirety). Who cares if the roof is slightly different? There are minor external differences between the SR USA tanks and the Yugoslavian 62s that have been imported, but people are still happy for 30075 to carry a BR livery it never would have carried, but locomotives which are very similar aesthetically have. I personally see no difference between that situation and this.

There are other modifications to locos in preservation which you could argue mean locos cannot carry certain liveries authentically, things such as air-braking locos or fitting rocking grates and hopper ashpans come to mind. But people don't care about those because they are minor changes which don't massively change the appearance of the loco and improve the loco's versatility. I don't know the full details of the cab and bunker modifications applied to this loco but I would presume there were good reasons behind it, and at the end of the day, the loco still looks and works like a USA tank. To most people who see it in operation, that's all that maters.

 

But it's not LMR Frank S Ross. It's 70 / 30070 / DS238 Wainwright.

If painting it in LMR livery is desired, why not do so but with its own identity? I don't understand the whole thing of pretending a loco is a different one. Yes I know it's been done many times before... and I still don't understand it.

Why can't we be happy with what we have, rather than pretending we have what we don't have by having locos 'play a character'? Bizarre.

 

Because if we painted it with its own fictional LMR identity, there would be people throwing a hissy fit about that livery not being authentic for that specific loco, that '70 Wainright was never an LMR loco, if you want to paint it in LMR colours why not resurrect a lost original LMR loco?'. Whatever happens when a paint brush goes near a steam loco, there's going to be somebody who has a problem with something about the paint. Why not just be happy about the fact that it's a loco in operable condition, rather than rusting away in a siding somewhere with nobody to care for it, and gloss (pun partially intended) over the colour covering the metal?

You want to be happy with what we have? We have a Yankee Tank in LMR colours resurrecting a long-lost classmate. That's what we have, so why not be happy with it?

 

Go buy your own loco, restore it and then you can play your own version of the Authenticity Game as much as you like.
Well done the KESR team for overhauling the loco and for resurrecting an historic livery for a USA tank that has not been carried in preservation. If we stick to your rule we'd never many long lost liveries.

 

S

Speaking from Oz...

The thing is running, having been overhauled. It is presented in the identity that another USA Tank Loco carried. I'd say people decrying this change to the outer few microns of this locomotive ought to be happy with what has been presented to them. If you like to photograph trafficable steam locomotives, here's a whole new one for you to enjoy.

I think it looks very nice and top marks to the KESR for taking the decision to present it like this.

 

I like it.
Nice to see something different. At the end of the day, visiting families are the bread and butter of preserved lines and a "nice blue engine" will be attractive to them.
Well done to the restoration team.

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