Steam Locomotive Restoration of the Decade 2010-2019

So a Terrier is built by the LBSCR and carries the variety of liveries that company applied, it gets sold to another company - take your pick of those that bought them - so gets repainted. Becomes part of SR stock so gets another company livery, ends up in BR use so gets another company livery applied. Ends up working for a heritage railway after the demise of steam and it would be following precedent if its new owners applied their own corporate livery to if they so wished. Nothing would be inauthentic if they did and of course some railways did indeed apply their own liveries in early days. The history of a loco did not end with it's retirement from BR/NCB or whatever other company it served with. Some enthusiasts are far too anal. A locomotive basket case is resurrected to working order yet all they worry about is the colour of the paint.
And just to annoy the purists, have some of this.

Stanier 5XP 4-6-0 45699 'GALATEA' by KING COBRA 92, on Flickr

 

I disagree, only one of those owners is claiming to try and represent the past, and in all likelihood, educate the public about it (charitable objectives and all that).

 

P1:
Nominations 12, OT definitions 1, OT Livery 2, OT other 4
P2:
Nominations 7 OT definitions 3, OT Livery 1, OT other 10
P3:
Nominations 4, OT definitions 4, OT Livery 4, OT other 9
P4:
Nominations 2, OT definitions 6, OT Livery 9, OT other 4
P5:
Nominations 1, OT definitions 0, OT Livery 20, OT other 0
P6:
Nominations 0, OT definitions 0, OT Livery 20, OT other 0
P7:
Nominations 1, OT definitions 0, OT Livery 19, OT other 0
P8:
Nominations 1, OT definitions 0, OT Livery 21, OT other 0

Totals
Nominations 28, OT definitions 14, OT Livery 96, OT other 27


Think we all need to take a look at ourselves...

 

Hmmm...

If restoration equates to returning an ex BR locomotive to running order for the first time since withdrawal in the 1960s, I believe these are the choices from 2010 to date : (corrections or omissions welcome)

2807
4270
4942/2999
6989
6023
34053
35006
35018
41313
45379
45699
46447
73156
76084
80097
78018
92134

 

There we have concise statements of two points of view, conflicting but both reasonable.

However: as for the corporate livery, what if it is not purely that of the new owners; for example a BR crest (any version) on a loco that obviously no longer belongs to BR?

And as for trying to represent the past, how important is the particular combination of livery and constructional details (chimney, cab, whatever) for one period of a loco's history if it will be hauling rakes of coaches that it could never have hauled at that same period? If the train as a whole isn't authentic, how much does it matter for the loco not to be?

One consideration, of course, is that the answers depend partly on how easy or difficult it would be to make more of the details correct, such as details of the livery, which involve only paint and possibly transfers.

 

I’m sure I’ve seen WCRC publicity inviting potential passengers to step back in time. What is a ride in1950s coaches behind a steam locomotive if it’s not representing the past?

 

There might be a diesel on the back or not, it’s indistinguishable, so a nice representation of a 1960s express apart from the silly colour of the loco. Whatever floats your boat, I wouldn’t have bothered pointing my camera at it.

 

Wainwright P class 178 (withdrawn from BR service 1958 and sold for industrial service; last ran in industrial service 1969; first ran in preservation 2010; still running today).

Tom

 

I already mentioned 47406 (Jan 2010) further up the thread.

As for liveries, all I can add is that my Grandmother, who could see the WCML from her kitchen window from the 1940s until the early 2000s, once swore to me that LMS engines were green and LNER ones were red. Who am I to doubt her, I wasn’t born...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Noted - My mistake on 1178 - I had wrongly assumed that it was an early restoration on the Bluebell. A great little engine as well.

 

Indeed, my bad. First for the decade too.

 

Thats roughly in accordance with the criteria I use on my own Locos DB (Although sometime it's been so long since a loco last ran even in 'heritage' ownership that it may be better described as 'restoration in progress' once they do get around to working on it ).

 

I covered operational necessities several posts back: some things are a requirement to operate the engine, coach or other piece of machinery; there is no way around them and the alternative is to shove it in a museum. I can't see that Mr Average isn't interested gives a licence to perpetrate anything or everything; other people do care and you're not upsetting the aforesaid Mr Average by appealing to those people.

 

So when does Galateas history end, just so we can be sure that such a thing never happens again?

She is an asset owned by a commercial company (as she was in BR ownership and LMS ownership) unless we are now saying that all such locomotives must be frozen in time 2018 is as much of her history as 1945?

 

I suggest that the problem with Galatea's livery is that it appears "historical" but is neither historical, nor presented as a "what if". Were her owners to paint her exactly the same, but with the 98xxx series number and a corporate logo on the tender, I for one would have no issue of principle* with that, as it would reinforce the idea that the locomotive's history is continuous, not just pre-1968.

* - please note that my aesthetic dislike of BR era maroon on steam locomotives remains unaltered

 

On another thread we are talking about 60009 and it has been correctly pointed out that this loco has been in John Cameron's hands for over 50 years but was only an LNER/BR loco for about 30 years. I can get mightily confused if someone says it is 80 years old but only has a history of 30 years. You can't really refer to its working life as I think all will agree that it has worked pretty well over the last 80 years, not just its first thirty. Is the period when it carried the name Osprey not going to form part of its history? What makes something 'historically correct'? Perhaps if/when it is finally retired it will be a museum piece and can be 'restored' to any one of its many guises or will the TPWS, GSMR etc all have to come off to make it this fictional thing referred to as historically correct?
As far as I'm concerned, Galatea is still a working loco and continues to create its own history just as 60009 has done. Has anybody actually made a claim to it being restored to a historically correct condition or is it just continuing to earn its keep as a working loco. Does it matter, either?

 

Come on, keep up that man. It has now morphed into Alberta. I can't wait to see it as Farnley Junction's Bihar and Orissa. Any chance Mr. Smith, please.

 

Even on a Duchess or a Princess?