6023 King Edward 11

6023 is indeed back in the works to complete the restoration and to iron out a few problems highlighted during the steam test.
Her first public appearance is planned to be on 2nd April.

 

To answer a point made earlier in the thread, the recent GWS Echo suggests the support coach is to be repainted into blood and custard livery for its mainline trips - this presumably depends on sufficient volunteer labour to complete this as well as any engineering issues that need to be resolved.

 

Spud II's looking real good in gloss blue. They started marking out for the lining today.

 

Love the nickname - has anyone made a nameplate to match?!

Richard

 

Just out of interest, for the emblem on her tender, will it be the same as 5051 on her tender, with the BR lion? I remember 60007 having the same on her tender.

 

It will indeed be the early BR emblem, as carried by locos from c.1950-1956. As BR blue was only used during this period the later crest would be incorrect.

 

BR Blue was quite a short lived colour scheme and I don't think any loco got round to carrying the later crest in BR Blue.

 

Interesting thank you for your response people.

Also just to reinforce Pannier Man's comments, http://www.6023.co.uk.

Discussing with a colleague of mine who has contacts within, I understand there have been many comments of praise on the quality of the paint finish. You can see why!

 

This is a tremendous achievement by a very dedicated group of individuals. The joy that this will give to untold numbers cannot be under-estimated. Very few will comprehend the enormity of what has been achieved, which once more demonstrates the incredible engineering skills and expertise that made the Country the pioneers in railways.

On a technical front, I have two queries which I am certain will be swiftly answered by those involved with the project throughout, and the GWS, namely:

1. The outside cylinder steam pipes are of the later BR design, that were not present when the Kings had single chimneys; is there a technical reason for these not having been reverted to the original GWR type, or is it possible that a double chimney may be fitted at some stage in the future?

2. The step on the smoke box door was originally fitted when the lamp bracket was on top of the smoke box, and hence could not be reached without a step. The lamp bracket was then moved lower down, onto the smoke box door, and the step was removed. This occurred early in GW days, and hence for the current livery it is technically at variance with the presence of the said step. At the time of the new lamp brackets being fitted the smoke box door steps were removed at Swindon. Naturally there could have been a few exceptions for a brief period but photographic records indicate that all the steps were taken off in GW days, pre-Nationalisation. Has the fitting of the step now been done for operational reaons?

I hasten to add that these are not criticisms, but questions that have arisen after comments made by my Father. He has vast photographic records of all the Kings from the early years at Laira, when he was in the Royal Navy, up until the demise in the 1960's. He saw all the Kings in GW times, from 1940, and has never seen one in service with the step still fitted to the smoke box door. I am certain that the meticulous attention to detail and measures that are always taken by the GWS will mean that there are good reasons for these matters!

Well done to all! The satisfaction that must have been felt upon the return to steam and, more significantly, movement under own power must have been immense. May you all enjoy the coming years ahead, and have some weekends to relax!

 

Seems a shame to use it...........

 

The BR style outside steam pipes were introduced on the Kings in 1953, well before the double chimney era which commenced in 1955. The are photos of single chimney Kings in 1954 and 1955 with the later style steam pipes. The last King in blue livery was 6014 which reverted to green in Feb 1954, so it is just possible, but probably unlikely that any Kings were still blue when fitted with BR steam pipes.

David

 

David,

Many thanks for that. Apologies. I misunderstood that my Father had questioned the later steam pipes in relation to the blue livery. He agrees entirely with your explanation, and that strictly if the colour changes the correct Green livery would be the BR variant, as opposed to the GWR one.

I believe that post nationalisation there were issues with the original outside steam pipes cracking, and hence the revised design. As to whether this was merely age- related fatigue I am unaware.

Thank you once more,

Raymond

 

I had not realised until you posted that there were so many detail variations.

This page makes interesting reading: http://www.masterpiecemodels.co.uk/GWR-BR-Kings/

 

Slightly off topic, but being 20 years too young for BR blue on steam...

how widespread was BR blue applied...

Was it selectively applied to a small number in an experimental way or was it widespread applied to many members of a class ?

if anyone has any figures for any classes I'd love to know.

 

BR Blue was standard for high-flying (class 8 and above I believe, but I don't think that was a hard and fast rule) passenger express locos - so Kings but not Castles, Duchesses but not Scots, Merchants but not WC/BoB etc, but that on these selected classes it was widespread but only for a very short time (1950-1?). Other smaller express locos went to green straightaway.

I don't know how many locos were painted overall, but I would guess most of the locos in each class got the treatment as the crack express locos were frequently repainted. That being said, there weren't that many top express locos out of BRs stock of 20,000+, so it would still have been a very low number.

I think this is a definitive list of classes to which it was applied:

Kings
Merchants
Duchesses
Princesses
A1s
A2s
A3s
A4s

 

In the early 1980s I was involved with repainting 6000 at Bulmers in Hereford, during the preparation process we flatted back a small section of one cabside. We went back through 7 repaints in BR Green underneath that were 2 repaints in BR blue and just a single GWR green under them all.

So in the its 12yr of BR service 6000 had 9 full repaints. It would have carried BR blue for 2 to 3yrs.

Incidently of the 7 BR greens only 2 were the same the others were distincly different shades!

 

At a guess for point one I think the old straight steam pipes were known for cracking, so might be a move to keep the improved new models. Although maybe not 100% correct to the livery.
However to correct you on your second point... the steps lasted longer than you might think! Not on all, but the odd one did get through. I guess it makes her stand out from other Great Western engines that are about. Something different.

Shot taken in 1951.

 

Thanks for that photo. Very interesting shot, as Swindon records indicate all were altered well before that period. Perhaps on occasions they may have exchanged a smokebox door in its entirety when at the works, with the removed article being kept for spares. It may have then been likely that the odd earlier/unmodified one was used at a later date, albeit being non-standard. Who knows, but nice to see that photograph.

 

I don't think the A2s were given express passenger blue. Pity - otherwise Blue Peter would have been blue.

 

I considered putting a question mark next to them, as I wasn't sure about them whereas I was about the others.