Halls - unloved, unsung?

Can't we just deck the Halls with boughs of holly & leave it at that !

Bob.

 

we have a winner!

 

That was back at post 33 - keep up

 

Very good.

 

Haven't read all of the posts, as the thread started to get extremely silly. That's Hall from me for a week as i'm off on a long Hall flight to Lanzarote tomorrow morning.

Bob.

 

Not perhaps as inspiring as the Southern Railway which, knowing that the Spanish Ambassador would be on a certain train from Dover, provided "Sir Francis Drake".

 

It is said Churchill's funeral train left from Waterloo for the benefit of the French President.

 

As I recall, the initial plan for the Schools class was to name them after counties, but it was realised there were insufficient southern counties for the whole class. Then the plan was to name them after economically important towns and cities. However, the drawing office queried the actual class name, as it was standard practice to cast it into the nameplate. "City class" was redolent of an inferior and decidedly antiquated type of western 4-4-0, whereas "Town" class would offend the purists if the names of cities were nonetheless included. But to name them "Towns" and thereby not use the names of the great southern cities (Salisbury, Winchester, Canterbury etc) would cause complaints from the relevant civic dignitaries.

Then the chief draughtsman at Eastleigh had the bright idea of Schools: there were numerous schools in SR territory and school specials were an important part of the SR's special traffic, and there were good PR opportunities for the naming. All well and good for the first batch, but as the class multiplied, the choice of good schools on SR territory diminished - which is why you have such redolent Southern names as Cheltenham (Gloucs), Marlborough (Wilts); Repton (Derbyshire); Stowe (Bucks); Malvern (Worcs); Radley (Oxon); Uppingham (Rutland) and Shrewsbury (Shropshire). At least there was a return to form for the last ten...

Tom

 

What about the Southern one - Cant grip at Hall ?.

 

Just as well the class ended there as we might have seen Grange Hill or Waterloo Road.

 

I seem to remember the Bluebell put "St Trinian's" nameplates on Stowe one April...

Tom

 

what's the current status of Dumbleton Hall? i last saw her in the shed at Buckfastleigh - in ticket but out of use.
cheers,
julian

 

Still sat opposite Buckfastleigh platform awaiting it's turn in the works, paintworks seen better days...

 

And 30926 has sported the name of Grosmont Infants.........

 

Is it likely to be in the queue for long? Same with 1420 for that matter, seen a long time out of use.

 

At least the Great Western didn't have an accident involving "Slaughter"!

 

Think the main loco being worked on currently is 6412, so doubt much will happen in earnest with others until that's outshopped, I don't visit the SDR often enough to be able to tell you much more I'm afraid, 1420 was partly dismantled last I saw, though the boiler and tanks were still on, so probably not anytime soon.

A quick flickr search finds these shots from 2013

1420
Dumbleton Hall

 

Cute!

Have always felt it is a shame that we ended up with 928 rather than 917...

Tom

 

Strange that all three preserved examples come from the batch named after schools not situated in the SR's geographical area. 917 would certainly have been more appropriate for the Bluebell (especially after, say, about 2030 when the westward extension is built), although top of my list of engines of any class I wish had been saved is 903 because I went to school there. I recall that my maths teacher, who was a keen train enthusiast, had one of 903's nameplates on the wall of his classroom. I'll bet it is somewhere a lot more secure now!

 

whoops - duplicate post.