Turkish 8Fs

Phew! I may well end up helping restore 2874 one day, I think it'll be a long enough job for me to be able to migrate the short distance from Winchcombe to Toddington if the fancy takes me, I can slap a brush about if nothing else!

We seem to have gone off topic on a thread created because we went off topic what we're we supposed to be off topically talking about? Oh yeah, Turkish 8Fs, well here's one just to get us back on track again:

 

Is it me being a bit thick, an optical illusion, or is the boiler not lined up with the cab? Looks all wonky in the photo of the footplate!

 

You're right it does! Looks normal on all the other pictures though...

 

Browsing the latest Steam Railway this morning I noticed within an article about--I think--the Patriot, that the Churchill 8F group are dismantling a North British built 8F in Turkey " for spares", so I wonder if this includes a boiler for 44901?

As an aside, the article also mentioned that the Patriot people are no longer waiting for another bogie wheelset from this Turkish 8F, and are having a set cast, to go with the existing set they have from 48518.

 

I hope so, can't wait to have a black five on the GWSR! It has been "happening" for so long now the Patriot people have got bored waiting!

 

The first wheel is already cast!

 

Is that for Blenkinsops rail?

 

Optical illusion ... picture taken using a 17mm wide angle lens! Apart from the rods dumped in the tender and a couple of coats of black paint, generally sprayed on top of all the flaking rust and crud, the loco was exactly in the condition that it came out of traffic ... even the firebox still contained the remnants of its last fire!

 

If it's an optical illusion it is a very convincing one. The window frames at the edges of the picture look equally inclined to the vertical, implying that the camera was near enough horizontal. If anything the window frames on the left look slightly more inclined, whereas the fittings on the centre line of the backplate are not vertically aligned.