1442

Finally made the pilgrimage to Tiverton
Many attempts later this is the best photo I could get.
I understand all about access but does it have to have a gantry around all four sides so you can't see the blessed thing properly?
Museums don't seem to get this.
otherwise an interesting museum

 

Nice photo. I don't know if its just me but I never really like seeing locos cold and dead in museums, I like to see them on heritage railways, doing what they were intended to do

 

They asked me what I thought of 1442 and I told them I'd rather see it in a yard with nothing around it, but I understand that there isn't oceans of room in these places and there were hundreds of really interesting items on display

 

Never been to that museum but from your picture, it looks as though just omitting the walkway you were on would enable a front 2/3 view without walkways in the way while also allowing close access around the other side, to the cab and across the back.

All about careful design.

If you really want to find some locos it is impossible to get a good shot of, try the excellent Dutch National Railway Museum in Utrecht - 2 unique locos appear only to those riding a 'railway history roller-coaster' in the museum - that has been controversial! (Generally, the museum is well designed, as indeed is that attraction - the issue being which locos were chosen to be in it!)

Steven

 

OTOH there aren't many places where you can get up and close at that sort of angle for a cleaners eye view.

 

Although my own feelings echo Cartman's, when it comes to purely museum exhibits, I'm sort of with and not with Reading General on this. Yes, locos look better in the setting for which their construction intended them, but for the under cover storage issue, over the medium to long term.

As a sprog, axle high to it's bogie wheels, I always though "Caerphilly Castle" looked so sad and lifeless at South Ken, but at least it was safe from the gas-axe...... unlike so much else at that time.

The thing, perhaps unavoidably, missing from museums is context, in terms of sounds and smells and (in the case of locos) heat. While dyed-in-the-wool enthusiasts might hanker for the authentic engine shed experience, I'm not at all certain many of Joe Public, the bulk of any museum's visitors, would relish leaving ankle deep in ash, with grease from a crosshead smeared across an expensive Armani* top. As always, it's horses for courses, I guess.

So long as we have working steam (and let's not forget) in so many more places than 49 years ago, we've little cause for complaint. Indeed, there's every reason for optimism that, by engaging with the public, museums will find new and better ways of displaying exhibits.... and if the occasional museum loco makes it into ticket for a working holiday on some or other heritage line, for the odd decade here and there, so much the better.

Edit: Having been to Utrecht, I can confirm the points in Steven's post. Quite how having the station open again (which it wasn't during my last visit many moons ago) affects the experience, I can only guess, although I saw recently that plans are afoot for considerably expanding the site.

*other brands are available.... apparently. I'm equally indifferent to them all!

 

I think the HRA website lists over 100 such places around the country

Tom

 

At that sort of height and distance all round Tom?

Don't get me wrong, I think the shed access the Bluebell gives to its out of service locos is great, but I've never been close to one of them at that sort of height, let alone all round. Even at other places I've been to platform height is common enough, but that seems a few feet higher.

I bet plenty of modellers have walked round that gantry taking close up shots at every conceivable angle. At Didcot you can walk all around 1466 at rail height, grabbing all the detail below the footplates, but you haven't got those close up modellers eye views above the footplate: even if she gets shunted close to the coal stage you haven't got that close up flexibility.

Every type of display has its pros and cons, and its nice there is variation. And if you want a whole locomotive view of a 4800 then there is 1466, 1420 and 1450.

 

I was being slightly sarcastic in suggesting that there are over 100 places where you can get a cleaner's eye view - by becoming a cleaner.

I agree that for museum access, not many places can give you an equivalent view, though as @Bean-counter says, perhaps with better design, a gallery along the wall side (where visibility is difficult anyway) coupled with ground level access on the other side and a bit of space might be the best of both worlds.

Tom

 

Personally I think it would have been wonderful if more little villages and towns had saved a loco from their local line, before it was closed, for their local museum. Lines like the Southwold Railway, L&B, MSLR...

 

Aye..... the prices being asked for locos 50 years ago sound paltry today. IIRC, £800 would have saved O2 "Chale", £1200 would have secured a "K" from the scrap line at Hove, but these numbers need to be seen in context. My pocket money at the time amounted to 2/9d (about 13p!) a week and my mother could do the family food shop for £5 per week for the five of us!

Yep, that all came across a bit 'ee-by-gumm' to me too, but you get the point!

 

Or Bury Museum an ex L & YR electric driving motor coach from the Manchester-Bury line!!

 

I've been to the Bluebell recently and there are no gantries but photos are if anything as difficult due to the lack of room and general gloom, happily this is being tackled currently I think.

I appreciate that disabled accesss is desirable and I applaud that, but the gantry on the far side could have been omitted giving unrestricted views of the loco. It's the safety railings that are the problem, after all they are only there to stop people falling off the gantry, floor level access would solve this.

I recall a loco in a museum I saw recently which was beautifully displayed at ground level with full length photos possible, but some fool had positioned a bench alongside it, obviously if the bench was on the opposite wall and facing the loco, you could sit on it and admire said loco., as it is you can sit on the bench and admire the wall, whilst ruining everyone else's photo of loco-with-bench

 

more

 

Why is it that locomotives always have to be displayed for the benefit of photographers wanting to get a nice 3/4 shot for their records? How about being able to get up close and see different parts of it? There are literally hundreds of locomotives displayed 'normally' - I think what they have done in Tiverton is terrific and the locomotive is a proper feature of the museum. They deserve tremendous credit for looking after it so well.

Sent from my SM-J330FN using Tapatalk

 

i think my photos show you can't get up close to see different parts, it's effectively fenced off, behind bars if you will. As for giving credit to the job the Museum does, I have done that several times in this thread.

 

In the early 70's I was able to look at 1442 in detail, including the footplate. There is piping fitted which is non standard and I asked Ernie Nutty about it when I saw him later at Didcot. My description was not good enough and it was not until I got a copy of Peto's book on the 48/58 locomotives that I discovered that 4842 had been fitted with deconcentrating gear (fulfilling a function also performed by continuous blowdown) and in this I think the locomotive is unique in preservation.

 

I am sure she is better off in the museum. Originally displayed out in the open and exposed to the elements when I photographed her sometime in the early 1970s:

 

her custodians asked if I knew there were two others preserved.