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I personally hope these ideas to turn it into a Star never gain traction. Ive pointed out before there are precious few GW locomotives named after locations in Gloucestershire, a trivial reason for many outside the county perhaps, but one might point also to the fact that there are no other British Railways build single Chimney Castles, so if we want to look on how 'Swindon' might have looked, Thornbury Castle is pretty much it. Much as I regard Clun, I somehow don't think anyone has an intent to turn her back to single chimney, and I wouldn't want them to.

Id also love to see a Star running on the line, but its not as if we don't have one that cannot be restored. I don't see why we have to cut up a perfectly decent Castle in order to achieve it.

I hope Thornbury makes it back someday. I dont see why not, its not as if Earl of Mount Edgcumbe was in better condition when restoration started.

 

Reading had two station pilots, a down one usually a Castle or sometimes a Modified Hall to rescue trains going west to whatever destination.
Also an up one, originally a mogul, latterly a Manor, to rescue trains going to Paddington which was only 36 miles so a larger engine wasn't needed.
They were often used as well with the then new-fangled hydraulics always conking out.
EDIT.
I posted this before reading Bob's post above. Basically what he said ties up with this post. I was also going to mention the steam heating problems as well. Always remember the situation where a boiler failure diesel would pull in, the diesel would uncouple & pull foreword.
The Reading steam pilot would back on to the train, then the diesel would couple up in front of the steam loco. An interesting aspect of this was although the steam loco was only there for steam heating purposes, it always assisted the train when pulling away with great effort. Not just a boiler out for the ride.
As Bob also says, Reading shed always had a relief pilot loco on standby at the front of the shed ready to replace the original one if it had to rescue a train.
Happy days I remember well.
I think there was a bit of a steam reprieve late 1963, early 1964. If I remember correctly the Westerns suffered bogie/wheelset problems after one derailed which meant they were partially withdrawn for rectification. As a result the Hymeks which should of taken over the Worcester/Hereford services (the last steam route on the WR) in late 1963 were used to replace the said Westerns on other duties, mainly the South Wales services I think.
The continued use of steam on the Worcester/Hereford routes resulted in the testing of the Castles for the May 9th run in 1964.
This is how I remember it all anyway, unless anybody can confirm otherwise.

 

Logically though weren't the Castles just another series of Stars? Otherwise why would the numbers start at 4073? OK there are three major differences between lot 217 and Lot 224, but they are all differences that had just made for sub classes in other cases, even more so with rebuilds...

 

Castle numbering started with 4000, 4016, 4032 and 4037. I presume that these four locos were rebuilds.

 

Rebuilt from Stars I believe.

 

Well when you get down to it, a Patriot is just a Jubilee with an older boiler, but it didnt stop someone going out and starting to build one. Not that im complaining.

I do wonder financially how well a Star would do compared to a Castle, I mean I think there was something like 10 percent extra power capacity in a Castle (if OS Nock is to be believed), but you cant help but think on railtour duty in this day and age they might need all that. You only have to see some of the strange patches the Earl is now working on (Scotland, Settle and Carlisle) that an express with a Halls boiler might not make massive sense, particularly as even over Sapperton they tend to double head. I dont know, I guess Lady of Legend when they get her on the mainline will be some indication. I suppose there is no reason why they cant go all out internally to give it more power (larger superheaters, Kylchap, etc).

Re Thornbury, exactly how complete is it? I know its all in bits, but was it missing many parts when it arrived in Crewe?

 

Weren't the Abbeys Star rebuilds as well, formally 4063-4072.
The last batch of Stars to be built.

 

Not pretty!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thornbury_Castle_GWR.jpg

 

Yep, also 4009/100A1/100 as it was variously known and of course 111.
5083-5092 were officially new engines that used a lot of secondhand parts from 4063-4072.

 

Well, at least its vaguely the right colour.

 

Is it good for the frames to be sat like that with no support at the front end ?.

 

Do you think this was official recommended practice, or the crews' own desire to give the old locos a bit of gusto?

 

As a steam pursuer in the early 1960s, I was once on board the 19.15 Paddington-Hereford on a Friday, when the Hymek failed at reading, to be replaced by a 79xx from 81D, which was standing "West end pilot". 'Fraid I can't give the exact date (1962 0r 1963), but it reminded me: "station pilot" meant different things to different regions. You would often see two scruffy V2's standing at Perterborough North, one facing north, one south, as "station pilots". Grantham, Doncaster and York certainly had at least one pilot as well.
I'm sure it didn't reflect the likely failure rate! But these engines would possibly have been good mechanically; I seem to remember reading that the famous Bill Hoole once had an A4 with faulty injectors on the Talisman and "crowed" (at Huntingdon?) for a replacement, although he arrived at Peterborough some minutes in advance of his scheduled passing time. This was a V2, with which he lost five minutes to Grantham while getting the engine right, than arrived at Newcastle on time. I fancy these must generally háve been engines with an hour or two diagrammed 'stand-by' while awaiting later work, but at Crewe, the station pilots in my cleaning days were jinties for transferring train portions - they wouldn't have got too far with one of the midland region 600-ton expresses...

 

buseng said: ↑

The Reading steam pilot would back on to the train, then the diesel would couple up in front of the steam loco. An interesting aspect of this was although the steam loco was only there for steam heating purposes, it always assisted the train when pulling away with great effort. Not just a boiler out for the ride.​

Do you think this was official recommended practice, or the crews' own desire to give the old locos a bit of gusto?​

After messing about adding the steam loco at possibly an unscheduled stop there would be understandable pressure to get on with the journey & recover some lost time! - all available power would be used to achieve that.​

Also the steam loco is much better worked rather than being dragged to get the cylinders up to temperature, free them of condensation and get the oil flowing properly.​

 

ilway

Were you a regular at Reading at that time? I would put the date as 1963 because the Hereford turns were not Hymek inflicted in 1962.

 

Could be as it is now for diesels moving a loco in light steam, periodic opening the regulator for lubrication ?.

 

Don't GWR locos have a particular setting of the regulator that ensures that a small amount of steam (and therefore oil) flows through the cylinders?

Tom

 

when I were a lad, (1969 0nwards) the West End pilot at Reading General was always a Western and it was responsible for topping and tailing the many parcels trains,shunting vehicles as required to and from the middle road between platforms 8 and 9 and platform 3. The East end pilot was always an 08 and these made a nice warm refuge in the winter and that was concerned with shunting to and from platform 10 and the middle road (where both pilots normally lived). How we got to board the 08 involved a little trespass, but no one seemed to care. In addition there was a trip 08 which transferred wagons from Scours Lane to the Low Level sidings . First steam loco I saw at Reading was 31618 en route to Kent and the second was KGV triumphantly returning to the rails (and the rest is history)