Where's this?

Guildford? Eastleigh? Weymouth?

 

Ireland?

 

Ireland?

Tom

 

no fooling youse...Broadstone Dublin....nice picky innit

 

A couple of giveaways for them not being SR. One is the style of smoke box fastening. The other is the scruffy appearance and lack of smoke deflectors - you can have either in the Southern ones, but unlikely both together. Nice view though.

Tom

 

they alays look odd to me because it looks as if the running plate wasn't widened when the gauge was

 

And also the extra cutaway on the front of the tender.

 

The "widening" was a slightly gimcrack affair, with insufficient stiffness in the widened frames. The cab wasn't widened, and Irish drivers who were used to those extra inches complained they were too narrow.
Still, they were handsome and useful engines. I've always slightly preferred the Irish version. Designed, of course, by a fine Irish engineer.

 

Given that they came essentially as a kit of parts, I guess there wasn't much opportunity to stiffen up the frames - if you wanted the price, you took the bits pretty much as they were. I believe in any case that the frames were always something of a weak point even in the SR ones - the original K class engines had been designed down to a weight that meant that the frame plates were probably about 1/8" narrower than ideal, and that design was incorporated in the N and U class locos. Most of the U's (and I think many of the Ns) had entire replacement frames in the late 1950s, or at least replacement front ends.

Tom

 

True about the kit, but of course they didn't use certain bits to get the right gauge. This included frame spacers, but as I remember they (the MGWR at Broadstone, who assembled the first ones) only used a single spacer in the middle instead of two top and bottom.
A major rebuild of the class was proposed in the late 1940s, but there was no money. It is hard to overstate just how cash-strapped GSR/CIE were.

 

Yes, I think that dieselisation became the only option in the early 50s because of the state of the steam fleet.

 

If only a Woolwich Mogul had survived...! Could be doing Santa Specials this week with 461...

 

Not a whole loco - but the tender behind the Bluebell's Q class 541 is one of the "Woolworths" tenders. Which interestingly is designed for a RH drive loco, but the Q is LH drive, so the tender handbrake is on the wrong side!

Tom

 

Didn't know that, how interesting. A nice piece of history.
Although a bit narrow gauge as far as I am concerned!

 

A Woolwich Mogul did survive. 31874 is under overhaul at Swanage and will run mainline in 2017.

See www.swanagemoguls.com

Donations appreciated.

 

Good plug! I should, of course, have specified that I meant a broad gauge version. Unless you're proposing an Irish tour for 31874? Might take a few tweaks......?!?!?

 

Where is Alf when you need him....?? Although his speciality was going the other way from 'broad' to 'narrow'

 

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