Current and Proposed New-Builds

It was latterly owned by the late Bert Hitchen. Not sure whether it's still in the family or whether it was sold on following his death.

My own eccentric WIBN new builds would have to be the Bishop's Castle Railway's "Carlisle", the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire's "Severn", and just for a bit of pointless fun working replicas of "Gazelle" and "Shannon."

 

Presumably due to the short coupled wheelbase and two outside cylinders?

 

Locos similar to "Galloping Gertie" are still extant in Uruguay:



Cheers,

Alan

 

Talking about locos still in existence overseas, wonder if there are any Baldwin 2-6-0s similar to the ones imported by the Midland, GC and GN in 1899-1900?

 

Started looking .... found this ..... thought "bl**dy hell, it's humongous!" .... went and put the kettle on.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/smu/00052/smu-00052.html

Can't find anything in Australia (a couple of 2-6-2's was closest). The other likely location is S.America, but the proliferation of gauges alone is daunting and it's a big place, to put it mildly. No wonder no-one's found "Lew" yet!

The decidedly (over?) ambitious http://www.steamlocomotive.info/index.cfm has search options, which returned nada for "Baldwin : 2-6-0 : 4'-81/2" but given the number of 'unknown' entries, it's entirely possible there's something there, but without a baseline from Baldwin's export records (see first paragraph!), it'd take a month of Sundays.

Are you absolutely sure you won't settle for a BP? There's a fair few of those kicking about!

 

Class 393 not 373.

 

Good catch. Thanks Andrew, original post duly corrected.
.... and that was stone cold sober... with my specs on..

 

A much more promising website Martin... and a new one to me. Cheers
The photo put me in mind of the candle lit end of the sheds in Douglas. Can't think why!

 

I've always really liked the design and appearance of the Taff Vale A class with GWR boiler and curved tanks.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taff_Vale_Railway_A_class

It's just an interesting hybrid to me, and superior version of the 56XX. If I Had the parts, the know-how and a spare boiler from Didcot... I would make an attempt.

Perhaps...

 

Not a bad choice that, but as there is a surviving Taffy Tank, perhaps something from one of t'other valleys lines whose livery hasn't been seen in over 90 years? Don't worry... I'm not suggesting anything bendy! There's plenty to choose from, even just looking at 0-6-2t's

 

"Taffy Tank"?!

Take a thousand lines "I must not use naff expressions dreamed up by Steam Beano"

Paul H

 

Yeah, ok, even a fanboy has to accept Cook as a reliable source. Still, they were very pretty locomotives, and I for one, would rather see a Churchward county re-created than a Hawksworth county.

 

I find the nickname "Taffy" really cute for some reason.

Sounds like a 1930s cartoon hero's name, I dunno. (you don't wanna know what many here call the unpopular 56xxs) Don't believe the hybrid could be called a Taffy, proper.

I love the idea of taking the best bits of locomotives from the Big 4 and making a super-machine outta them.

 

I'm sure Cox and Riddles would have claimed that's exactly what they did. However there's an argument that they failed to produce anything that was more than the sum of its parts.

 

If used by, definitely not originated by, it's been around for yonks. Not being given to quoting publications I don't take (HR & NG World preferred here), I recalled it as a collective term for the TV tank loco fleet from somewhere or other in my dim and distant past.

Whatever, the point stands that with two survivors, the TVR is better represented than the other valleys lines put together, with just one hardly typical Cardiff Rly loco still with us and zilch from the Barry or Rhymney. Not much, if anything IIRC from the smaller absorbed S Wales lines either.

 

Sad to say, but 28 was often affectionately referred to as Taffy when running at Caerphilly

 

Which shed did Caerphilly locos come under? Excuse ignorance of matters Great Western, but I can't identify anything specific in GW or BR lists.

 

Probably Rhymney 88C, or Cardiff East Dock 88B. Clearly in Rhymney Railway territory a Taff Vale locomotive would elicit some comment.

 

I was referring to in preservation in the 1980s