Baldwin "Lyn" new build.

It also raises the question of what colour toppings to have - green olives perhaps...

Alright, I'll stop now

Steve B

 

Well, that's me off to the bookshop then....

 

Rather than going to a bookshop, please consider buying online from https://www.lynton-rail.co.uk/shop/shelf/railway-books

Every purchase there will help the L&B!

Mike P

 

FYI, there is a minor update on the 762 Club website...

 

Presume when Lyn has been running they have gone slowly over points?
A week of commissioning modifications including wheels is probably not long enough to take Lyn away so presumably will be done at Woody Bay?
In NG magazine there was a hint of being taken to the WHR for load testing, which is now not needed?

 

Lyn is apparently visiting the WHR for the superpower weekend. I expect the cheapest solution to their issue is to lift it on the jacks while it is at Boston Lodge, and re-profile the wheels there.

Tim

 

... and now another one!

 

Lovely clip .... that's cheered me right up. Thanks for posting.

Obvious question: Is there a reason why Lyn's steam dome cover is off?

 

Thanks, By the sounds of it the boiler inspection was visiting in the morning to sign off her running at her higher boiler pressure of 250psi. Axe ran the morning trains, before Lyn came into service in the afternoon.

 

Neither was Lyn. Lyn in full Maunsell livery occurred at the time of the 1929 General Overhaul/Rebuild when the Southern made significant alterations to the loco, and when the axle loading on the rear drivers was shown as 10 and a quarter tons(!), presumably to improve adhesion. By that time there would have been no coaches left in original livery.
So, either get Charles Summers to repaint the coaches in Maunsell green (wish you luck on that one), or repaint Lyn in 1919 condition.
Or carry on with the current inauthentic mismatch!

 

Locomotive & carriage livery mismatches are a fact of life on heritage railways. On Monday I visited the SVR and 2857 in GWR livery arrived with a rake a LNER teak coaches.

 

Although authentic (which I am usually all for) perhaps Southern green coaches as well as loco would be almost as drab as the VoR in rail blue days.

 

Given sufficient time and money, the discrepancies you refer to will be resolved, and more authentic trains will be possible. The current programme of carriage building is intended to complete all the "restored" carriages (those incorporating parts of the originals) in an independent era-based livery. Following that stage, a further rake of carriages is envisaged in SR form. If anyone has about a million pounds to invest now, I'm sure this work could be completed more quickly!

 

You could regularly see LNER coaches behind GWR locos in some locations before nationalisation - albeit neither on the SVR nor usually with a 28xx.

 

Had it not been for the fact pretty much everything on BR, barring freight stock and breadown cranes, was dipped in woad back then, it would've been less of an issue. I actually quite liked the plain blue livery, which suited the chunky 2-6-2t's rather well, though tarting it up with over-fussy lining just made it look tacky to my eye.

Out of interest, does anyone please have any colour images of any VoR stock in the short-lived Cambrian bronze-green used in the 1964 repaint? The only image I've ever seen was monochrome and looked to have been shot by someone with my own levels of photographic skill .... i.e. pretty much none at all!

 

Cambrian bronze green? Are you sure?
I thought the locos carried standard BR Dark Loco Green as per Swindon standard?
As for the Southern coach green, this was very subtly enhanced by black and chrome orange lining with gilt (primrose in reality) lettering shaded in black. If anything, the late L&B crimson lake (quickly fading to brown) was perhaps the blandest of the coach liveries.
Back in the late nineties someone was knocking down an old conservatory, the lower part of which was built of the bottoms of recently painted L&B coach doors. As the outside of the doors had been sealed inside the structure, the livery was still as fresh as when it was last painted over sixty years previously.
I have a photo of one of the doors somewhere. Drab it was not.

 

I'm sure enough of the VoR refererence says and it's from a late 60's publication (i.e. fairly contemporary). I also recall a much more recent monochrome image in a book or magazine. Poor weathering was alleged to be the motivation for repainting the lot in BR blue after just four years.

Agree re: faded red. My old panel beater/sprayer mucker Cliff always reckoned reds to be the worst offenders for fading, with yellows a close second. BR carmine looks good fresh from the paint shops, but seems to lose it's lustre way faster than either green or chocolate & cream. Whatever the paintshop at Blodge is using these days, FfR stock (certainly the heritage rakes) seems to maintain it's looks better than it did half a century ago, as does the IMR's. Across on Exmoor, the L&B kit simply looks absolutely stunning. Perhaps some or the more modern varnishes are more UV resistant than in days of yore.

The variations in SR standard livery may have been subtle enough in Maunsell's day ..... but though it sits well on Bulleid stock, could you imagine the L&B carriages in malachite?

 

There's a lantern slide in existence, hand coloured, of Lyn and train entering Town station. Whilst Lyn appears in the agreed green and black, the coaches are clearly very chocolate and cream. The accepted reason for this disparity is that the colourist had confused the L&B with the GWR. However, at the time the photo was taken (1919-22 period), the great western had only just returned to chocolate and cream after a twelve year stint of crimson lake and wartime khaki.
I would suggest that the original L&B colours would quickly appear these shades after over four years of wartime lack of repainting. One reason the GWR reverted to brown and cream was precisely these were the colours the stock would fade to if painted crimson lake and white.
Incidentally, if you want to know how L&B stock looked, invest in a copy of 'The L&B Measured and Drawn' by Steve Phillips. Outstanding research coupled with stunning illustrations. Superlative - and accurate.

 

The VoR locos were re-painted from B.R. standard lined green into "Cambrian bronze green" shortly after the L.M. Region takeover in 1963. IIRC the carriages were similarly attired. I'm sure there were photos in the railway press at the time - maybe a cover photo in colour?
Ray.