BR Standard class - practice and performance

You forgot to mention Swindon asking for more Kings, insisting nothing else would do!

 

Swindon had some twenty years to build as many Kings as they (or their Board) considered to be needed (or anyway at least the twelve years up to the start of WWII). I can't see them suddenly deciding, after several years of nationalisation, that they would like more after all, especially with some of the Castles having been souped up with bigger superheaters and double chimneys. Some right-hand-drive Standards, on the other hand, might have been welcome.

 

It would've been interesting to see how Swindon managed to fit top feeds to boilers and brass covers to the BR pattern safety valves on a Riddles "standard". Photoshop challenge, anyone?

 

At a guess it might well need 4 sets of valve gear.

 

It was standard Swindon practice to fit GWR safety valves to absorbed stock.

I do know Swindon wanted another batch of Manors, I had never heard Kings.

 

Could actually be managed with one set. Two as a more robust solution

 

And more 28xx/38xx 2-8-0s rather than 9Fs.

 

Odd that Swindon never so much as repainted the Corris locos. Perhaps they just forgot they owned 'em!

 

Yeah but either way they'd have to go inside the frames

 

it woud indeed be a challenge... easier to build another duke instead

 

I believe the GWR acquired the Corris Rly to get control of that company's motor bus network which was apparently quite far reaching. I'm not sure they actually wanted the railway itself at all.

 

I must admit, it would have been interesting to see what effects the delay of the 1955 modernisation plan would have had on the construction of BR Standards. Perhaps there would have been some degree of rationalisation - no more Clans and Standard 3's, and perhaps a focus on 9F's, Britainnia's, Standard 5's, Standard 4 tanks and Standard 4 2-6-0's - and perhaps 71001?

 

The initial reaction of the GWR to the idea of acquiring the Corris, as expressed by John Milne, was "not at any price". However the GWR via its interests in Western National Omnibus, did want the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company and Imperial Tramways who owned that and the Corris managed to offload its loss-making n.g. line in Mid Wales as part of the transaction. As regards the locos and stock Collett was enquiring as to their condition before the takeover occurred and number 3 went to Swindon in November 1929, also before official takeover. It was back in the Dulas Valley in April of the following year. Number 4 went to Swindon in 1940 and number 3 was back in Wiltshire in 1942. They did acquire GWR lamp brackets. Other repairs were marked as carried out at Machynlleth but they would have been carried out by fitters from that shed in the Corris locoshed at Maespoeth Junction.
If you are visiting the Corris today Lloyds Service 34 runs from Mach to Aberllefenni via Corris and is effectively the Railway replacement service.

 

I dunno. I think because so many of the standards were built in stupidly small numbers we tend to assume it would have stayed like that, but I submit they were anticipating several hundred of each design, in which case they might not have looked quite so silly. Whether that was ever a realistic proposition is another matter entirely. The majority of the Western fleet was new enough to last until any reasonable end of steam, although that certainly wasn't the case elsewhere.

 

I've often wondered if the way the Corris came into the Swindon fold had anything to do with ...... anything much (A Swindon instruction during goods only days, ammending the 3 operating days per week, didn't suit staff in the Dulas Valley and was universally ignored)!

There's often been an assumption that Corris rail passenger services were doomed the moment the GW subsidiary Western Transport got their hands on it's bus services ..... but ..... intriguingly, there's a photo of two Corris carriages (tentatively identified as Nos.3&6) off their bogies on stands, with side panels removed, taken in the workshops at Swindon, where they were apparently sent to be assessed for repair. Unfortunately, history tells us what was to happen next ... and by the end of December 1930, it did. Remaining carriages were soon removed (to Oswestry) for scrapping, but according to legend (which I can neither confirm nor refute) at least some of their sides saw further use as part of an internal partition within Oswestry Works, possibly lasting until it was closed by BR in 1966.

 

What happened to the Corris drivers after the GWR takeover and then closure?

Did they end up driving or firing on standard gauge?

 

Going back to BR Standards........................

What did BR need in 1948?

I suggest that

1. A lot of the coaching stock was pretty grotty - even improving the cleaning might have helped
2. Accelerating services, not only as they did in East Anglia when the Brittannias arrived but what about all those services that could nt even average 30mph - for example the Bath to Bournemouth services that took 4 hours? The need clearly was for a lot of modern medium powered loco's in the class 4 & 5 category to replace all those superannuated 4-4-0's such as the 2P
3. Modernizing freight operations - as Fiennes said he should have done

 

Haven't you ever wondered what a 2' gauge British Standard might have looked like.

 

Well, there is that Baldwin Pacific on the Brecon Mountain Railway.

A BR Standard design for the Corris, Vof R & W&L?