Back Of The Shed

Luke, I asked someone up north about 7229. The reply I got gave me the impression that, rather than overhaul, 7229 was just "being stuck back together", to stop bits of it being all over the place. Apologies to all at the East Lancs if that isn't correct, but it was one of your own that told me!

Personally, the one I am looking forward to most is 4253, but then I'm biased.

 

LMS 2500 and Thundersley - locos that might be useful if restored and would be interesting to compare to the Ivatt, Fairburn and Riddles tanks.

 

5025: http://thewatkinsontrust.blogspot.com/

I love the scenery that the Strathspey offers, and 5025 will look absolutely cracking with it in the background. Also, huge respect to the Watkinson Trust for just quietly getting on with this epic rebuild.

 

Back to the driving wheel discussion stemming from William Francis - Churnet and Avon Valleys each have a working Tkh49 (with 3ft 9in drivers) which seem to get quite a lot of mileage.

 

Bit of a thread resurrection.....but......it does make me wonder whether an A4 could very temporarily take this identity on during a running in period- its pretty close to primer colour.

One day maybe


Chris

 

Maybe have a chat with a Mr Hosking? I'm all for it but only after I see 60019 in Purple!

 

Surely SNG is the next available...

 

Of course there is a livery carried by some A4's that has not appeared in preservation which is certainly a more brighter and cheery shade than the drab green worn by No 9. . . . . Must go now and find a darkened room and lie down having accidentally slipped into paint froth mode.


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Dare I say that Intercity livery looks rather at home on number 9 substitute it for a sky blue stripe and when John Cameron was Chairman of Scotrail... Tongue very firmly in cheek!

 

Sometime in the late 80's I saw Bittern masquerading as I think "Silver Link", (but it might have been 2510 instead) sat on the turntable at the NRM. Looked absolutely stunning, very upmarket. I know the purist might complain that no silver A4 was ever fitted with a double chimney, and iirc all had corridor tenders, but would it really matter?
It is not fantasy's hot fire,
Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly;
It liveth not in fierce desire,
With dead desire it doth not die;

She could take turns as 2509, 2510 and 2512 on a KX-newcastle , maybe with no9 putting in an appearance as Silver King for all the 3-rail enthusiasts....

 

Bittern was painted as Silver Link and before moving to the NRM it was housed in the shed of the Stephenson Railway Museum at North Shields as a star attraction of that small enterprise.

Its name lives on in the presence of the nearby retail park, which was built about the same time and which to this day carries the name 'Silver Link Retail Park'.

I went to see it with my young sons while it was at Shields, but it was unphotographable, being cramped into the side road of the shed, right next to the wall. You could touch it, but it was too close to get in the viewfinder. I took my sons to York when it was on show there and got a pic then on 26th July 1988. It was a bit less cramped there.

(4498 was standing on the tracks outside the NRM on the same day, without its whistle and Mallard visited Newcastle just a few days before on the 17th.)

 

Bit of an update:

The bury standard 4 group are marching along & starting to make some progress with ivatt 2 46428 at bury.

 

There was some stuff on Facebook (on the Great Western Society Page) about this the other day, I would link the post but not sure how to.

The tube failure was on the 2nd April 1978 whilst propelling an empty train on the demo line, subsequently the driver spent a week in hospital and the fireman over 2 months, 6697 has not steamed since.

 

Wasn’t it a superheater flue collapse rather than a small tube failure. A significant difference.