GWSR General Discussion and Operations

Okay, the public roster says 9351 is out so is it 2999 or 9351?

So Saturday 8th June, 6880 is working the 1020 to Broadway and 2999 will be on the 1000 off Toddington to Cheltenham?

 

In the end was 6880 and 2999, steam 1 is train 2 and train 1 is steam 2, seems needlessly complicated (especially when train 1/train 2 swap turns between pink/blue and purple days)!!!

Had a good day out, the trains were quite busy especially the 1055 off CRC with 3 different group bookings... I felt this really needed an extra coach adding as 4 of the 7 carriages were corridor types - CK, BSK and 2 SKs. Luckily 6880 was working the other set with just one corridor type, a CK, so I swapped at Winchcombe. The first open carriage being in the train 1 rake available to all is a nice feature, not something many railways offer other than on dining trains. Can recommend Rail Ale.

 

My video coverage of 2999 Lady of Legend during its visit to the GWSR, filmed on 11th & 15th June 2024.

 

Currently sat outside the cafe/buffet at Toddington eating a Scone- a break in the auditing schedule has allowed for an unusually pleasant break!

The station site looks lovely, the GWSR have made a great job of combining the new and old for usability whilst retaining the atmosphere of the station itself.

I’ll have to come back with the family at some point.

Chris

 

The GWSR's Carriage and Wagon Department have announced that in future coaches will only be turned out in Crimson and Cream or Chocolate and Cream. Phasing out Maroon only coaches over time. An excellent choice as these colours tend to look smarter for longer and are more interchangeable. Now if they can only be persuaded to adopt the authentic BR logo instead of their made up crest!

 

I'm not knocking their choice but am intrigued that they state maroon to be more expensive than the others and that is suffers unduly from fading.

I personally find maroon coaches the quickest and easiest to paint as it's one colour rather than two. The paint isn't any more expensive than crimson. When it comes to fading, the GWR brown seems to fade just as much as maroon (don't GWSR do lower half repaints on their chocolate/cream sets?). Additionally any coaches with cream on require more cleaning than maroon.

Crimson/Cream is regarded by most as more visually attractive than maroon, I will say that.

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Chris, I couldnt agree more. Assuming they are going to use the same cream for both, (BR choc/ cream has been known to use a slightly darker cream) then a two tone paint job will cost almost twice as much as there are 2 undercoats and 2 top coat colours rather than Maroon being Madder undercoat and then top coat. Do the GWSR varnish their coaches? Maybe @flying scotsman123 can confirm?

It does go to show how important a covered storage facility is these days. Even if it is a half sided building, it doesnt have to be fully enclosed, although preferable. You still need some air flow through the stored vehicles otherwise they fester very quickly.

 

Yes, the railway does varnish its carriages, 2 coats, I believe.
Why would a 2-tone finish cost twice as much? There may 2 colours, but the actual quantity of paint used will be identical, surely?

 

For a re-colour from maroon to blood and custard on one carriage you'd have 1 x 2.5l of buff undercoat, 1 x 2.5l of express red undercoat, 1x 5l carmine gloss, 1 x 5l cream gloss. Thats using Williamsons paints. The carmine gloss does not cover well so would definitely need 2 coats. To get a good colour on the cream, Id always go for 2 coats.

To continue repainting in maroon. Depending on how far gone the paint job has gone. Youd need 1 x 5l of madder and 2 x 5l of maroon gloss. 1 x 5L should do all the way around in one tin.
2.5l tins arent half the price of the 5L tins.

The problem with using Williamsons is they have now reduced their standard undercoats. You could use their grey undercoat as a universal undercoat but the gloss wont have the same vibrancy and colour if using a better coloured undercoat.

 

A few points in response.
Firstly, yes we do varnish our coaches, 2 coats, but we have only returned to doing this recently. For a period of about 9 years I suppose we didn't, for various reasons I won't go into now.
Due to the above, quite a few of our maroon coaches have faded quite quickly. Not so bad on the choc and cream because, as has been observed, we have in the past splashed some brown on the lower panels to revive the whole carriage. To be honest, I rather suspect the fading is much more to do with lack of varnishing than any particular livery.
On the cost front, it was arrived at simply on the basis that red colours are the most expensive pigment. So assuming crimson and maroon as similar prices, for a maroon coach you need a whole coach worth of expensive paint. Whereas for crimson & cream half of it is done in cheaper cream paint. Depending on how you do the lining you avoid doing the potentially slightly longer triple line on maroon too.
As for speed, we tend to put masking tape the thickness of the line to break up a carriage side before applying the livery so we don't have to keep a wet edge the full height of a carriage side. Thus it makes no difference whether you're doing one or two colours bar the two minutes getting the other tin out of the cupboard.

Hope that all makes sense, I'm willing to accept that they're all relatively weak arguments in the grand scheme of things, although I do think two 2 tone liveries mix better than maroon and choc & cream. However, they were very much used to bolster the much stronger 'because we like it more' argument

 

Quite a few railways are now using Craftmaster paint for MK1’s. We have just painted our CK in Maroon via Cranmore and a dark grey undercoat was used to give an effective top coat and I am advised less need for a varnish.

 

The Swanage and other former Southern lines do not have a two colour livery with their drab green colours. It is probably cheaper for them.

 

You may find it drab but I can think of no better livery for recreating a Southern scene, especially when the stock is hauled by an S&D 7F or a Bulleid Pacific. [BJ]

 

Like maroon, it can become drab with age, but when reasonably fresh it is lovely, and only one shade darker from Mr Bulleid's vibrant Malachite.

 

Excellent explanation, thank you

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https://www.gwsr-dmu.co.uk/class-11...NLvh0kATXpLRt6vGGQ_aem_l4AjsWat1_Bic0g5dyRk1Q

Fully operational 3-car class 117 up for sale.

 

Been missing @Breva 's informative and interesting Heritage Herald blog, which hasn't updated the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping it's just that Jo is having a nice rest, not anything untoward!

John

 

I'm still here, or rather, there.
Back soon

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c04pegl4e35o.amp

Good publicity for the railway on the BBC website.

I’m guessing that the first pic might well be @flying scotsman123 of this parish

 

I must give my agent a raise...