GWR Turkish 8F

Hello! How are things progressing on the GWRs 8F? I know she will be ready for the GWR175 celebrations at the end of the month, but are there any pictures of the latest progress on her?

Chris

 

It is in completed form and has run up and down Toddington yard so it should be in steam for the 175 celebrations. Presumably just needs a few small jobs and to be painted.

 

Congratulations to all involved.What colour are you turning her out in?
Go for something other than black,they carry it well.

 

Wartime WD livery would be very cool (and appropriate).. would look good with 5322

 

She is also right hand drive....may be TDK livery one day...but I thing WD is most apropriate for her now she is more BRished

 

5322 is in khaki ROD livery, as per WW1. This 8F was from WW2 25 years after the ROD was disbanded. Does anyone know if this 8F spent any time at Longmoor? virtually every army engine was there at some point.

 

As I understand it, no. Most information on the web says it spent a couple of weeks working in the UK on loan to the LMS prior to shipping to France, then onward transport to Port Said and onward by land to Turkey, although some reports suggest it was instead transhipped as a kit of parts. I wonder whether this is due to confusion with the first batch that went to Turkey, which did go in kit form (and incidentally were reassembled under the supervision of that Bulleid de-tuner, R G Jarvis).

 

Any pictures of the end result yet?

 

Why not go to Toddington next weekend and see? (retreats quickly...) ;-)

 

Anthony Coulls - that my friend is a very good idea!!

 

we want EVERYONE to come and see the 8f! for the event it is being turned out as 8476 with bufferbeam GWR number and Reading (RDG) stenciled allocation. The loco suffered a problem last week which was quickley identified and a repair made. The plan is for the loco to try again today (monday) and tomorrow to gain some valuable running in milage. The press day for the gala is today and there is the chance that it may aappear on the local BBC news channel tonight (5542 with Auto 178 and truro in steam for promotion purposes).

 

Was it in the local news? I had it on record...

 

See here http://www.itv.com/westcountry-east/steaming-into-the-future58755/

Cheers,

John

 

You are of course joking!

1670 locomotives of British design were built for the War Department (394 Hunslet 0-6-0T, 208 Stanier 8F 2-8-0, 935 Austerity 2-8-0 and 250 Austerity 2-10-0.) This ignores any other locomotives taken over. There is no way all these locomotives could visit Longmoor in wartime conditions.

Speaking from memory during its entire life Longmoor only had 2 Austerity 2-8-0, 2 Austerity 2-10-0 and 3 Stanier 8F 2-8-0. Of these 1 Stanier 8F 2-8-0 and 1 Austerity 2-10-0 have been preserved.

 

If we're not talking just WD tender locos, Longmoor had at least six WD 0-6-0ST at some stage or another in the Sixties : 102, 118, 156, 157, 195 and 196. 118 and 196 have run in preservation. Several more were there in early post war years.

 

Yes. I realised as soon as I had sent it that having mentioned, and wrongly identified them as 0-6-0T, the Hunslet 0-6-0ST I should have mentioned them in the Longmoor Military Railway stock list. My only excuse is that I could not remember how many! I was also wrong about the Austerity 2-8-0s they kept. They only had one.

 

You need to read Tourret. Longmoor was used both as a dump for newly built engines before they were shipped abroad and as somewhere for running in those new engines. The result was that more than quite a few visited.

 

My copy of Tourret is unavailable at the moment having been mislaid during a house move so I must accept what you say. Was Longmoor specifically mentioned as a dump? There does not appear to be enough room for one. I purposely just stuck to new build British designed locomotives but locomotives were obtained from the home railways and I seem to remember that some United States locomotives come over here for use in Europe and were stored. Combined it is a lot of locomotives to be run in at Longmoor. Logic dictates that the majority were sent out untested and problems solved at their destination.