Southern railway W class tank

don't belittle yourself they are excellent shots and seem to have stood the test of time

 

Excellent photos, and interesting to see a Z at Exeter in September 1962. I have a set of photos of the last down ACE at Exeter Central on 4 Sept 1964 (correction) by which time the bankers are panniers. (Photos on Fotopic, please don't laugh.) Do we know when W's worked around Exeter?

 

Nice photos Bryan, I was only fortunate to see one ' W ' class and that was at Willesden and One ' Z ' class at Eastleigh.

If only we could turn the clock back to see these wonderful locos.

Mike M (70c )

 

31911 to 31917 and 31924 were transfered to 72A Exmouth Junction in November 1962 to replace the Z Class 0-8-0 tanks. 31913 and 31917 were transfered away in January 1963. 31916 was withdrawn in July 1963. 31911 and 31915 were withdrawn in October 1963. 31912, 31914 and 31924 were transfered away in December 1963.

 

I think the last down ACE was 1964 hauled by 35022.

 

Sorry for my typo. Last down fast steam hauled ACE was Friday 4th September 1964, hauled by 35022. Multi-portion slower variant ran the next day (Saturday 5th). My photos are from 4/9/64. 35022 came off at Exeter Central, 34015 Exmouth took Padstow portion forward and a Hymek took the Ilfracombe portion. A pair of coupled panniers were in the station on banking duties. As previous posts have shown, Z's disappeared in 1962 and W's in 1963. The ASV Transacord CD includes recordings of E1/R's and 700 class locos banking and piloting up the bank in 1958; fantastic sounds of 2-cylinder and 3-cylinder locos out of synch.

 

Agreed; according to O S Nock in Great Locomotives of the Southern Railway pp 159, only the prototypes N1 (822) and K1 (890) had conjugated valve gear. 890 was rebuilt into a U1 and kept its conjugated gear for "some time".