100% Authenticity

1. Early emblem, Maroon coaches (OK, that could happen).
2. Full set of Mark 1s in the same livery and on Commonwealth bogies on a secondary route (especially when added to 1.)
3. You haven't (for understandable reasons) added the top lining to the WCRC livery (but I think have 'toned down' both the waist lining and shiny paint - top Photoshopping!).
4. No brake leading (and no added Fish vans, given the location, perhaps!?!)
5. Did trains on the Extension ever convey an RMB (or consist of all open stock except the BCK).
6. High intensity lamp.

(All typed before reading other answers but this is a great quiz!)

Steven

 

Agreed. Challenge his opinions by all means but public ridicule is a but much IMO.

 

You can't have a 100% authentic experience. Like expecting 1930s Kings Cross to give you an 1850s day-out experience. That's just not possible. Change over time is a fact.

You can have varying levels of accuracy and recreation, for a film or movie set, perhaps. Though with some Catherine Cookson films, passengers are advised to please mind the gap, and ignore the out-of-place Hunslet Austerity pulling the late 1890s GWR rolling stock.

 

Surely every experience is 100% authentic or it would not be an experience. I had the pleasure of firing a J27 over the North York Moors yesterday. It was not on a coal train or a humble pick up freight but had instead five teak coaches in tow - absolutely 100% authentic for 24th May 2018! And that is good enough for me.

Peter

 

It would appear so - but we were long gone so never saw it.

Peter

 

I would say in my defence that it was a light hearted attempt to satirise Paul's views (as a different way of challenging them - I consciously rendered them more absurd) and he does compare himself to the Greek mythological Cassandra which is quite bold. However, I am aware that it is a fine line between satire and when things become unpleasant, so Paul the Quixotic Reactionary engine will go to the back of the shed because no one wants an unpleasant atmosphere.

 

And sometimes - the modern ePOS till at the Beamish bakery, in an Edwardian surround, that difference helps with the appreciation of what has changed - even if it also jars visually.

 

I also think sometimes we need to stop and look at what we have around us now. We don't necessarily enjoy what we have. We take it very much for granted, HSTs for example have been part of our travelling lives for the last 40 years, Pacers etc for the last 25. What we have is authentic for now. But an HST in preservation will have changes made over 40 odd years in service (new engines, central door locking, different seats, you won't get that whiff of burnt rubber that you used to get every time the train braked) so even if they repaint an HST back into its livery from 1980 or 1990 it won't be authentic. You could run it up the ECML but because of remodelling etc running into York it won't be authentic, and so on and so forth.

 

The RMB is out of period not being introduced until 1962. There is also a lot wrong with the renumbered loco, see my previous post but for a main line reconstruction this is probably as good as it can get. Photoshop is a great resource for reacreating the illusion of the past in images. I have posted this before but here's an old Dufay colour image of a wartime LNER ambulance train on the GWR taken on the SVR in 2018

 

I think Foxfield and Tanfield probably offer the best ability to recreate scenes of the past authentically......


Chris

 

Methinks the unique Bowes operation deserves inclusion in Chris's list.

 

I've mentioned this memory of mine before, but it really did take me back to my yoof. At the SVR's diesel gala in 2015 myself and a friend (plus support crew!) were in a compo coming out of Bewdley towards Kidderminster with Deltic 19 and we slowed towards the tunnel, the driver then opened the Deltic right up, the noise! The smell! As me my mate were at opposing windows we just turned , looked at each other and grinned. Anyhow just for a split second I was coming out of New Street with a 37 in 1998 and my mate was coming through Standedge in about 1980! You can't 100% recreate the past, but you can certainly evoke and trigger the memories.

 

It's also a generation thing, I wouldn't cross the road to see a Deltic but a Duchess on Beattock or Shap...

 

Each to their own John, we all have our favourites. Where would we be if we all liked the same thing?

 

I'd do both John. A Deltic one day and Duchess or A4 or MN the next. Best of both worlds in my book.

 

Yes, fair one, I have only ever popped there when its been closed so have never had a proper look round.

Chris

 

And heres the best thing, in 2018 you can get 3 out of the 4, deltics still run on both preserved and the main line, MN take your pick one down south, one op north on the mainline, 35006 on the GWR, A4, 1, Once repaired will be back on both mainline and preserved railways, with one to come back from overhaul,1 in NRM, Duchess, again 2 in museums One to return to the mainline after overhaul. be thankful of what we have.

 

2 years ago I was lucky enough to enjoy 46100 and 46233 at the Mid Norfolk railway, totally un authentic and way off territory for what they'd usually work, but for being able to get up close and personal with them, I certainly embraced and rejoiced that I could.

 

And that’s where the PH school of thought gets it wrong IMO. The vast majority of visitors to heritage railways would baulk at paying £100+ for a main line trip behind locos such as these but events such as the above give them the chance to see and ride behind them even if they are out of keeping for the line they’re on.

 

Every experience? You generalize surely. Its an experience, subjectively. Objectively speaking, that's another matter altogether. The senses can be fooled.

But then, the average British man couldn't care less if his burger is 100% authentic - horse meat and human excrement is good for you, isn't it?