'Suited and Booted' - 'K1' is ready for the party...

Pioneer Garratt 'K1' is 100 years old this year, and will be taking pride of place at Manchester's Museum of Science & Industry Great Garratt Gathering from 14-16 August...

To ensure the loco looks its best for the occasion, 'K1' has been transformed with a full repaint and lining out in original North-East Dundas Tramway livery. This is the appearance of the loco when it headed back to Boston Lodge on 17 April - with the worn and weary matt black paint scheme it had carried since being returned to steam ...



The staff at Boston Lodge Works have been working flat-out to finish the repaint, as the loco is scheduled to return to the WHR tomorrow so it can appear on the annual Sponsors' trains this coming weekend...

With the varnish barely dry, 'K1' was rolled out from Boston Lodge Works at midday today for final assembly, and to pose for some photos - a selection of which appear below...

 

Frankly - that looks fabulous =D>
And the photos are great too \/

 

SUPERB!!!!!!!

 

Saw these posted up on the 16mm Yahoo page...absolutely lovely, a cracking job! She certainly looks the business now

 

That looks fantastic, a great improvement =D> . Full credit to the team in the FR's paint shop

 

Stunning! 21 years ago I built a 7mm scale model K1 and painted it in this livery, never thinking I'd see the real thing look like this. Now, with the model on a shelf above the computer, I can compare it with the full scale version and it's wonderful to see. Well done to all concerned!

 

...especially as they had to paint 'K1' in the Erecting Shop - surrounded by the everyday activities of Boston Lodge Works - as there was insufficient time to dismantle the loco so it would fit in the FR-sized paintshop!

 

Absolutely stunning congratulations to everyone at Boston Lodge for a brilliant job =D> =D> =D>

 

Just a thought...but if they can knock that out so quick with soooo many distractions/complications...where's my Lyd???????

DISCLAIMER
This is of course a joke and therefore any retaliation/bitching at me about the difficulties of constructing a steam engine etc etc are null and void and need not be said! That should stop a bitching match from kicking off over here! [-o<

 

In the Boiler Shop...



Pretty useless photo, I know - didn't have my tripod with me, so I just grabbed a quick 'snap'...

 

That's quite an interesting interpretation of Southern green on the boiler!

 

I didn't really expect it to be not impressive, given the track record.

 

I'm not 100% sure on this but I am pretty certain the boilers weren't painted Southern green...only the side tanks etc....the tops of the tanks and boiler were in black? Happy to be corrected!

And thanks Roger!

 

www.flickr.com/photos/33954238@N02
My photos of it joy rideing around Port.

 

Crews at Liverpool Rd are looking to seeing the K1 at the Great Garratt Gathering, along with other visiting locomotives. Inc Garratt "William Francis"

 

I think you're right about the tank tops, but not the boiler - though I have posted a query on the L&B Yahoo site to check. Lightline's version of the Southern livery can be seen at <http://www.lightline16mm.com/Manufacturers/modelpages/l&bp.html>

 

Remember that noone has actually said that that is the top coat on the boiler casing.

 

Oh yes, I quite agree. I was always assuming that is just an undercoat!! :smt004

 

Reply from Bob Barnard on L&B loco liveries in Southern days:

"In my view, SR tank tops were always black, as the fireman would walk on them to
fill the tanks.

For my own models, I had always assumed that the SR would have had a code of
practice for their livery, saying that if green was used, it should be lined,
and kept clean. As the MW boilers were so invisible/inaccessible, they would
therefore not have been painted green. Similarly, cab fronts, which were
manifestly not lined, were probably black. Lyn's boiler was more visible, and
it would have looked odd to have green dome and sandboxes on a black boiler, so
I guessed the boiler was green.
With help from Keith Vingoe, and information from several others, I recently
wrote a guide to L&B liveries aimed at modellers. It is probably still on the
L&B modeling (sic) e-group somewhere. This led me to discover a lot of
interesting things (mostly visible in photos if you look for them).

For example, Lew originally had lined boiler bands. This implies that the
boiler must have been green.

If you come across a photo taken on Panchromatic film (which was coming into use
in the 1930s, and which shows SR green much lighter), you can see that at least
some MW cab fronts were unlined green, not black. I can find photos that
suggest the sandboxes on top of the MWs boiler were black, others that show they
were probably green.

Curiously, Lew's cab back sheet was unlined green, unlike the other MWs, and
unlike normal SR practice. Of course, the loco was painted by MW.

The MWs were not identical in various ways, so there could have been livery
style differences. We will never be certain now. However, the balance of
probability is that tank tops were black, the MW boilers were green with lined
boiler bands, and the cab fronts were unlined green.

So, you have to make up your own mind...."

 

The lining makes such a difference, hope K1 is about when im over that way in Autumn.