GWR

[Chris Morris]

I think I have the answer! One's made by Graham Farish and the other is made by Dapol...

Correct! Also one is heading towards Torbay and the other towards Exeter and Paddington. Rather confusingly the down Torbay Express is carrying the reporting number for the up Torbay Express.  Its also unlikely that a castle would still be carrying the old BR emblem on the tender with that type of reporting number. Being top link locos all of them (or nearly all of them) would have received the new logo on the tender by 1958 but the reporting codes with a letter in them didn't come in until 1959 (I think). I'll have a word with myself about these mistakes.

[Chris Morris]

Here is a another photo showing the beauty, wonder and excellence of Great Western engineering. All of these locos are of course different classes and it is very easy to "spot the difference".  Scenes like this - 4 or 5 fully coaled locos running tender first - were a fairly regular sight on summer Saturdays at Aller Junction in the 1950s. The locos were coaled and serviced at Newton Abbot depot and then trundled together down to Goodrington and Kingswear ready to work the trains taking the holidaymakers back home. Apparently being on the footplate of a fully coaled loco travelling in reverse is not nice unless you like eating coal dust.

[Train Waiting]

That's a splendid photograph of an interesting working.  Thank you very much.

These various Great Western locomotives look wonderful.

Thanks again and best wishes.

John

[emjaybee]

Ok, I'm trying to get it, honest.

I give up, I've spent about five minutes looking carefully at that pic. They all look the same, granted it's probably not the best photo for an I.D. parade, seriously, are they different classes?

[Chris Morris]

From left to right
Manor - smaller wheelers so the running plate has a higher section by the cylinders, small tender and although it's hard to tell, smaller boiler
Hall - Larger boiler larger wheels and straight running plate
Grange - same size boiler as Hall (although not identical) but smaller wheels hence raised running plate by cylinders.
Castle - larger boiler, larger wheels and smaller straight sided rather than sticky out cylinders. The castle of course had four cylinders whereas all the others were just two cylinders. 

Hope that helps. I absolutely deny ever looking at the nameplates to distinguish between the grange and the manor.

[joe cassidy]

For me the "trademark" of the Castle is the slidebars, which I would describe as "blade-like".

[emjaybee]

From left to right
Manor - smaller wheelers so the running plate has a higher section by the cylinders, small tender and although it's hard to tell, smaller boiler
Hall - Larger boiler larger wheels and straight running plate
Grange - same size boiler as Hall (although not identical) but smaller wheels hence raised running plate by cylinders.
Castle - larger boiler, larger wheels and smaller straight sided rather than sticky out cylinders. The castle of course had four cylinders whereas all the others were just two cylinders. 

Hope that helps. I absolutely deny ever looking at the nameplates to distinguish between the grange and the manor.

Really?

That's some 'corporate identity'!

Thanks for info. Not sure it will 'compute' but I'll try. 

[martyn]

As per my post #12;

They just swapped standard parts (boilers, cylinders, wheels) around to make a new class.........

Martyn

[osborns]

EMJAYBEE wrote
That's some 'corporate identity'!

Thanks for info. Not sure it will 'compute' but I'll try.

"Joe explained it for you but he can't understand it for you"

[Chris Morris]

As per my post #12;

They just swapped standard parts (boilers, cylinders, wheels) around to make a new class.........

Martyn

Or

The incredibly talented engineers of the GWR were the only ones clever enough to design a range of locomotives suitable for many roles using many standard parts thus improving the effectiveness and efficiency of this wonderful railway.

Im sure I read somewhere that the large prairie only required three new parts, all of the other parts already existed for other locos.

[martyn]

Chris;

I actually agree that from a maintenance point of view, the GWR path was an excellent way of running their loco department.

If you had a ready supply of spares in the stores, then there was little time lost in replacement of an item which was beyond further use or needed a long time to repair. And, as I also said, there is little doubt that during Churchward's reign, they were at the forefront of (at least) UK design. Repairs to 'one offs', or at least small number classes, could lead to an excessive amount of time in shops rather than on the road; and the GWR designs were suited to the loads and schedules in force at the time.

I've just re-read a reappraisal of the 1948 loco trials on BR, and hadn't appreciated that the 28xx dated from pre WW1; but it still managed to get the best economy figures overall in the freight trials. However, the same review states that the 'Castle' and 'King' classes had not advanced much from their introduction, despite larger superheaters and double chimneys, and had been left behind by continuous improvement to classes on other railways.

Martyn

[emjaybee]

EMJAYBEE wrote
That's some 'corporate identity'!

Thanks for info. Not sure it will 'compute' but I'll try.

"Joe explained it for you but he can't understand it for you"

Darn it, foisted by my own 'signature'.

[Paddy]

A walk around the STEAM museum in Swindon (when it was possible ☹️ ) would leave most people feeling what an amazing organisation the GWR was.  I am sure it was not perfect but they took pride in everything they did.  I get the impression that the GWR was very efficiently run - ahead of its time in terms of management technique.

Kind regards

Paddy

[joe cassidy]

Watched the movie "Enola Holmes" on Netflix last night.

There was some nice footage of a GWR loco + coaches at the beginning.

Difficult to identify which class of loco though

[Bealman]

The picture and narrative of the locos coupled together running tender first are great. That's a working I'd never heard about! There again my knowledge of things GWR is minimal.

I can imagine the coaldust problem!