Inside Cylinders and inside valve gear was the norm for most British locos in the Victorian and Edwardian era. As were plate frames rather than the Bar frames common in the U.S. This made oiling and servicing all the stuff in between the frames a nightmare. The Midland railway was the most notorious for building small, inside cylinder locomotives . This was actually, officially, called there 'Small Engine policy' The thinking being that if the train was heavy you put two locos on. When the London, Midland and Scottish railway was formed after WW1 with the LNWR, Midland, Lancashire & Yorkshire etc , the new chief mechanical engineer from 1925 was Sir Henry Fowler on his retirement in 1929 the LMS headhunted Sir William Stanier from the Great Western who ushered in a drastic Modernisation, Standardisation era with Taper boilers, Belpaire fireboxes, Outside valvegear and Cylinders with streamlined steam passageways . A legendary fleet of locos emerged like the Black 5 4-6-0s, Jubilee 4-6-0s Royal Scot rebuilds of Fowlers frankly pretty poor designs and the legendary 8F 2-8-0 freight locos Such was the durability of his designs that a suprising number are not just preserved but still run on the mainline to this day LMS Black 5 45212 attacks the climb to Shap summit unassisted late last year I'll have a think and see if I can find an inside cylinder loco in excursion mainline traffic still out there today Kev
Another of the FNA-C builders plates. I worked with the FNA Flatrols from when I started with DRS until they were withdrawn and replaced with the FNA-Ds 550023 was built in 1984 at the former Great Western works in Swindon and had an Aluminium cast builders plate on both sides It stands behind Bachmanns 00 scale model. When I was still on the tools I painted a lot of the large numbers on top of the canopy ( so they could be spotted from a satellite!) Tare weight was around 23-24 tonnes depending on batch number and the carried the 56 tonne Cuboid nuclear flasks So how did we end up with the builders plates one of the condition of allowing them to leave site was to remove any Nuclear branding like placard holders, radsafe signs and the builders plates poor old 550023 waiting to go to the licenced Nuclear disposal site in March 2016 We had painted the redstripe down the side to ensure it didn't get reloaded and the 66 is waiting to take it, one trip only, to Carlisle. You can see at the far end how much we have taken off the side One of the new FNA-Ds stands behind it Kev
I think this might be the rarest in my collection Kitson were one of the many Locomotive building firms in Leeds in Yorkshire. Small compared to outfits like Manning Wardle, Hunslet and Husdswell Clarke but they did make a lot of locos for U.K and overseas customers 2320 of 1881 was an 0-6-2 tank built for the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway when they were unable to build locos quick enough in house Barton Wright was Chief Mechanical Enginner of the L&Y at the time but the loco is a pretty much, off the shelf, Kitson standard design. They produced very similar designs for the Taff Vale, LDECR and others Here she is still in service Now the fact that the plate survived is intriguing as it shouldn't really have survived until I found out that the loco, after withdrawal in 1911, was turned into a stationary boiler at one of the L&Y depots for carriage warming and existed for decades after. It was still there in the early 1960s and I wonder if the plate had survived on it until someone 'Rescued it'? In a strange twist, long before I acquired the plate, in my early scratchbuilding days I made one in 0 scale. not very good by my standards today but we all have to start somewhere. Constructed in Nickel Silver with steel frames . CCW cast iron wheels and one of the first Portescap RG7 Coreless motor-gearboxes in the country. I sold it many, many years ago. I wonder where it is now? Kev
@kevsmith - You have the most amazing collection and some really great stories that go with them. The 1881 Kitson plaque is fantastic. Thanks for sharing!
March 1981, Middletown NY. Built in 1896 in an era when permanence and architectural detail mattered. You can see an outline of the Erie diamond just above the station name. Taken the same day, the NYO&W station at Bloomingburg, NY, built 1898. It has since been beautifully renovated as a residence. Taken November 1981, the Bloomingburg station. This location was also known as High View, location of storied High View Tunnel.
I was looking for a view of Montreal West Tower in Street View, when I spotted this sign at the crossing with Westminster Avenue: Apparently the risk wasn't obvious enough, warranting this signage... complete with instructions.
Fortunately the oncoming train beat these folks to the second crossing after they waited for the gondolas to clear. They were startled and jumped back a few moments after I took this shot.
It is always so sad when I see such once useful, important, built with real pride structures and know they have been lost forever.
And they didn't notice the big noisy train coming, the noisiest end at that? That is so true. It's even worse when the court of public opinion, fed by a sound-bite-hungry media (among others), finds them at fault even when the real truth is obvious.
The West Country Class 4-6-2 'Scroll' Given to my father by a Railway author called Doug Doherty as a thank you for Dad letting him use some of his photos in the Railscene series.back in the 1960s. It is not an original Southern Railway one but a British Railway cast replacement. All of the Bulleid West Countries carried a scroll on each side and if appropriate the Town Crest The story is that this one came of 34018 Axminster Fox Transfers etched ones Sadly neither of us ever photographed the real one before it was scrapped. It was one that got the full BR rebuild treatment The etched plates were for my Z model of Axminster in its unrebuilt "Spam can" form. slightly too big (they were N scale ones) Sadly never got the Nameplate or enamel Crest. The last full set for one side I saw to go auction was for 34005 Barnstaple and they went for £15,500 ! Kev
Wow! Quite a history! Nearly 150 years later, it still exists and is restored to its form of the glory days of passenger service. A job well done.
