Mixing Drinks

Having taken a week off work I thought I might get around to a little modelling or maybe some research for the next Penistone historical post. As it is I've done nothing railway related at all; I haven't even found a home for the badger yet! This week has given plenty of opportunity for a good drink or two though (there is always mulled wine while the Christmas tree goes up), and fortunately that has given me the chance to do at least one post this week.

When I visited the National Railway Museum in York for the Great Gathering I did of course have a look around the shop. There wasn't much that took my fancy, but they did have a serious supply of beer and beer glasses which I just couldn't leave alone. I've mentioned the Flying Scotsman beer from the Caledonian Brewery before on the blog and not only were they selling the beer but they had matching glasses as well. Flying Scotsman wasn't the only beer on sale though, as the Wold Top brewery have produced a beer to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Mallards record breaking run. I wanted to try the Mallard beer but wasn't so taken with the logo which also appeared on the matching glass. So in the end I bought Mallard beer and a Flying Scotsman glass and mixed the two together leading to a very pleasant evening!

L&YR 2-4-2T No. 1008

When I visted Barrow Hill back in September, one of the things I blogged about were the new and upcoming releases from Bachmann that were on display. Of particular interest to me was the 2-4-2T that John Aspinal designed for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. On my recent trip to the National Railway Museum I managed to photograph the only preserved member of the class, number 1008.

According to Barry C. Lane's excellent book on the L&YR, number 1008 was actually the first of the type to be built and entered service in February of 1889. It was renumbered as 10621 when the L&YR became part of LMS and then 50621 under BR ownership before eventually being withdrawn in September of 1954. As far as I can tell she is currently displayed with her as built livery, as the front buffer beam includes the locomotives number and this practice didn't continue after the middle of 1891.

I really like this locomotive and I think, had more been preserved, they would have been an ideal size for working passenger services on many of the UK's preserved railways. As it is, if we want to see this locomotive move then we will have to make do with a model, and while space constraints have left me currently modelling in N gauge, I couldn't resist this exquisite OO gauge model.

As I mentioned in a previous post the Bachmann model will be widely available in a number of liveries (which will be available some time next year I believe) but the L&YR liveried model is exclusive to Locomotion Models (the modelling arm of the National Railway Museum). Given that only 500 models were being made in this livery I pre-ordered mine at the earliest opportunity. If I never go back to modelling in OO then a mint condition boxed example should keep its resale value so I'm considering it a good investment come what may.

I don't currently have the space to even temporarily lay out an oval of OO gauge track so I can't tell you anything about the running qualities of the model, but I can tell you that as a static model it is superb. I'm not even sure that a rivet counter would find much to complain about with this model. I've taken some detail shots (yes I should have dusted first) so you can get a sense of just how good it is.

If I had to find something to complain about then, for the price of the model, etched brass number plates would have been nice, especially given that I know they are possible to produce, but the printing of the number plate detail is so crisp and well applied that from a distance you wouldn't know they weren't etched. What truly amazes me is the level of detail included on areas that are impossible to see when in use; the leaf springs behind the driving wheels being the main example (bottom right picture) as these can't be seen when the train is on the track.

All in all an exquisite model of a wonderful locomotive. If you want one in L&YR livery then hurry over to Locomotion Models because as of this moment there are only 11 left and I doubt they will be available for long.

EM1

When it comes to railways I'm definitely a steam person. In fact I've yet to find a diesel or electric locomotive that inspires me in any fashion. Having said that I am, however, also interested in the history of the line that runs along the bottom of the garden and so I'll make an exception for the EM1. The EM1, which stands for Electric Mixed-Traffic 1, was specifically designed and built for the Woodhead line. They were powered from 1.5 kV DC overhead catenary and employed regenerative breaking to actually feed power back into the system when running downhill. They were predominately used for working freight trains through Penistone as this photo from 1955 shows.

The photo shows number 26020 which coincidentally is the only preserved member of the class and which I photographed at the National Railway Museum when I visited for The Great Gathering.

If you want more details on the EM1 then Wikipedia has a fairly informative page, and if you fancy one in model form then Heljan produce an OO gauge model exclusively for Olivia's Trains.

The Great Gathering

Back in September last year I blogged about the fact that this year would see the 75th anniversary of Mallard setting the world record speed, for a steam engine, of 126mph back in 1938. That post focused on Mallard being returned to steam for the 50th anniversary, illustrated with some excellent photos my Dad took of the restoration, and I mentioned that this year she would only be a static exhibit. Of course The National Railway Museum couldn't let the anniversary pass without some form of celebration and what they ended up with was The Great Gathering.

What you can see here is all the six remaining A4 class locomotives lined up around the turntable in the main hall of the museum. From left to right we have Sir Nigel Gresley, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Union of South Africa, Bittern, Mallard, and Dominion of Canada. What is very special about this line up is that two of the locomotives haven't been seen in the UK since 1966 as Dwight D. Eisenhower was donated to the National Railroad Museum in Wisconsin and Dominion of Canada was given to the Canadian Railroad Historical Association and has been kept (in a rather sorry state) at the Canadian Railway Museum near Montreal. There have been previous unsuccessful attempts to bring the two locomotives back to the UK and it is unlikely that once returned to their owners they will ever visit again.

Many people, like me, probably visited The Great Gathering for the chance to see these two locomotives rather than Mallard, certainly if the number of people photographing each locomotive was used as an indicator of popularity. Having said that the museum really isn't the best place to photograph locomotives. The problem is that you can't really stand far enough back to get a good photo, it's certainly impossible to take a full side view of any of the locomotives around the turntable. Fortunately I can show you what an A4 looks like in all it's glory as Mallard was also on show at Barrow Hill when I visited back in September. I'd actually expected that she would be taking pride of place on the turntable in the roundhouse, where again she would be difficult to photograph, but she had in fact been parked outside in the perfect position for photography.

What I hadn't realised, until I visited The Great Gathering, was that Mallard isn't the only A4 to hold a speed record. In fact three of the six locomotives on show have set a record and two of them even have commemorative plaques fitted.

On the left we have the plaque from Mallard, while on the right is the plaque fitted to Sir Nigel Gresley. The third record is held by Bittern who now holds the record for the fastest preserved steam locomotive to run on the UK mainline having hit 92.8mph on the 29th of June 2013. This run was part of the anniversary celebrations and Bittern was given specific permission to break the 75mph speed limit for steam on the mainline. Maybe she will also be fitted with a plaque at some point.

I'll finish this post as I started with a shot of all six A4 locomotives. From this angle it is easy to spot which are static exhibits and which are in working condition as only the working locomotives have coal in their tenders.

Joint Operations

If you've only recently started reading this blog then it may seem as if all I talk about is 3D printing. This certainly isn't the case but I do seem to have had quite a run of posts on the topic. So for a break from 3D printing, I'm going to do a history related post.

In one of the early posts on this blog I discussed the railway companies that, at one time or another, had run steam engines along the railway at the bottom of our garden. If you look at the diagram you will see that from 1874 until 1922 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR) would have been running trains along the line before it was taken over by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), which lasted for just a year before the grouping of 1923 (when all the existing companies were merged into the big four of LMS, LNER, GWR, and SR). Now try as I might I can't find any evidence that, at any point, any of the engines or rolling stock had a joint L&YR - LNWR livery.

So what is this dual coat of arms all about? I picked up this image (as a 35mm negative) on eBay, and apparently it originates from the National Railway Museum. A number of years ago they digitized a lot of their photographic collection and then sold off the negatives that they no longer needed. This collection is now being sold off piecemeal. Of course this doesn't actually help me work out what the coat of arms would have been used for, especially as the original museum descriptions seem to have come detached from the images.

I've had a hunt around the web, and strangely I can't seem to find this image anywhere else which suggests that it wasn't in common use. As far as I can work out there are two possible reasons for its existence. I suppose it could have been used on documents relating to the take over of the L&YR by the LNWR, but from looking at the image I think the photo is of paintwork rather than a printed image. My best guess (and if you know differently please do leave a comment) is that it in fact relates to shipping and not railways.

Apparently the L&YR actually had a large shipping fleet (the largest of any of the pre-grouping railway companies) operating from ports on both the west and east cost of the UK. The interesting detail is that they ran a joint operation with the LNWR out of Fleetwood. My assumption is that the dual coat of arms was painted onto one or more of the jointly owned ships. Unfortunately I can't find any proof of this, but it seems to be the solution that best fits the information I can find.

Standard Gauge Transfers

I thought it was stressful enough adding transfers to the two OO gauge coal wagons (here and here) I built, I can't imagine how sressful it would be to be responsible for adding them to a full size passenger coach!

A Naked Duck

Having recently been on holiday and then having to spend time catching up on work that had built up while I was away I haven't had time to do much modelling for quite a few weeks. Of course this blog isn't just about modelling so for this post I'm going to delve back into my childhood, via some of my Dad's photographs, so get ready to behold a naked duck.

After Flying Scotsman the UK's most famous steam engine is probably LNER 4468; more commonly known as Mallard. On the 3rd of July 1938 Mallard was recorded reaching a top speed of 126mph breaking the world record for a steam locomotive; amazingly that record still stands. Next year will see the 75th anniversary of that record breaking run and while Mallard will be given a cosmetic overhaul she will, unfortunately, remain stuffed and mounted as a static exhibit at the National Railway Museum in York. Things were, however, very different in 1988 when Mallard celebrated fifty years since her record breaking run.

Preparations for the 50th anniversary started in the early 1980's as she was slowly restored to working order. By the 28th of September 1985 she was once more raising steam as these photos show.

I love these photos as although they show what a sorry state Mallard was in at the time (the rust marks on the tender are shocking) they allow you to see that underneath the streamlined casing the A4 Pacifics are in fact very similar to other steam engines of a similar size. She has a tubular boiler, smokebox door and (in this case) a double Kylchap chimney. I don't actually remember this trip to the National Railway Museum but I know I was there as I actually appear in the left hand photo; I'm the small blond haired child being lifted up by my mother in the middle at the bottom of the photo.

By the 25th of March 1986 the overhaul was complete and Mallard returned to mainline duties pulling a special train from York to Doncaster via Scarborough and Hull. Looking through my Dad's slides I can see that we saw her at York two months later on the 25th of May pulling the Scarborough Spa Express and then again on the 25th of August when the photo to the left was taken. Here you can see Mallard, again pulling the Scarborough Spa Express, racing out of York towards Scarborough; you can just see the National Railway Museum through the bridge.

It's a shame that such an evocative sight won't greet those people who visit York next year for the 75th anniversary of the world record. Deciding to overhaul and return an iconic engine to steam is always a difficult decision to make. A full overhaul often involves replacing large parts of the locomotive that cannot be repaired (often the boiler) and there will come a time when little of the original locomotive remains. When Flying Scotsman finally returns to mainline steam duties very little of the original engine will remain, and I guess the National Railway Museum have taken the view that retaining Mallard as a static exhibit is preferable especially as there are a number of other A4 Pacifics currently in operation and certified for use on Britain’s mainline railway network.

Note that a lot of the information for this post came from Don Hale's brilliant book Mallard: How The 'Blue Streak' Broke The World Speed Record which I can heartily recommend for anyone who wants to know more about this wonderful and historic locomotive.