Prototype Tim Mills' Photos

[oldravendale]

Thanks Frazer. I've been looking at the collection on line and the museum at Cultra looks really well laid out. I was not familiar with the collection before it moved but it looks very cramped, as you suggest.

For today back to more normal fare and something to bring joy to the LSWR aficionados - well, these had LSWR antecendents so carry a lot of LSWR influence although built by the SR. Studies of two of the beautiful S15 4-6-0s, both locos with those impressive bogie tenders. All three of these are "Feltham 1964". First a couple of 30823. This had been a Feltham engine since the beginning of the year but was withdrawn at the end of November and scrapped at Cashmore's (Newport) during February 1965.



Sister engine 30824 clearly in steam on the same day. In 1964 this was a Feltham engine and moved couple f time between there and Eastleigh before withdrawal from Eastleigh in September 1965. 30824 also went to Cashmore's (Newport) for scrapping which occurred in December 1965.



Brian

 

[oldravendale]

Well, with so many likes for these SR locos my inclination is to persist with the steam photos only! But I'll not do that. As others come up they'll be published too.

This one has some controversy associated with it. Tim has titled this "Dual Brake Fitted 73031 at Bristol Barrow Road MPD. 1954." My first question is, is this really dual brake fitted? The controversy is outlined here: https://www.whatreallyhappenedtosteam.co.uk/pdf/WRHTS-ESS-article-107.pdf

What the record shows us is that in 1954 the loco was living at Derby and moved to Barrow Road in 1957. While it's entirely possible that 73031 was a visitor to Barrow Road in 1954 I wonder whether Tim's dating of the photo is in question and that we should consider this as 1957 or thereabouts. After Barrow Road the allocation is rather lost until 1961 when it was at Bath Green Park. The contemporaneous Locoshed books show the allocation as Bristol (22A) in October 1957, Rugby Testing Station in March 1958 and still there in December 1959. To my ignorant eye that appears an awful long time to be under test! However, thereafter it moved around a bit, ending up at Oxford (81F) from where it was withdrawn in September 1965. Demolition followed at Cashmore's (Newport) in the following December.



Brian

 

[daifly]

Brian
The RCTS BR Standard Steam Locos Vol 2 says of 73031 that it was fitted with Westinghouse air brake equipment as running in the mid-1950s and was allocated to Rugby Testing Station from January 1958 to February 1961. When not required for testing purposes it operated from Bristol Barrow Road. It was certainly at Rugby between February and October 1958 and again for 6 weeks in the Spring of 1959.
Dave

(Edit to add that this info is included in the link in Brians original post and may not be accurate.)

 

[mickoo]

No idea about the braking but 99% confident that is Barrow Road.

 

[Overseer]

The livery looks likely for a 1954 date. When was it fitted with air brakes? And where was the compressor mounted?

 

[daifly]

73030 and 73031 were built with air brakes fitted from new with pumps on the offside by the smokebox.
Dave

 

[AJC]

The livery looks likely for a 1954 date. When was it fitted with air brakes? And where was the compressor mounted?

Here you are, Fraser: AJPowell unsorted 01 415

The 'controversy' noted in the link (and Brian's post) above does highlight the necessity of proper, effective citation, but that's another hobbyhorse of mine.

Adam

 

[Overseer]

Here you are, Fraser: AJPowell unsorted 01 415

The 'controversy' noted in the link (and Brian's post) above does highlight the necessity of proper, effective citation, but that's another hobbyhorse of mine.

Adam

I expected a more elegant installation than that.

All the extra info supplied suggests that the date and location is correct as stated on the print, and the later ‘controversy’ is not relevant.

 

[AJC]

I expected a more elegant installation than that.

All the extra info supplied suggests that the date and location is correct as stated on the print, and the later ‘controversy’ is not relevant.

When I first read about it, so did I! They managed something quite neat on the Tyne Dock 9Fs after all.

You're quite right, of course - that's very obviously an air-braked loco, clearly dated, etc. - but as a general point, traceability of source information is extremely helpful and something that railway history is notoriously (i.e., among historians - it's visible because the companies are large and well-documented) bad at.

Adam

 

[Eastsidepilot]

On the trains I suspect it's the fact the front ends are no longer shaped like bricks and they appear to be washed more often in the depots. As for cars - given the weight of traffic today I don't think you can go fast enough to splatter the bugs - It's more than likely they'll outrun (outfly?) you.

....or if you're a biker then you just swallow 'em.

Col.

 

[Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen]

I was always told that you could spot a happy biker by the number of flies on his teeth,

Tim

 

[simond]

visor down if I'm doing more than 40...

Some years back I got hit by what I assume was a bit of road grit one on the junction from the M25 to the M20, I was doing 70-ish, I saw it coming, thought it was a fly or bumblebee, but it was hard, sharp and heavy enough to go bang and to take a chunk of gelcoat and glassfibre out of my previous helmet. No idea what it was doing well over a metre above the ground, but its trajectory and mine coincided.

I imagine that if it had hit me in the eye, I'd have lost the eye, probably my balance and maybe my life.

been a bit more careful since.

 

[Deano747]

I 'Like' your post, Simon, but not for the risk of injury factor!!

Regards, Rob.

 

[Peter Cross]

Simon.
I collided with a rather large bumble once. Open face helmet. As you I could see it coming. But, we seemed destine for the same bit of space. After I got home and looked in the mirror, I looked like I'd done a round or two with Ali.

 

[Osgood]

Just as with old bikers, dogs don't always wear protective gear:

Sensible:


Not sensible:

 

[Osgood]

Sorry for the off-topic Brian, some bigger boys made me do it.

 

[oldravendale]

Thank you all for the info about 73031. It provides pretty much everything I need to go with the photo.

Thanks also for the subsequent light entertainment.

Here's a couple, the second rather spoiled by the winding problems in the camera preventing the recording of a full image. Their title is "Old Oak September 1963." The first is Castle 5038, Morlais Castle, looking in pretty good condition. If we take Tim's date of 1963 as gospel this was taken quite early in the year, as the loco was withdrawn from Reading in September of 1963 - the clearly visible shed plate is for 81D and it started life there in November 1962 so the dating looks accurate. It was scrapped at Cashmore's, Newport, in June 1964.



Here's an unidentified King, shorn of number and nameplates. Following the wholesale withdrawal of the Kings in 1962 there were several of these stored at Old Oak as I well remember. It was something of a shock at the time to find the premier GWR express locos at the end of their lives. Note the ladder in the foreground, endorsed "Cleaners. O.O.C." which would act as a nice tripping hazard and probably saw little if any further use.



Brian

 

[Eastsidepilot]

Just as with old bikers, dogs don't always wear protective gear:

Sensible:
View attachment 141881

Not sensible:

There was an old joke about dogs and bikers....something about "bike was nicked while pushing it home"

Sorry Brian , back to railways. really enjoying Tim's photo's, when you see a collection like this it really makes you realise the variety of stock and detail that is no longer part of the railway scene, I appreciate the fact that there are guys out there recording todays railway, which is welcome, but it's far less variety looses our attention sometimes.
Col.

 

[simond]

I remember the blue Pullmans in the TriAng catalogue in my childhood, and subsequently in a huge collection of RM & other magazines I was given. I had no inkling then, at an early age, that they were the shape of operations to come - effectively the harbinger of doom for loco -hauled passenger stock, thus the end of “strengtheners”, and any kind of running round or marshalling of trains in the station (excepting the joining of services comprising two identical units, eg Javelins at Ashford Int’l).

I have no doubt it’s hugely more efficient, and safer, and so on, but I’m sure much of the interest for the observer went.

I wonder what’s next.

General adoption of driverless trains is going to happen sometime. But, at least in some cases, why run “trains” at all? Autonomous independent rail vehicles travelling on demand from point to point for containerised freight might even compete with trucks...? What price progress?

 

[Eastsidepilot]

I remember the blue Pullmans in the TriAng catalogue in my childhood, and subsequently in a huge collection of RM & other magazines I was given. I had no inkling then, at an early age, that they were the shape of operations to come - effectively the harbinger of doom for loco -hauled passenger stock, thus the end of “strengtheners”, and any kind of running round or marshalling of trains in the station (excepting the joining of services comprising two identical units, eg Javelins at Ashford Int’l).

I have no doubt it’s hugely more efficient, and safer, and so on, but I’m sure much of the interest for the observer went.

I wonder what’s next.

General adoption of driverless trains is going to happen sometime. But, at least in some cases, why run “trains” at all? Autonomous independent rail vehicles travelling on demand from point to point for containerised freight might even compete with trucks...? What price progress?

I'm going to sound like my late Father now for he always said "progress ? always seams to me the price goes up and someone loosing their job ".

Increasing population, more automation, more poverty !

Col.