Prototype 46235 City of Birmingham, February 2019

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
As part of my project, building a Finney7 Princess Coronation, I visited the Birmingham Science Museum on February 19th. As it coincided with half term holidays I arrived at opening time and queued for a few minutes. The place was certainly busy. Buying my entry ticket I explained I was only planning on being in the museum for a couple of hours to photograph one exhibit, and would there be a concessionary price? I was given a £5 discount at the discretion of the staff member who clearly had great affection for 46235.

Although buzzing with families the area around the locomotive was not busy so I set to work, starting in the cab.

But first a few comments. As many have said, the space is cramped, particularly by comparison with the old location on Newhall Street. The loco and tender are not coupled which allows a wider platform but spoils the look of the complete locomotive. Decking at footplate level hides the lower right hand side and on the left hand side there is a pillar in front of the cylinder/slide bar area. Lighting is also difficult for good photography.

The museum curator(s) have been adamant that no work should be done other than a regular dusting. The underside is in poor shape and has asbestos warning labels under the cab. Above the footplate the condition is cosmetic rather than showroom and the original touch ups of the paint are very obvious, the green having faded more where it was touched up. British Railways would have done a full restoration job on the paintwork at a price that the new owner (the city) would not pay. Certain views, such as the smokebox door, are better than others!

Compared to a restored heritage locomotive, such as Duchess of Sutherland or even an 8F freight loco, the cylinder embellishments are painted black and rather crudely so. This was a “withdrawn at end of service life” locomotive and as such is quite different from rebuilds and new builds in that respect.

City of Birmingham is a defrocked streamliner and has the utility front end. Its tender is the original one (not many retained the same tender throughout) and has the rear ladder, etc. The steam coal pusher is intact, some of them were simplified. Edit, lowest pusher was removed, see comment by P A D below.

My research has cleared up one “misunderstanding” in that the “south of Crewe” yellow stripe on the cab sides was applied prior to withdrawal and was photographed on the loco when it was stored at Nuneaton shed. After several months at Nuneaton the loco was towed back to Crewe for the cosmetic work to be done and this included the yellow stripe removal. Only then did City of Birmingham go back south, directly to Saltley and then by road to the Museum of Science and Industry. Photographs taken at Saltley and during the road transfer do show the cosmetic restoration and at the time it was very presentable. Today it is starting to look a little tired.

OK, on with the photos. Some editing to compensate for difficult exposures has been done, mainly to bring out details - captions below each photo.

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Upper cab backhead view. Note white paint stops at base of cab side windows

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Lower cab backhead view

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Cab left hand side (Driver)

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Cab right hand side (Fireman)

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Tender front, right hand side (i.e. behind Fireman). Shows the tool space and spare lamp brackets at top. The coal space is covered by a perspex barrier.

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Tender front, left hand side (i.e. behind Driver). Self explanatory labels, some of which may not be original?
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Rear of tender showing ladder from defrocked original streamlined tender. The rearward extension of the tender sides was longer in original form.

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Right hand side of tender rear. The "overhead wire" warnings were retained.

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The all important works and water capacity plates. Also the two distinct lamp brackets.

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The lower portion of the ex-streamlined tender ladder. This is faithfully reproduced in the Finney7 kit.

Completion of first ten photo uploads. More to come.
 
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Focalplane

Western Thunderer
On with page 2, another 10 photos:

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The rear coupler and also shows how cramped the views are on the right hand side of the locomotive.

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The beading on the tank sides. I discovered this is how it should have been added as I had it wrong! Note the different colour on the beading.

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The cab side, without a yellow stripe! I understand the numbers have been applied higher than usual, though this is more hearsay than fact. Again, two green colours are visible!

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Lower front of the tender, showing the viewing platform between engine and tender.

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Although nothing is visible below the footplate on the right hand side, the platform does provide good views of the various plumbing along the top of the footplate. Sand filler in front of oil lubrication box.

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Moving forward, the same oil box as above, then two Silverton lubricators with another sand filler.

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Close up of the lubricators. These are going to be challenging but I have had practice on a 4F!

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A few centimeters to the right, more details.

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And a little further forward. Note everything was painted black in service. This compared to Duchess of Sutherland makes interesting viewing!

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Oil lines on top of the front splasher. The clamp is a feature of the Finney7 kit.

That's another 10 photos. More to come but first I must do some modelling!
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Ten more photos:

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Getting close to the smoke deflectors. Another set of oil pots plus inspection lids to below the footplate.

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Looking up to the top of the smoke deflector.

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46235 was one of three that had a City coat of arms, the other two, from memory being Coventry and Stoke on Trent, above the name plate. Birmingham's coat of arms "Forward" features a blacksmith and an artist each side of the shield. The brass fitting was not painted.

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Front of the right hand outside cylinder and valve chest. The utility front frame differs from the more standard curved frame on many Stanier locomotives having a gap that allows access to the front of the valve chest.

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Close up of the front of the footplate showing the typical condition of the locomotive after 55 years of standing still!

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Moving round to the front reveals a number of features. The front bogie has the AWS platform and protective plate but no AWS. One of the inside cylinders can be seen as well as vacuum pipe plumbing.

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By contrast to much of the locomotive the front end looks fresher and certainly the buffer beam could have been painted yesterday!

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The front of the left hand outside cylinder is easy to see but a pillar to the right means that no head on photo can be taken. I am not yet sure if the vacuum pipe is included in the castings. Everything else you can see is in the Finney7 kit.

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Details of the front bogie, a very useful photo when building the mini-kit. Note the wheels were painted.

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More details of the left hand outside cylinder and valve chest.

That's ten more photos. Time for lunch!
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Paul,
You mention that the coal pusher is intact, but that is not the case. This is not the best of images, but it clearly shows the lower ram is missing, although the guide rails are still there. I read somewhere that towards the end of BR steam, it there were issues with the lower ram it was simply removed.

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Your backhead shots are obscured by the sign, so this might be interesting as it shows the full back plate lathe way to the floor. Somebody must have moved the sign when I was there.;)
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And a closer view of the damper levers.

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Did you note that the drivers heat shield to the left of the fire hole door is missing. You can see the mounting brackets at the end of the door rails, but the shield is long gone, whether in BR days or at the museum, we will never know.
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Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Thanks Peter! On with the show with ten more:

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The pillar plus small showcase of two OO gauge models makes this the best one can do with the crosshead from one side. Lots more black paint!

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On the other side of the pillar! Again it's w0rth noting what is painted and what is not.

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Again, more detail. I will have to check how the front crankpin recess is dealt with in the instructions.

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Things to note include the hollow axle which won't be emulated on Slaters axles, the position of the return crank and black painted drivers.

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Stand back, fall over the display pictured here and you get an idea of how cramped the setting is. Almost all the Walshaerts valve gear in view. The position of the return/eccentric crank on the centre driving axle will be critical.

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The rear driving wheel, axle and speedometer plus a bundle of pipes under the footplate.

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The rear pony, but the next one is slightly better.

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The yellow tag is an asbestos warning.

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Back to the motion. You can also make out a few of the internal parts.

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There's that bl88dy pillar! - On to the next 10 photos.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Having got the pillar in a photo, let's move on:

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If the metalwork on your model is wrinkled, then it's prototypical.

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Although I didn't check at the time I think the footplate lubricators, etc. are the same on both sides.

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Next I went back into the cab and took some detailed photos.

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Richard Lambert has detailed descriptions of how to assemble the backhead parts.

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Note the information of boiler fittings.

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The last one.
 
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