Prototype A real Duchess

[Arty]

I thought this looked rather nice at Swanage today - appearing all weekend.

 

[Peter Cross]

Bet that was a bit tight.

 

[Heather Kay]

She certainly won’t fit on the turntable!

 

[Tim Watson]

Handrail stanchions don’t look overscale either....

Tim

 

[mth]

Looked alot better in green...................

 

[Focalplane]

Having recently taken ~100 photos of City of Birmingham I am shocked to see how perfect its cousin looks! Hardly a wrinkle or a dimple in sight.

Paul

 

[LarryG]

If wanting to replicate BR maroon and LMS red as it should be, then paint the sandbox fillers and backing plates black. On BR green locos, the backing plates were green.

 

[Cliff Williams]

They got that wrong didn’t they Larry!
More dramatic than the hiccup on 47643 at Bo’ness when Heritage Painting got a very dodgy yellow on the yellow pipes, soon fixed that myself.

 

[LarryG]

Yellow pipes on an LMS Jinty? It took a Google to make me see it is a Class 47. You had me going there for a few minutes Cliff...

 

[Cliff Williams]

Just testing the alertness Larry!

 

[richard carr]

Cliff
Shouldn't it be blue stripe for Scotrail livery

Richard

 

[LarryG]

Cliff
Shouldn't it be blue stripe for Scotrail livery

Richard

No, not necessarily. I photographed these locos when on test down the North Wales line, and later Scotrail locos carried a red stripe.

 

[Cliff Williams]

47 643 never carried blue stripe, except for a short spell in preservation. I do have 47461 ready for going into blue stripe.

 

[LarryG]

A Duchess, not on Shap, but climbing over Standedge. Friend David Jenks was on board and mentioned the stupendous noise. I drove over from NWales to capture it climbing to Greenfield at one of my old photographic locations. Lost the car windscreen for my trouble on M56 but got the shots! 11th November 1980.

 

[Focalplane]

Larry, I never saw a Semi on Shap, just too late when I was doing field work in the area. The modern videos are great but to have seen them in every day schedules must have been marvelous - my sightings were all at Tamworth Low Level, flat but very fast and not so noisy!

Any idea what the first and second coaches are?

Paul

 

[LarryG]

Any idea what the first and second coaches are?Paul

The first coach is an ex.Royal coach, LNWR in origin on an LMS underframe. It was built as a cove roof brake first and was given a clerestory roof when it was drafted to royal train duties. My LNWR books are out on loan so I am talking off the top of my head here. The second coach was a BR Mk.I TPO vehicle.

 

[LarryG]

Mainline steam rarely recreates something I saw in the past because of the mish-mash of eras particularly in liveries. Mainly it was about spending a day with fellow photographers from all corners of the country who I may not have seen for some years. But we are thinning out due to age, as I think even the youngest of my acquaintances are past retirement age now. Had the maroon Duchess (below) near Penmaenmawr had BR markings, then I suppose it could have been 1963 or 1964 at a pinch, but then the bridge is new and the telegraph poles are not there....


However, seeing a green Duchess again was too good to miss so I chose Penmaenmawr station as the location because it hasn't changed a great deal. These big Pacific's were almost at the end of their lives by the time North Wales regularly saw them and never shone like this, and maybe there were a lot more ex.LMS Stanier coaches around back then, but the day conjured up a bit more nostalgia than usual...