Prototype Barry 1967 and 1968

[simond]

Ah, an SD1. My dad had two, 2.6 litre, but I don’t recall, were they a straight 6? He never had a v8

the first was ok, sort of metallic blue. I recall totally cooking the brakes on it once, on a back road in Bedfordshire, oh the exuberance of youth, fortunately I felt things going south before I panned the car (and/or myself).

the second was an utter dog, His first business trip, two day old car, from Runcorn head office to Leeds, was unsuccessful, as the rear axle seized. Apparently there was no oil in it. The axle was replaced, but amongst other relatively minor irritations, it simply “died” one cold wet night in lane 3 of a very busy m56. He spent about 45 minutes standing on the central reservation waiting to see whether he’d be rescued or there would be a multi car pileup first.

unsurprisingly he never bought another British Leyland car. It’s a shame, the P6 Rovers were outstanding.

Sorry for the distraction, Brian!

atb
Simon

 

[Dog Star]

Ah, an SD1.

Agreed, I had one with a V8 engine. I enjoyed driving that car so much that I traded the motor in for a new Land Rover V8 90".... no explanation why, just liked the new Landies (so circa 1985).

Funny thing about that SD1... I discovered that the car had been delivered new to Hawker Siddeley foundary in Redditch. When I told my Father about the previous owner he smiled and said that he had driven the car when visiting the foundary on behalf of High Duty Alloys (another subsiduary of Hawker Siddeley).

 

[parky]

I thought the SD1 might generate as much comment as the rest of the scene

My 1986 110 was a factory built V8 until I put an EFi lump in with it's auto from my Rangie. Now a 300tdi for convenience

Of far more importance from what I can find is that the grand buildings behind are the Barry railway works, which it looks like are long gone now

 

[oldravendale]

Is that really Barry, Alan? Do you have any idea of date and the identity of the locos?

(My SD1 was the worst car I ever owned by a margin. However, that's been documented elsewhere and I'll not repeat it here.)

Brian

 

[parky]

You got me thinking there Brian, did we go up to Blaenavon while we were over the other side of the bridge ?. Unfortunately I didn't do anything about recording any details of the few photographs I took back then. When I look at the 10K photo we have on the computer now at least they are in named folders, that is about it. File dates will give some idea, but these are scanned slides

Tinternet says 34072 went to Blunsdon so maybe another one of our wanderings around the country




This also doesn't fit the Barry idea now I look at as 92214 left in 1980

 

[Jordan]

A mate of my dad's had a V8 SD1 - I remember being pinned to the seat when he floored it!! I thought they were awesome at the time, but was just a bit too young to get to drive one. I probably would've hated it if I had, like I did with the Ford Capri; drooled over it as a kid, hated it when I drove a mate's, although by that time it was a few years old which probably didn't help!!

 

[Osgood]

Is that really Barry, Alan? Do you have any idea of date and the identity of the locos?

...

Brian

Sure looks like Barry (the old railway workshops and chimney) to me

 

[parky]

Sure looks like Barry (the old railway workshops and chimney) to me

Phew I haven't lost the plot though it was right to question it Brian as the isolated locos don't fit in with my other photos

 

[Osgood]

For a nice selection of arty shots I can recommend this modest work - bear in mind it is typical quality of its 1979 publishing period, 100 x b&w images.
I dug it out of my book stash when this thread kicked off, but have only just got round to renewing my acquaintance with it (probably last read circa 1985!).
A classic candidate for re-publishing in larger format if the original material was still available.

Edit: Bearing in mind this was written at the end of the seventies, when just 80 engines had been liberated, the author expresses the no doubt widely held view at the time that there was very little prospect of any more of the remaining deteriorating hulks being saved - which serves to illustrate the extraordinary phenomenon that Barry eventually became.

 

[Focalplane]

Visited Corfe Castle on Saturday, small Prairie 5526 was on duty. An ex Barry loco, I believe.

 

[SCarle]

The 4F at Bitton is a bit of a convoluted and sad story, still a long way from steaming.

There is but one picture of a 4F in "my" collection, I don't know which one it is, perhaps someone can work it out - the tender edge is a bit mangled!

View attachment 154894

This is 44422

 

[LarryG]

Visited Corfe Castle on Saturday, small Prairie 5526 was on duty. An ex Barry loco, I believe.

Non-shaky ultra smooth panning with no temptation to zoom in or out. Luv it. Would that more video was shot as if it was a human eye.

 

[Focalplane]

Larry, thanks for the compliment but I think the iPhone 11 Pro has some degree of image stabilisation. I could zoom but like you I prefer not to as it invariably causes shake. I don’t use a tripod these days tho I have three and a monopod! I never used my DSLR during Covid-19 because I left everything behind in a hurry to exit France in Novy2020. But I did look into what Hasselblad are doing these days. ££££££.

 

[LarryG]

Hi Paul, Hasselblad was always £££££.s hahaha. I had a fluid-head tripod for movies and a monopod for stills. I've been given an iPhone 7. It looks to delivery better quality than my DSLR.