Guest Book: Page 19

Page 20  :  Page 19  :  Page 18

Mike - Before you rush to correct me, the Redditch - Evesham line should read MR not GWR.

Best regards Geoffrey

Hi Geoffrey - I agree with you that my description of Evesham was a little sloppy and confusing as it read: "Evesham station was the end of the single line route which commenced at Redditch the line doubling from Evesham to Ashchurch. The GWR also ran into Evesham and the two railways helped to increase the prosperity of the area by being able to transport produce to markets otherwise too distant".

I agree and I have now corrected it to read: "The Midland Railway's station at Evesham was the sited at the end of the single line route from Redditch, the line being built with double tracks for the portion of the route running from Evesham to Ashchurch. The Great Western Railway also ran into Evesham and together the two railways helped to increase the prosperity of the area by being able to transport produce to markets otherwise too distant".

Its one of the hazards writing the vast majority of the captions - you just get stale, tired or careless and sometimes all three together. Its why I do appreciate corrections and constructive criticism because by nature I want to produce the best possible job. (You can tell that I am nearly 60).

I have posted your comments in the guestbook to encourage others to pick up on errors as I really do appreciate your input in making the site accurate and readable.

Best wishes and thanks Mike

I studied at Warwick University in the 1970s and made many expeditions around the county in search of old lines, notably Coventry to Leamington, the Great Central between Rugby and Woodford Halse and the western end of the SMJ. This site is excellent - if I could make one suggestion - a good map of the county with lines marked. Best wishes from Warsaw, Poland.

Michael Dembinski

Michael - many thanks for the kind comments about the website. There are major issues regarding producing a map of the county, not least it being beyond my technical skills. The county border constantly changed over the last 150 years so for instance when Tamworth was once part of Warwickshire (until the 1870s) Shipston-on-Stour was not. Similarly many Worcestershire stations were incorporated into the county between the wars when the districts they were located within were merged with the City of Birmingham as it expanded its own boundaries. Its often forgotten that Birmingham was part of the county until the formation of the West Midlands County Council in 1972. WMCC only lasted a short time and was subsequently scrapped in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher.

You have some excellent photos of a William Clarke designed station. I have provided a link to Bearley, and all others I know about, from my site.

K Ellis of www.loddiswellstation.org.

Mike, further sleuthings from Owen indicate this loco is, IMO, almost certainly 60053 (given that we know it cannot be 35). Owen wrote;

Hi Kester, I've had a better look at Yeadon's volume on the A1/A3 locos and Vol 2A of the RCTS "Locos of the LNER". These revealed the following:

A1 to A3 rebuilds with 1930 type high-sided LNER non-corridor tender* and banjo dome as at 14 May 1949, with shed. These were all RHD at the time.
60048 "Doncaster", Leicester Central
60053 "Sansovino", Leicester Central
60060 "The Tetrarch", Gateshead
60064 "Tagalie", Haymarket
60072 "Sunstar", Heaton
60111 "Enterprise", Leicester Central *

There were two types of high-sided LNER non-corridor tender that ran with the A1/A3s: Yeadon calls them the 1930 and the 1936 types. The former had beading while the latter, which had a more streamlined look, didn't. The tender in the photo clearly has beading and so is one of the 1930 type. No 60103 had one of the streamlined 1936 type tenders from the 1930s until withdrawal in 1963 and was a Leicester Central loco in the period 1950 - 1953.

The loco in the photo appears to have the oval Doncaster works plate on the smokebox. Nos 60064/72 were built by NBL Hyde Park Works, and unless they were given a Doncaster plate on rebuilding to A3(?) would probably either have had the circular NBL Hyde Park plate or else no works plate at all - some photos in later years seem to show the NBL locos without works plates.

Given the potential for the photographer to have written down "60035" instead of "60053" I'd say the loco in the photo is most probably "Sansovino".

Best wishes - Owen

Dear Mike - The note by Martin (Page 9) that Windsor Lad was a Scottish loco all its life and would have been the "cop of cops" in the history of the world to be seen in London got me sleuthing, or at least, organising a sleuthation (he he, like that word?) I wondered about the train itself - from the lighting I would say the sun is high and likely to be around 12.30 - 13.00, meaning the train would have depart Marylebone at 11.15-11.45 ish.

Several people came forward with possibly useful info, including the fact that May 14 was a Saturday that year. Another person said that by blowing up the photo, the nameplate is a double name, but the two words are of roughly equal length. BUT, the clincher was a chappie called Owen, who wrote as follows;

"It seems to me that the loco in the photo can't be Windsor Lad. The loco in the photo is right-hand-drive because the exhaust from the vacuum ejector to the smokebox is not visible on this side. Windsor lad was built new as an A3 and as such was built as left-hand-drive. The loco in the photo would have been one of those originally built as an A1 and later re-built to A3; most (all?) of these latter remained right-hand drive on re-building although they were all left-hand drive by withdrawal". Best wishes, Owen

So, it wasn't Windsor Lad, that's nailed that one - but what was it? My suspicion is that it is 60052 Prince Palatine, which was RHD and a GC loco, if I remember correctly.

Best wishes, Kester

Page 20  :  Page 19  :  Page 18