oldravendale
Western Thunderer
It's become something of a tradition since I joined WT to post some of my photos on the site either over Christmas or early in the New Year. This year it's a little different.
As we start 2017 I'm reminded of my last visit to Southall Shed which closed on 31st December 1965 - almost 51 years ago to the day. My visit was on 5th December. So, as a break with the technical traditions of WT, and in the hope that our administrators won't drum me out of the Brownies I "wanna tell you a story".
This may take some time.......
Part of this missive is probably the least technically competent set of pictures which have yet been seen on WT but, among friends, you may enjoy this true short story. Just watch out for the camera shake and focus. By the time my subjects went past my camera at around 4.30pm I was at 1/15sec at f2.8. One or two of the better photos have been on WT in the fairly recent past, but if appropriate they'll be repeated here as they are part of the story.
Sadly and to my enormous disappointment at the time most of the photos are so underexposed that they are unprintable so the negs were stuffed in to an envelope without details, becoming badly scratched and collecting a lot of dust over the years. Regrettably I didn't keep all the details either, but by some happy chance I didn't throw the negs away. However, through the magic of 21st century Photoshop and several hours at a minimum spent on each frame some semblance of real images has been extracted.
For anyone who ever visited Southall MPD (we few, we happy few, we band of brothers) memories of the scenes and experience will be brought back by the aroma of roasting coffee. This is because of the glorious smell emanating from the nearby Nestle factory (which closed in 2015) and which was always so noticeable as one walked across the footbridge (from where one could see Panniers on the Brentford Branch) to get to the shed.
Southall was one of the most difficult sheds to bunk without an official pass. Access from the footbridge (which will appear in at least one of the photos) was in the open with no cover for about 150 yards. You were very lucky if you were able to hide behind a loco or two on the way in without being challenged and thrown out.
By 3.30 in the afternoon the light was fading fast. Clearly the colour negative film I had been using, at 64ASA, was now far too slow, but by pure happenchance I had some Kodak Tri-X rated at 400ASA (at the time the fastest film made by Kodak, mainly used by press photographers for it's speed but it suffered from grain like golf balls if even slightly under exposed) in my camera bag which I knew would be my only chance to capture any more images. I wanted to take every opportunity to take more photos as it was increasingly obvious that the shed would be redundant in the very near future. After all, it may be the last opportunity to photograph working ex GW steam (and it was). The colour film was taken out of the camera and the Tri-X duly loaded and some time exposures taken inside the shed with the camera on a tripod.
The prairie tank is 6134.
The two GWR locos were withdrawn as Southall Shed closed, on 31st December. The Black 5 lasted pretty well to the end of steam in 1968 and the 9F until 1967.
Although the light was poor I then wandered outside.
6859 was also withdrawn on 31st December.
I then noted that there was clearly some action with a few of the locos moving towards the turntable.
I thought it worth a try to photograph two of the locos, a Black 5 (I think it was 45493) and a 9F (identification now lost) as they moved out of the shed - the Black 5 had already been photographed inside the shed. The presence of the two men who can be seen in the first photo was usually a bad omen. As the drivers approached we thought we were about to be thrown out - yet again! Fortunately we had been around the shed and it was very late in the afternoon and getting cold and dark, so time to go home anyway. However, both men were friendly and advised that this would be the very last opportunity to see multiple locos leaving the shed and that the crews would "put on a good show". I seem to remember that we were told these locos were being used for inter regional freight working back to the LMR as, by 1965, the Western Region was pretty well 100% dieselised. We'd watched three locos moving around the yard, and first two were turned, then they were joined by a third (another 9F, 92030) and all three were coupled together.
Unidentified 9F coupled to the Black 5 after turning.
And did those chaps put on a show for us? They sure did even as they backed out of the shed yard, past the water tank and on to the up slow line.
(You can see the scary foot bridge in the background of this shot).
Then all hell broke loose as they tore past us, whistles blowing and cylinder drain cocks open. Fairly typical of the time was the enthusiasts standing within track limits on the fast down line out of Paddington. In 1965 we were regarded as responsible for our own health and safety.
Thus, for me at least, steam on the GW main line came to an end.
Brian
As we start 2017 I'm reminded of my last visit to Southall Shed which closed on 31st December 1965 - almost 51 years ago to the day. My visit was on 5th December. So, as a break with the technical traditions of WT, and in the hope that our administrators won't drum me out of the Brownies I "wanna tell you a story".
This may take some time.......
Part of this missive is probably the least technically competent set of pictures which have yet been seen on WT but, among friends, you may enjoy this true short story. Just watch out for the camera shake and focus. By the time my subjects went past my camera at around 4.30pm I was at 1/15sec at f2.8. One or two of the better photos have been on WT in the fairly recent past, but if appropriate they'll be repeated here as they are part of the story.
Sadly and to my enormous disappointment at the time most of the photos are so underexposed that they are unprintable so the negs were stuffed in to an envelope without details, becoming badly scratched and collecting a lot of dust over the years. Regrettably I didn't keep all the details either, but by some happy chance I didn't throw the negs away. However, through the magic of 21st century Photoshop and several hours at a minimum spent on each frame some semblance of real images has been extracted.
For anyone who ever visited Southall MPD (we few, we happy few, we band of brothers) memories of the scenes and experience will be brought back by the aroma of roasting coffee. This is because of the glorious smell emanating from the nearby Nestle factory (which closed in 2015) and which was always so noticeable as one walked across the footbridge (from where one could see Panniers on the Brentford Branch) to get to the shed.
Southall was one of the most difficult sheds to bunk without an official pass. Access from the footbridge (which will appear in at least one of the photos) was in the open with no cover for about 150 yards. You were very lucky if you were able to hide behind a loco or two on the way in without being challenged and thrown out.
By 3.30 in the afternoon the light was fading fast. Clearly the colour negative film I had been using, at 64ASA, was now far too slow, but by pure happenchance I had some Kodak Tri-X rated at 400ASA (at the time the fastest film made by Kodak, mainly used by press photographers for it's speed but it suffered from grain like golf balls if even slightly under exposed) in my camera bag which I knew would be my only chance to capture any more images. I wanted to take every opportunity to take more photos as it was increasingly obvious that the shed would be redundant in the very near future. After all, it may be the last opportunity to photograph working ex GW steam (and it was). The colour film was taken out of the camera and the Tri-X duly loaded and some time exposures taken inside the shed with the camera on a tripod.
The prairie tank is 6134.
The two GWR locos were withdrawn as Southall Shed closed, on 31st December. The Black 5 lasted pretty well to the end of steam in 1968 and the 9F until 1967.
Although the light was poor I then wandered outside.
6859 was also withdrawn on 31st December.
I then noted that there was clearly some action with a few of the locos moving towards the turntable.
I thought it worth a try to photograph two of the locos, a Black 5 (I think it was 45493) and a 9F (identification now lost) as they moved out of the shed - the Black 5 had already been photographed inside the shed. The presence of the two men who can be seen in the first photo was usually a bad omen. As the drivers approached we thought we were about to be thrown out - yet again! Fortunately we had been around the shed and it was very late in the afternoon and getting cold and dark, so time to go home anyway. However, both men were friendly and advised that this would be the very last opportunity to see multiple locos leaving the shed and that the crews would "put on a good show". I seem to remember that we were told these locos were being used for inter regional freight working back to the LMR as, by 1965, the Western Region was pretty well 100% dieselised. We'd watched three locos moving around the yard, and first two were turned, then they were joined by a third (another 9F, 92030) and all three were coupled together.
Unidentified 9F coupled to the Black 5 after turning.
And did those chaps put on a show for us? They sure did even as they backed out of the shed yard, past the water tank and on to the up slow line.
(You can see the scary foot bridge in the background of this shot).
Then all hell broke loose as they tore past us, whistles blowing and cylinder drain cocks open. Fairly typical of the time was the enthusiasts standing within track limits on the fast down line out of Paddington. In 1965 we were regarded as responsible for our own health and safety.
Thus, for me at least, steam on the GW main line came to an end.
Brian
