Lyndhurstman
Western Thunderer
View attachment 51398
The condenser - I'm sure someone told me its purpose once - and the whistle chains, of course. There's also a rudimentary ventilator grab handle. The roof now has four brass wire peggy-springy-thingies to hold it on the body.
Hi Heather.
Smashing work.
Compact and bijou places, the GWR tank footplates (unless you were the driver, gurning out of your gap for all the photo ops, only coming back in to bend your firemans back still further as you lifted into second valve... ). Not the place for lanky sods (I lost count of the number of times I crunched my head on the roof as I stuck my swede out looking for signals). For the fireman, there was lots of stuff to footle with, and all within easy reach. Your wonderful attention to detail certainly brings it to life.
The condensing coil (apart from doing what it says on the tin) supplies water to the hydrostatic lubricator, and serves to displace the oil into the sight glasses and on to the cylinders. There's a very handy and informative interactive figure on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (We sing Hosanna to its Name ) here:
The GWR Virtual Footplate
Cheers
Jan