Prototype Some of my photos

[oldravendale]

Thanks for that info, Andrew. I'd be very happy to make that image available to them if it's of any use as long as there's an acknowledgement.

PM me if there's any interest.

Brian

 

[AJC]

Thanks for the additional information Andrew: I was extremely impressed with the quality of the work seen on the blog, and how well presented the whole line was last time I was up there. In addition to the turn out of stock, what they have done with the station at Holt is especially impressive.

Adam

 

[oldravendale]

Here's another picture I've just post processed. Regrettably rather under exposed as (and I remember it well) it was photographed late afternoon with very little light, really just to use up some exposures while I was waiting for a cavalcade of freight locos to depart Southall Shed (more of those later). I'd changed from 64ASA colour film to "Tri-X" black and white with a speed of 400ASA having been advised by one of the drivers that they'd create something spectacular when they left the shed and preparing to just grab what I could in the fading light. However, I've lifted the shadows a bit and cleaned up the scratches and general crap. It was taken on 5th December 1965, my very last visit to Southall Shed which closed on 3rd January 1966.

Those who have kindly expressed an interest in my old photos will know that I rarely photographed infrastructure, so this is a real exception.



Not being knowledgeable about such things I believe this to be the ash plant.

Brian

 

[oldravendale]

I'm rather pleased with this one after it's been cleaned up on Photoshop. Again, my last visit to Southall Shed on 5th December 1965.

 

[oldravendale]

Here's another. Same date. In fact the loco to the left of 6111 is 92030 above.


The "tanner oners" were my favourite loco for very many years. I remember them well on the locals out of Paddington and once the DMUs arrived they were out of work. They were amazingly powerful and could provide exhilarating acceleration. On the whole they survived well, right up to the end of WR steam so I suspect they were popular with the crews and maintenance people too. Several were well looked after exceptionally well at Southall, not least 6106 which is the only survivor.

Brian

 

[Dog Star]

Nice and atmospheric photos of the 9F and the '61', and that is not graffiti on the wall.

Occasionally some photos include details which can be easily overlooked and yet are as much part of our railway history as the actual subject of the photo, the 9F and the '61' are examples of just that. There are stacks of firebricks against the shed wall - inside to protect the friable material from the weather. Each stack is underneath a letter chalked on the wall... those letters identify the shape and size of the brick so that the person responsible for building a brick arch can find the correct bricks for a specific class of engine. Somewhere here I have an official book of diagrams which shows the arch formation and details of the required bricks for each of the standard GWR classes.

There is a similar piece of railway history in the car park of the Swindon outlet centre. Tacked to the brick wall at the north end of the site are lots of rectangular pieces of plate with numbers and letters... I am pretty sure that this area was a stacking ground for raw materials and that those plates identified the steel sheets, with dimensions and classes, for making boilers and fireboxes.

regards, Graham

 

[oldravendale]

Hi Graham.

Thanks for some more info I didn't know, so I will add the info to the data relevant to the pictures. In fact, the next one of a Black 5 (about to go up on this site) is not such a good photo - in fact I wasn't going to put it up at all - but there may well be some of the "atmospheric" detail to be captured and described. Apart from which there's a bit of Hymek showing.......

Brian

 

[oldravendale]

As promised. Same day, same location.



Perhaps not too much additional info to be gleaned from this one, although the construction of the pit is a detail for steam shed builders to consider.

Brian