GREAT WESTERN (GWR)

3. The 57XX engines: 57XX, 67XX, 77XX

Being a part of the Irwell Press 'The Book of the Pannier Tanks'

Intended to Make Up into a Set as a Volume in the Famous 'Book

Of' Series

No.1 94XX

No.2 57XX (36XX, 37XX, 46XX)

No.3 57XX (57XX, 67XX, 77XX)

No.4 57XX (77XX, 96XX, 97XX) expected early-2012

No.5 16XX

No.6 1366, 15XX (expected early 2012)

No.7 54XX, 64XX, 74XX (expected mid 2012)

The vast army of modern (post Grouping) pannier tanks is thus

dealt with over several volumes in a highly collectable series.

Paperback 56 pages

By PHILIP E. RUNDLE M.B.E., M.Inst. T.A.

Following the interest shown in his first book, Laira Fireman, it was put to Phil that a second might be of interest, broadening the scope across Cornwall, a county so dear to his heart. In Tales from the Clay Country, he has attempted to portray the work of the Great Western in Cornwall and in particular the steam sheds at St Blazey, Truro and Penzance. After a while it seemed natural to include the Southern men and their engines at Wadebridge, on the North Cornwall line, to make this an account of Cornish Sheds.

Hardback 156 pages

BY JOHN JENNISON

The Warships were amongst the most controversial of the early BR diesel classes; the WR management had to fight tooth and nail to get them built in the first place and they were continually attacked by the diesel-electric proponents until they were taken out of service prematurely in the early 1970s under the guise of standardisation. They carried the standard BR green livery with a grey horizontal lining band, enhanced from 1962 by the addition of small yellow warning panels on the nose-end. Almost half were repainted during1965/6 in the maroon which had been adopted for their Western contemporaries, before the majority were given BR's Corporate blue livery which it has to be said did nothing to improve their appearance, even though it was not dissimilar to the colour originally recommended but subsequently rejected in 1959. The Warships became Class 42/43 under TOPS but new numbers were not applied because they were pencilled in for early withdrawal under the National Traction Plan. There were only a few noticeable changes over the fourteen years the locomotives were in service. Those built without train indicator panels had them added, the multiple working equipment was taken off and restored, and there were minor changes on the nose-ends of some locomotives. The Warships were originally employed primarily on the Western Region Paddington-Bristol and West of England services, venturing onto the North-West line up to Crewe between 1962 and 1964. They took over the former SR Waterloo-Exeter trains in 1964 where they held sway until October 1971. In 1967 the North British built locomotives were tried on the Paddington-Birmingham passenger services but after numerous failures they were quickly removed from this work, although they did take over the Worcester/Hereford services which they worked until 1971. The class was ousted from much of their principal WR express work in the mid-1960s, but they did stage a brief comeback in 1968 when pairs of Warships were employed on the accelerated services to the West of England. Over their last few years they were to be found increasingly on freight and secondary workings before the final survivors succumbed in late-1972. Two D800s escaped the cutters torch and although neither has been on the mainline they have both appeared at many preserved railways and open days over the years.

Being a part of the Irwell Press 'The Book of the Pannier Tanks'

Intended to Make Up into a Set as a Volume in the Famous 'Book

Of' Series

The 57XX engines: 36XX, 37XX, 46XX

The vast army of modern (post Grouping) pannier tanks is thus

dealt with over several volumes in a highly collectable series.

PLENTY OF PANNIERS!

Next off the stocks, after No.1 the 94XXs, comes (just to make it interesting):

THE PANNIER PAPERS No.5 - 16XX

The 16XXs were the smallest and prettiest of them all, Swindon's 'lightweight panniers' of 1949.

Publishing and marketing brilliance has resulted in these lovely 16XXs coming BEFORE the more familiar 57XX panniers, which in turn will come LATER THIS YEAR in THREE separate Pannier Papers. Here's the plan:

No.1 94XX

No.2 57XX (36XX, 37XX, 46XX) expected mid-2010

No.3 57XX (57XX, 67XX, 77XX) expected mid-2010

No.4 57XX (77XX, 96XX, 97XX) expected mid-2010

No.5 16XX

No.6 1366, 15XX (expected late 2010)

No.7 54XX, 64XX, 74XX (expected late 2010)

The vast army of modern (post Grouping) pannier tanks is thus dealt with over several volumes in a highly collectable series; a FINAL MODELLING ACCOMPANIMENT is also under preparation:

WE HAVE ONLY A HANDFUL OF THIS TITLE LEFT IN STOCK BUT HAVE ORDERED A REPRINT WHICH WILL BE WITH US IN MARCH. ORDERS CAN STILL BE TAKEN AND WILL BE STORED UNTIL THE BOOK ARRIVES - NO MONEY WILL BE TAKEN UNTIL THE BOOK IS DESPATCHED

The sound of a steam locomotive hauling a regular passenger or freight train was once commonplace but alas, is now only a fond memory. We all have, I suspect, some favourite memory from that by-gone age, and mine of course are of the Great Western, when express passenger trains were blessed with names to conjure up the imagination. Millions of holiday-makers made their way to the resorts of South Devon and Cornwall; the Cornish Riviera Express, known to all who worked her as ‘The Limited’ because at one time her load was limited to a specific number of coaches and the Torbay Express along with the Cornishman, the Flying Dutchman and others were almost household names well, in some households. Memories were interlaced with the railway, woven into our everyday life; going on holiday or even on honeymoon, travelling to school or just train spotting, all linger in the mind as a picture, from those halcyon days. For me, an unforgettable highlight would be a King or Castle thundering up the fearsome 1 in 41 gradient of Hemerdon Bank east of Plympton, with the exhaust echoing through the trees and rolling across the countryside. For the residents of my adopted home town of Saltash it might of course, be something altogether more homely, the ‘Saltash Motor’, ‘the Flier’, as it was known, simmering away in the station, four coaches on, filled to overflowing with supporters on an Argyle Saturday as it waited patiently for a path back over the Royal Albert Bridge.

DUE MAY

By Bob Yate

The area around today’s Telford, and specifically that of Coalbrookdale, is well known as the cradle of the industrial revolution. However, the story goes much further back than Abraham Darby. The Roman settlement of ‘Uscocona’ became that latterly known as Oakengates. The Romans are known to have worked outcrops of coal in this part of East Shropshire, and this mining continued on right through the Middle Ages. Locally, the ‘longwall’ technique of mining was developed, which involved excavating along the lateral face of the coal seam, rather than ‘head first’ into the seam. Such small pits were typically only 60 to 100 feet deep at the start of the industrial revolution, and many of this depth continued, even into the 20th century.

Not surprisingly, such mining activities revealed other minerals for which uses were either initially apparent, or for which the resourcefulness of the miners found a new use. The deposits of ironstone and fireclay were exploited in this way, and thus new products were developed and new markets opened throughout Britain, and eventually exported. As an example, one early blast furnace was opened in Lilleshall village in 1591. Later, and nearby, the well established Coalbrookdale Company built blast furnaces on land leased from Earl Gower at Donnington Wood in 1783.

This area was one of the most heavily industrialised in the country for many decades, and its contribution to the nation’s wealth is often under appreciated. For example, it is recorded that around one quarter of the iron produced in Britain in 1806 came from here.

The Lilleshall Company came to be the largest employer in the region, utilising the local iron, coal and limestone reserves and developing these heavy industries by the application of the accumulated skills in the area, and drawing on new technology from further afield.

Being a part of the Irwell Press 'The Book of the Pannier Tanks'

By Richard Derry

Intended to Make Up into a Set as a Volume in the Famous 'Book Of' Series

Something 'a little less Victorian looking'

The 94XX 0-6-0PTs were designed by F.J. Hawksworth, last Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway. They eventually came to 210 in number; a further hundred in the 84XX series and the final ten, 3401-3409. Though a pure GW design they were GW engines, just; only the first ten, 9400-9409, were actually constructed at Swindon and were the only ones built in GW days. The remaining two hundred were all built by outside contractors spread over a number of years, 1949-1956.