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A GWR Pannier in 1961?


Dr Dave

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Many months ago I found a piccy in a library book. The picture was cited as being taken in 1961 and was unusual in that it showed a Pannier (either 87XX or 57XX - not sure which) still in its GWR livery!

Can anyone guide me to that book / picture?

My

layout is late 50's BR (WR) but I'd like to have a old GWR loco hiding somewhere!
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Hi WTD

Congratulations on being able to spell 'Blaenau Ffestiniog' although I'm sure you looked in your road atlas. Bet you can't pronounce it.

Right up to the end of Western steam there was a 'Manor' running around with GWR on the tender.

I've also a photo taken in 1965/66 of a Black 5 on Eastleigh shed with LMS on the tender. It doesn't count though because it was chalked on - the Manor and your Pannier were genuine

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Often the lettering underneath started to show through as the newer layers wore away. I have seen a number of pictures of very badly cared for locomotives with up to three different lettering styles showing one on top of the other. An extreme form of weathering!
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A number of small and second string locos used, especially on lines earmarked for closure, were run to the end still bearing company names. It was not deemed worthwhile spending the money required for repaints.

Incidentally the blanket closure of

so many Welsh lines was nothing short of the most dreadful and unforgiveable vandalism on a country forcibly divested of so much of its employment and with a road system which has never been able to cope with the consequential increase in traffic after railway

closure. The railways should have been kept where necessary to the life of communities and operated with LRV's, Ernest Marples please note.

Signed by a deeply sympathetic (but English) Ferret.
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Branch lines were not only closed, but track was being lifted while negotiations were going with volunteer groups to take over the rights of way.

This happened with the Gwilli Steam Railway in Carmarthen on the former Carmarthen to Aberystwyth

Railway that was closed for passenger traffic in 1965, the track being lifted in 1975 as negotiations were going on. In the end they managed to buy 8 miles of track bed, but it took over 3 years of negotiations. They are currently extending the track towards

Carmarthen, with a planned station at Abergwilli Junction, to be named Carmarthen North. They are also planning to extend the line northwards towards Llanpumsaint.

The bridge joining the track bed into Carmmarthen Station was removed at the same time

as the track was being lifted, preventing the railway from ever re=connecting to the mainline service.

The Gwilli Steam Railway was the first standard gauge preserved railway in Wales.


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The Great Western Railway edited by Paterick Whitehouse and David St. John Thomas has a picture of GWR Pannier tank 5796 at Torquay Platform in 1958, acting as a banker. Unfortunately, the picture is in b&w and looks as if the GW on the pannier has been

worn away or scrubed off. The picture on page 119 has a date of .

The other pictures dated July and September 1948, on pages 190 and 191, also in B&W, show engines number 6417 and number 7432, without the GWR or BR insignia. Th first is at Foley on

the Loswithiel to Par branch line and the second on the branch line from Bala to Festiniog. They both look worse for wear.
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The Great Western Railway edited by Paterick Whitehouse and David St. John Thomas has a picture of GWR Pannier tank 5796 at Torquay Platform in 1958, acting as a banker. Unfortunately, the picture is in b&w and looks as if the GW on the pannier has been

worn away or scrubed off. The picture on page 119 has a date of .

The other pictures dated July and September 1948, on pages 190 and 191, also in B&W, show engines number 6417 and number 7432, without the GWR or BR insignia. Th first is at Foley on

the Loswithiel to Par branch line and the second on the branch line from Bala to Festiniog. They both look worse for wear.
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There are several photos of ex-GWR locos still wearing Company insignia in BR days.

A quick check of books in my library revealed:
* 8792, Stourbridge loco depot, "almost 15 years after nationalisation" (Colin M. Williams: Great Western Steam

on Shed, D.Bradford Barton, 1974, page 58)
* 4628, Worcester loco depot, March 1964 (Colin M. Williams: More Great Western Steam on Shed, D.Bradford Barton, 1976, page 51)

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Rob Evans
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All that has been said by Brightstar and others is so horribly true. It all confirms that there was a 1960s government driven subterfuge to destroy the whole railway ethic. Removal of bridges was the final blow because bridge re-instatement is so expensive

and, in the main, quite beyond the resources of volunteer groups. But history has shown that we railway enthusiasts will not be beaten. So not only have great projects like The Severn Valley and The Welsh Highland gone ahead to fruition, but now the British

Government is being forced by an over-crowded road system to completely reconsider. I was delighted to read of a re-instated route being developed along the course of the old Midland and South Western Joint Railway to give an additional route for container

freight from Southampton Docks to London, The Midlands and the North via ROMSEY, ANDOVER and BASINGSTOKE - the so-called "Sprat and Winkle Route".
I won't live to see it but railways ARE the way forward into THE FUTURE.
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