Kingswear will eventually feature a prototypical stable of locomotives representing the Thirties/Forties period, but it's very much an ongoing project. I plan to do a few posed portraits of the existing P4 fleet, with a view to updating as I go.
I have also been browsing through copies of GWR Journal obtained from the Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop in Bath, and there is a wealth of useful information, as well as reference photographs, some of which we hadn’t previously seen. Some of the articles give a real feel for the times and the everyday operations of the railway. Just as an example, there is a piece describing the branch 14xx Class, actually numbered 1466, together with its regular driver’s name – Reg Westaway, which could normally be seen with one or two autocoaches and frequently one or more fish vans, or ‘Bloaters’, attached. We do have a 1400 on the layout so it’s just a question of re-numbering it. (We subsequently understand that the real Autotrain ran on the Brixham branch, to Churston but, for our purposes, we will assume that it was occasionally routed on to Kingswear as a special service).
I was thinking initially of a relatively modest re-wheeling and decoder installation with sound for my DJ Models 14xx Class. I normally like to add firebox glow, which is fairly straightforward, and sometimes DCC Concepts loco lamps,
Such conversions, without the addition of any compensation, seem to run perfectly well on Kingswear, but the other option would be to go for a full High Level chassis build, with new motor/gearbox, which would produce an ultimately more satisfying model. |
In GWRJ there is this interesting recollection - ‘Percy (Percy Haywood, fireman from 1946) remembers the ‘Castle' class with affection.”The best engines we had at Newton were 5024 and 5028 - they were exceptionally good engines and used regularly on the Torbay”'
Cross checking on the Shed Bash site shows 5028 Llantilio Castle as being there on 30 September 1945, and again in 1951, so pretty good justification all round for this being one of our named engines eventually. 5024, Carew Castle is not mentioned on the specific dates surveyed, but that’s not to say it wasn’t sometimes there, as Percy recalled. |
Mention is also made of an engine running the afternoon service from Kingswear to Paddington on a Sunday, if it had no work allocated at Paddington, then returning to Kingswear double headed on the Torbay. Not necessarily another ‘Castle’, though possibly, and double heading is certainly something we have noticed on a number of photos, and will be nice to reproduce.
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