This image isn't very large, 5 inches by 3, and the original is pale and indistinct. A little fiddling in Photoshop darkens it and allows a proper look at the signal Alan was photographing. Sadly, no details of the location are available, but it's certainly an interesting angle to look at the mechanism.
The smalled print in the collection, a mere 80 by 54mm, and one of the few with any information. On the back, in pencil, we have "S. Tottenham. BR Cl4 2-6-0".
A nice workaday shot of what would have been a common sight at the time.
Frustratingly, I can't read the chalk writing on the tender, even when blowing it up on screen. Anyone fancy a guess?
Something a little arty from the late Mr Gibson this week, a close up of an expansion link. Something for all you Walschaerts fans.
I've got nothing. I don't know what this is (OK, it's a steam locomotive), or where it is. Based on the other photos, I'm going to say 1970s, but even that's a guess. Suggestions in the comments please.
Love the hairy rope stopping people wandering over the track, and the rudimentary rolling stock though.
Update: I asked my friend Andrew, editor of Narrow Gauge World, and he suggested, "It's one of the standard Bagnall 0-4-0STs that include the likes of Pixie, Sir Tom et al, but which one is a big question. I'm wondering if it might be the earliest days of Amerton or Threlkeld, or the short-lived line at Crich."
We will keep digging.
Another "Where did he find that?" moment with this rectangular tank wagon, somewhat buried in the undergrowth.
Digging around the web, I find an RMweb thread with credible evidence that these lasted into the 1960s, a lot later than I had expected. That said, this one doesn't look like it has moved for a long while.
Scanned from a 10x8 inch print, I've no idea where this was taken, or when.
Looking at a history of the engine, a good guess would be Didcot around 1970. I don't think it would have run with a train at the Stockton & Darlington 150, the last time she ran.
Now preserved in static condition at Didcot, I wonder if she will ever take to the rails under her own power again?
While searching for something at the railway club, I found a folder full of black and white photos, taken by my friend, the late Alan Gibson (the photographer, not the wheelmaker as he used to say) and thought it would be interesting to bring them to a wider audience.
This first, shot, the most interesting of the selection, shows the front tank from one of the 0-4-0 + 0-4-0 Garratt locomotives that operated in the UK. Alan lived in Nuneaton, so he wouldn't have been far from Atherstone, where the loco now living at Bressingham worked.
I've never seen a picture of an unattached front end. If you click on it, you'll get the full-size version. There's some good detail of the valve gear and fallplate for modellers, including me if I ever get around to my model!
