Fake News?
Well, not exactly the man who never was, but the loco that never was! It appeared on one of fbb's birthday cards, recently received.
The loco, pictured on the North Norfolk Railway, is usually referred to as class 9F WD, and numbered 90775. The batch was built for the War Department (WW2) mainly for military use.
Except there never was a 90775 - the last in the British Railways batch was 90774! After WW2 the locos were spread around a bit.
90775 was repatriated from the Grecian batch. Another preserved WD is seen below in its last life at the Longmoor Military Railway way back in 1969.
It transferred to the Severn Valley Railway on "extended loan" - now a permanent gift.
It is currently "out of service" and presented in the museum.
In recognition of its namesake operating on the Island of Sodor he is named Gordon.
Sadly, the real Gordon (seen above with Thomas) is a Pacific with 4-6-2 wheel arrangement, whereas the LMR WD Gordon is a 2-10-0.
Finally we go to Tuvalu.
It is an nation island in the Polynesia chain and can NOT be seen (cos it's too wee) in the very top right hand corner of the Google Earth shot above.
Anyway, celebrating the Islander's love of large UK steam locomotives (???) Tuvalu has produced a stamp celebrating the ex LMR version of the "big blue engine".
A Lapse Of Maps (1)
For reasons that have always mystified fbb, most big bus companies outsource their map production to specialist contractors. This can have unfortunate consequences. Because fbb has near encyclopaedic knowledge of bus routes (current and historic) in Sheffield**, he rarely needs to access anything cartographic for the city.
But in checking information on the recently revised X1/X10 mess network, your noble author did need to check his facts on routes in the wilds of Maltby (i.e. NOT Sheffield!)
And the map is utterly and completely wrong!
The X10 does NOT serve Salisbury Road OR Firth Crescent, the latter formally known as "Model Village".
For once (Shock Horror) the PTE have got it right.
X10s either terminate at the big blob or continue confusingly as 10 or 10a to Doncaster.
Shouldn't somebody from First Bus be checking the cartographers work before paying the substantial bill? Do the people at First Bus know where the X10 goes?
... plus an open wagons, a covered van and a caboose.
fbb assumed, correctly, that these US models were also marketed over the pond. But he never knew about Triang in Australia. In researching the old HQ at Margate, fbb came across this picture of a 1960/1 Australian Catalogue.
The track and the overhead stuff was available in the UK, but fbb had never seen the unit before. It was a passable model of an Australian commuter train ...
... but he is fairly sure that Moldex (Ozzie manufacturer for Triang) never offered a scale model of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to go with it!
Disappointing! One reason for the lack of such a model might be that it would have been about 50 feet long in OO scale.
Not New News!
The biggest problem facing bus services in our cities today is congestion.
Not New News!
The biggest problem facing bus services in our cities today is congestion.
More stuff tomorrow.
** Modesty is, of course, the old man's only fault.
** Modesty is, of course, the old man's only fault.
Next assorted news blog : Sunday 24th March
Don't be silly. The WD 2-10-0 may be blue (standard Longmoor Military Railway colour, by the way) but its name has got nothing to do with Sodor! It is named after General Gordon, of Khartoum fame. I saw it in action at Longmoor in 1969 and very fine it looked!
ReplyDeleteCorrect. The Longmoor Military Railway originated to train the Army's Royal Engineers in railway operation. General Gordon's background was as a Royal Engineers officer.
ReplyDeleteI was trying to be "amusing" - obviously failing. But thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteAh ... whoops!
Delete