A Tale of Two Tenders

Happy New Year to all our readers – lots going on and only three weeks into 2011!

I’ll try to let you know about everything as it happens. We’ve have had the Class 306 electric unit go to Eastleigh for asbestos stripping, the Class 108 DMU depart York for the East Lancashire Railway, and a Turkish 8F loco arrive for display about Shildon (which will be the subject of another post).

In addition, Stirling Single No.1 has arrived for display for the first time at Shildon after a very successful near-six-month run of “The Railway Children” play at Waterloo in London. On 21 January, we took the opportunity to pose the loco with its new tender, which is at Shildon for restoration. These days, the loco is usually paired with a small capacity Sturrock tender, which it was given on first*restoration in 1910! This is technically incorrect for the engine, a fact which has been known since the 1960s at least, when an original large capacity Great Northern tender was identified and saved for the nation to be paired with the loco.

Now, over forty years on, the “new” tender’s time for repair has come, and we hope that this image will give an idea of what is to be. Naturally, donations to help us achieve this are always most welcome!

At 9am on Friday morning, No.1 was pulled out of the Collections building at Shildon as part of a shunting move, coupled to its smaller tender with "Cornwall" behind.





Filed under: Conservation, Rail vehicle collections Tagged: shildon, stirling single, the railway children

 

Am I alone in thinking the 'new' tender doesn't look at home behind No 1 compared to her smaller tender, prehaps the restorers in 1910 thought likewise, presume they had a reason for picking the tender they used?

 

What a lovely old thing, and the bigger tender suits it better I reckon.

 

Whilst it is the correct tender for the engine, it looks wrong in comparison to the wrong one - way too big - if you see what I mean!

 

I'm sure a lick of paint will make the difference less obvious

 

It's interesting that the wrong tender looks right and the right one looks wrong! (Too big)

 

What will happen to the 'wrong' tender? Any interesting possibilities?

 

It may be due to the way the photo was taken, but to my old eyes the 'right' tender appears to make the engine look smaller.
But when I look at Rood Ashton Hall with her tender alongside the likes of Kinlet Hall with the larger tender she always looks smaller. Even though I know both engines are the same size!!!

 

It's a subjective thing, but look at the Kenneth Leech book on Stirling locos and contemporary pictures of the big tenders, and a bit of GNR green goes a long way towards helping it to look better. Those of you who have the Kitmaster plastic kit model will also note that the model from 1959 is depicted with the larger tender - mine (courtesy of RichardS of this parish) sits in the workshop office at Shildon as an inspiration. When we put the loco and tender together, it just looked so right to me - but I would say that , wouldn't I? However, I do understand what you all mean!

 

Yes, the wrong tender does look more graceful to my eyes.

Maybe this thread could become like the Flying Scotsman one, with three camps:

1 she's got to be authentic (and meet my specific definition of authentic!)
2 I sort of agree with no 1 but his definition is not authentic. Mine is.
3 no, she looks best the way we've got used to her

Hmmm, perhaps four camps

4 I've got an even better idea. You should paint her this colour.....


Anyway, joking apart, to my eyes No 1 is the most graceful loco ever made. I'm not sure the authentic tender improves her, but I am willing to wait and see. Hoping for a pleasant surprise!

 

The correct tender today;