LSWR T3 4-4-0 going to Canada to appear in Railway Children.

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

No problem Ralph and others, very happy to be able to keep you updated on one of yours adventure abroad!!!

Got the pictures posted from the Launch Event today, still waiting for Youtube uploading the videos, but for now:

The Technical - Coupling up locomotives from different continents:


Then the Beauty Shot (Special Effects are wonderful things sometimes):


Then the Big Unveil as she is run across the patio and onto the turntable:


And finally, out on the turntable on display to the public with the Toronto Skyline in the background (and the big tent for The Railway Children):


Full set of images from the day (a few to be posted later still in the camera, and maybe some of the coach GER No.3 if the stalls are still open after i leave the office and head over to get my car) on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55976115@N00/archives/date-taken/2011/04/07/

It was a successful day, i will post the video links later assuming Youtube ever decides to cooperate with me!!

Cheers

Stephen

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Great photos, Stephen, this one especially. Wonderful atmosphere. Hope the meeja launch went well.

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Good God - has that skyline changed since I was last there!

Where have all those tower blocks around the Royal York come from???

She would look good stepping out towards Thunder Bay!!!

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

What a beautiful looking engine. I never even knew we had a T3 until this thread was started.

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

You know how some countryside preservationists in the UK bemoan the giant fields of yellow Canola or oil seed rape or whatever you call it over there that are blighting the lovely green countryside? Well those of us in the land development industry bemoan the giant crop of banal glass and concrete condo towers sprouting like weeds in Toronto over the past 15-20 years or so which blight our skyline!!!

She would look great stepping out a lot of places over here, though I'm not sure I'd want to be on that open footplate for vast tracts of our year in the snow, there is a reason fully enclosed cabs became the norm over here very early on!!!

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Dear Stephen,

Many thanks for the updates. I'm Steve Davies, Director of the National Railway Museum in York. Many thanks indeed to you and your chaps for lavishing care and attention on our T3. Her visit to Toronto is just what she needs to once more raise her profile. The loco has been out of the limelight for a long time, so this is going to be good for her image. I am going to be visiting you all in Toronto on 30th April and 1st May. It would be useful to meet up during my visit. Please give my regards to Charlie and Adrian.

Steve

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Steve,

I will say hi to Charlie and Adrian for you when I next see them. It would be my pleasure to meet when you are in Toronto. I know April 30th I won't be around (it would be a major faux-pas to even think of going to the museum on my girlfriends birthday!!), but I can definitely be down at some point on the 1st of May. No doubt many of the TRHA Members will be around for you to meet and see our work in progress on our own restoration projects in addition to caring for the T3 and coach.

I think i can safely speak for everyone in the TRHA when I say we are honoured to have a guest from the NRM entrusted to us in association with the plays production company. We're a small but very hard working group, and we've come a long way in only a couple of years considering we are not quite to our first anniversary of being open to the public. I know i was personally ecstatic when i first got told there was even the potential of a locomotive from the NRM coming to our little corner of the preservation universe!! Hopefully the show is successful and many thousands of people in the Toronto area get to see the T3 in her moment of theatrical glory!!

-Stephen

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

An interesting quote in Hamilton Ellis' book on the South Western Railway, giving an insight into her condition and how she was preserved.

The last two sentences are interesting, given her current role and location!

For sheer elegance and purity of line, probably one of the two most beautiful engines in the National Collection (the other being the Wainwright D).

Tom

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

[video=youtube;hSyaWjSeRNY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSyaWjSeRNY[/video]
Video 1 - The initial rollout from the stalls

[video=youtube;p_jCNsiz1eU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_jCNsiz1eU[/video]
Video 2 - 563 goes for a spin on our turntable to show her off to the press and public

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Ah ok, pretty much what i expected, shame Firebox replacement = expensive, well and controversial too, seeing as its on something unique, if it was just another austerity I'm sure no one would care! lol ( i jest, i love em all really!)

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Just one of a lot of beautifull Victorian & Edwardian loco's. Recommend Hamilton Ellis's books if you can get hold of them.

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Four large theatre smoke machines to create the effect, plus mini ones inside the smokebox to get some "steam" coming out the stack of the locomotive in motion. The delay was apparently that no one radioed that the doors were open and it was clear to come out.

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Shame on you, Neil ;-) She is one of the most beautiful locomotives anywhere. I always made a point of seeing her when visiting the NRM. It will be interesting to see what happens to her on her return. A summer tour of Southern venues might be appropriate, especially if it could be co-ordinated with some LSWR 175 events.

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Glad to see all the wonderfull photos and video of the T3 having arrived in Toronto. I nearly stayed to continue with it from Halifax. Wish I had've done now. However, will be in Toronto hopefully end of this month.

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

when is she due to return to uk? i can think of one idea that might be worthwhile, if she happens to return via southampton , a visit to the Mid hants, about the time that Cheltenham comes from Eastleigh, or soon afterwards and if 3440 and 9017 are still in ticket, lets have a 4-4-0 fest and whats the chances of the SECR 4-4-0 coming south for a holiday at the bluebelle and dropping in at the same time, you could use the same low loader or even have a southern gala with 926, 31806,30055 30120 and as it happens 563 or737 could always fill the slot at eastleigh left vacant by 926 once it leaves,

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

When will 563 return? That depends on when the theatres no longer require it for the Railway Children production. There's always the possibility that 563 may go to other venues on the North American continent before coming home. However, your thought of going back through Southampton is unlikely. But who knows what may happen.

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

Just an update, opening night is tomorrow May 3rd, and the volunteers of the TRHA were invited to the final dress rehearsal yesterday to fill out the crowd for the publicity shots (and to thank us for their taking over the park and everything else we've had to do to help get the show ready to go).

It was great to meet Mr. Davies and Adrian from the NRM yesterday, hope they both enjoyed their brief visits to Toronto.

After the show, we were permitted to take a couple of shots inside the tent of the setup and the T3:





Apologies on the image quality, between being indoors and the smoke machines making a good haze in the tent, my point and shoot was not the right camera for the job!!

-Stephen

 

Re: LSWR T3 4-4-0 exported to Canada

It might be the light, or the smoke, but to me the smokebox looks in desperate need of a cleanup!