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GCR Winter Gala 2014 Special guest Engine ???

Discussion in 'Galas and Events' started by LMarsh1987, Dec 27, 2013.

  1. JBTEvans

    JBTEvans Well-Known Member

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    Thing is I bet a lot of these people have photographed and gone to see, whatever, 5542 running on auto trains.
     
  2. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    45XX's ran auto trains . A number were fitted in the 1950's for the South Wales lines of which 5572 is the one true auto fitted preserved 45xx .
     
  3. MAPLE CHRIS

    MAPLE CHRIS Member

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    As with all things you need to do something different a BR gala would please all the linesiders but the travelling public seem to like brightly coloured engines i believe passenger numbers were higher when the SVR hired a blue A4 hardly typical of a GWR branchline but it brought the general public in helping to pay the bills. If you want to experience a cameo of the 1950s mainline then i find its better to go on non gala days.
     
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  4. Paul42

    Paul42 Part of the furniture

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    A interview with Bill Ford ( GC MD) in the current Steam Railway, he claims " 48624 brings in more money into the railway - because it's not painted black" and goes on to state " It gives you about 20% more passengers if you put the red one out, and we can prove that".
     
  5. JBTEvans

    JBTEvans Well-Known Member

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    They did not in GWR times, therefore 5542 when she runs in auto mode is 'rewriting railway history'. It's the same thing as the red 8F, it's fictitious. Fact. If you want an accurate representation, 5542 should be in a BR livery, is that correct? Just as 48624 should be black?
     
  6. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    NVR found the same with the Swedish B class. More popular with the public in blue than in black.
     
  7. Spamcan81

    Spamcan81 Nat Pres stalwart

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    Presume you'll be putting up the money for the repaints then.
     
  8. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    I suspect 45xx could be found on auto coaches in GWR times deputising for a failed auto tank and hauling the trailer as an ordinary carriage . The liveries are not fictitious

    the other thing with the GCR is often the coaches become a multi coloured rake with anything from LNER teak to BR Green via Carmine and cream , chocolate and cream , and maroon all in the same set . If you get more by being little more than Thomasland why even bother to pander to the enthusiast ?
     
  9. Bifur01

    Bifur01 Member

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    Because why not? It should be enough for anyone that there is steam on the front of coaches from the same period. It's a privilage to have steam running on the GCR, and I do not understand what all this fuss is about. Some growing up is clearly in order...
     
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  10. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    I suggest then we all agree to disagree. Preservation offers plenty of choice to keep everyone happy , If a railway doesn't offer an appealing product to an individual then they won't go and there are plenty of lines running on a given day that do to tempt them
     
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  11. 26D_M

    26D_M Part of the furniture

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    The inference from that is more people visit and travel because the engine is red. This suggests using colourful locos in publicity material is persuasive to potential customers deciding to visit. Or that people buy a ticket to ride behind a colourful engine that wouldn't have done so with a black one. Be an interesting market research project.
     
  12. Robert Heath No.6

    Robert Heath No.6 Well-Known Member

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    The bright, colourful liveries adopted by just about all of the current TOCs would seem to suggest they believe the same to be true - and that's in an environment where people have far less choice in their journey!
     
  13. JBTEvans

    JBTEvans Well-Known Member

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    I said when 5542 runs in auto mode. When she is being controlled by the cab of the coach. It's the same thing as the Red 8F. Other locomotives ran in BR Crimson during the late 1950s as 48624 has adopted, 5542 is running with a livery auto locomotives wore in the 1930s period. So what's the difference?
     
  14. JBTEvans

    JBTEvans Well-Known Member

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    I'm not against 5542 being in GWR colours whilst operating auto in the slightest.
     
  15. Sidmouth

    Sidmouth Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Moderator

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    Since you wish to prolong the discussion 5542 is in GWR green with Shirtbutton crest . The crest itself is a size too large and not carried by 45XX's in service . However she is in GWR Green . The class hauled auto trains albeit in BR era and would have been seen occasionally on auto coaches in GWR days.

    The point is that the railway is trying to entice people to its event . There are some to whom livery and a reasonable depiction of the past does matter and there are plenty of other places to go
     
  16. John Petley

    John Petley Part of the furniture

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    Maybe 48624 is in a fictitious livery, maybe 5542 would never have been auto-fitted in GWR Days, but let's get a sense of perspective. At least they still exist and have been restored to working order. For this we should be grateful. It's only Dai Woodham's success in tendering for wagon contracts that pevented them being reduced to scrap metal.
     
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  17. ADB968008

    ADB968008 Guest

    48624 is hardly the first and hopefully not the last of inaccurate liveries...

    However history isn't just what happened, it's what might have happened if documented decisions had been taken to an alternative outcome.

    It's documented that ALL LMS engines should be red back in the 20s/30s, the economy put paid to the plan and black remained for many on cost alone.
    Had that decision stood, a red 8F would have happened, and in 1948 it would have also been Red.
    48624 therefore would join company of 46441, 45699, 47357.

    Lined black 9F I think was a more unlikely option, but again, if BR had adopted Green for passenger and lined black everything else... It may have been

    A Caledonian Blue Fairburn, Furness red Black 5 are no no's to me.
    44806, 44932, 80135 in lined Green don't seem to attract too much fuss at the time and why not.

    If everything is about accuracy, then Tornado won't exist, but a reappearance of a previous class member would have, indeed as I alluded to in another thread.. Alberta would exist on 3 different jubilees...

    Now 8624 was a Southern (Ashford) built machine, had Bulleid bought a few, 8624 could have been 1D624 in Black with Sunshine lettering... Or who knows even Olive with lining...Something I hope they do.
     
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  18. A1X

    A1X Well-Known Member

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    Let's not forget "fictitious liveries" have been a part of preservation right from the very beginning.

    Exhibit A - Link
    Exhibit B - Link
     
  19. Neil_Scott

    Neil_Scott Part of the furniture

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    Decrying 'authenticity' is a dodgy game. Some of those involved in this discussion put up plenty of defence when a certain blue A4 was chartered on a GWR branch line last year with the justification that it was a bit of fun and what people wanted to see. People in glass houses etc etc.
     
  20. Pete Thornhill

    Pete Thornhill Resident of Nat Pres Staff Member Administrator Moderator Friend

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    Somewhere and I cannot for the life of me remember where but autocoaches were used as normal stock in service with non auto fitted locos, wasn't Chinnor one place? (although it had a 57xx on the front not a 45xx).
     

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