Bittern's Garter Blue Makeover

[Bryan]

Found this just now.
I make no comment.

http://yfrog.com/h82oc2j

[60041]

Found this just now.
I make no comment.

http://yfrog.com/h82oc2j

Are things that tight that they could not afford a bit of wet and dry to rub it down?
Its a shame because it does look stunning from a distance.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Found this just now.
I make no comment.

http://yfrog.com/h82oc2j

It speaks for itself, frankly. Ridiculous - after the hard work at the MHR the first time around, rubbing it down and making sure that finish was absolutely perfect, to see the BR crest under the garter blue paintwork is a nonsense.

[Kestrel]

May be the garter blue is just a vinyl covering and so they left the BR totem there for when they peel the blue off again when DoNZ goes back to being Bittern.

Quite frankly, whilst it might be nice to see, I don't agree with it being passed off as something it is not.

[Malcolm]

The numbering is perfectly correct and matches the LNER specification sheet. Modern Gill Sans is not quite the same as that used by the LNER.

I was loathe to enter this debate, but yesterday I was browsing through my collection and came across two shots by the late W.B. Greenfield that I purchased copies of from the NELPG (sorry, they are copyright and I cannot reproduce them). These shots were taken on June 22nd, 1938 at Kings Cross and are front end shots of Dominion of New Zealand on the down Coronation. The images are crystal clear and clearly show that the numbers of the front of Bittern's makeover are correct.
Malcolm

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks for the link to those pictures Bryan.

My limited experience tells me that with many paint types, even a surface that IS rubbed down to what feels like absolute smoothness when dry may sink &/or heave in different areas once more paint is put on, revealing ridges at the transitions from one previous coat to another. That may be why the old totem is showing through, but the person in charge of the painting should have been wise to this, even if every hand on the job was not. More rubbing down, more undercoats, or a barrier coat ought to have solved the problem. Maybe if this is "only" a 3 year paint job, that is all that the budget would stretch to?
I suppose it will save them from measuring up next time a totem is to be applied!

[S.A.C. Martin]

The numbering is perfectly correct and matches the LNER specification sheet. Modern Gill Sans is not quite the same as that used by the LNER.

I was loathe to enter this debate, but yesterday I was browsing through my collection and came across two shots by the late W.B. Greenfield that I purchased copies of from the NELPG (sorry, they are copyright and I cannot reproduce them). These shots were taken on June 22nd, 1938 at Kings Cross and are front end shots of Dominion of New Zealand on the down Coronation. The images are crystal clear and clearly show that the numbers of the front of Bittern's makeover are correct.
Malcolm

So these are earlier shots to the ones already posted in this thread (which show the numbers to be incorrect for their timeframe)?

[CVR1865]

On a slightly different tack, does anyone here know the loco crew who have driven her? Can they comment on whether the side valancing has improved performance at all? It may only be nominal but i have read on many occasions that the side of the loco has more effect on streamlining than the front due to the size of the areas? It may also be effected by un-streamlined sides of the carriages.

[Atlantic 3279]

Forget the minor fuss over the style of a small number 2. I have just noticed in the third image in Bryan's link (the smokebox side in close up): Who on earth set out that "parabolic" lining curve
I think I took more trouble to make it look right on even my titivated Bachmann Peregrine model

[S.A.C. Martin]

Forget the minor fuss over the style of a small number 2. I have just noticed in the third image in Bryan's link (the smokebox side in close up): Who on earth set out that "parabolic" lining curve
I think I took more trouble to make it look right on even my titivated Bachmann Peregrine model

Good spot Graeme - I'm at a loss for words. How many photographs of A4 pacifics are there on the net to study? There's even Mallard to compare to, in terms of lining.

In all, the closer you look at this repaint, the more problems appear. I can say categorically, when she came out of the Mid Hants Railway workshops, Bittern's paint job was utterly perfect.

(I don't have any connections with the Mid Hants, aside from being much impressed by the level of engineering excellence, and their painter's exquisite work. If you don't believe me, go check out their newly restored 5MT. Breathtaking).

[coachmann]

It looks very much like the painter had followed the parabolic lining on the green paintwork....... It was always wrong after its mid 1960s repaint. The battom of the curve should run horizontally towards the first boiler band, not dive headlong into the footplate. There's nothing worng with pointing out the defects even if the loco has pleased a lot of people and provided cameras fodder for others.

[giner]

I have a nice shot of her on the down slow through Arlesey on Sunday, but the file is too big to post. How do I reduce it to under 500 meg?

Download the free software "Irfanview" (http://www.irfanview.com). This is a very quick and handy tool for sharpening images, lightening/darkening, selecting image size, cropping, inserting credite etc and saving as JPEG format, at which you can specify the file size. I post lots of photos on [plug]www.drehscheibe-online.de (Historische Forum) [/plug], and after scanning my old slides at 1600 pixels wide (5mB), I use Irfanview to size them to 800x600, which fits most people's monitors, then save them as JPEG with file size of 150kB. To upload them to forums I use the free "Imageshack" (http://www.imageshack.com).


Hope this helps - look forward to seeing your fot!

Thanks, I figured out how to do this via Photobucket, plus some help from hq1 who reduced the size for me. Cheers, hq1, when I go back into Photobucket I'll have a looksee to see if such alterations can be made in there for future reference.



(It had better work after an intro like that.)

[Steve05]

Hi Colleagues,

Wow, there’s nothing better than an A4 in garter blue, valanced with red wheels and motion…I had forgotten just how stylish it really is.

The second tender is a good practical idea and I saw the original concept with FS in the sixties. Is this a modified tender or a newly fabricated one? Does it have a corridor?
Yes I know… I ask a lot of questions, but rekindled passion is like that.

Regards

Steve

[S.A.C. Martin]

Steve, it's Flying Scotsman's original second tender. It was part restored by the A1 Trust (who bought it from the defunct Flying Scotsman Enterprises) for use behind Tornado, but was sold to Jeremy Hosking for use behind Bittern when the Trust decided to build a new tender from scratch. It does indeed have a corridor, but it had a new interior built into a new tank at Hosking's request.

[Steve05]

Thanks Simierski,

I was wondering what happened to the second tender.

Regards

Steve