A3 gets clean away from Grantham...

[61070]

I've just noticed this picture dated 29/6/1961 on the Science and Society site. I've not seen a link to it from the forum before (apologies if there's been one and I've overlooked it):

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/resu ... imagepos=1

The headboards read 'Hotpoint Washing Machines for Australia' and 'Packed by Barrett Packaging Ltd. Grantham England'

The A3 appears to be fresh out of shops, but with seemingly little else to help to identify it.

Manna - if someone you know has an old Hotpoint perhaps it was once A3-hauled!

[Ferrybridge Flyer]

Doesn't it look really clean??Almost falsley so!

[stembok]

61070: An interesting one indeed??? Dated 29/6/61 and the paintwork on the A3 does seem very fresh, particularly around the buffers and buffer beam, usually a good indicator. However, if the date is correct, and the loco is indeed recently ex works repainted, as it appears, one would perhaps have expected German pattern smoke deflector plates, as general fitting had commenced by this time.
Any comments, anyone, on the stock behind the engine,given that white goods and their packaging are the subject of the exercise??

[Flamingo]

Given the date of that picture I would suggest 60047 Donovan as a likely candidate. On 14 May 1961 I photographed it at Grantham shed, where it was based at the time. 60047 was then in a similar clean condition, with double chimney but no smoke deflectors of either type. Possibly just my imagination, but I even fancy the last digit of the number of the engine on the Hotpoint special is a 7.

[52D]

Interesting if you look at the thumbnails below you will find B1 being named Mayflower.

[stembok]

Three A3s did have the German pattern deflectors fitted retrospectively at sheds according to 'the green book'. Nos 60047/67/110, in July 1961. General fitting also seems to have begun around this time, as I recall 60039 ex works 2/6/61 and 60088 ex works 9/6/61 with the plates around this time. I wonder if the photo might be slightly earlier than the date actually given, as the A3 - possibly 60047 - does not only look clean, but just out of the paintshop.

[Flamingo]

Interesting if you look at the thumbnails below you will find B1 being named Mayflower.

And I think in fact it was actually 61179, renumbered for the occasion because 61379 which was to carry the name was unavailable on the day. The identity swap was not permament as far as I recall.

[stembok]

61379 'Mayflower' was named in 1951. In around 1957 the sailing of the 'Mayflower' to America was celebrated in Boston,Lincs. A special train was to have been hauled there, appropriately by B1 61379. This engine was however unavailable due to mechanical problems and another B1 61179 assumed 61379's identity for the trip. This latter engine was recognisable as it retained the nameplate fixings on the smokebox used on that occasion.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Nice pic, but a clean A3 on a goods train, surely they could have found a grubby one? As from today I will be searching every paddock and looking under every gum tree for old wornout and rusty washing machines, covered in SOOT.
manna

PS, where do I send it when I find THEM

[61070]

Well spotted re the B1 Mayflower naming - I didn't notice it in those thumbnail pictures underneath. I'm impressed by the hinged sheet metal nameplate cover - a proper engineering job, and much more approriate on a steam loco than a flappy pair of curtains.

I've decided to send off for a high res version of the Hotpoint Special (Twin Tub Express ??) photo to see what extra detail it reveals, so watch this space.

[61070]

As from today I will be searching every paddock and looking under every gum tree for old wornout and rusty washing machines, covered in SOOT.
manna

PS, where do I send it when I find THEM

Send them over here, we'll melt them down and turn them into a P2

[61070]

The print arrived today - not that it was a long time being processed; I only got round to ordering it on Sunday evening and an email arrived yesterday to tell me that it was on its way, so it was very good service.

Full marks to Flamingo - the A3 at the head of the 'Twin Tub Express' is indeed 60047 Donovan; both the nameplate and the cabside number are legible. It is amazingly clean - all the quickly-dirtied and hard-to-reach places such as the top of the boiler (which is more than usually visible from the elevated viewpoint) appear to be spotless. To the left of the track occupied by the pacific's train appears to be another rake of identical neatly-sheeted open wagons. I wonder if they too contained washing machines bound for Oz? Maybe it's an accompanying consignment of Daz, Omo or (Square Deal) Surf.

Here's a photo to enjoy of 60047 coasting into Grantham from the south on 16/8/1962. Still a real looker under that year or so of grime.

[Flamingo]

This one was taken at Grantham shed on 14 May 1961. According to Yeadons, 60047 was ex-works from Doncaster on 25 April, less than 3 weeks previously, which explains the very clean condition of the loco

.

[Boris]

Looks like they even went to the trouble of changing the builders plate as well.

1179 was Vulcan built ,1379 North British.
But they also put it on the smoke box for some reason

[stembok]

Lightheartedly: I would love to know the full story of 60047 and her train at Grantham. Is it too late to find out? The use of a steam engine to advertise? a new service, at a time when normally all emphasis at this time (1961) was on the 'new order' .I know Grantham 34F did not have main line diesels, but that was a small matter. I'm also still concerned for those hard working Australian consumers over the protection afforded to their gleaming new Hotpoints, or indeed their packaging, in open wagons, sheeted or not.Doesn't seem a very efficient use of space and capacity. Why not box vans? I know new cars were carried on open decked wagons in the 60s ,but that is somewhat different. I don't remember ever seeing any reference to this event in the popular railway press at the time and that beautifully cleaned A3 would certainly have impressed itself on my memory. I wonder if anyone remembers and can supply answers. Was this a regular service? Did it appear in the WTT for the time? Or is it while a genuine service a staged, but slightly inaccurate, photo shoot, reminiscent of those early photographs one sees of men fighting in, say, the American Civil War?