Tag Archives: W Class

General, Model News

Southern Big Tanks, new books from The Irwell Press

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Hot of the press from my friends at the Irwell Press are four new excellent paperback books all about the Southern Big Tanks. The four books cover the London Southern Western Railway Urie G16 class 4-8-0Ts and H16 4-6-2Ts Z class and the later Maunsell Z class 0-8-0Ts and W class 2-6-4Ts. These follow in the style of their more usual hardback “The Book of Series” with historical background information about each class , their design, liveries and spheres of operation, photographs along, with particular details and photographs of each individual locomotive taken from their works records. the books are of the usual high standard of detail, information and photograph reproduction that we have come to expect from the Irwell Press at a reasonable price of £13.95 each. As they say available from all good bookstores, and probably some not so good ones too! 

Southern Big Tanks:1 G16 class

 Southern Big Tanks:2 H16 class


Southern Big Tanks:3 Z class


Southern Big Tanks:4 W class


Further information about my models of members of the four class shown above can be read on my Talking Stock posts as follows:

A post about my W class model will follow soon. In the meantime I can recommend these book to any Southern Railway historian or modeller alike.

PS have you entered my little competition yet to win a brand new Hornby R2620 Urie N15 King Arthur Class number 746 ‘ Pendragon’ in Bulleid post war malachite green livery? The closing date is this coming Thursday 28th July, full details can be found here.

 

Fisherton Sarum, General, Talking Stock

Talking Stock #33 The five Urie H16 large 4-6-2 tanks

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As I mentioned in my Talking Stock #26 post here about the four Urie G16 class 4-8-0T locomotives, I do indeed have a soft spot for large tanks and therefore this post is about Urie’s other large tanks the five H16 4-6-2Ts. The later Maunsell Z class 0-8-0T locomotives  were the subject of Talking Stock #19 post here, whilst Maunsell’s W class 2-6-4 tanks will soon also feature on this blog.

The ex London and Southern Western (LSWR) Urie H16 class of 4-6-2 tanks were introduced in 1921, and if you have read my Talking Stock #26 post, you will know already that this was the same year as their slightly smaller sisters the G16 4-8-0T class. The two classes sharing many common parts such as motion, bogies, boilers and fireboxes.

Urie H16 4-6-2T number 519 built from a Jedenco etched brass kit.

Both classes were built in association with the new hump marshalling yard at Feltham. Rather than the four G16s which were designed for working in the confines of Feltham yard the five  H16s were intended for cross regional goods traffic between Feltham and the North London yards of Brent (Midland) and Willesden (London North Western). For this duty they had  5’7″  driving wheels, larger than the G16s, larger water capacity and the extra large bunker was carried by a radial truck.   As they were also used occasionally on empty carriage stock working between Waterloo and Clapham Junction and on special passenger trains, such as during Ascot Race Week,  the H16s were initially given the standard Southern passenger livery of lined olive green unlike the black livery of the G16s, giving rise to their nickname amongst operating staff as ‘Green Tanks’. This changed to a plain black livery, in common with all Southern locomotives from 1940 due to watime constraints, and was retained during BR days until their withdrawal in 1962.

H16 number 519 viewed from the other side and shows off the powerfull looking nature of these tanks that appeals so much.

My model was built, with much effort, from a Jidenco etched brass kit; that owing to the quality of the kit design, thin etches and limited instructions, took a number of years of starting, doing a bit, getting frustrated and putting down again before finally getting round to finishing.  Certainly not a kit for the feint hearted. She is powered using a Portescap coreless motor along with quite a bit of lead weight added to provide adequate traction due to the lightweight thin etched brass construction of the kit with only the small dome, safety valves and chimney being white metal castings.

My usual excuse for an occasional appearance on Fisherton Sarum of an H16, as they were only allocated to Feltham, is on a running in turn from Eastleigh although that does not really explain her weathered condition, so perhaps she was borrowed for a freight trip down the West of England line?