Additions to The Great Steam Debate

In what might, possibly (hopefully?), be the last missives on the subject of what type of locomotive does what to whom and where and whether-it-hurts-without-benefit-of-clergy, here's another photo of a loco and a couple of comments received from Dong and Bern The Lens respectively.

Try not to yawn at the back, there.
From Dong and his unfeasibly detailed reference book:

"I can see that for the novice this can be confusing but for the aficionados out there a further correction is crying out to be made.

Your comparison of both locomotive classes that they are both black and go chuff chuff can be taken further, both the GWR Hall class, introduced in 1928,and the LMS black 5, introduced in 1934, have 6' diameter driving wheels, boiler pressure of 225 lbs per square inch, weigh roughly the same at 75 tons (excluding tender at around 45 tons), have the same classic British locomotive 4 6 0 , wheel arrangement and - spookily - are both classified as 5MT (mixed traffic).

The crucial difference from an identification point of view is that in common with most ex GWR tender locomotives the Hall class are painted green, not black, I hope you don't mind me pointing out this rather fundamental error.

Great station Paddington - spent a lot of time there in days of yore."

Dong has kindly corrected my apparent colour blindness; the loco in the shot above was the one that hauled us from Kidderminster to Highley and is, indeed, green (albeit a bit black-ish looking from the angle shown and with a definitely black front bit).

And from our learned friend, Bern The Lens:

"Re the discussion on the blog about locos you were hauled by on the SVR [Severn Valley Railway - Ed], I note 42968 is the loco in the picture. If you had that one, it is not a Black 5 at all, but a Stannier Mogul 2-6-0.

40 were built between Oct 1933 and March 1934 for mixed traffic duties. 42968 was the penultimate one withdrawn by BR and the only one to be preserved.

Stick Stannier Moguls into Google if you want more!!"

Bern is referring to the photo on this link, which is indeed the one that took us from Highley to Bridgnorth and is therefore definitively NOT a Black 5.

So there you have it; more detail than you ever thought possible about chuffy things. My, what larks we have here on the pages of The Daily(ish) Millbrook.