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#rws #awdry #gallantoldengine #railwayseries
Published: 2017-06-02 15:50:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 2828; Favourites: 54; Downloads: 5
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I remember seeing something like this on one your posts on SIF
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Aye good memory. I tend to update my old SiF edits if I go back to something that's a bit crude and think it's worth redoing for my DA account but looking at it again just now I still quite like the Word Document only attempt of recreating the book cover.
Β i1340.photobucket.com/albums/oβ¦
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Nice.
Can you tell me what shy steaming is? I've never been able to figure that out, and I get no answers from certain people
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I've never fired an engine or anything but it's basically the opposite of being a 'very free steamer'. The term can apply to a class or just an individual engine that does not raise/easily raise enough steam for the kind of work it needs to do.
An engine can often be reported to be SOS (short of steam) when being handed from one crew to another or when it's returned to the shed but that tends to be an example of something being wrong with the loco rather than a short coming in the overall design.Β
Either way though building up the fire perfectly may not be able to overcome the issue, as even so the locomotive just can not seem to build up enough steam along the journey.Β
I've never heard of a K2 class member or a Cambrian Large Stewart being a shy steamer so I assume Awdry is making that up with Edward but certainly supposedly identical members of a standard class can contain both enterprising and poor performers within their class (without any discernible reason) and it might explain why he was selected to be lent and sold to the NWR. In Ed's case though this issue was cured through his rebuilding over the years. Certainly a higher pitch boiler would allow for a larger firebox, which combined with a successful superheater would certainly help turn things around for him.
Henry was something of a different case though as his overall design was badly executed. As technical understandings continued to advance in time the NWR may of been able to find a few ways around his small firebox but like with a few other 'almost could of been' classes it wasn't to be as they were withdrawn and replaced just prior to that tipping point.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BR_Standβ¦
Not related to the engine as such but poor quality coal can be a real problem for some engines, usually the type that have small fireboxes. A crew's skill can also be paramount. The LNWR Prince of Wales class (I think) could preform quite well but their long narrow fireboxes meant that only the best crews could get their full potential out of them and when more of the seemingly highly successful design were built this weakness was exposed as a wider range of men operated them but didn't have the knack. Β
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The reason why I asked was because there was poor steaming and there was shy steaming. I did not know the difference, so it seems like they're both the same.
I did recall two of the K2s were fitted with superheaters No. 34 and 37, I believe, or maybe that's just false info. (This has nothing to do with this whole shy steaming thing)
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Basically as I understand yes they are the same.
It was actually No 34 & 35 that were superheated, No 37 is something erroneous that's been repeated from an old publications and on Wiki if I recall. The superheater though can be quite related to whether an engine is a poor steamer or not, as was the case with GWR low element practice being applied to the Jubilee Class when being built for example.
The Phoenix superheater applied to the six FR engines and on a few other railways was quite unsuccessful compared to some other types so that is why the were not retained and is probably the reason the FR didn't spend extra money on superheating their other engines, even new builds such as the Baltics, which was quite surprising for the period.
Anyway the point i'm loosely trying to get at that is Edward's 'shy steaming' could well of been cured by him becoming successfully superheated, though I'm sure there were a few other tweaks made as well.
The just 10 strong long lived E2s were also poor steamers but they were quite adequate for their intended shunting duties. Pulling only two coaches on a stopping service Thomas shouldn't suffer too much but while doing banking work at Wellsworth would of been a different story. Basically it makes sense that he would of been rebuilt for his new career sooner or later, so that's another feather in the cap for the lads at Croven's Gate.
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This gives me an idea. I'll message you on SIF about it
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I honestly thought the photo was real until I remembered how skilled you are, this could fool anyone!
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I'm not quite happy about the blending of the face but Rheneas is a difficult character to find multiple samples for as he only appeared in a few S4 eps and whether or not he had any others made we only 4 masks within those (two of which are frustratingly not seen in good focus Β ).
Still though overall i'm quite pleased with this one myself as i've been wanting to adapt this photo for a while, cheers for the kind words as always Β Β
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Yes, the post Dalby railway series illustrators used photographic references from public and private collections when they where available. Yeah John T. Kenny had some fine track layouts and urban townscape's. Even if the engines still looked a bit too toy like and bright in paintwork compared to livery colours of Peter Edwards, Dalby's ornament green for Henry MKII and Percy, and technical layout and locomotive design consistency of Clive Sponge, but that's my opinion.
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No way, this was a real picture.
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Probably, or some fine editing skills, he'll tell me if I'm right or wrong
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Ha, this was actually quite an easy edit to be honest, as after the usual blanking out of the smokebox door area and in this case altering the mouth to try and match Kenny's illustration and some other tweaking it was just a basic face plant job.
I've never tried doing a book cover crop before though so that was interesting as I had to reverse the layering on 'Word Document' somewhat.
Basically I scanned a battered book I got from eBay then in 'Preview', cut in past the white border and gradually cleared out the RWS image. You have to have a little slit away from the main image to retain everything outside said border but that's easy enough to restore. The main issue was trying to crop the border in a straight line but where I went awry I used Pixelmator to remedy any unevenness (other and perhaps better methods and programs are viable 
Boris
To give Dalby his dues with his introduction to the SR he must of used some TR photos, as one image is quite similar to an early 'Talyllyn News' drawing I'm aware of (never seen the photo itself) and obviously a number of the locations are based along the line, plus a certain Corris photo from 'Peter Sam and the Refreshment Lady', but yeah I'll agree he wasn't particularly bothered about using photos as reference guides, especially in the earlier books.
It's always hard not to place the Edwards on the top of the RWS artist list but I really do think Kenny raised the bar. In terms of the illustrations this book isn't my favourite by a long shot if I'm being honest but that opening illustration in 'Hullo Twins' for example is just a fantastic scene shot. Β
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Well you've certainly explained that very well. And as for Kenny, he really raised the bar from Dalby's toy like drawings. (While Gunvor's drawings go for high praise) Kenny made them more realistic in step.
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Thanks 
Β Β
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