Wickham Green Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Garratt were shopped at Crewe as Derby reportedly couldn't cope with anything that big. Scrapping details on the web are sketchy but those listed were all cut up at Crewe. ..... didn't realise the small engine policy persisted that long .............. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Guildford is en-route, by some routes, from the midlands to Portsmouth, Longmoor, Ashford, Brighton, Dover and Folskestone, and the military complexes around the Medway towns, so I propose that we extend this wild speculation to cover two possibilities: breaking-up at Brighton or Ashford works; or, some form of military use. Either sounds far-fetched! Personally, I think the guy was cycling home from the pub, and in the darkness, swirling smoke, and beer-haze saw two Q1s standing nose-to-nose, and got confused. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bike2steam Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Ah, I forgot long gone Longmoor, yes for military use - a target for gunnery training, like the old tanks they use down here at Lulworth Camp. Stretching this thread methinks. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium petethemole Posted February 21, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2018 Longmoor was a RE camp; I doubt if any artillery was ever fired there. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Indeed, but many locos were taken to bits, and some put back together, there, for instructional purposes. WD did source some Garratts, but I think they were all metre or cape gauge, and lived abroad, so it is unlikely to have been one of them. K 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 I personally don't believe him, and are very sceptical about the whole thing. Him mentioning it just got me curious, so I thought I'd ask on here. He's a narrow gauge enthusiast so I doubt he'd make something to do with Standard Gauge up, but then again being an NG enthusiast he may have mis-remembered. Thing is, everything else he remembers from Guildford is more or less correct, USA Tank, C2x, Q1's, N's, the (very) occasional GWR loco through from Reading, he can even remember 2-BIL's and 4-COR's, and he loathes anything powered by traction motors, but this one seems nigh on impossible to me! If he'd said Leader, then I may have believed him more, but he's too young for Leader. Still, if this photo ever turns up I will try and post it on here! I doubt it ever will, somehow... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 (edited) To be fair, unless he’s a wind-up merchant, it does seem an odd thing to claim without some basis in truth, even if a misremembering or a genuine mistake. Why would he? Still, the photo would prove something should it ever emerge. . Edited February 21, 2018 by Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 I can remember the last few years of steam in that area, although I was only a boy at the time. The one that gets people thinking is a 9F, which I saw at Winchester. People often overlook the fact that several were allocated to Eastleigh, for use on oil trains. The first time I saw a Q1, I couldn’t understand what I was looking at - it was unlike anything I’d seen in reality or in books. We were on a bus, outside Woking station, and the loco was shunting a long rake of wagons loaded with track panels from the PAD. Luckily, I had my ‘Observer’s Book of British Railway Locomotives’ with me, so I could look it up. Steam on the railway at Woking lasted until about 1980, oddly enough, in the form of a self-propelled crane in the PAD, which I had the deep joy of helping to service when I was a trainee engineer. But, I didn’t see any Garratts. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 (edited) He doesn't normally do railway-based wind ups, and you're right that it's a weird one to make up. Here's the list of Guildford-based locos: http://www.brdatabase.info/sites.php?page=depots&subpage=locos&id=237 The only Midland-designed locos on there are Ivatt 2MT tanks, so we can clarify this supposed Garratt was never allocated to Guildford! Edited February 21, 2018 by sem34090 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Is it just possible that, for example, he saw a tender loco with a second, loose, tender, parked up in front of it. A quick glance, a look over parked wagons, might give the impression of a Garratt? . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Was it definitely an LMS Garratt he thought he saw ? ......... maybe it was 69999 going for trials on the Folkestone Harbour Branch ??!? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium kevinlms Posted February 21, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 21, 2018 Was it definitely an LMS Garratt he thought he saw ? ......... maybe it was 69999 going for trials on the Folkestone Harbour Branch ??!? Or, off to Weymouth Harbour. Lets see the idiots park their vehicles blocking the track, from that! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Wickham Careful! This is sounding almost plausible. K Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
truffy Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Longmoor was a RE camp; I doubt if any artillery was ever fired there. Indeed, but many locos were taken to bits, and some put back together, there, for instructional purposes. Don't army engineers also get a kick out of blowing things up? And I'm not talking party balloons here! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 When was 69999 withdrawn? Not saying it's any more plausible, but if it went before around 1955 It's definitely impossible for my friend to have seen it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 As an aside, my friend frequented Guildford shed and frequently recounts being allowed by the crew of the pilot, frequently a USA, to shuffle it around the shed yard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMS2968 Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 When was 69999 withdrawn? Not saying it's any more plausible, but if it went before around 1955 It's definitely impossible for my friend to have seen it. 12 March 55 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wickham Green Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 When was 69999 withdrawn? Not saying it's any more plausible, but if it went before around 1955 It's definitely impossible for my friend to have seen it. "She was officially withdrawn on 23 December 1955,and was subsequently taken to Doncaster Works and cut up during early 1956 having travelled around 425,000 miles (684,000 km) during her 30 years." ........... but then we know how reliable Wikipedia is .............. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Guildford is en-route, by some routes, from the midlands to Portsmouth, Longmoor, Ashford, Brighton, Dover and Folskestone, and the military complexes around the Medway towns, so I propose that we extend this wild speculation to cover two possibilities: breaking-up at Brighton or Ashford works; or, some form of military use. Either sounds far-fetched! Personally, I think the guy was cycling home from the pub, and in the darkness, swirling smoke, and beer-haze saw two Q1s standing nose-to-nose, and got confused. That would make him an under-age drinker, by some margin, maybe even to 1950's standards! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearholmer Posted February 21, 2018 Share Posted February 21, 2018 Oh, OK, no offence meant; somehow I’d got it into my head that this was a former railwayman of the time that you were talking about. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted February 21, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 21, 2018 Seriously, rather than asking here, just get your mates photo, the one “he’ll show you at some stage”. If it exists not only will it answer the question definitively, it will be photographic gold dust. Every magazine will snatch his hand off wanting to print it, and it will add to the known history of the Garratts. . Wasn't it in the Sunday Sport just before they found the B52 Bomber on the Moon? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 Oh, OK, no offence meant; somehow I’d got it into my head that this was a former railwayman of the time that you were talking about. None taken! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Flying Pig Posted February 22, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 22, 2018 Wasn't it in the Sunday Sport just before they found the B52 Bomber on the Moon? They certainly didn't find a B-52 bomber on the Moon and you shouldn't spread groundless rumours like that. It was a World War 2 bomber. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold adb968008 Posted February 22, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 22, 2018 (edited) Maybe the person got confused with an S160... The S160 at Longmoor would presumably at some point require overhaul or works, if not just specialist shed attention... was it fully overhauled on-site, could it have gone to Guildford for maintenance ? It’s certainly unique and could be confused to an untrained eye as a foreigner on shed? The other one is WD 600 Gordon.. it worked a railtour out of Woking once. Indeed i’m Surprised Longmoor didn’t take an interest in a Garratt, though presumably if they needed the skill set they’d just approach the LMS. Edited February 22, 2018 by adb968008 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sem34090 Posted February 22, 2018 Author Share Posted February 22, 2018 As I said, the person concerned visited Longmoor during the same time period as he was spotting at Guildford, so would've known a Longmoor loco. Also, having spent the Saturday before last filming an S160 he said they were impressive (And the one currently on the Paignton & Dartmouth certainly put on a show for us!), and that it was the first time he'd seen an S160 on a preserved line. He said he may've seen one at Longmoor, but he can't remember exactly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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