Faded Elegance

nevard_101030_combwich_40564_IMG_8281_BW_web, originally uploaded by nevardmedia.

Going through some of the famous Bath based photographer *Ivan Locksmith's old prints, I decided that this one was worth slapping under the scanner for today's load of old baloney and venture into a past parallel universe that never was.....

40564 was one of the very last elegant LMS 2P 4-4-0s left running on the Somerset & Dorset, and is captured here rolling into Combwich with the 10 am Templecombe service on the 21 August 1961. By this stage the Western Region has been in charge of the northern section of the former S&DJR network for sometime and its influence could be seen with the ex GWR Pannier tank No. 4691. Had the photo had been taken in colour you'd be able to spot the WR brown and cream paint on the old oil lamp mounted on an old piece of rail to the right, these colours replacing the previous green and cream.

Back to reality, the loco is Hornby with a repaint and a few extra bits and bobs, it will get a proper Comet chassis in due course once I've saved up some pennies to get it properly done by a pro (I'm a disaster with such wizardry). The signal on the right is a designed to upset the purists in the form of a Ratio LNER plastic kit with a few mods and some MSE finials to make it look sort of 'LSWR'.

• W i d e s c r e e n wallpaper HERE!
• See this layout for real at WYCRAIL on Saturday 6 November '10.  

*Ivan Locksmith of course is fiction like much of this post, he is a character based on the actual celebrated photographers Messrs Ivo Peters and Norman Lockett who between them recorded much of the SDJR.