Steam Railcar at the Didcot Railway Centre!

Firewood, thank you!

Anytime!

I changed the title to attract attention to the amazing steam railcar at this museum!

Interesting story there, those were torched after the loco derailed at the famed Woodham Brothers' scrap yard

This engine lives today, though I have no idea where they got the replacement drivers from: http://www.6023.co.uk/

FANTASTIC! Where the heck is Didcot...near what English city?   I never heard of it and I have visited a little of the Welsh narrow gauge.  I could only open interior photos of the steam coach, I assume you also got exterior shots?  I have a steam coach photo in front of me, of a photo in the station at Shelburne, Vt., of an American steam coach, which was not the only one, that I am accumulating parts for to kitbash a model.

Didcot is just south of Oxford.  Here are some pictures of the steamcar or railmotor as it's called in England.

I also added some pictures of the 6023, AKA "King Edward II", which is the engine that had the broken driver.  It was hard to get good pictures of it indoors.

That's a great scrapyard shot. At the end of British steam, all sorts of slogans were chalked and painted on the last-run locomotives, like "The End is Nigh" and "Goodbye Cruel World", "One Owner, Cheap.", etc.

One of these King steamers did an American tour on the B&O back in 1927, so there's an excuse to run one on a USA layout.

http://www.justliketherealthin...e-loco-kit-p-92.html

Thanks!  I have been to Oxford, but certainly missed Didcot.  From a distance you might not notice this was a steam coach, but think it was a British gas electric or some such critter.  It is similar to Alco, Baldwin, and Unit-Stanley steam coaches.  Some others of the steam coaches were big monsters like the Kobusch-Wagenthals and the Railway Locomotor. For some reason, steam coaches were much more successful in England and Europe than they were in North America.  U.S. versions earlier than these, back into the mid 1800's, had had horizontal steam boilers protruding out the front like inspection engines.  Alco and Baldwin examples had vertical boilers with a stack through the front of the roof, like a gas electric.  Steam motor vehicles, with at least

two versions of model trucks (lorries)  available as models from Matchbox, apparently  ran on British Roads long after having vanished from ours.

Didcot is a small place so even if you visit Oxford you can easily miss it. The museum is based in an original GWR engine shed complex at an important railway junction and even though if is a little "staged" in appearance now on a cold November day with the engines steraming in the shed It still has that "real steam" feel. I am lucky its 40 minutes from me!

Someone asked about the cut driving wheels - simple solution ....new ones were cast

Over here we seem to just take on jobs like that without to much worry provided the funding is in place. In the UK there are many "new build" engines under construction although in the States you may have only heard about Tornado - but there are plenty more  - some almost complete. So never say never about your T1

CHEERS MIKE

Note the first hint of trouble: the panicked sheep at the beginning of the video

Poor sheep, great video!