Friday, August 6, 2010

A Picture is worth...

...well a lot actually. I don't know about a thousand words (but as a teacher I have seen some 1000 word essays which have pictures springing to mind - normally cartoons with the top row of the keyboard in the thought/speech bubble!) but certainly the value of pictures to our hobby cannot be overstated.

Recently on the 2mm VAG of which I am a member a query was made regarding the tenders and cab roofs (rooves?) of the original four LNER A4s - the ones painted three tone grey/silver in 1935. The questor had plans by Roche and Beattie but wasn't sure how to proceed. Photos in Yeadon's proved that, at least as far as the Roche drawings went, they were not much help. The Beattie drawings were a little better but as far as putting the elements of the conversion kit from Langley went, the photos were much more useful.

It is queries like this and the help which I can then give fellow modellers which makes my labour of love (aka the sodding database) worthwhile. I have posted previously about the database and I have had a real roll on over the last few weeks, logging in quite a few more magazines (Steam Days mostly) to increase the collection referenced. Using the A4s as an example I have over 850 photos logged from magazines such as Steam Days, British Railways Illustrated, Back Track, Steam World and or course Locomotives Illustrated. Books such as Yeadon's Register and The Book of the A4s are the natural magnets when a question surrounding the ECML greyhounds comes up but other sources such as A J Mullay's "Non-Stop - London to Scotland Steam" can have photos the others do not which can prove just as useful if not more so. As far as the A4s go, for modelling 2509-2512, Locos Illustrated No 38 p4 is probably the starting point - it has a colour shot taken of 2509 still in silver grey.

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