It was great to see (and hear) a King in steam and in action but personally the sooner it's back in its proper colour the better.
© David Meaden

Great. How I'd love to be one of those two men, just for an hour or two.

Or the two still on the footplate!!

It's the craftsmanship and beauty of the beast that I most admire.

I have it's picture on my trainroom wall.

Ouch. WHAT  a loco !

And ouch, WHAT  photography!


Any such thing as a GWR green tinted camera lens David…..?

Allan, 'green' with envy.

Excuse my ignorance, but that front pony truck is something different with the frame on the inside and out of each axle. Does anyone know why this was made this way ?

Cheers, Gary.

The Castle class had both bearing mounts on the outside. The King is a bigger boilered and bigger pistoned Castle (basically) and the bigger pistons wouldn't fit with the bearing boxes on the outside of the rear set of pony wheels. So they put the bearings on the inside.

It's one of the easiest ways that I have found  of telling the difference between a Castle and a King, apart from overall boiler size.

Great photos, and if I remember rightly the GWR did experiment with Blue for a couple of the crack express engines…. I much prefer the Green… and so did the GWR in the end.


Cheers

Marty

Urm ??!! It was usual practice for the GW ( and other railways) to have the loco front bogie bearings, and suspension on the inside of the frames, but on the King class the inside cylinders didn't leave enough room, when also taking into account lateral movement on the road, when you consider the inside cylinders were inline with the leading bogie axle, as can be seen on the third pic. 

I'm not a GW man myself but I appreciate power and beauty when I see it (usually in a mirror ).

She's a beauty but as you say, it's a pity she's in BR blue livery and not the proper stuff. :roll::roll:  It's still an excellent paint job, whatever the colour. :thumbs

GWR should only be green.:thumbs

[user=1151]bike2steam[/user] wrote:

Urm ??!! It was usual practice for the GW ( and other railways) to have the loco front bogie bearings, and suspension on the inside of the frames, but on the King class the inside cylinders didn't leave enough room, when also taking into account lateral movement on the road, when you consider the inside cylinders were inline with the leading bogie axle, as can be seen on the third pic. 

Well done Paul, that's what I get for trusting my memory, quite right, at least I knew it was to do with cylinder spacing!
cheers
Marty

Thanks for all the replies regarding the front bogie. There you go, you learn something everyday ! …and sometimes you learn about the perculiarities of the GWR way…!

Cheers, Gary.

That third pic is excellent with a wealth of detail including the rocker-shaft operated piston valves on the inner, and outer right hand cylinders. In theory a well balanced layout, but we all know there can be a big gap between theory, and practise especially when wear, and tear enters the equation - just thought I'd say ;-) .