"Oh, Mr Porter" locos

[Bittern]

I don't know where to put this so I'm just putting it here. If a mod wants to move it, please do.

I just watched this old film and noted quite a few locos in it, but the only one I could identify was 2509 'Silver Link'. The obvious star of the show was named Gladstone in the film, but I doubt that's her real name. It's this loco in particular I'm looking for info on. The loco was also 'destroyed' in the film, but I doubt that was the real loco.

If anyone has any info on 'Gladstone' (real name, images, was she cut up etc.) that would be great.

Also, if anyone knows what locos were on the excursion and express trains featured, that'd be highly appreciated as well.

Thanks.

 

[ainsworth74]

IMDb has this to say on Gladstone's true identity.

 

[John Webb]

According to 'Railways on the Screen' by the late John Huntley, the negative was accidently reversed by the film editor in preparing the title backgrounds to give the 'wrong road' running. Buggleskelly was the former Cliddesden station.

The loco 'Gladstone' (actually 'Northiam') was sold for scrap in 1941. The loco that 'blew up' was a dummy copy - the Southern Railway at Basingstoke was used for this and other scenes.

There is no information on the other trains seen in the film in Huntley's book, but the more recent "Horton's Guide to Britain's Railways in Feature Films" does have more information.
The other two trains seen running through 'Buggleskelly' are hauled by an Adams 0395 class 0-6-0 No. 3509 and an Adams X2 class 4-4-0 No. 657. A Lord Nelson and another Adams 4-4-0 are visible in scenes shot at Basingstoke.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

If this is the same "Gladstone" as the loco class of that name preserved at the NRM then its wheel arrangement is 0-4-2.

That seems to have been a reasonably popular design for slow travel and for lighter loads, but that class were used for 'express' passenger services which does leave me puzzling about the appropriateness of locomotives with no leading bogie. Wasn't there massive wear to the track (esp. pointwork) and to the leading wheels (esp. their flanges) due to the lack of steerage (which would have been provided by a leading bogie)?

 

[John Webb]

If this is the same "Gladstone" as the loco class of that name preserved at the NRM then its wheel arrangement is 0-4-2......

No, it's not the same - 'Gladstone' in the film was a temporarily renamed 2-4-0 tank supplied by Hawthorn Leslie in 1899 and supplied directly to the Kent and East Sussex Railway under its then name of the Rother Valley Railway. I don't think there are any preserved locos of this type.

'Gladstone' in the NRM is an ex-LB&SC Class B1 loco built at Brighton in 1882 and is an 0-4-2T wheel arrangement as you say.