Topic: Was Paul Ysart a train spotter?

[tropdevin]

My guess is that this 'not a cap badge' weight is Belgian rather than Ysart.

Alan

[KevinH]

These get more and more interesting (from an academic viewpoint). I may have to start collecting them! The base of this one is finished in the same way as many others I have seen.

[Frank]

I see no water tank so missing its tender. But the locomotive does look more English than European. Almost certainly a model of an actual engine and should be fairly easy to identify.

[tropdevin]

Hi Frank

I'm not sure it is British: dredging the depths of my memory, to when I went train spotting around 1960, I think it has 'one hump' too many for a typical British loco.  Maybe it is one of the oddities that ran on the Highland Railways, but I think it is French or Belgian.  But there must be an anorak out there who knows...

Alan

[w84it]

You could always try my other favourite message board !!

at ...

http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/index.php

[glasstrufflehunter]

The wheel arrangement is interesting. The smokebox is hanging out past the front wheels. Looks like an older locomotive. No cow catcher so it doesn't look American to me.

[KevinH]

Configuration is a regular 0-6-0 with "overhang" at front and rear, but it does not look like any of the British 0-6-0 locomotives I have browsed via the internet. As Alan says, it has "one hump too many". And the smoke stack looks rather thin. In the main, British "tender" 0-6-0 locos seem not to have an enclosed rear but the "saddle" / "tank" ones, do. The one in question has an enclosed rear but a boiler of the "tender" type - looks like a hybrid if it is British.

I know an anarok guy who might have some info, but sadly his pc can't currently connect to the internet so I can't send an emai. I'll have to use the old-fashioned method of actually talking to him sometime!

[w84it]

I've checked it out with my mates on the railway message board.   The loco is definitely not British.   Best bet is that it's French, or maybe Belgian, from the late 19th century.   French from that date would fit.   Didn't papa Ysart uproot his family including Paul from Spain to France around 1909?

[Frank]

Indeed they did.


There was once an early piece made by Paul Ysart on eBay, it was dated as something like 1910, usually it takes at least 7 years to complete an appreticeship but apparently Paul was a master at only 6 years old  I have also seen a Victorian piece offered as precursor of Monart and attributed to Salvador Ysart.

Would it be relevant to add this, if someone could pictures, to the badge weight study I started on Scotland's Glass?

[tropdevin]

I have done a little research on Google, and the locomotive in the sulphide image is very similar to some French locomotives of the 1850-1860 period.  Below is an 'improved' image of the sulphide, and an image of a Paris-Orleans railway 0-6-0 well tank from the 1850s. Similar in many respects, but not identical.  The cab is noticeably different, but the commonest design of cab at that time in France looks like the one in the sulphide.

So I think this is a French (?maybe Belgian) locomotive.  Why was the sulphide made? It is nothing special as a locomotive, so maybe to commemorate a particular event, or anniversary?  Perhaps a 50th anniversary? It could be that the Ysarts were responsible for the weight, having been in France and got hold of the sulphide: but I would think it more likely it was made in France or Belgium.

And maybe that is where the Ysarts got the idea for this style of weight......as well as the harlequin designs.....

Alan