A 'Castle' and a 'King'

As the title suggests, two pictures of Great Western Railway (GWR) locomotives feature in today's post, 4th January 2011, a 'Castle' and a 'King'. Both designed by Charles Collett the locomotives were quite similar in many respects with the 'King' being often described as a 'Super Castle'. In my collection of over 400 jigsaw puzzles, all featuring British steam trains, the GWR  and Western Region of British Railways combined, provide the subjects for more jigsaw puzzles than other regional equivalents.


The first picture shows a jigsaw titled Earl Bathurst Weathering The Storm.  The Wentworth wooden puzzle of 250 pieces is reproduced from a photograph of 'Castle' class 4-6-0, No.5051 Earl Bathurst, battling against a blizzard in a rural location. The photographer is not named. Because of the extreme weather conditions the colour photograph has almost been transformed into  monochrome.

The icon of the GWR, 'King' class 4-6-0, No.6000 King George V, is shown in the second picture. The engine is liveried in British Railways (BR) express blue, the colour chosen for large, passenger express locomotives after BR was formed in 1948. Unfortunately, the jigsaw picture, from original artwork by T. E. North, was printed with a red cast resulting in a purple locomotive and red bridge components. 'Cornish Riviera Express' is the title of this 400-piece jigsaw from Family Favourite. The famous express is pictured exiting the Royal Albert Bridge spanning the River Tamar at Saltash. The bridge designer was the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel and it was officially opened on 2nd May 1859 by Prince Albert; Brunel died four months later.