Thanks very much, that's certainly first hand evidence!  I had read about the recent developments but couldn't find any recent photos (Google Streetview is not current).

I assume that the structure on the left is the new multi-storey car park. Not easy to tell that there was once a bay platform area there! There are currently various photos on ebay showing the derelict track in the Lambourn bay, although the dates seem to be a bit mixed up:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=lambourn+bay&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_odkw=lambourne+bay&_osacat=0

Many thanks for the offer of measuring things. The GWR outline drawing of Newbury does not come with measurements, so I am counting bricks - which seems to fit reasonably well with length measurements on Google Earth. But if you happen to pass by it would be interesting to know what the height of 1 brick + mortar is. 

I look forward to following your own model of Newbury in due course. It is really a very modellable station, I think.

9 hours ago, Charlie586 said:

That should make a very impressive model. Looking forward to seeing more updates. 

Thanks Charlie, it will take quite some time but at least now the game is afoot. It will also be an opportunity to get some more coaches built. I'd like to do one or two rakes of those typical "unstreamlined" GWR trains of the period, with every coach being a different profile!

Great prototype. I am sure the result will be impressive having followed your other postings. Good luck with it. I hope you do the footbridge.

Thanks. I can't help thinking that somewhere down the line perhaps there is scope to turn this into an actual model of (parts of) Newbury station.

E.g., I have always thought it would be nice to model the Lambourn bay with the actual LVR stock. Steam & Things did 4mm and 7mm etches for the coaches. I thought the kits had disappeared off the market, but their page seems to have been updated September 2021. Hmm...

Agenoria - now Ragstone models - did a kit for the Eadweade loco, although in 7mm (ref AM36/7 I believe).

But I digress!

9 hours ago, Brassey said:

So what stock are you thinking of running? Your 150cm fiddle yards will limit you to about 5 corridor coaches with tender loco but that’s still quite impressive. 

It won't be half as ambitious as your impressive building programme. But considering the location of Farthing on the Berks & Hants extension...

... there is in principle scope for quite a varied selection of trains! I've had a first look at the 1911 Working Timetable for the Newbury-Westbury section, sourced from Michael Clemens' useful website, and it's all a bit  overwhelming, especially for someone who is used to very small layouts.

Disregarding the actual timetable and formations for a moment, I'd like to start off with some more clerestory stock. That will include the Slater's kits, and some short bogie clerestories from the old Fourmil range. I also have a few more of these, the ex-Wheeltappers kits which were pre-printed but in this particular livery worked quite well I think. I had better do some planning!

"An Atbara or two". How straightforward you make it sound  I fear it will be simpler, initially at least. I like RTR chassis with something kit- or scratchbuilt on top. A Duke for example. 

13 hours ago, Dana Ashdown said:

To my previous comment about white window frames (by which I meant the window sash/casement) I’ve had a look at Slinn (2nd edition, page 149) for his comments on the windows. He writes:

 

“The exterior of timber built stations had the walls, door panels and barge boards in light stone. The outer frames of the building, the door and window frames, mullions and window sills, gutters and down pipes were dark stone. Window sashes and the framing of glass were white. Brick built stations were slightly different as window frames, sills and mullions, in addition to door panels and barge boards, were light [presumably light stone]. In dark stone were the structural woodwork on the outside of the building, gutters and down pipes, door frames and doors (except panels), the wooden plinths at ground level and the ironwork, bars etc on windows. Window sashes and the framing of glass were white. Maroon-brown when introduced had a similar application in both types of buildings being used in place of dark stone for door frames, doors, ground level plinths, the lower framing or the bottom four or five planks on timber structures, gutters and down pipes and occasionally instead of light stone on window frames. A general rule was that framing of any kind was finished in dark stone and panelling in light. Sometimes the framing and panelling were false the effect being produced by the use of the two colours.”

 

On page 147, Slinn does note that whilst the colour scheme using light and dark stone was standard by 1880, “Chocolate was also used in some applications as a basic colour and from about 1931 a similar tint which can be best described as maroon-brown was introduced for items subject to heavy wear such as stair risers and the lower parts of wooden buildings.”

 

So the window sash/casements were presumably always white… except some of the pictures show a darker colour used. So perhaps this was either a local variant or more probably something to do with contrasting/complimenting the colour of the brick or stone? However, the surrounding frame in timber-built stations was dark stone or chocolate (or maroon-brown after 1931); but in brick structures it was light stone, but could also be chocolate.

 

Newbury certainly looks like it had chocolate window frames and sash/casements. But as it was rebuilt/replaced 1908-10, it might represent a variation introduced around that time. I don’t think dark stone would have looked that dark in pictures.

Thank you Dana. This is one of those delightful livery questions that keeps us all occupied and happy! 

I haven't done a  systematic photo review yet (would be a satisfying way to spend a rainy Sunday!) but I tend to think that Slinn may not quite have caught on to the all-over chocolate colour on 1900s windows. Some crops:

Lambourn (photo of the new station building, taken when opened in 1910).

Shirley, said to be ca. 1908

Fenny Compton, no date.

Newbury, said to be 1911.

13 hours ago, Dana Ashdown said:

Just a quick note about the aerial photo. The two trains on the up lines are quite short. A train of three short clerestories headed by what looks to be a small tender engine at the platform. And a four car train on the express line in charge of a tank engine running bunker first, with a PBV up front, two clerestories and what could be toplight bringing up the rear. Both are ideal layout size. Only the toplight(?) and a clerestory in one of the down sidings appear to be white. The rest are in varying shades of grey, from nearly white to almost black.

The photo is from 1928. They may be DN&SR trains/stock and thus a bit shorter than Berks & Hants stopping trains - but I agree it's a very convenient length and I hope to build something like that for my Edwardian period. 

Edit: Photos went astray, hopefully back now.

Not a highjack at all, any excuse to discuss GWR liveries is welcome  And I want to understand the context of the chocolate windows in the Edwardian Newbury photos anyway. I expect the model would be more appealing with white windows, but it has to be right for my period - in this case ca. 1900-1914.

Here's a crop from a photo of High Wycombe, which in my view shows a chocolate window with dark stone on the louvres and light and dark stone on the screen . But the photo also illustrates how easily dark stone and chocolate can be mistaken for each other, if the lighting and angle was just a little different. And what is the colour on the smaller, open windows? The plot thickens!

This photo also shows another variant of the "Westbury" architectural style, with the limestone lintels above rounded windows., and bullnose bricks. The structure shown was built in 1906, so that fits the bill.

You have to have that advert on the end wall, "Good morning.  Have you used Pears soap?"  I cannot imagine that they would be allowed to get away with that today.

Interesting photo.  I assume that it was built as part of the GCR London extension project.  One of my never to be built ideas is the High Wycombe to Maidenhead branch, but this would be too late for me.

I know the Singles went to Birmingham, via the junction at Didcot on the Northern Expresses, the formations of which for 1895I am still trying to get to Kew to see if they have been recorded.

22 hours ago, Western Star said:

Purely for the record, the photo of High Wycombe was taken by probably E.S.Sweetland who had a commercial photographic studio in the town.  In the late 1960s I was able to obtain a copy of the photo from the studio...  probably from the original glass plate.

 

regards, Graham

We owe a lot to photographers like Sweetland for such photos - the full image is excellent. And thanks Graham for bringing the photo forward. I hope it's OK I've posted a crop here, otherwise let me know.

21 hours ago, ChrisN said:

You have to have that advert on the end wall, "Good morning.  Have you used Pears soap?"  I cannot imagine that they would be allowed to get away with that today.

Great minds...  Inspired by the same photo I made up a corroded version of the Pears' advert for Farthing many years ago. Seen in the background here with some of the enamel adverts from Tiny Signs. 

17 hours ago, Ian Smith said:

Mikkel,

Personally I would think that the louvres and the small open windows were painted chocolate too - I think it is their angle to the light source that makes them look lighter. Also of interest is the notice board frames that are also clearly painted chocolate (they are significantly darker than what we believe is the dark stone on the screen framing). Also of interest is the full name company branding across the tops of the notice boards.

Ian

Hi Ian, yes the chocolate notice boards are very distinctive in that photo. As for the louvres and small open windows, I agree that the logical thing would be for them to be chocolate too. It's just that they look very close to the shade seen on the post holding the screen on the far left. But now that I think of it, that may be chocolate too! (when compared to the stone colours on the screen itself).

21 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

 

I may be wrong, but I don't think the Dean Singles worked over the Reading to Taunton direct line. Not quite sure why - although not as flat as the London-Bristol billiard table, I'm sure the Singles could have coped with it.

19 hours ago, ChrisN said:

I know the Singles went to Birmingham, via the junction at Didcot on the Northern Expresses, the formations of which for 1895I am still trying to get to Kew to see if they have been recorded.

My old detailed Triang Dean Single is pricking up its ears. But sorry old boy, you can go back to sleep. Last time I took it for a spin, the magnadhesion interacted with the electrics in rather disturbing ways!