Wenlock's Blog

Good to see this again Dave it's been missed by one or two of us, I've always admired your workmanship on this site especially as it's GWR period.

 

Regards

Grahame

Thanks Grahame! My shoulders definitely on the mend so hopefully the glacial progress on Sherton Abbas of late will speed up!

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Hi Dave, good to see the goods shed, I was looking through your blog recently and wondering what had happened to it. You've captured Mr Clarke's style very well I think, I'm sure he would be convinced himself that this was one of his designs!

 

Those wooden strips for fixing the enamel signs are an interesting detail that I haven't noticed before on prototypes.

 

On Peter K I saw recently in another thread (can't remember which one I'm afraid) mention of the need to phone him for contact.

Sherton Abbas - just where is this place!  I cannot find an entry in Cooke's Atlas and there is nothing in Clinker.  Not even a page in Bradshaw...

 

So is this another example of the 'Hursley' phenomenon?

Hi Dave, good to see the goods shed, I was looking through your blog recently and wondering what had happened to it. You've captured Mr Clarke's style very well I think, I'm sure he would be convinced himself that this was one of his designs!

 

Those wooden strips for fixing the enamel signs are an interesting detail that I haven't noticed before on prototypes.

 

On Peter K I saw recently in another thread (can't remember which one I'm afraid) mention of the need to phone him for contact.

 

Hi Mikkel, I hope Will Clarke would have approved and glad you like how it finally turned out :-)

 

Ive noticed the wooden strips on quite a few Edwardian pictures of station buildings, I suppose with the huge increase in advertising during the period it was a cheap and easy solution for fixing signs in place without damaging the brickwork.

 

Thanks for the information about Peter K, I'll try giving him a ring. You'd think he'd have a look at his email at least once a fortnight considering he put the contact email address on his website! :-)

 

I hope Farthing's yard is progressing, I'm looking forward to reading about it soon!

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Dave,

Really nice to see the goods shed again in an almost complete guise (although from the outside it looks complete to me!)  Love the advertising hoardings, the whole thing really does say Edwardian GWR without the need to put any stock on it.

 

I agree with the idea of having paving only around the station building - it's exactly what I intend to do (although I was considering the hard standing area on my model being those engineers brick pavers with the diamond pattern on - but when it comes down to it that might be a stretch to far in 2mm!!)  Sorry I can't help with the dimensions of typical slabs.

 

Ian

Sherton Abbas - just where is this place!  I cannot find an entry in Cooke's Atlas and there is nothing in Clinker.  Not even a page in Bradshaw...

 

So is this another example of the 'Hursley' phenomenon?

 

Hi Graham, the monks in the abbey were quite a secretive bunch and tried to keep the delights of Sherton Abbas as quiet as possible, this is probably why you struggled to find it!:-)

 

To be compared with Hursley is praise indeed, Thank you!

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Dave,

Really nice to see the goods shed again in an almost complete guise (although from the outside it looks complete to me!)  Love the advertising hoardings, the whole thing really does say Edwardian GWR without the need to put any stock on it.

 

I agree with the idea of having paving only around the station building - it's exactly what I intend to do (although I was considering the hard standing area on my model being those engineers brick pavers with the diamond pattern on - but when it comes down to it that might be a stretch to far in 2mm!!)  Sorry I can't help with the dimensions of typical slabs.

 

Ian

 

Hi Ian, glad you like the shed:-) The inside still needs some work, I'm going to plank the floor inside the shed with coffee stirrers and then have some fun with boxes and packing cases:-)

 

Those engineers pavers are rather lovely, you're probably right about them being a problem in 2mm, however in 7mm it might be do able. Hmm you've now got me thinking, I wonder if anyone does an etch ......

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Lovely stuff Dave.

 

Now slabs - I recently measured some GWR/WR concrete replacement slabs, the sort that went in to replace original stone slabs, and they were 4ft x 2ft 3" x 3"thick.  I have feeling that the original stone slabs were probably a bit smaller but not by too much and were a bit thinner but it's a long time since I saw any.   The concrete slabs would, of course, be far too modern for you.

 

cheers,

Absolutely beautiful work.

Lovely model Dave and the detailing sets it off nicely.

 

The slabs sound right to me I suppose the question is would there be suitable stone locally or would the GWR use the smae source all over. Mike's sizes sound like the ones we had in the Forest of Dean although the sizes varied a bit especially the thickness. It all depends on how well the stone splits. 3x2 seems a common size to me in the days before they worried about lifting heavy weights. The modern stuff is all rather small

 

Don

Lovely stuff Dave.

 

Now slabs - I recently measured some GWR/WR concrete replacement slabs, the sort that went in to replace original stone slabs, and they were 4ft x 2ft 3" x 3"thick.  I have feeling that the original stone slabs were probably a bit smaller but not by too much and were a bit thinner but it's a long time since I saw any.   The concrete slabs would, of course, be far too modern for you.

 

cheers,

 

Thanks Mike, glad you like it:-) Useful information about the slabs. The fact the original stone slabs were smaller than their replacements and Don reckons 3 foot by two foot gives me something to aim for size wise!

 

I hope you approve of the re sited siding signal in picture 5! I've finished and installed the rotating dependant ground signal at the end of the loop, the twin miniature arm ground signal is still a work in progress:-)

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Absolutely beautiful work.

 

Thanks Rob!

Lovely model Dave and the detailing sets it off nicely.

 

The slabs sound right to me I suppose the question is would there be suitable stone locally or would the GWR use the smae source all over. Mike's sizes sound like the ones we had in the Forest of Dean although the sizes varied a bit especially the thickness. It all depends on how well the stone splits. 3x2 seems a common size to me in the days before they worried about lifting heavy weights. The modern stuff is all rather small

 

Don

 

Thanks Don! It sounds as if 3 foot by 2 foot slabs would be appropriate based on your and Mikes information. Have you any information on the size of the platform edging stones?

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Dave just had a look through some photos. Some of the slabs do look 4x 2 some of the edge stones llok to be a 4x2 slabs laid along the edge with a painted white bit. These could be replaced jobs.  I will try to sort out some photos of GWR ones but I may need to blow up parts to show the paving. I will post them on my thread as I have trouble adding them onto Blogs

 

Although this one may show as it is posted elsewhere

 

found more than I thought.

 

Don

 

ps Barmouth Bodmin and Bishops Lydeard

Dave just had a look through some photos. Some of the slabs do look 4x 2 some of the edge stones llok to be a 4x2 slabs laid along the edge with a painted white bit. These could be replaced jobs.  I will try to sort out some photos of GWR ones but I may need to blow up parts to show the paving. I will post them on my thread as I have trouble adding them onto Blogs

 

Although this one may show as it is posted elsewhere

 

found more than I thought.

 

Don

 

ps Barmouth Bodmin and Bishops Lydeard

 

Thanks Don, any information is really useful! It does look as if big 4foot by 2 foot slabs could be used right up to the platform edge. It would be good to find a picture in Edwardian times of the edging stones on a platform with an ash surface:-)

 

Dave

Just checked pictures of Clutton, Presteigne and Newent (all William Clarke stations), and all show (as I suspected) Blue diamond edging bricks. Some were later replaced with slabs.

I checked what I could on Dolgelley. It was pretty conclusive that the ones I could see were 3x2 and 2x2 or at least in that proportion.

They were laid alternately as a big and little pair. The edging stones appeared to be 3ftx 2ft 4in with the white strip being 10in wide. eing laid on a different axis there were two edging stones to three widths of middle slabs. These do look a different shape to many of those in my photos.

Interestinngly from Tim's comment above Towyn appeared to have the blue diamond bricks on one platform.

 

I have put some more from the West Somerset on my Thread

 

Don

Just checked pictures of Clutton, Presteigne and Newent (all William Clarke stations), and all show (as I suspected) Blue diamond edging bricks. Some were later replaced with slabs.

 

Hi Tim,

 

Thanks for looking at your pictures, it all sounds pretty conclusive from that information. Are these edging bricks standard 9 inch x 3 inch x 3 inch bricks or were they a special size? If you've got a close up photo of one in your collection I'd be very interested to see it.

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

I checked what I could on Dolgelley. It was pretty conclusive that the ones I could see were 3x2 and 2x2 or at least in that proportion.

They were laid alternately as a big and little pair. The edging stones appeared to be 3ftx 2ft 4in with the white strip being 10in wide. eing laid on a different axis there were two edging stones to three widths of middle slabs. These do look a different shape to many of those in my photos.

Interestinngly from Tim's comment above Towyn appeared to have the blue diamond bricks on one platform.

 

I have put some more from the West Somerset on my Thread

 

Don

 

Thanks again Don, lovely pictures!:-)

 

Dave

Funnily enough, they look exactly like the edging bricks seen on Duffryn Ardudwy on this thread!

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/99372-dyffryn-ardudwy/

Funnily enough, they look exactly like the edging bricks seen on Duffryn Ardudwy on this thread!

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/99372-dyffryn-ardudwy/

 

Thanks Tim,

 

What a delightful little station! I've never heard of Duffryn Ardudry, I really must escape Cardiff and explore the the wilds of Wales more:-) I'm not sure of the best way to model those edging bricks convincingly. The only way that springs to mind is to scribe some styrene masters on a section about 50mm long, make a mould and pour them in resin. The pictures show the "bull nose" nicely, but it's hard to work out the exact size of each brick. If anyone's in the area and fancied measuring one I'd be delighted to hear from them!

 

Dave

Dave,

I remember the in the MRC articles on Bodmin in the 1980's that the diamond pattern was scribed with a piece of hacksaw or piercing saw (can't remember which) using an adjustable square thing to get the angles right.

 

Ian

In 4mm there are etched brick edging from Mike Clark, I'm not aware what there could be in 7mm.

Dave,

I remember the in the MRC articles on Bodmin in the 1980's that the diamond pattern was scribed with a piece of hacksaw or piercing saw (can't remember which) using an adjustable square thing to get the angles right.

 

Ian

 

Thanks Ian, that's a useful idea:-). It's definitely going to need some kind of jig to keep the lines at the right angle and distance apart. I could do with measuring a prototype beastie to get the dimensions right!

 

Dave