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Highley Station : Dating photographs


Blobrick
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I was trawling through the internet a couple of days ago and came across the attached photo from the 53a collection of James S Doubleday 

 

c.1958 - Highley, Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

 

As can be seen its a photo of Highley station taken from the original footbridge looking towards Bridgenorth. The interesting thing about this photo is that both the station building and signal box are still in Great Western colours, but the rolling stock standing in front of the Signal box appears to be BR 16t steel mineral wagons,

 

My understanding was upon Nationalisation the Western region were quick off the mark to repaint infrastructure into the new colours, yet clearly there are BR wagons built in the early 1950s present.

Alternatively theses could possibly be MOD designed  vehicles which were absorbed into stock by BR upon Nationalisation.

The road vehicles in the photo might help with dating this photo but l m not an expert in that field and reserve comment.

 

Would anyone be able to shed some light on the possible date this photo was taken?

 

 

Bob C

 

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I’d suggest late 50s. One of the cars looks like a Wolseley 16/60, the type you saw hurtling around London with bells ringing as police cars in countless B movies, and there are 3 grey repainted 7-plank XPOs in the frame; rust has not yet set in to the steel 16 tonners.  
 

1958 was a wet summer, and this is clearly summer because of the leaves on the trees, so I’d take a punt at it being ‘58...

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While the Western Region always seemed to be quick repainting coaching stock into the latest liveries I'm far from sure that the same could have been said about the painting of stations, partly because a limited number of painting gangs had an awful lot of stations to paint.  Thus depending where they stood in the painting programme, and any special jobs apart which took a gang off their normal pattern, some places would be repainted some years after the first to go into new colours.

 

In that picture there is a fairly strong contrast between the frame and panel colours on the doors of the station building which suggests that they might be in 'chocolate & cream' rather than light & dark stone which would have inevitably faded in any case.   Equally the running in board appears with a fair contrast between light and dark and the bench is very definitely in an overall dark tone although possibly letters are picked out in a paler colour.  But the canopy bargeboard looks a bit too dark to be in cream although comparison with various other photos shows that to be the case when the paint on doors is very definitely in in strongly contrasting colours while one of those views also shows the signal box repainted in WR colours but with teh canopy bargeboard looking no different.  The condition of various wagons very clearly indicates the 1950s.  The presence of a freshly painted (and probably new) 16 Ton Min indicates no later than 1959 although repaints continued after that but the presence of several fully painted wooden bodied wagons looks like the date is no earlier than the mid 1950s.

 

The signal box looks fairly definitely to be in light and dark stone and the colours look very different from later views when it was very clearly painted in WR 'chocolate & cream'.  However not only were signal boxes repainted on a programmed basis but there were far fewer painting gangs in the S&T Dept than in the Civil Engineers so the state of its paintwork isn't really any guide at all to the date other than to place it before the S&T painters fgot there (which we don't know the date of).

 

The car most readily visible in the background looks to be either a Wolseley 4-50 (manufactured 1949-52) or a 6-80 (1949-54).  The pale coloured one has the look of a Rover 10, they ceased production in 1947 although the windscreen is not quite right for the late model 10.

 

Overall I'm inclined to go for mid to late 1950s

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Quite a lot of stations were closed having not been repainted into WR colours, Coalport (further up the line) was in light & dark stone.

 

Bovey Tracey in 1975.

 

Bovey Tracey 7 May 1975 4-002.jpg

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18 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

While the Western Region always seemed to be quick repainting coaching stock into the latest liveries I'm far from sure that the same could have been said about the painting of stations, partly because a limited number of painting gangs had an awful lot of stations to paint.  Thus depending where they stood in the painting programme, and any special jobs apart which took a gang off their normal pattern, some places would be repainted some years after the first to go into new colours.

 

In that picture there is a fairly strong contrast between the frame and panel colours on the doors of the station building which suggests that they might be in 'chocolate & cream' rather than light & dark stone which would have inevitably faded in any case.   Equally the running in board appears with a fair contrast between light and dark and the bench is very definitely in an overall dark tone although possibly letters are picked out in a paler colour.  But the canopy bargeboard looks a bit too dark to be in cream although comparison with various other photos shows that to be the case when the paint on doors is very definitely in in strongly contrasting colours while one of those views also shows the signal box repainted in WR colours but with teh canopy bargeboard looking no different.  The condition of various wagons very clearly indicates the 1950s.  The presence of a freshly painted (and probably new) 16 Ton Min indicates no later than 1959 although repaints continued after that but the presence of several fully painted wooden bodied wagons looks like the date is no earlier than the mid 1950s.

 

The signal box looks fairly definitely to be in light and dark stone and the colours look very different from later views when it was very clearly painted in WR 'chocolate & cream'.  However not only were signal boxes repainted on a programmed basis but there were far fewer painting gangs in the S&T Dept than in the Civil Engineers so the state of its paintwork isn't really any guide at all to the date other than to place it before the S&T painters fgot there (which we don't know the date of).

 

The car most readily visible in the background looks to be either a Wolseley 4-50 (manufactured 1949-52) or a 6-80 (1949-54).  The pale coloured one has the look of a Rover 10, they ceased production in 1947 although the windscreen is not quite right for the late model 10.

 

Overall I'm inclined to go for mid to late 1950s

 

 

Thank you both, gentlemen for taking the time to reply.

 

Station master,

 

A very in depth analysis. The S&T and the Civils having different panting programmes would certainly explain the possible difference in colour/shade between the Signal Box and the Station Building doors. However l ve looked again at the original photo which is a little bigger, and believe the Signal Box Locking room door to be the same colour as the dark panels on the  Station Building doors. Could this be just a trick of the light or the film itself?. The Platform canopy does still appear to be in stone and not cream as you say and l suspect this photo was not taken half way through a repaint so l tend to side with GWR colour still being prevalent.

 

Having said all that. if that is the case, and you gentlemen are right (which l tend to agree with) we are talking 10 years after nationalisation which has quite surprised me!

 

 

Thanks again Gents for your input

Bob C

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18 minutes ago, Tim V said:

Quite a lot of stations were closed having not been repainted into WR colours, Coalport (further up the line) was in light & dark stone.

 

Bovey Tracey in 1975.

 

Bovey Tracey 7 May 1975 4-002.jpg

 

 

Thanks Tim, good point

 

 

Bob C

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The linked image says c1958 in the Flickr image owners notes and I don't think that'll be far out.

 

The notes say the distant colliery could be a Highley pit; it's Alveley Colliery https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/features/2019/01/30/end-of-era-remembered-50-years-on-from-pit-shutdown/#:~:text=The pit at Alveley grew,the Highley mine then shutting.&text=The first miner to die,the Woodlands Estate at Alveley. which was on the site of the current Severn Valley Country Park.

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44 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

The linked image says c1958 in the Flickr image owners notes and I don't think that'll be far out.

 

The notes say the distant colliery could be a Highley pit; it's Alveley Colliery https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/features/2019/01/30/end-of-era-remembered-50-years-on-from-pit-shutdown/#:~:text=The pit at Alveley grew,the Highley mine then shutting.&text=The first miner to die,the Woodlands Estate at Alveley. which was on the site of the current Severn Valley Country Park.

 

 

Thanks for finding that Andy, l was not aware this image was on Flickr. Just goes to show the lads were spot on in their estimate!!

 

 

Bob C

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6 hours ago, AY Mod said:

The linked image says c1958 in the Flickr image owners notes and I don't think that'll be far out.

 

The notes say the distant colliery could be a Highley pit; it's Alveley Colliery https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/features/2019/01/30/end-of-era-remembered-50-years-on-from-pit-shutdown/#:~:text=The pit at Alveley grew,the Highley mine then shutting.&text=The first miner to die,the Woodlands Estate at Alveley. which was on the site of the current Severn Valley Country Park.

Highley Colliery is behind us in the photo (where the engine house is now) it was linked in the end to Alveley colliery (where as Andy says Country Park is now) The sidings there were used for the 7% solution and were taken out after that in 1975. 

 

In the end Alveley Colliery was linked to Highley colliery workings with the Highley end being used for ventilation. The actual colliery at Highley was higher up the valley towards the village. 

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6 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

While the Western Region always seemed to be quick repainting coaching stock into the latest liveries I'm far from sure that the same could have been said about the painting of stations, partly because a limited number of painting gangs had an awful lot of stations to paint.  Thus depending where they stood in the painting programme, and any special jobs apart which took a gang off their normal pattern, some places would be repainted some years after the first to go into new colours.

 

In that picture there is a fairly strong contrast between the frame and panel colours on the doors of the station building which suggests that they might be in 'chocolate & cream' rather than light & dark stone which would have inevitably faded in any case.   Equally the running in board appears with a fair contrast between light and dark and the bench is very definitely in an overall dark tone although possibly letters are picked out in a paler colour.  But the canopy bargeboard looks a bit too dark to be in cream although comparison with various other photos shows that to be the case when the paint on doors is very definitely in in strongly contrasting colours while one of those views also shows the signal box repainted in WR colours but with teh canopy bargeboard looking no different.  The condition of various wagons very clearly indicates the 1950s.  The presence of a freshly painted (and probably new) 16 Ton Min indicates no later than 1959 although repaints continued after that but the presence of several fully painted wooden bodied wagons looks like the date is no earlier than the mid 1950s.

 

The signal box looks fairly definitely to be in light and dark stone and the colours look very different from later views when it was very clearly painted in WR 'chocolate & cream'.  However not only were signal boxes repainted on a programmed basis but there were far fewer painting gangs in the S&T Dept than in the Civil Engineers so the state of its paintwork isn't really any guide at all to the date other than to place it before the S&T painters fgot there (which we don't know the date of).

 

The car most readily visible in the background looks to be either a Wolseley 4-50 (manufactured 1949-52) or a 6-80 (1949-54).  The pale coloured one has the look of a Rover 10, they ceased production in 1947 although the windscreen is not quite right for the late model 10.

 

Overall I'm inclined to go for mid to late 1950s

 

 

Station Master

 

Further to our discussion earlier today l came across this photo on a well know auction site. It appears to show the station building in WR colours as the difference in the cream panels compared to the darker frames are quite marked. However it appears that its only the station house that's had its door painted, as the remainder further along seem to still have darker paneling.

 Having seen this l am now pretty sure that the original photo does indeed show the station building in the original GWR colours. 

 

This has been an interesting little project and l d like to thank everyone who contributed 

s-l1600 (1333).jpg

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One point with station houses is that they could sometimes be on a different painting schedule from the rest of the station building.  Our local station (WR branch terminus) was repainted in 1956 - I know that because the date of painting was actually painted on part of the building so it was visible to anyone who cared to look.   It was never repainted prior to the demolition of the front of the building and the creation of a new side entrance and booking hall in the early 1970s.  The only bit of the original structure which stoill survives is part of teh platform canopy erected in the early 20th century - some parts of it have been repainted twice in the past 10 years.

 

Anyway the station house, which was a completely separate structure some way from the station building, and which still survives, was repainted in the early 1960s and I think was probably not touched in 1956.  Equally the station house at our branch junction also seem to have bene painted on a separate timescale from the station buildings.

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