Berrington and Eye GWR/LNWR Joint Line 1912 - Layout

[Brassey]

6 hours ago, Methuselah said:

Took these a couple of weeks ago passing through B&E.

 

 

I see that the errant door has been bricked in and a post box added where it would have been. 

[Brassey]

Hope-under-Dinmore for real:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/172083393237741/permalink/1183430495436354/

[Mikkel]

No clickety-clack - but what's the term for the swoosh-swoosh-swoosh? 

[Simond]

Er, how about, “swoosh, swoosh”?

[Brassey]

Thoughts have turned to the continuation of the layout and an extension scenic board that will complete a full 180 degrees curve.  This is to be added to the existing layout that covers 90 degrees (or there abouts!).

 

The whole is on a transition curve so this has been extended on Templot.  The layout was taking into Photoshop so that I could draw the baseboard edges to match the existing:

 

 

Next stage is the cut out the boards to the right profile and yesterday I acquired a sheet of 6mm birch ply that has been cut down to a manageable size. 

 

 

Don't expect a lot of rapid progress as currently I don't have the space for the whole layout.

[Brassey]

 

Following discussions elsewhere on the early GWR window bar colours, this is Berrington & Eye in the early 1900's with the bars painted dark, probably chocolate.  Having built this building, I'm still cogitating over how to reproduce these delicate windows and am favouring etching.

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by Brassey
Added pic of close-up window

[Brassey]

On the left of this pic, the waiting hut at Ford Bridge two stations down in the same period.  This reflects the two-tone colour scheme of the main frames in white with the glazing bars and other details darker, probably chocolate:

 

[Simond]

I see that the putty (or whatever they have used) does appear darker, but I doubt that this is paint on the glazing bars - indeed, the front face of the bars on the nearer window appears white, although it could just be a highlight that the camera has caught.  Similarly the frames of the signal box windows do not appear to me to have darker paint.

 

This looks to me to be very different to the picture posted at the head of the previous post, in which I agree that the frames appear quite dark.

[Mikkel]

Intriguing. Certainly different from the pre-1920s all over chocolate seen e.g. here and here. 

 

Simon's point about the putty on the Ford Bridge waiting hut is interesting, though I think I'd agree it's a two-tone livery. 

 

Rather than white and chocolate, could it be the camera's rendering of dark and light stone? I say this because of the Ford station photo that you posted in the blogs (below). That looks like dark and light stone to me, thus introducing a third variant (besides all over chocolate and all over white).

 

On 12/02/2022 at 09:44, Brassey said:

I have the same challenge with my station building.  The early photos I have of it and other local stations in the early Edwardian period have them in chocolate.  The pic above also seems to have the fence in chocolate or maybe black too.

 

 

Edited to correct links.

Edited February 14, 2022 by Mikkel

[Simond]

I quite like the light and dark stone suggestion, but what seems to me to be the challenge is finding a rule;  there’s a degree of diversity that defies (so far) some consistent explanation.

 

From a modeller’s PoV, this does mean that the risk of being shown to be wrong is less concerning, but if one is aiming for historical accuracy rather than credible artistic interpretation, it’s more challenging.

[Brassey]

11 hours ago, Simond said:

...but what seems to me to be the challenge is finding a rule;  there’s a degree of diversity that defies (so far) some consistent explanation.

 

From a modeller’s PoV, this does mean that the risk of being shown to be wrong is less concerning, but if one is aiming for historical accuracy rather than credible artistic interpretation, it’s more challenging.

 

Having been prompted down this route by Mikkel's station blog and having thought more about it, I would not take this as gospel as being a definitive GWR scheme.  Being a joint line that is not well documented, they could have implemented their own rules at some point and this is what we are seeing.  Or it could have been local paint contractors doing their own interpretation. 

 

If you go back a couple of pages, there is a picture of the waiting hut at Berrington & Eye that is similar if not identical to the one at Ford Bridge.  This has the windows in white.  Although slightly later I am sure this photo was taken during the Edwardian/pre-WW1 period and this is what I have modelled.  However, if I conclude that the glazing bars were chocolate on the station during the period I model then it could be simple just to paint them onto glazing material with a ruling pen rather than having the windows etched.  The bars need to be about 0.5mm.  This is too fine for laser cutting but the window frames in a lighter colour could be laser cut.

 

Edited February 15, 2022 by Brassey
Added pic circa 1907

[Brassey]

Ok it's hold my hands up time.  Having asserted on Mikkel's station blog that the LNWR never painted their station windows anything but white (since redacted by me), I have found, in the far flung corners of the LNWR, evidence of stations painted in chocolate, namely at Gowerton:

 

 

A cursory look at the windows at B&E on the earlier photograph lead me to believe that they were painted entirely white.  But on closure inspection, you can see that the glazing bars are darker.  This is consistent with the earlier image.  What promoted this re-examination was the amount of LNWR sourced items apparent on the stations.  This shot of Ford Bridge shows a bench that is definitely LNWR in origin:

 

 

The actual waiting hut, of which an identical one was at B&E, is most likely to be constructed from standard "Webb" hut components.  Below is the station buildings at Verney Junction built from said components and the centre section with the door is identical to these huts.

 

 

Being a joint line, responsibility for the stations switched overtime between the GWR and LNWR but the stations owed a lot more to LNWR style than I previously had been lead to believe.  So my colour scheme is now going to lean toward LNWR practice.

[Mikkel]

I wonder if the agreement between the LNWR and GWR mentioned colour schemes. You would think that neither company would like the other's standard livery scheme to be applied. I suppose the livery might be considered part of the deal, or alternatively a third neutral scheme could be agreed upon?

[Simond]

That sounds plausible.

[Brassey]

London Road Manchester was often the starting point for the North to West Expresses.  Here are some images of the station:

 

 

 

On the concourse above platforms 13 and 14 currently some historical images are displayed of London Road now Piccadilly.  One of these images is from there.

[MrWolf]

Those gas lamps are works of art. A pity we can't make ordinary things  decorative as well as functional anymore.

[Simond]

Seek and ye shall find.  

There’s lots of good industrial design around, perhaps more than ever.  

“Ordinary”things that are artistic or ergonomic, or just “nice to use”.

[Brassey]

From the same display at Manchester Piccadilly:

 

[Mikkel]

I had missed you posting them here.  Seems to have been a favourite spot for photos. No wonder!

 

Fairly long dreary climb for the horses.

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Fairly long dreary climb for the horses.

Not quite as bad as it might look: as well as the approach road rising, the main road drops.

[Brassey]

GWR 4-4-0 Duke and 40' PBV on trial at Berrington and Eye.  Both work-in-progress:

 

[Mikkel]

Very nice! 

[Mikkel]

PS: I take it from this that you interpret the prototype photo as shewing two large garter crests? I must admit I thought you meant a large garter crest in the middle flanked by the smaller crests on the side, as here.  

[Brassey]

On 03/06/2022 at 19:20, Mikkel said:

PS: I take it from this that you interpret the prototype photo as shewing two large garter crests? I must admit I thought you meant a large garter crest in the middle flanked by the smaller crests on the side, as here.  

Yes Mikkel I now realise the crests are a mistake. It needs a repaint anyway as I am not happy with the lining. The other side is even worse. 
 

The Duke needs some work on the lining too. 

[Mikkel]

The lining looks good in the photo to me, but we are our own worst critics. The good thing about temporary setbacks, I find, is that once they've been fixed the frustrations are quickly forgotten.

 

Can I ask how you did the PBV lining? I'm trying to learn from people's experiences.