Traeth Mawr -Building Mr Price's house , (mostly)

[corneliuslundie]

I don't know if this is another possibility if you can find one second hand:

1850 Horsebox        Woodham Wagon Works         Whitemetal, no longer available.

The list on the Brighton Circle website does not give the Diagram.

There was also a D&S Diagram D81 LB&SCR horsebox, again an etched kit (and I hope the instructions are better than the ones I am struggling with).

My approach, partly successful with a RR van which had butt joined corners was to solder a piece of brass angle to the side and then solder the end to that. It was not completely successful, and I suspect that next time I shall use plastic angle and glue instead. But as you say, inside a horsebox only the horse will be able to see your handiwork.

Jonathan

[Simond]

Soldering edges of two plates..?

 

you may pay the royalties by P.M.  I accept PayPal, BACS, and vast quantities of used banknotes  

 

[ChrisN]

10 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

Jon Melbourne III - Baronet - born 1857

Rayne Melbourne - Lady - born 1865

Nora Melbourne - Daughter 1 - born 1887

Adealia  Melbourne - Daughter 2 - born 1893

Arthur Melbourne - Son - born 1895

Catherine Hopkin - Nanny - born 1860

 

The rest don't have names yet, mainly because I don't have figures to represent them

 

Those of a serious disposition look away now.

 

Gary,

I had assumed that Sir Jon, and the 'Young Englishman' had met at school but he was not born until 1864 so that is unlikely.  He is a businessman and has a house in South Kensington so they probably met somewhere in London and got on well together talking about 'old Higgins' their Headmaster.

 

I had assumed that the two children were slightly younger so the first one I have is probably fine, but the other is a babe in arms which unless young Arthur was born before March is the wrong age.  I will look out for another small child, and if Arthur was not born before March, another Nanny.

 

I would not worry too much about the other servants unless you feel that they were likely to be long serving.  The Lady's Maid could have stayed but some ladies liked to have a young looking personal maid so would get rid of them as they got older.  I think it was reflected glory, 'I have a young maid so I must be young'.  The second maid might have got married, but a good groom may have been kept on.

 

Do not tell Sir Jon but his daughter(s) are standing up looking out of the window.  (Andy Stadden has not got any sitting down children.)

[BlueLightning]

Chris,

 

Making Sir Jon slightly younger would not be a problem. Based on the backstory of the line he cannot take over the Baronetcy until at least the late 1870's possibly early 1880's (Yes there is that much detail still hidden away!!) and my figure of him would not look out of place being slightly younger. The 2 elder daughters based on my figures could move a couple of years either way, but not by much, Arthur however needs to be born in 1895, although before or after March wouldn't matter, to match my figure, and my backstory for him, he sadly loses his life as a Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex at the Battle of Loos, 26th September 1915.

 

I'm sure Sir Jon would not mind his children enjoying the ride, he is himself a railway lover, something which will a few years after his visit to you cause him to invest in the Nutley, Crowborough & Groombridge Light Railway, and help get it through parliament.

 

Gary

[MikeOxon]

6 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Gentlemen, this lack of detail won't do. As a minimum, we expect full family trees for each. 

Quite so, Mikkel.  Sir John proudly shows visitors the beautiful Wilcote chapel in North Leigh, which contains effigies of his ancestors, Sir William (d.1410) and his wife, Elizabeth Wilcote.

[Mikkel]

Is that the same Sir John? The plot thickens!

[MikeOxon]

Mikkel, I was speaking of Sir John Wilcote (with the infamous daughter Blanche and the artist Amy)  I do, however, recall there was some discussion of the possibility of 'my' Sir John offering space in his Family Saloon to another member of the gentry in one of the many threads on here

Mike

(one needs a long memory on this site)

[ChrisN]

37 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

Is that the same Sir John? The plot thickens!

 

Mikkel,

No it is a different one.  The English nobility are not very imaginative when it comes to names.    I am surprised that he thought of a different name to his own to call his son!

 

 

2 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

Chris,

 

Making Sir Jon slightly younger would not be a problem. Based on the backstory of the line he cannot take over the Baronetcy until at least the late 1870's possibly early 1880's (Yes there is that much detail still hidden away!!) and my figure of him would not look out of place being slightly younger. The 2 elder daughters based on my figures could move a couple of years either way, but not by much, Arthur however needs to be born in 1895, although before or after March wouldn't matter, to match my figure, and my backstory for him, he sadly loses his life as a Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex at the Battle of Loos, 26th September 1915.

 

I'm sure Sir Jon would not mind his children enjoying the ride, he is himself a railway lover, something which will a few years after his visit to you cause him to invest in the Nutley, Crowborough & Groombridge Light Railway, and help get it through parliament.

 

Gary

 

Gary,

I have the smallest Stadden figure so that will do as the child is around 2.  The other one I had is a bit small but I have the next size up as well.  I will ask my wife as she is good at aging children.  I will keep the lady holding the baby and assume that Arthur has already been born.  If not it would mean either he would have been born late in the year or she would have been pregnant and being thrown about in an unbraked carriage might have had disastrous effects.  I imagine Sir Jon thought it would be just the thing his wife needed to recover from her labour to be shaken about for a day and a half on the railway, in a coach with no toilet, and then spend a month in a house up a Welsh valley in March, after one of the coldest winters in living memory.  (To be fair it was warming up, but unfortunately my list of 1895 weather does not have the rainfall for the Naf Valley for March and April that year.)  The children would have loved the beach but it is 40 minutes away by narrow gauge railway, so perhaps the Nanny and the spare maid they brought took them down to leave their mother in peace.  

 

 

I think at one time Sir Jon was going to stop at Sir John's house on the way.

Edited June 20, 2020 by ChrisN

[Northroader]

k

 

The church is is full of ‘em (yes, it is the same church for all)

Edited June 20, 2020 by Northroader

[ChrisN]

5 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

I don't know if this is another possibility if you can find one second hand:

1850 Horsebox        Woodham Wagon Works         Whitemetal, no longer available.

 

Jonathan

 

Jonathan,

I come across 5and9's blog occasionally and I thought he had done something of interest and he had!  The link is to a post on livestock vans.  The last, which is he says a Woodham Wagon Works horsebox appears to be the same as the 3D print, so it is too early. 

[corneliuslundie]

I was afraid it might be.

Jonathan

[ChrisN]

Now where were we?  No matter as this is a side topic.  I have a daily update from eBay for Preiser figures.  Now my stated position is that I just want to be reminded what is available so that I can plan and think.  So you can imagine my horror when on two separate occasions there was a knock at my door and I found these two.

 

 

 

There will be some houses, in fact several, and maybe a hotel on Station Road opposite the station and being 1895 they will need servants.    These two applied and as there were no other applicants I took them on.  As you can see their dress is not appropriate so I took them into town to Lewis' the Traeth Mawr dressmaker to have something suitable made.  Mrs Lewis said that they got all their material from Milly Putts in Dolgelley but the dresses would be white and what colour would I like it dyed.  They use a dye from Vallejo, so I chose dark grey.  They also promised collars and cuffs and to help them put their hair up.  I left them to it.  I went back a few weeks later.

 

 

I think I have been diddled as the apron extension I think is paper, and Mrs Lewis confessed that the collar and cuffs were.  (I did know someone who wore cardboard collars when he worked in the city, but paper?)  She told me they were not very helpful and that she had to put little drops of PVA on their neck and wrap thin slivers of paper around them, the same with the cuffs.  The hats were done by a drop of PVA on the top of the forehead and wrapping the paper around.  (More complicated methods did not work.)

 

So there we have it.  Magnifying them shows they need a little more paint, and then varnishing.  I need to negotiate with the owners of the houses in Station Road as to who wants them, but maybe the cook will be in one of the refreshment rooms on the station.

 

If you have been, thanks for looking.

Edited August 10, 2022 by ChrisN

[Mikkel]

Chris, that is superb work. What a transformation. They completely look the part. Not at all easy to get such a 'smooth' finish on converted figures. 

[ChrisN]

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Chris, that is superb work. What a transformation. They completely look the part. Not at all easy to get such a 'smooth' finish on converted figures. 

 

Mikkel,

Thank you.  Coming from you that is high praise indeed.

[southern42]

Wow! Chris. What a transformation, indeed!  The girls, or should I call them maids, certainly look the part.  I am sure there will be great competition for their service. You will have to introduce them more formally when they are taken on.

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by southern42

[Compound2632]

Well, at least nobody had any limbs removed...

[MikeOxon]

53 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Well, at least nobody had any limbs removed...

Some railway modelling is definitely not for the squeamish - especially Mikkel's X-rated stuff

[ChrisN]

4 hours ago, southern42 said:

Wow! Chris. What a transformation, indeed!  The girls, or should I call them maids, certainly look the part.  I am sure there will be great competition for their service. You will have to introduce them more formally when they are taken on.

 

 

Polly,

Thank you.  I am getting the itch to build the station building and maybe some houses, but I must at least pretend to be focussed as otherwise nothing will get done.  The maid with the bucket will definitely be in Station Road, either in the back yard or throwing the water down on a step just as the soldiers march past.  I am not sure where the cook will go but as she is serving likely to be in the refreshment room because you serve food all day there.  That would make three ladies in the refreshment rooms, so I need to think of how to make the other two.  (They have names, and keep this quiet, one of them is a dreadful gossip.)

Edited July 2, 2020 by ChrisN

[ChrisN]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Well, at least nobody had any limbs removed...

 

2 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Some railway modelling is definitely not for the squeamish - especially Mikkel's X-rated stuff

 

Now would I do a thing like removing limbs?  I ask you?  

 

 

[MikeOxon]

I assume that's what's meant by topless photos?

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, MikeOxon said:

I assume that's what's meant by topless photos?

 

Well, I was a bit concerned when he said he got a daily eBay alert for Preiser figures. I understand there are some figures in that range that would be found rather shocking by the standards of late Victorian Methodist mid-Wales though I haven't had the opportunity to inspect them in the flesh, so to speak. They even come dismembered, which I find quite disturbing.

[ChrisN]

32 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Well, I was a bit concerned when he said he got a daily eBay alert for Preiser figures. I understand there are some figures in that range that would be found rather shocking by the standards of late Victorian Methodist mid-Wales though I haven't had the opportunity to inspect them in the flesh, so to speak. They even come dismembered, which I find quite disturbing.

 

There certainly are those who would shock any late Victorian, including those two servants before I made sure they were properly dressed.  I have never managed to ascertain whether the H0 'Adam and Eve' figures are in parts or are just naked, although I know the larger ones do.  If they were in parts then the possibilities are endless.  (Well not really endless as there are only a finite number of figures, but you know what I mean.)

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, ChrisN said:

 

There certainly are those who would shock any late Victorian, including those two servants before I made sure they were properly dressed.  I have never managed to ascertain whether the H0 'Adam and Eve' figures are in parts or are just naked, although I know the larger ones do.  If they were in parts then the possibilities are endless.  (Well not really endless as there are only a finite number of figures, but you know what I mean.)

 

One could take an ultra-finescale approach and build them up with scale undies, working bustle, all that sort of thing.

[southern42]

19 hours ago, ChrisN said:

 

Polly,

Thank you.  I am getting the itch to build the station building and maybe some houses, but I must at least pretend to be focussed as otherwise nothing will get done.  The maid with the bucket will definitely be in Station Road, either in the back yard or throwing the water down on a step just as the soldiers march past.  I am not sure where the cook will go but as she is serving likely to be in the refreshment room because you serve food all day there.  That would make three ladies in the refreshment rooms, so I need to think of how to make the other two.  (They have names, and keep this quiet, one of them is a dreadful gossip.)

 

Definitely on a step, Chris!  That could set off her continuing story a treat...What happens next?

Does the Sergeant report it back at camp?  Does the Household then receive a strongly worded letter from the Commanding Officer?  What is said in the House?  Is the maid demoted to Coal Cellar Duties or dismissed with no references?

Or...

Does the maid look up and catch the eye of the soldier she has just soaked?  Do they, instantly, fall in love?  Does the maid secretly meet her soldier on her day off?  Does the soldier propose?  Does the maid consent? Does she lose her job...?

 

 

[ChrisN]

25 minutes ago, southern42 said:

 

Definitely on a step, Chris!  That could set off her continuing story a treat...What happens next?

Does the Sergeant report it back at camp?  Does the Household then receive a strongly worded letter from the Commanding Officer?  What is said in the House?  Is the maid demoted to Coal Cellar Duties or dismissed with no references?

Or...

Does the maid look up and catch the eye of the soldier she has just soaked?  Do they, instantly, fall in love?  Does the maid secretly meet her soldier on her day off?  Does the soldier propose?  Does the maid consent? Does she lose her job...?

 

 

 

Polly,

You have set me off now.      Just to recap, for those who do not wish to trawl through nearly 150 pages of this thread.  There is a recruiting parade through the market square from the barracks, down station road, cross the level crossing and along the promenade, then back up to the road at the back of the town to the barracks.  Simple?  No.  The Colonel, Viscount Deudraeth thought it would be a good idea to do it on market day to attract more people.  Market day is very busy, complete with stalls and animals, although the side next to the railway is fairly clear.  They have negotiated the square and are proceeding down Station Road.  There is a crowd of people lining the pavement, and a shepherd unloading his flock in the station yard, and just about to bring them out the other way.  

 

The parade is by the 3rd Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers which is a volunteer battalion.  The parade is made up of ensigns and sergeants all wearing tropical gear from 20 years previously.  The official reason is that they look colourful and are likely to draw more recruits.  Men who think they will attract the girls in a bright red uniform.  (Do not laugh, my Nan at over 80 fell for a Chelsea Pensioner.)  The real reason is that trying to find soldiers who are not actually fighting and this is a Command Group from the Zulu Wars.  (There were no convenient wars in 1895.)

 

As they are volunteers, it means that the likelihood of one of the soldiers turning up and the door of the house where this young lady works is extremely high.  Do not watch this space for further developments; there will be a blog once I have started the scenery.  Each entry will be a photo of one character and a short monologue.