Castle Aching

[Edwardian]

Yes, as you know, I am persuaded that red below the solebar was the likeliest, but the fact is that there is no clear evidence either way, so either, or both, approaches are objectively fine.

 

Given that, the sensible course for Rails was to go for all over red, which avoids complex masking, and anyone of the opposing school of thought could paint the running gear black more easily than someone in the red all over camp could match the shade of red used.

 

  

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Edwardian said:

so either, or both, approaches are objectively fine.

 

Yes; but probably not at the same time, which is the difficulty I've got into!

 

2 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Given that, the sensible course for Rails was to go for all over red, which avoids complex masking, and anyone of the opposing school of thought could paint the running gear black more easily than someone in the red all over camp could match the shade of red used.  

 

Neat thinking!

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

In the 'flesh' the colour is a very good red oxide that looks very credible. These shots in artificial light do not quite show it properly.

Very nice James and the proper colour too.  A daring move on Dapol's part to plunge deep into the pre-grouping era.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Very nice James and the proper colour too.  A daring move on Dapol's part to plunge deep into the pre-grouping era.

 

Edwardian proposed. Rails disposed. Dapol did what we ordered!

[Edwardian]

Purlew & Schlott of Achingham

 

This famous firm of Norfolk model engineers and toymakers was founded towards the end of the Nineteenth Century by Joseph Wensum Purlew and August William Schlott.

 

The partners commenced business in 1894 in a shed at the back of Purlew’s house on Norwich Road, Achingham, West Norfolk, as a manufacturer of components for live steam model stationary and locomotive engines. They soon outgrew the shed and moved to a small purpose-built facility, Jubilee Works, in 1897, located on Station Road, Achingham.

 

Fortunately the building survives. It is the corner structure shown below, the works building to the right is the press of the Achingham Argus. 

 

 

Around the turn of the century Purlew & Schlott began producing model steam ships, and clockwork and live steam railway locomotives and rolling stock in gauges 1, 2 and 3, with a range of figures and accessories to suit.

 

Here, a Purlew & Schlott clockwork depiction of a WNR Sharp Stewart 2-4-0, a WNR 4-wheel composite and a GER bogie composite.  

 

[Nearholmer]

You do realise that you’ll now have to self-publish a thick, and profusely illustrated, history of the company and its products, to satisfy the needs (obsessions?) of members of the TCS? 

The big Autumn meeting is at Leicester tomorrow, so I shall break the news to members that something exciting is in the offing.

 

(Am I correct in thinking that the firm only lasted until 1914, when Schlott was unjustly interned as an “enemy alien” and Purlew left for war service, but was then briefly revived in the 1920s when Reginald Tabb joined Schlott, to form Tabb and Schlott?*)

 

*This is a tinplate joke.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

(Am I correct in thinking that the firm only lasted until 1914, when Schlott was unjustly interned as an “enemy alien” and Purlew left for war service, but was then briefly revived in the 1920s when Reginald Tabb joined Schlott, to form Tabb and Schlott?*)

 

You know the firm was also the first to produce a motor racing set - clockwork of course but with the cars guided by a groove in the roadway - the original Schlott car...

Edited November 5, 2021 by Compound2632
Guided by a groove not a grove!

[Nearholmer]

Is this inspired by Bowman of Dereham, perchance?

[Compound2632]

4 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is this inspired by Bowman of Dereham, perchance?

 

Alongside that, the building illustrated is the former premises of Smith & Pepper, a jewellery-making firm in Birmingham, now the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter.

[Nearholmer]

Strong links between jewellery-making and model engineering. Greenly got his first intro to fine metalwork that way, the jeweller in the small town where I grew-up always provided a live-steam ride-on railway at fetes, and (spare his blushes) Met H who contributes to my thread is a very good jeweller as well as model-maker.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

You do realise that you’ll now have to self-publish a thick, and profusely illustrated, history of the company and its products, to satisfy the needs (obsessions?) of members of the TCS? 

The big Autumn meeting is at Leicester tomorrow, so I shall break the news to members that something exciting is in the offing.

 

(Am I correct in thinking that the firm only lasted until 1914, when Schlott was unjustly interned as an “enemy alien” and Purlew left for war service, but was then briefly revived in the 1920s when Reginald Tabb joined Schlott, to form Tabb and Schlott?*)

 

*This is a tinplate joke.

 

I had a feeling that you might be contributing to the history of the firm!

 

Yes, it struck me that Mr Schlott might encounter prejudice on the outbreak of the Great War. 

 

Your further history is all most credible and appropriate. 

 

 

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

You know the firm was also the first to produce a motor racing set - clockwork of course but with the cars guided by a groove in the roadway - the original Schlott car...

 

I fear that might be inevitable

 

18 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Is this inspired by Bowman of Dereham, perchance?

 

 

Well, chronologically we are anticipating a certain salesman from Northants, but it's also good to find a precedent in-Country, and we can anticipate this Grouping-era development. 

 

15 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Alongside that, the building illustrated is the former premises of Smith & Pepper, a jewellery-making firm in Birmingham, now the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter.

 

Yes, the buildings do look remarkably similar! 

 

 

 

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

You know the firm was also the first to produce a motor racing set - clockwork of course but with the cars guided by a groove in the roadway - the original Schlott car...

 

 

OK, so, a development dating from 1912, so, Schlott car racing it is!

 

Lionel

 

 

 

So, I'm thinking P&S must have made one of these... 

 

 

All together now .... 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Very innovative firm, P&S, because even before the cars and trains, they’d made their name with the wind-up gun punts “perfect miniatures in every way, and able to fire sixteen, twenty or twenty-eight gauge cartridges according to the size of model chosen.”. I can’t readily find a picture of one on-line, but the largest versions had multiple clockwork motors, to animate the punstman, drive the vessel, and initiate firing after a predetermined time. It is rumoured that they were withdrawn from the market because the firing mechanism was so good, and the timing so accurate, that Scotland Yard feared their use by those planning atrocities.

[Edwardian]

Quite addictive, this tinplate stuff.

 

Here is a 1905 vintage battleship (courtesy of Marklin):

 

 

[drmditch]

13 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Quite addictive, this tinplate stuff.

 

Here is a 1905 vintage battleship (courtesy of Marklin):

 

 

 

Ah ha! - Dangerous looking model.

Very Germanic looking for what in 1905 was  a four-funnel armoured cruiser.

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

I wonder if that model has been heavily restored, because all that copper-coloured paint doesnt ring true to me.

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, drmditch said:

 

Ah ha! - Dangerous looking model.

Very Germanic looking for what in 1905 was  a four-funnel armoured cruiser.

 

 

 

 

Yes, though one can see how the Terrible would be a popular choice of identity, as the HMS Terrible of the day, a vessel of 1895, as pictured, took part in support of HM land forces in both the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion, landing 12 pounders and a Naval Brigade, which engaged in famous actions onshore.  

 

 

Edited November 5, 2021 by Edwardian
Grammar

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Quite addictive, this tinplate stuff.

 

Here is a 1905 vintage battleship (courtesy of Marklin):

 

 

That's terrible.

[Caley Jim]

27 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

That's terrible.

Oooo!  The boy can read!!

 

Jim

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Oooo!  The boy can read!!

 

Jim

Aye, but only wi' ma windaes.

Edited November 6, 2021 by St Enodoc

[Adam88]

7 hours ago, Edwardian said:

Quite addictive, this tinplate stuff.

 

Here is a 1905 vintage battleship (courtesy of Marklin):

 

 

 

Dirty Rotten German Make

[Annie]

Have this nice meths powered British one by Sutcliffe then.

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

Or the short-lived  Australian fashion range. (Some of them hits must have made his head ring!)

 

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Or the short-lived  Australian fashion range. (Some of them hits must have made his head ring!)

 

What became of Ned's other boot?

[Nearholmer]

6 hours ago, Adam88 said:

Dirty Rotten German Make

So were 90% of other tin toys in 1905. At that stage, not only were the Germans the equivalent of China today in their ability to churn-out high quality manufactured goods at an affordable price, they were still regarded as pretty much family in most quarters (especially royal quarters, because they were family).

 

The better end of the British tin toy industry didn’t get going until imports from Germany were suspended during The Great War. It’s usually politely not mentioned that the first train sets made by Meccano*, were straight copies of German ones, and that the immediate successor “Hornby Trains” were an improved (in some respects)  version of the same thing.

 

* Known as “the tin printed trains”, being a millimetre perfect copy of a low-end Bing set.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2021 by Nearholmer