what's in the carpark ?

[PeteN92]

Hi there I hope some of you with some car knowledge can help identify some of the vehicles in these photos outside of ilfracombe station. This would greatly help me with the model of the station I am building .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers 

 

Pete 

[Steamport Southport]

Not totally sure but I think in the first picture the two on the right are Morris Oxford or Austin Cambridge. We had a few of them in the 1970s as they were big cars and very cheap on the second hand market.

 

With them being dark, could they being used as taxis? The open boot suggests they might be and with one also in photo three makes it seem to be a regular visitor.

 

 

A diesel-engined Oxford series VI, introduced shortly after the 1961 update, was popular as a taxi.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Oxford_Farina#Diesel

 

 

Jason

[Ramrig]

The car on the right in picture 4 looks like a Ford Anglia. 

[BernardTPM]

Left to right:

Photo 1: A35 Countryman, Ford Zephyr 6 Mk3, Morris Oxford s.VI

Photo 2: pre-War ?, Austin A40 Countryman or van conversion, Austin A40/A50 Cambridge, Humber Hawk Mk.VI/VIA or Super Snipe Mk.IV, late '30s Austin possibly a 12 or 14, four large older cars the two far right could be Morris (OK, pre-War isn't my speciality) - think this photo is 1950s, older than the others.

Further reserach: the first of the old large cars could be a 1935 Austin 20 with the odd combination of very upright front screen, relatively smooth, semi streamline bonnet front and that distictive front quarterlight.

Photo 3: Austin A55 Mk1 Cambridge, Ford Zephyr 4 Mk3, Austin FX3 taxi ?, Morris Oxford or Cowley s.II

Photo 4: Austin A40 van, Ford Anglia 105E 2-door

Photo 5: Ford Cortina Mk.2 4-door

Photo 6: Austin A30 4-door

Edited May 4, 2023 by BernardTPM
Further info.

[GWR-fan]

At a guess, some of the cars shown

 

Image 1.  Austin A30/40 van,  Zephyr 6,  Austin Cambridge

Image 2.  Humber Super Snipe?, Morris Oxford

Image 3.  Zephyr 6,  Morris Oxford

Image 4.  Ford Anglia

Image 5.  Ford cortina Mk2?

Image 6.  Austin A30/35

 

Seems to be a few regular car arrivals at the station

 

Edit: posted at the same time as previous reply

Edited May 2, 2023 by GWR-fan

[DCB]

The photos are  clearly from different years.  The Cortina Mk 2 was introduced in 1966, after the end of steam in Devon,  The Zephyr Mk3 was introduced in April 1962  The Pre Farina Austin Cambridge was discontinued in 1959,  An awful lot of pre war cars died in 1960  when the MOT test came in , so unfortunately the cars in the car park will positively date the scene, lots of black cars to pre 1960, The Zephyr to 62 on and the Cortina to 1966 on.  I try to work on nothing newer than 1959  for my 1957/62 layout...

[BernardTPM]

Yes, the Mk.2 Cortina is the newest design of car in any of the pictures and wouldn't have been on sale before October 1966. While you can always have an 'old timer' hanging on you can't have something from the future (unless you feature time machine cameos, of course).

When looking at the ages of vehicles for a (still vaguely in progress) layout set in 1972 I first found a selection of 38 colour photos from that year in which I could identify 234 vehicles. I could then work out approximate ages, taking the middle of the production range where a single year date couldn't be identified (e.g. from numberplate). From this I derived the following age graph:

 

 

One thing this does show is how fast cars used to rust back then!

Edited May 3, 2023 by BernardTPM

[PeteN92]

Thanks for all the replies I run the layout as summer of 54 in one time period and then summer of 61 as the other so this should give me a good idea what to use. 

 

Cheers 

 

Pete 

[BernardTPM]

The second picture is the only one with assorted vehicles that is early enough for your time period*, probably around 1957/'58 I would estimate.

 

* the singleton Austin A30 is OK for both '54 (still current then) and '61 though.

[ianmacc]

Fair play Pete. It’s amazing how many meticulous layouts just then plonk vaguely suitable cars on there when after the trains they’re the most easy way to date a scene.