GWR Corrugated Iron Lamp Huts

[Brassey]

I wondered if anyone knew when the GWR introduced their standard corrugated iron lamp huts?  There was one on the station I am modelling but as I am building 1912 I doubt that it was in existence then.

[gwrrob]

I'm sorry I can't help more but an email to these http://www.steampicturelibrary.com/ regarding your station and period might reap rewards.A query on the GWR E-list might be fruitful too.

[Mikkel]

An interesting question that I've also wondered about.

 

I  have a feeling that use of corrugated iron for GWR structures first came in with the pagoda waiting rooms, and these were in use in the 1900s, see eg: http://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/springroad.htm  I don't know about the lamp huts though, the design has a more modern feel to it than most Edwardian structures...

[gwrrob]

I've found a drawing for these in Great Western Journal 35.The drawing is dated 1904.

[buffalo]

1904 sounds about right for their introduction¹, but it seems to me that they start to become widespread in well-dated photos around 1908ish. That may just say something about relative numbers of available photos at different dates, though they often appear in photos of new works around that date (e.g. STJ shed). The same goes for the similar, but larger, 14' and 20' lockup buildings which appear to have used many common components. In the absence of contrary evidence, it would be quite plausible to have had one in 1912. Camerton, for example, acquired two lockups and a lamp hut around 1910-11.

 

Nick

 

¹ Edit: but see #35 and following on page 2...

Edited December 27, 2013 by buffalo

[Brassey]

Thanks Robin so much for finding this. 

 

I've found a drawing for these in Great Western Journal 35.The drawing is dated 1904.

 

On checking the o/s maps on old-maps, there is a structure on the platform in the1903 map that is not there in the 1888-1891 view so I guess that must be right that it was erected around 1903; I will therefore include one in my model.  Actually, I don't find these huts that attractive and they are not in-keeping with the rest of the station but in the interests of accuracy, I'll build one.  I have a modified version of the scaled map on my layout thread if anyone is interested in seeing where it was positioned.  The earliest picture I have of that part of the station is 1936 so I was not sure whether it would have been there in 1912.  Thanks all again for your responses.  Cheers.  Peter

[gwrrob]

Thanks Robin so much for finding this. 

 

 

  Actually, I don't find these huts that attractive and they are not in-keeping with the rest of the station but in the interests of accuracy, I'll build one. 

 

I do find them pleasing to the eye and have one myself built from the Dart Castings kit and painted in the stone colours.

[TheSignalEngineer]

An interesting question that I've also wondered about.

 

I  have a feeling that use of corrugated iron for GWR structures first came in with the pagoda waiting rooms, and these were in use in the 1900s, see eg: http://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/springroad.htm  I don't know about the lamp huts though, the design has a more modern feel to it than most Edwardian structures...

 

Some of the buildings on the North Warwickshire line were corrugated Iron, but there were also some corrugated asbestos shelters provided when the line was built in 1907.

[Brassey]

 

Thanks once again Robin this time for suggesting the source for a model.  Attached is a close-up of the offending article in 1932.  It never struck me that this might be a standard GWR structure until I saw a RTR 2mm version for sale on a popular auction site.  The maintenance of the buildings, permanent way, signalling switched between the LNWR and GWR over time; the signal box for example was commissioned by the LNWR, so I had not considered there would be any GWR structures in the station limits.

 

In the foreground is what I think is a standard LNWR post mounted oil lamp (and a GWR trolley); anyone any ideas what the board/sign might have been leaning on the hut?

 

 (Order will be on its way to Dart Castings soon.)  

 

Peter

 

 

[Miss Prism]

Putting most of that lamphut on the platform ramp is very odd. Presumably a brick perimeter base.

[gwrrob]

Looking at your prototype photo above The one from Dart Castings looks a lot smaller in comparison.The MRJ drawing says 6x6 ft.

 

http://www.dartcastings.co.uk/dart/L1.php

[C&WR]

If you can get hold of a copy of this you should be able to find out, possibly even with scale drawings:

 

 

I may be back at my childhood home at the weekend & be able to get a squint ad Dad's copy.  Sadly it appears it's not permitted to scan the drawings & show them here for copyright reasons, though.

[Gruffalo]

If you can get hold of a copy of this you should be able to find out, possibly even with scale drawings:

 

 

I may be back at my childhood home at the weekend & be able to get a squint ad Dad's copy.  Sadly it appears it's not permitted to scan the drawings & show them here for copyright reasons, though.

7' x 5' x how high?

[Mikkel]

Attached is a close-up of the offending article in 1932. 

 

 

Looking at your prototype photo above The one from Dart Castings looks a lot smaller in comparison.The MRJ drawing says 6x6 ft.

 

http://www.dartcastings.co.uk/dart/L1.php

 

Yes, the proportions look more like the Wills one. However, the Wills version doesn't have the same style window and apparently it is 44 x 37mm whereas Rob's 6 ft x 6 ft would be 24mm x 24mm. http://www.peco-uk.com/product.asp?strParents=3351,3352&CAT_ID=3353&P_ID=17942

 

Assuming Rob's drawing fits the one in the photo (is it rectangular?), it maybe be easiest to scratchbuild it maybe?

 

Edited for nonsense

Edited December 5, 2013 by Mikkel

[buffalo]

...Attached is a close-up of the offending article in 1932.  It never struck me that this might be a standard GWR structure...

Just to clarify, that is not a lamp hut. At least it is not the type of building labelled as a lamp hut in any official drawings that I've seen (for example those in Vaughan). Typically, a lamp hut is six feet wide by six or eight feet long, and has a single door in one end and, often, a two foot square, two-pane, window in the other end. The building in Peter's photo is one of the galvanised 'iron' lock-up huts mentioned in my earlier post #5. These are eight feet wide and either fourteen or twenty feet long. They have a double door in the middle of one side and a six-pane window, 2' high by 2'6" wide, in one or both ends.

 

Nick

 

I suspect other sizes were possible, photos and comparison with pagodas would suggest so...

Edited December 5, 2013 by buffalo

[Brassey]

The building in Peter's photo is one of the galvanised 'iron' lock-up huts mentioned in my earlier post #5. These are eight feet wide and either fourteen or twenty feet long. They have a double door in the middle of one side and a six-pane window, 2' high by 2'6" wide, in one or both ends.

 

Nick

 

I suspect other sizes were possible, photos and comparison with pagodas would suggest so...

 

Thanks Nick, I was beginning to think that was the case myself - I do have some photos from other angles showing the doorway.  Cheers Peter

Edited December 5, 2013 by Brassey

[Miss Prism]

The building in Peter's photo is one of the galvanised 'iron' lock-up huts mentioned in my earlier post #5. These are eight feet wide and either fourteen or twenty feet long. They have a double door in the middle of one side and a six-pane window, 2' high by 2'6" wide, in one or both ends.

 

And looking remarkably similar to a square-cornered Iron Mink.

[gwrrob]

Looking again at the drawing it's a GWR standard 6' x 6' corrugated iron hut.No mention of lamp.

[RSLR]

Hi,

Dunno if this is interesting or even relevant but thought I might as well post anyway.
I had or still have the Wills version of the GWR Corrugated lamp hut kit, nice little kit and if I remember right you got two in a pack (which means I still got one to build somewhere). I built it when I was modelling the 1920s and it moved location at least three times now. I painted mine in GWR light stone and GWR dark stone.
I think I recall it went together quite well, I've always been happy with the Ratio and Wills kits for their fine quality.

It started life next to a small ground level signal box and then moved to the other end of the layout when this location was converted to a halt. In the next location it was next to a bridge again. Please excuse the poor scenery, at the time of construction static grass wasn't really available and I used the next best thing. Note all the Code 75 track, this particular layout had allot bad luck and mistakes learned from.





When the my first layout, my 1920s layout was demolished the lamp hut moved location once more to my newer layout which is based in the 70s.
After attending a more recent model railway show earlier this year and having a bad luck day hardly getting any interest in the layout and then having a bad luck trip home the layout tipped over in the van and the small hut got squashed (and other things bashed in). The next day I had more bad luck and had to go to hospital with a dislocated knee. but yeh, the lamp hut I'm sure will survive and get unsquashed some day. haha

 

When building my 70s layout I had another similar hut, this time a Hornby point motor housing to go in the corner but it just looks very strange and has been moved to the junk box. Here it is anyway:

 

Not sure if I'm the only one who appreciates the small buildings and things on a railway but I quite like the huts etc
Cheers, Reece

[darren01]

Hi 

The one with vent where use for lamp oil and the ones with out had track equipment inside, around 1908 these where wide spread on the GWR.

[C&WR]

7' x 5' x how high?

 

Just remembered this thread & had nicked the copy of Vaughan from home.  The standard lamp hut dimension seems to be L 8', W 6' & H (to top of walls) 6'1" (to top of roof) 7'1".

 

I'd post a scan of the page, but last time I did it was removed for breach of copyright.  I would have thought it would be OK as the drawings are surely outside the standard period & it could be argued that fair dealing applied!

[Tim V]

To back up others, that is too big for a lamp hut, it is a lock up.

 

I have a feeling the standard lamp hut is below the deminimus limit for the OS, i.e. it was too small for them to bother surveying.

[David C]

I don't think the prototype of the Wills lamp huts are GWR in origin at all, even if they do have a prototype. I don't think I have seen any photos of GWR huts with ventilators on the roof or with the same proportions or with buckets on the side! That said, I have adapted them for use on Woodstowe .... It would have been easier to scratchbuild them, frankly!

 

Stephen Williams' in GW Branchline Modelling states there were at least 3 different types of corrugated huts in use by the GWR and includes drawings of all 3.

 

(i) The smallest (used as lamp huts but not exclusively so) were 6' wide by 8' long by 7'1" to the top of the curved roof. These had doors in the ends with small windows (not like the Wills ones) in the other ends.

(ii) The medium size ones were 8' wide with two standard lengths - 14 or 20'. Access was by double doors, usually but not always in the longer sides with one  window in one end - at least on the 14' huts. The 20' ones may have had windows in the longer sides as well. 

(iii) The famous pagodas were 20' x 8' - slightly different to the Wills kit (but again, I've got one on Woodstowe!!!!)

 

There were variations, although I don't recall seeing any in the smallest huts though. Wallingford had 2 of the medium size huts sited together - 1 had the double doors in the end, whilst the other had them in the sides. 

 

Kelmscott and Langford (Fairford branch) was opened in 1907 with a station building consisting of several pagodas bolted together, with at least 3 doors and several windows on the platform side.

 

Hope this is useful.

 

David C

[gwrrob]

Seen on the SVR yesterday was this beauty.Under the projects tab.

 

http://www.kfriends.org.uk/

Edited December 23, 2013 by gwrrob

[ess1uk]

Some great pictures here.