HNY Mikkel!
 

A very engaging and enjoyable read with your usual detailed process and tenacity of great storytelling. 
 

The result looks superb, especially the detailed luggage on top. Great tip on the fumes being able to escape from the roof too

Look forward to some more pics when it get’s positioned on Farthing. Bring on the motor bus 

As ever Mikkel, well researched and a lovely model. 

An interesting basis for a cameo scene perhaps ? 

11 hours ago, bcnPete said:

HNY Mikkel!
 

A very engaging and enjoyable read with your usual detailed process and tenacity of great storytelling. 
 

The result looks superb, especially the detailed luggage on top. Great tip on the fumes being able to escape from the roof too

 

Look forward to some more pics when it get’s positioned on Farthing. Bring on the motor bus 

Thanks Pete. Regarding holes for the fumes, the extent to which superglue frosts glazing seems to depend a lot on the particular products in question. I use Loctite Gel a lot, and it doesn't seem to affect the glazing I use that much (can't remember the name of the glazing, it's a German product which is very good and I'm running out of it - uh oh).

So the holes may or may not have made a difference. (Or both, I wonder what Schrödinger would have said ).

11 hours ago, 5&9Models said:

Absolutely beautiful. Thank you for the detailed build description, really interesting. Looking forward to seeing it in place too.

Many thanks Chris. I think you'd like some of the earlier GWR omnibuses even more, some of them had that distinctively Victorian stage coach look of your period.

10 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

Lovely work.

 

I think this was originally a Monmouth Models kit.

Thanks Miss P. Yes I believe so. Despite the corner assembly method, the basic components of the kit aren't that bad really for an ageing low cost kit. I wonder when it was originally made.

10 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

You've done a splendid job with the additional detailing Mikkel  I never got beyond the basic kit and, as you found, those interlocking corners were a bit of a pain.  Your enhancements have created a lot of extra 'magic'

Thank you Mike. Perhaps the designer was looking for a way to avoid the joins showing too clearly. Incidentally, there's a superb large scale model of this vehicle:

Hotlink to photo of the model: http://www.guildofmodelwheelwrights.org/GOMW_vehicles_files/GWR.jpg

From this page of wonders: http://www.guildofmodelwheelwrights.org/GOMW_vehicles.htm

Ironically the livery on that model is fictional and some details are wrong  (e.g. the small windows at the front should not be "framed"). I think the builder has worked from the drawings and not seen the prototype photo. Extraordinary craftmanship though.

10 hours ago, Ian Major said:

Mikkel,

 

Fabulous work, as per your normal standard.

 

Ian.  

Many thanks Ian. One of those "quick builds" that ended up becoming more involved. It learnt a bit about horse-drawn omnibuses on the way, or rather I scratched the surface a bit!

9 hours ago, bgman said:

You've managed to pull another one out of the bag Mikkel, nicely written description of your work and excellent model.

 

Although you mention not wishing to add reins have you considered using a glue gun to produce some ?

 

Simply place a drop onto any surface and then slowly pull away to produce the stringing effect ( you know, the one which is a nuisance in normal use ). Cheap, easy and can be replaced at virtually no cost if broken.

Once set cut to length.

Or maybe some EZ Line which will give enough when you move the model with just enough slack in it.

 

G

Thanks Grahame, I hadn't heard that one before. Will put it on the list of possible options. But the challenge is that the horses and vehicles are separate, and are stored as such when they aren't being used. It would be easier if they were joined and made up one rigid item. The reins could then be fixed permanently. That requires a seriously strong join between horse and shafts though, and again between shafts and the main vehicle.

10 hours ago, Dave John said:

As ever Mikkel, well researched and a lovely model. 

 

An interesting basis for a cameo scene perhaps ? 

Thanks Dave. Yes the plan is to do a cameo in the station forecourt, á la the postcards above with passengers and drivers milling about.

Station buses weren't just a rural thing. Although many were operated to connect outlying stations with nearby stations/villages/hotels, some companies also operated services in the big cities. The LNWR  had some very stylish London services (apart from the one below there are photos of LNWR omnibuses branded Euston-Waterloo and Euston-Charing Cross).

Caption: Horse bus with solid rubber tyres, Cardington Street, Euston, London, 14 September 1904. The London & North Western Railway horse-drawn bus was used to carry passengers to and from the station. Source: Getty images, embedding permitted.

1 hour ago, Nick Holliday said:

Lovely model. I must do something with a similar kit stashed away somewhere.  Just a thought though, highlighted by the excellent close-up photos; most pictures of similar vehicles seem to show a polished metal (brass?) circular cover plate in the centre of the hub, which I think would set your model off a treat.

Thank you Nick. I look forward to seeing your build. Good point about the metal centers, they don't feature in the kit but really should be there, as can be seen in this crop of the prototype photo: 

I think it would require quite a bit of work to the wheel centers to produce this, so it may be too late in this case. But thanks for pointing it out. I must pay more attention to wheels. I do have some nice wheels made by Chris, but they did not fit here.

Another excellent model. I have been thinking about making the slightly larger two-horse version, which ran between Highbridge GWR station and Burnham around 1890, that I have seen in a book of old photographs of Burnham and Highbridge, using Scale Model Scenery wheels and wagon springs. That one has GWR on the panels on either side of the windows. The lamp is in front of the main cabin. Between the ribs on the side is what appears to be 'Highbridge Station via Burnham', which makes me think that this was on a changeable destination board, with perhaps 'Berrow (or Brean) via Burnham' on the back.

On the subject of drivers there are a number of military drivers that could be used, with a bit of fettling of pockets, puttees and headgear, from this one-man manufacturer - http://www.wdmodels.com/page3.html . That's the figures page. There is a separate page for horse-drawn vehicles. I like his horses. I am not sure whether the harnesses are suitable for civilian use but they look ok to me. His products are very detailed. He uses a mixture of white metal and resin - not in the same model as a rule. His motorcycles have even got tiny etched parts. I have a pack of these which I am plucking up courage put together. Edit March 2023 - regrettably this firm now seems to be out of business.

3 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

The luggage is very eye-catching. I want to know more.

That's not eye-catching. This is eye-catching:

Postcard posted in 1906. Location not clear, but seems to be Seaton. Vehicle quite similar to the one discussed here, but not identical and not GWR. Source: http://www.gail-thornton.co.uk/public-vehicles/omnibus.php

Or did you mean the 4mm luggage? The trunk and suitcases are painted Dart Castings items (ref L109). The bigger wicker baskets are Hornby, the smaller ones Piko. More about the baskets in this post:  

3 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

Another excellent model. I have been thinking about making the slightly larger two-horse version, which ran between Highbridge GWR station and Burnham around 1890, that I have seen in a book of old photographs of Burnham and Highbridge, using Scale Model Scenery wheels and wagon springs. That one has GWR on the panels on either side of the windows. The lamp is in front of the main cabin. Between the ribs on the side is what appears to be 'Highbridge Station via Burnham', which makes me think that this was on a changeable destination board, with perhaps 'Berrow (or Brean) via Burnham' on the back.

On the subject of drivers there are a number of military drivers that could be used, with a bit of fettling of pockets, puttees and headgear, from this one-man manufacturer - http://www.wdmodels.com/page3.html . That's the figures page. There is a separate page for horse-drawn vehicles. I like his horses. I am not sure whether the harnesses are suitable for civilian use but they look ok to me. His products are very detailed. He uses a mixture of white metal and resin - not in the same model as a rule. His motorcycles have even got tiny etched parts. I have a pack of these which I am plucking up courage put together.

Thanks Phil. That two-horse version sounds fascinating. The few photos in Kelley's volumes are either ex-works, or taken by the GWR at a time when the vehicles were phased out and the company was considering whether to preserve some of them (sadly I don't think they did).

So there are not - as far as I can see - all that many known photos showing GWR labelled horse-drawn omnibuses in actual everyday service. Finding them will probably require browsing through local photo collections to see if a GWR vehicle happens to have been captured, as in your case. 

Regarding liveries, photos suggest quite a variety of different fonts and positions around the turn of the century, including some seemingly experimental styles that I haven't seen before.

The WD kits are excellent. I have a couple of the lorries stashed away for a "some day" 1919 layout, as the GWR bought some of them after WW1.

2 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

Thank you for that link, Mikkel.  After recent visits to the splendid Reading Museum of English Rural Life (MERL), I bought the book 'The English Farm Wagon' by J.G.Jenkins.  Plenty of food for modelling thoughts!

 

I've also built the 'Scale Link' etched brass kit of the horse bus, which brought its own problems but did include the luggage rails and horizontal beading on the sides.  A combination of the two kits might make a good solution.  The roof laths run in the opposite direction on the 'Scale Link' kit.  It had never occurred to me that the real solution might be a cross lattice.

 

Mike

Thanks Mike, the Jenkins book does sound good. A new challenge for your 3D printer?

I had forgotten that you built the Scale Link version also. As you say both kits seem to have their drawbacks. One thing neither seems to have incorporated is the extra sloping seat for the driver. This can be seen on some other omnibuses too. Perhaps it allows a semi-standing position so as not to be pulled forward and lose control if the horse does unexpected things?

Hmm. Goods horses and passenger horses. Presumably a different tractive effort formula applied. Your high-stepping passenger horse certainly looks the thing!

Mikkel,

What a lovely vehicle.  I can think of one or two seated Stadden figures who might do for a driver, or will you have him standing on his seat checking the luggage?

I need to think about Cambrian Omnibuses, if that is not over kill for the short ride to the hotels.  Umm........

17 hours ago, kitpw said:

...or bridge catching (I think there's a current thread about that on RMweb).

 

Lovely model of a period piece: horse, luggage, the lot.  The drivers quite commonly had a lap cover (blanket/ macintosh?) which may help in converting some other body to the joys of "driving". Nosebag for the horse hanging on the back?

 

Kit PW

Swan Hill - https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/blog/2502-swan-hill/

 

 

Thank you Kit.  A lap cover is a good idea for a figure conversion. Several photos also show omnibus drivers with bowlers - even on GWR vehicles, see for example this photo:

https://dartmoorexplorations.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/7-c-1-1536x1006.jpg

I have bene wondering whether such photos are misleading though, i.e. they could be staged and showing a customer holding the reins for the sake of the photo. For example, I wonder who is the actual driver in this photo:

https://photographs.museumofcornishlife.co.uk/Search/Detail/1273/?referrer=%2FThemes%2F%3FTransport

10 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

For example, I wonder who is the actual driver in this photo:

 

https://photographs.museumofcornishlife.co.uk/Search/Detail/1273/?referrer=%2FThemes%2F%3FTransport

 

Driver is still in the taproom. The portly yokel is just there to hold the ladder and give the young ladies a firm friendly push-up when the young gents aren't looking.

16 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Hmm. Goods horses and passenger horses. Presumably a different tractive effort formula applied. Your high-stepping passenger horse certainly looks the thing!

Here's an earlier attempt  at a Farthing horsepower classification system . All figures are Dart Castings. I have used and modified the 1:87 one for other vehicles, as the larger ones can be visually overpowering. 

On the subject of omnibus horses, we may turn to chapter 1 in W.J. Gordon's "The Horse World of London" which deals with omnibus nags. It's an amusing read, e.g.:

"Most of these mares are English, some of them are Irish, only a few of them are foreign - that is, according to the dealer, if he can be trusted in his verbal guarantee of nationality. [...]

Let us be off to some typical yard to see how these horses live and how they are cared for; and let the yard be one of the newest, say, that at Chelverton Road. Here are the 375 horses working the 'white bus' line from Putney to Liverpool Street. The white 'buses are well known for their trimness. Their colour precludes their being carelessly looked after, but they are no better kept than the others. Like the rest, they are cleaned and overhauled every morning, their locks looked to, their tires examined, their wheels tapped, just as if they were railway carriages, the minor repairs being done on the spot, the more serious being executed at Highbury.

Each of these omnibuses has its driver, its conductor, and its stud of ten or eleven horses, the eleven being required when the vehicle does its four full trips and a short one in a day. The full trip averages three hours and a half, and the day's work thus employs eight horses, giving each pair in turn a day's rest, but the extra short trip means an extra horse and a different system of relief, which we can deal with later on.

The horses are of all colours, bay, roan, brown, chestnut, grey, and that most promising of all colours, flea-bitten grey, which is seldom worn by a bad horse. All over the country, at the fairs and the provincial stables, buyers are at work for the company, picking out the peculiar class of horse which will best bear the constant stopping and starting of the London omnibus traffic.

When an omnibus is full it weighs three and a quarter tons, a considerable weight for a pair to start. Think of it, ye exigent women, who rather than walk a yard will stop an omnibus twice in a minute; the sudden stopping and starting, so often unnecessary, taking more out of a horse than an hour's steady tramp on the level, and being the chief cause of the London horse's poor expectation of life."

Etc. The rest is here: https://www.victorianlondon.org/publications6/horse-01.htm

"The London General Omnibus Company are the greatest users of living horse power in London. They have, in round numbers, ten thousand horses, working a thousand omnibuses."

Now there's an interesting confirmatory statement. I have been looking at the Midland Railway's annual returns of working stock, which includes horses, carts etc., and motor vehicles. At its peak, before the Great War, the Midland had a little over 5,000 horses, all but 160 of which were for cartage and omnibus work. (The 160 were for shunting.) From about 1916, there was a steady acquisition of motor vehicles; first electric, then, after the war, petrol. (This wartime change may have been stimulated by the army's demand for horses.) It's clear from the figures that one motor vehicle replaced ten horses, more or less. 

On the other hand, the number of carts, drays, and other horse-drawn vehicles remained constant, at around 7,000, which suggests rather low utilisation - a lot of time spent standing around at depots waiting o be loaded or unloaded.

Incidentally, I've noticed the spelling "tire" here and also in Ahron's The British Steam Locomotive 1825-1925, published in to twenties, rather than the preferred modern British English spelling "tyre".