ChrisN

Mikkel,

I have noticed that mortar sizes vary with the age of the building, i.e., that they used different amounts of mortar at different time.

It will be interesting to see exactly what you can produce.  At Newton Station there are different scupltings on each of the middle stone parts of the windows.  These will not be reproduced at Traeth Mawr.  You also have the advantage that you are reproducing Farthing and not Newbury so the architecture does not have to be exact.

I do not like posting where I can say nothing to add or help so I will not post, "Exceptionally clever and original.  Wow!"

I know the Singles went to Birmingham, via the junction at Didcot on the Northern Expresses, the formations of which for 1895I am still trying to get to Kew to see if they have been recorded.

You have to have that advert on the end wall, "Good morning.  Have you used Pears soap?"  I cannot imagine that they would be allowed to get away with that today.

Interesting photo.  I assume that it was built as part of the GCR London extension project.  One of my never to be built ideas is the High Wycombe to Maidenhead branch, but this would be too late for me.

Mikkel,

Yes it is an impressive project, it is more than twice as long as my station, which if I recall correctly is 100ft, or 40cm.  I am sure you are likely to be finished before me as well.  Cutting bricks out first, I shall look forward to how you build this and see, maybe, how I should have done it.  Things like the lintels and the what looks like a stone picture rail between them are the type of distinctive feature that will mark out the station for what it is, again an interesting challenge.

I do not live that far from Newbury, but have never been there, nor do I have an excuse to go, but if I do I will try and remember my camera, but do not hold your breath.

You need to be careful of any modernisation, which as Farthing is not Newbury, is not really a problem.  I have been looking at the main doors in and out of the station.  I have three stations with modern pictures, one is now a house, and the other two are nearly as they were but now for different uses.  I was quite keen to see the door on Barmouth onto the platform, but it was open, then I realised, it is a sliding door.  Fortunately obvious, but there are other features I have seen that are not quite so obvious.

I think this will be fascinating.

2 hours ago, davidbr said:

Do you think this could be adapted and made in to more of a stage coach?  It's an ABS kit, ex-Varney.

http://www.kwtrams.co.uk/productdisplay/r152-mail-coach

Brilliant Website.  I think, and I am open to correction, that if I took the roof off that I would be more than halfway to the tourist coach, or I could use it straight as it is.  On the other hand what about this?

http://www.kwtrams.co.uk/productdisplay/r151-horse-drawn-omnibus

It also has transfers for adverts, mostly too late for us but very interesting.  It has power bogies as well!

14 minutes ago, Nick Holliday said:

Found another example of the second type on Gail Thornton's website, but only three horses.

 

There are a couple of stage coaches on Shapeways, but only in HO and Z(!) at the moment.

I suppose you could always ask them to resize to 00 as I did on this site for the hats.

24 minutes ago, Nick Holliday said:

The two vehicles are very different:

I agree the second is a tourist design, but the first is definitely based on a stage coach.

I've located a book published by the BBC in connection with a 1985 programme, and it appears the renaissance of coaching started earlier than I thought, around the end of the 1860's and lasted until 1928.  It was more like the current preservation scene.  The coaches were not expected to be particularly profitable, and were run mainly for the benefit of the owners who often took part in the driving, and for travellers to experience a way of life that had all but disappeared - much like riding behind a steam loco.

It includes an advertising item from 1909, which shows the seating arrangement on the roof.

 

Nick,

Yes of course.  The more I look at them the more obvious it becomes.  I think I did not notice as I did not even consider that the first could be a stagecoach.  That opens up all sorts of possibilities, but an H0 one would look too small.

9 hours ago, Dave John said:

Dart castings Brougham might form a basis for one Chris. 

 

https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/dart/L55.php

 

I have made one, a delicate kit but comes out nicely. 

Dave,

Thank you.  That might be interesting.

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

I agree Chris, those are interesting vehicles and would be lovely models.

 

 

Funny how that looks like a modern day re-enactment. Perhaps because there are no beards?

 

 

The one on the right is particularly attractive. I like the boys hanging on at the back. Is that cloth draped across the seats?

 

I haven't seen any kits that come close to this, although as Dave says I suppose you could use the chassis and lower sides of the Dart Castings or Scale Link offerings (I think the former would be easier to work with in this case).

 

Mikkel,

I think you are right about the cloths.  Maybe they were to soften the hard backs of the chairs.  Not many customers though.

I wonder if the boys were meant to be there, or, more likely, just hanging off the back for fun until they were noticed?

1 hour ago, Nick Holliday said:

Surely this one is actually a stage coach, such as this kit - probably in HO though.  Wasn't there a revival in interest in stage coaches in the 1890's, some years after the railways had forced the original ones off the road.  Four horses and lots of attendants, including a post-horn seems a bit over the top for taking passengers from the station to their hotel. Welcome to Disneyland, Victorian-style!

 

Nick,

The next picture is clearer and shows it has no roof.  It is surprising how like the stage coach it is in design.  I am sure it is a tourist coach for taking people up the A496.

If I modelled that stage coach then Stadden figures would have to walk as only the Preiser ones would fit.

I once found a website dedicated to a forum for people who made model horse drawn vehicles, but larger the 4mm.  It was depressing, but reassuring to find out that by the third post down one person was having a go at someone else for not doing it the correct way.

I will post this here as this is about buses, but you can tell me to go back to my own thread if you like.

I was wondering what bus I should have for Traeth Mawr, not wanting a double decker, and wondering if there was a different one than the one you built.  I have not found anything, so I thought I would look at my favourite Barmouth picture sight to see what ran in Barmouth.

In 1896 there was this, and the next one on.  In 1910, they were still there in this postcard.  The sign on the side of the first one says Barmouth Dolgelley, so I think these are sightseeing buses, but of little use to me for taking luggage and passengers to the local hotels.  Mind you they are less than half a mile away so I will only need something for the luggage.

However, these are very interesting.  I have never seen a kit for them, although I may I suppose make one to take tourists u the Naf valley.

They were later replace by motor driven ones of the same sort of style.  Glad it does not rain in Wales.

1 hour ago, Simond said:

 

perhaps more up to date, at least on the weights, 83.6 kg for men and 70.2 kg for women.  Assuming equal numbers, that would be 6.5 couples per ton.  Or, if you prefer, 12 men or 14.25 women to the ton.

 

 

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjq0fqNtLH1AhWClFwKHeQrAyMQFnoECAoQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-11534042&usg=AOvVaw3aH9rsMfO0sFl8JPW9VD6_

 

 

Interesting.  The standard man in Radiation Protection is still 70kg.  Still, it is not my problem now.

2 hours ago, Dave John said:

An old rule of thumb for the consideration of transport ( such as the busses shown above) I learned a long time ago was;

 

"Sixteen inches one bum, sixteen bums one ton" 

 

The idea was that the average person was sixteen inches of a seat, and that on average sixteen people weighed a ton. I doubt it is sixteen these days but for the period it might be a useful approximation. 

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That makes the typical late 19th century third class compartment spacious - 8'0" wide over panels, 7'6" internal width, seating five-a-side, 18" per passenger. It also means that a fully-occupied five-compartment third 6-wheeler, tare weight around 13 tons, would have gross weight of about 16 tons. A first would give 30" per passenger but some of that width is taken up by arm-rests.

That sounds about right.  I am sure that the compartment coaches that I used, which were of course much later, were 5 or 6 a side.  Stadden figures are a bit larger as I can never get five into a seat, but unlike real people they do not give.  Perhaps I should take a file to them.

3 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

Flat caps have not always been just worn by working class men. This photo, found in my Mother's family albums, shows a very middle class bunch of guys in Hereford in the early 1900s. I think one is one of my great uncles, but I have no idea what they were doing, with a couple of postmen in uniform and some with weapons in the group. Peaky Blinders comes to mind, although I have never watched the programme.

Phil,

What an interesting picture.  I note the trilbies as well, my dad always wore a trilby but I do not think I have a photo of him in one.  Do you know the date?

It is interesting that when people see me in my flat cap I either get, "Eh by gum lad," or "Ah, farmer Giles," both with appropriate accents.

I think we all know really that the lower working class wore flat caps, and tradesmen, supervisors and that level wore bowler hats.  They also appear to have been adopted by the middle classes.  There are lots of pictures of engine drivers wearing bowlers, well at least after top hats went out and before the companies got strict about headgear.

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........

Wow! Just brilliant.

You said a motor bogie in the tender but there are no pictures, is that another post?  Only being selfish as I have the option, eventually, of trying to motorise a 2-4-0 or putting a Tenshodo Spud or similar in the tender.  I understand the Spuds are no longer produced and have not looked for one for a while, but something more common would be better.

Thank you.

Excellent work Mike.  It has been a pleasure to follow what you have done.  You have quite an extensive range of models for a short period of time.  Well done, I look forward to more next year.

1 hour ago, kitpw said:

 Lyons & Mountford 'Great Western Engine Sheds 1837-1947' Revised Edition (including amalgamated companies): Oxford Publishing 1979  [phew, long title!] is the edition I referred to above.  Corwen (1880 trackplan) is covered on page 76.  The shed allocation in January 1901 is there but only for that date.  Shed allocations are given throughout but, again, only a "sample" for a single date, for instance Cheltenham MSWJ for 1923.

 

Kit PW

Thank you.  As I do not have the book I was not sure what was in it.  The information must be out there somewhere as the writers of the book found it.  

Does the Lyons and Mountford book have shed allocations?  When I was building my 645 @southern42 quoted Lyons p76 for the allocations at Corwen.  I am sure, somewhere, I have shed allocations in that area within a few years of each other but cannot find them at present, and if I remember correctly, the locomotives had changed mostly, but the classes and class numbers were about the same.

Again, on my thread in the same discussion I am sure it was mentioned that the shed allocations are at Kew Archive, but only from about 1920 or so.  The information, for the GWR, is there somewhere for before that date but I understand it is not as easy to find.

Is the above book the same as E.Lyons 'Great Western Engine Sheds 1837-1947?, as this was the one quoted for Corwen.

Shed allocations:  On the Cambrian at Machynlleth with four passenger locos and six goods locos, between 1894 and 1898 only one of each were the same.  When you look at individual locos on the GWR they seemed to move around quite frequently.  Whether a loco based close enough to Farthing in 1921 was there in 1919, only the Station Master of Farthing would know, and if I remember rightly the one there in 1905 had disappeared to South America by then, and I am not sure who replaced him.

44 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Here: https://veneziaautentica.com/venice-museum-burano-lace-museum/

 

There has to be a model railway use for this stuff; I just haven't worked out what yet.

You could use it to make the netting on luggage racks!  

45 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

'Fraid so, it's an RCH 1923 specification standard design with such un-1895 profligacies as oil axleboxes and both-side brakes. Moreover, despite Oxford putting the livery of a 10 ton wagon on it, it's a 12 ton wagon. One of my bugbears. The really big lettering isn't quite the thing either. Have you got a copy of Mike Lloyd's Private Owners on the Cambrian (WRRC, 1998)? That shows that as well as the Wrexham coal field, a lot of coal coming onto the Cambrian was from the North Staffordshire coalfield.

 

For 1895, you'll be wanting a goodly proportion of dumb buffer private owner wagons - you're only a quarter of a mineral wagon's lifetime after the introduction of the RCH 1887 specification which required sprung buffers for new construction.

Stephen,

Thought so.  I do have a copy of Mike Lloyds book and I was going to check it.  I have been through the book and POW sides and matched photos and kits, plus one from, er Bracknell.

I do have some 5&9 dumb buffered wagons, which I know are the wrong area but I am sure will fit in.

26 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

 

Thank you Chris. May all your wishes come true. 

 

It would be nice if the Slater's kits were upgraded to show interior ironwork, although from a business perspective I suppose it's not worth the investment. Looking for a free lunch I had a browse to see what the RTR scene is like when it comes to interior ironwork. It seems to be a bit halfway house in most cases, as per this Oxford Rail example. Nice print though.

 

Source: Hattons

Mikkel,

I assume that wagon is far too late for us.  The Wrexham coalfields supplied coal to mid-Wales so I could get a free lunch as well.

Mikkel,

Interesting build, and well thought out and accomplished as usual.

I will have some POW sides on my Christmas list so this is timely.  I will probably stop at number two on your list and the discussion about the transfers is also interesting.

26 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

 

Many thanks Chris. I think the first attempts are particularly evident in the trunk and shapes of the branches, which are a bit too gnarly in places. And in the colouring, which was more tricky than I thought it would be.

 

The sticky mess - would that be the deposits from those on the way home from the pub? 

 

The leaves ooze a sticky substance.  They were planted around the hospital I used to work at.  If you were lucky to get a parking space your windscreen was covered in sticky spots.  As my son said once, 'Parking under dodgy trees again.'  The hospital has gone, but some trees still remain.