Brassey

Manchester London Road (when it looked like a proper station):

Having the same design display boards was not uncommon. This is Woofferton and although poor quality, shows GWR and L&NWR boards. Note the white windows. In terms of charging for hoardings, did they charge the same for a poster at Paddington and Reading for example? How long did a poster stay up and how long was it charged for? And who was responsible for posting it? Presumably "Advertising Agents" were involved as intermediaries and brokered the space. Nowadays it's easy to just send a digital file. But back then they had to print and distribute posters. Was it organsised or was it random?

it baffles me how the railways would have organised charging for this advertising space. What we see are national brands advertising on hoardings so to mount a national campaign would mean dealing with lots of different railway companies. maybe there was something like the RCH managing this. i contacted the History of Advertising Trust a while back specifically about enamel signs but they have little if any information on this early period in the history of advertising.

I don't think the concept of sold printed poster advertising existed in the Edwardian times as we knew it. (nowadays it's all becoming digital). The branded poster boards were likely to advertise the railway company's own services and excursions, timetables etc.. On my line the GWR branded theirs and the L&NWR (later LMS) theirs. This could be so that Bill Stickers didn't stick them on the wrong boards as well as bringing the services to the attention of the travelling public. The railways were of course amongst the first to exploit the poster medium to publicize their destinations and there are many famous examples. But paid for advertising posters probably didn't start until the 1920's

Detailed and interesting choice of livery. Is this after or before your red frame pre-1906 livery period?

The Duke is slowly progressing. I haven't found a source for that transparent solder others seem to use. Next stage is to progress the chassis as the outside frames and buffer beams are attached to this rather than the body on this kit! A repaint is due for the waiting hut following discussion on my layout thread about chocolate coloured windows.

Apologies for highjacking your blog with my own quandary over chocolate colour windows; I am beginning to think afterall that the two colour scheme shown earlier owed more to the LNWR than I was originally lead to believe and was a red herring. Nevertheless, I find the prospect of the overall chocolate scheme less attractive. So it depends on how much prototype fidelity you are prepared to pursue.

1911 is a good starting point. So you have the Weymouth and Weston-s-Mare through trains. You could even have a Farthing slip in both directions. And which locos may be under consideration? Maybe an Atbara or two. Dean Single?

Ok it's hold my hands up time. Having asserted on Mikkel's station blog that the LNWR never painted their station windows anything but white (since redacted by me), I have found, in the far flung corners of the LNWR, evidence of stations painted in chocolate, namely at Gowerton: A cursory look at the windows at B&E on the earlier photograph lead me to believe that they were painted entirely white. But on closure inspection, you can see that the glazing bars are darker. This is consistent with the earlier image. What promoted this re-examination was the amount of LNWR sourced items apparent on the stations. This shot of Ford Bridge shows a bench that is definitely LNWR in origin: The actual waiting hut, of which an identical one was at B&E, is most likely to be constructed from standard "Webb" hut components. Below is the station buildings at Verney Junction built from said components and the centre section with the door is identical to these huts. Being a joint line, responsibility for the stations switched overtime between the GWR and LNWR but the stations owed a lot more to LNWR style than I previously had been lead to believe. So my colour scheme is now going to lean toward LNWR practice.

So what stock are you thinking of running? Your 150cm fiddle yards will limit you to about 5 corridor coaches with tender loco but that’s still quite impressive.

Having been prompted down this route by Mikkel's station blog and having thought more about it, I would not take this as gospel as being a definitive GWR scheme. Being a joint line that is not well documented, they could have implemented their own rules at some point and this is what we are seeing. Or it could have been local paint contractors doing their own interpretation. If you go back a couple of pages, there is a picture of the waiting hut at Berrington & Eye that is similar if not identical to the one at Ford Bridge. This has the windows in white. Although slightly later I am sure this photo was taken during the Edwardian/pre-WW1 period and this is what I have modelled. However, if I conclude that the glazing bars were chocolate on the station during the period I model then it could be simple just to paint them onto glazing material with a ruling pen rather than having the windows etched. The bars need to be about 0.5mm. This is too fine for laser cutting but the window frames in a lighter colour could be laser cut.

On the left of this pic, the waiting hut at Ford Bridge two stations down in the same period. This reflects the two-tone colour scheme of the main frames in white with the glazing bars and other details darker, probably chocolate:

I've put on my layout thread a pic of Berrington &Eye station building https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/71033-berrington-and-eye-gwrlnwr-joint-line-1912-layout/page/5/which also shows a two colour scheme; the main frames in a lighter colour, possibly white, and the window bars dark. You can see from the upstairs open window at Ford bridge that the glazing bars were also painted dark on the inside.

Don't apply any heat. Apparently superglue can give off deadly fumes if heated! I'd be inclined to leave it. Once painted it probably won't notice as much and it looks pretty central to me. The hinge can give the impression that the door is lopsided. BTW the pipe union on the right hand blower valve doesn't look fully seated home though.

Following discussions elsewhere on the early GWR window bar colours, this is Berrington & Eye in the early 1900's with the bars painted dark, probably chocolate. Having built this building, I'm still cogitating over how to reproduce these delicate windows and am favouring etching.

Mikkel, this is Ford Bridge, two stations down from B&E. Although a joint line, the 2 companies took it in turn over the responsibilities. For the period in question, I believe that the GWR had responsibility for the station buildings whereas the LNWR had control of the track and signaling. I have therefore assumed that the paint scheme and work undertaken on the line was GWR. Certainly this far South the GWR probably had the greater influence. Having said all that, on one of the signal box colours websites it states that the closest modelling paint colour to LNWR "buff" is GWR light stone so it's probably hard to distinguish subtle differences between the two! The responsibility for signaling switched in around 1907. So the wood on the brick box at B&E could have been painted in LNWR buff or GWR light stone but who could tell!. The photo is of Ford Bridge signal box from the same series and the windows on the box are painted white. Fascinating but mind-boggling stuff. Peter

I have the same challenge with my station building. The early photos I have of it and other local stations in the early Edwardian period have them in chocolate. The pic above also seems to have the fence in chocolate or maybe black too.

Not to mention the telegraph pole...

I’ve built an 1501/1854 from a Wills Saddle Tank and Martin Finney 1854 chassis. I also have Gibson 850 and Buffalo saddle tanks in the to do pile.

I tend to build the chassis rigid on the Hobby Holidays jig first. That way I’ve got a better chance of getting it square and the axles parallel. Don’t forget the hole for the beam first. i cut out the horn guides after. We’ve had this discussion before but High Level hornblocks are by far the best use the rods to set the jig for the hornblocks. Obviously need to be jointed

When I did the brakes, I cut off the fret with the hangers and rolled all 6 complete on the fret in one go. Otherwise they are prone to kinking at the holes. I held the wooden blocks in a vice to solder them on individually. All very fiddly p

You may find that once you put the front brake hangers on it’’a hard to get the chassis on behind the guard irons. There’s not much room there

The GWR Duke is now up on its wheels. This is to be 3328 Severn as seen at Hereford. Being one of the last batch, it has a BRO boiler ansd 2500 gal tender. This variant is not catered for in the Finney kit, so a bit of kit mingling/scratch building is required. The 1224 Mashima should fit straight up into the raised firebox.

Hi John, OK. Yes I think they are and that must be a rather old kit. My Brassmasters Experiment class came with the cutouts and instructions prepared for Maygib hornblocks but they weren't included. It also had the cutouts for Studiolith hornblocks which must date back to the 70's. Also not included. I fitted MJT hornblocks but High Level would have done the trick too. I'm thinking of taking the plunge and building my C Class with CSB Peter

John Good to see it coming along including the flangeless axle. Are those Maygib sprung hornblocks? Petet