Annie

I love old bicycle advertising from the Edwardian era. And yes the French ones could be a bit risqué, but they are stunning pieces of artwork often with a wonderful dramatic flair. We have to remember the safety bicycle very much caused a transport revolution in the society of the time. They were a leading edge technology and there was fierce competition between the various bicycle manufacturers of the time to get Joe and Joanne Public to buy THEIR bicycle and no other.

Very much liking the Edwardian bicycle pictures. Especially for women the introduction of the safety bicycle made huge changes in society. For the first time women were able to own an affordable mode of transport that didn't involve having to keep and stable a horse. During my social work studies I came across several very well written sociological studies on the impact of the invention of the safety bicycle on women's lives. So yes bicycling and bicycling clubs would be very much part of the Edwardian scene.

I haven't actually done any physical model-making since I started this thread Marly. I've been struggling a lot with sleepiness and general brain fog so all my model-making has been with my digital trainset. With digital modelling it doesn't really matter if I fall asleep in the middle of it as there's nothing to spill and no risk of cutting or hurting myself with tools. Don't worry I am still having fun though and very much enjoying the fact that I'm able to do continue my hobby interests even if it's all in the digital world.

I am slowly working on some artwork for GCR coach sides, but it's still early days with it at the moment. They are likely to be more representational rather than actual prototypes though.

Yes please very much Since the base meshes I'm using are for 50ft coaches I had to do a little adjusting and remodelling around the guard's compartment, but it wasn't difficult to do. The only real change I made was to add my own artwork for ventilators at the top of the doors. I've done a full brake/passenger parcels van mostly by cutting and pasting the artwork and I'm reasonably happy with it. It would be really excellent to be able to use your other artwork as it becomes available, - especially the composite as I always struggle a bit with creating those due to the different compartment spacings. If anyone would like the artwork for the 50ft fullbrake/passenger parcels van I'm quite happy to pass on a copy with the GC&EJt. lettering removed. I can remove the representation of door handles and handrails as well if all you need are completely blank coach sides.

Details added. I decided that this coach belongs to the fictional Great Central & Eastern Joint Railway since I'm building up a combined GER and GCR digital layout at the moment. Just need to make a third class and first class coach now.

Here's your coach side Linny put together on a 50ft GER brake 3rd with your artwork adjusted to suit this particular coach's layout. This was originally a very simple model put together by its creator when he needed some coaches in a hurry so the sides were very basic. Needless to say your artwork has completely transformed this simple model. Windows are based around a rain spotted glass texture that I'm using for a lot of my digital coaches now. Lettering and representations of door handles and handrails still to do, but even at this stage I'm absolutely delighted with the result.

I had a further dig in my digital trainset box and found some more early items. Wylam Dilly. Steam Horse. Plateway Chaldron wagon also available as an edge rail model. Open plateway wagon also available as an edge rail model. There's a horse model intended for use with the plateway wagons, but I haven't tried it so I don't know how it works or how animated it might be. If I wasn't in the middle of sorting out a GER-GCR layout at the moment I might be tempted to do something with these models in the way of building a layout. Maybe later on though.

Either PNG or BMP would be fine Linny as I work with both.

That would be very nice of you Linny, - thanks very much.

I do like that coach side Linny. Would you think me an utter criminal if I 'borrowed' it for litho coach experiments.

Things like that can be done with card, but the trick is to use very thin card and laminate it. Card soaked with cheap superglue (with good ventilation while doing it) becomes extremely hard and durable and can be filed and sanded like wood. There's lots of other tricks with using card to make it last the distance and I've got various odd and end of card models that have been banging around with me for years with no special care or attention and they're pretty much in the same condition as when I made them.

I don'r see that as being too much of a problem really as the ducket's join against the roof could be filled and smoothed off if anybody was worried about it.

Oh I do like those bicycles. I still have my Ladies Hercules heavyweight touring bicycle with fully lugged frame with that classic curved shape. Over 60 years old and in original condition; - a superb bicycle to ride. Hercules used to guarantee their bicycles for 60 years of use so I can certainly say they got that bit right. Unfortunately I can no longer ride any of my lovely old bicycles with this illness I have, but I'm not going to part with my Hercules even though I've had plenty of folk asking about buying it.

The rest of the Mark Williams videos are very watchable too

A nice little potted history Red and very enjoyable reading too. Looking at that tender drive unit I find myself thinking 'tram engine'. No doubt a section of roadside line could be contrived on your layout to justify it.

Yes I'm reasonably pleased with how the MS&LR loco turned out even though it's a complete fudge from one end to the other. I'm working on reskinning a MR 4 wheel coach into a MS&LR coach as a bit of a test piece. This one isn't a litho it's a full reskin on a coach with a modelled interior so it might take me a while to do. Progress is slow, but so far it's looking good.

Yes some right old tat gets offered on ebay by the ever hopeful. Here it's the same on our local auction site with folk finding appallingly rusty things with missing bits in some damp old shed and asking insane prices for them. On the other hand though sometimes nice things turn up for very sensible prices. Recently I got a pre-war Hornby turntable similar to your one for just $NZ15.00. I think it's just a case of being watchful and patient with finding old train stuff. Edit: I don't know how keen you might be on restoring old tinplate trains, but I have a Hornby 4-4-0 from the 1920's that was found in a barn and I'd bee perfectly willing to swap it with you for an 'O' gauge 3D printed bodyshell.

Nice, I like those. But that tender doesn't have the height and length of the Midland Fowler tender. Something in that style of thing would be good though and I'm sure someone here would have the half sawn up wreckage of a 19th century GBT tender they could pass on to Red.

Does your loco have a steel cover on the bottom of the clockwork mech Sem? That's the quickest way to tell an M1 from an M0. The M1 has the cover while the M0 is free to eat as much carpet fluff as it wants. The M1 mech is actually quite good, though at this age much will depend on how the spring might be after all these years. I've had a lot of fun with M1 locos and they look good hauling Mettoy bogie coaches which I think are nicer than Hornby's strange M1 4 wheelers.

All very nice. That box lid and the box tray certainly would not have left the factory at the same time as the red engine and its wagons. The wee red loco is an M0 and not an M1 and if it was purchased in 1945 it would definitely be made from pre-war stocks the factory had to hand. From memory the box tray should be made from yellow cardboard if it was the wee red engine's box, but again I'm no great expert on Hornby boxes and packaging as that's a whole area of collecting all by itself. And the track in the box wouldn't have come with a M0 engine either as M0 track is of much lighter construction. All in all a good haul though and you should have some fun with that.

Oooooo nice. That's an older type M0 set too. I like those. I finally got the MS&LR 4-4-0 finished. Might be some bit's I'll mess around with later, but it's done and dusted for the moment. Getting the colours right between the engine and the tender was a bit tricky as even with using exactly the same colours on both sets of textures the colours on the engine and the tender displayed slightly differently in the simulator.

A little engine being followed by a tender that size could file a case of harassment with the appropriate authorities

Um...... that tender is a bit big. If it was smaller and running on four wheels I'd say go for it.

What a very useful resource. Those old postcards are going to be soooooo good to refer to.