MikeOxon

As a small supplier I spend a lot of time talking to my customers. The simple truth is most of them don't model pre-grouping

Because there is so little available?

but there would be no compulsion to do it that way.

 

True - most people will go for a hologram.- much less hassle and never any need for "the big hand in the sky"

All those 19th century workmen and horses will be faithfully represented, too

Mike

 in 50 years, mass production of anything other than tablet browsers, flexible screens and 3d printers will be an amusing anecdote from the past...

 

Just imagine. You design a layout with Scarm v.23 then put the baseboard under the roving print-head and leave it a while to 'grow' the track, landscape, buildings, trees, trains, etc.  How boring

On the matter of lining, I make my own transfers using ink-jet printable transfer film.

Mike

The box of chimneys, domes, whistles, safety valves, Tender domes and water fillers, axleboxes etc, that had accumilated over a lifetime of building was thrown out a few years ago during a tidy-out.

 

aaaaarrgh!  I'm with mikeandnel and aim to keep anything that might be remotely useful! 

I've resorted to carving some small bits out of brass bar, using a wheel cutter and sanding drums on my mini-drill (safety glasses essential).

Mike

As Etched Pixels wrote, there are 'work-arounds' for many of the perceived difficulties of scratch building.  In addition, pre-grouping prototypes tend to be relatively simple, as I mentioned in post #23 in this thread.  Modern glues are very effective, though you do have to remember that surface preparation is just as important as when using solder. 

There is a problem, however, when it comes to adding all those important details!  Unless you have workshop skills and facilities,you are going to have to find suppliers of suitable chimneys, domes, etc....    In my experience, there are several good suppliers out there but they tend to be rather elusive - difficult to contact by either phone or e-mail and, in many cases, computer-averse, so no up-to-date websites to help you see what you are buying!

These suppliers provide an invaluable service but I wish they would catch up with the 21st century

Mike

Thanks, Mickey.  I agree that it does look like hay.

Mike

Thanks again, Buffalo.  I'm still not sure about the number on the end. Compared with other wagons shown in the same (complete) photo, it doesn't look like them and there seem to be spaces in the writing, which looked to me more like a tare listing.

Having read the Stanier article, it seems that provender was mixed (hay, oats, beans, etc.) and then bagged for distribution to the various depots so, presumably, these wagons are carrying raw materials for delivery to the stores.  Or it might be bedding straw? 

The way the load is heaped high above the wagon sides is what I wanted to know about when I first posted.

Mike

As a result of Buffalo's information, I have now been able to examine a photograph of two provender wagons outside the Didcot stores.  This photo appears to be associated with an article from the Great Western Magazine, October 1906, by W.H.Stanier.  i agree that the left-hand wagon is probably the diagram Q1 as the DC1 type brake is visible.  The other wagon may well be from the earlier 1884 batch.

I have enhanced a small section of the photograph for research purposes and it would appear that the lettering does not conform to the usually accepted layout of the time. 

Nothing is very clear, so my thoughts are speculative.  It looks to me that the letters G.W.R are on the bottom plank at the R.H.end   The lettering on the visible end of the wagon is almost certainly not the number but looks to me as though it may well be the Tare weight.  At the bottom left of the side, there is probably the number but above that, it seems to me that it may state "To Carry", with the weight at the opposite (R.H.) end, so avoiding the diagonal bracing.  in addition, there is writing higher on the side, each side of the doors, which I think may be "Return to" on the left and "Didcot GWR" on the right (both in two lines).

I am well aware that's all very speculative, though the details are just a little clearer on the original.  'd welcome any further thoughts or comments.

Mike

Thank you for the very helpful response, Buffalo.  Your description of the photo in Vaughan jogged my memory and I realised that what is probably the same photo appears in Janet Russell's book on GW Horse Power - Fig.267. 

There's even a chapter about the Provender Stores that I had completely forgotten!  That's always my problem with books - having them on the shelf does not mean that I know everything that's in them

Mike

I have a Coopercraft provender wagon and am unsure about how to model its load.

My Atkins 'History of GWR Wagons' states that there seem to be no photos, so my question is - does anyone know how hay was 'packaged' at the turn of the19th/20th century? 

I'm guessing that they were not the neat rectangular bales we now see on farm lorries or, perhaps, they were?  Any thoughts will be welcome.

Mike

The Midlands approach to loco design exclude them from being "great".

If that is the sole criterion, then IKB should be excluded too!  He might have been a very great engineer but his 'engines' were disasters until he found Gooch to sort things out

For me, I think the fascination is for a time before the dominance of motor (road) transport, when railways represented the 'cutting edge' of transport technology.  I remember vividly the first time I saw a photo of one of the Gooch broad-gauge singles and marvelled that such things could ever have existed!

For modellers (at least in 4mm and larger) there is the advantage, which others have mentioned, that locomotives and trains were smaller than now, so that less space is needed for a credible representation.  I agree that scratch-building is quite a hurdle for many people but, if you are going to take the plunge, modelling a 2-2-2 locomotive need be no more difficult than modelling a wagon, if you are prepared to accept tender drive.  I have used old Mainline Dean Goods tenders to power my own scratch-build attempts.

For lettering and lining, it is now possible to print your own transfers using an ink-jet printer. I have shown some examples in my pre-grouping Blog at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-12657-cheats-lining-lettering/

All in all, then, this era provides an opportunity to re-create a world where railways really were the centre of attention and not struggling to be noticed amongst all those motor vehicles

Mike

The sparks effect.

I couldn't decide if this was 'clever' or just a fluke

Yeah i was stood at the relieving point at landor st, the camera is on top of the SPT box

 

The train is only going about 5mph as it had just started from the signal which had just reverted back to red when the loco passed the block joint

That's a relief!  I couldn't help the knee-jerk reaction when I first looked at the photo - it's a very nice shot

Mike

 

Landor st, 01:00 this morning, Schenker steel train heading off towards scunthorpe 

I hope it wasn't really thundering through a red light!

Arley this evening:

Well observed pic and very welcoming!

For anyone interested, I attach comparative shots using the BW filter I mentioned in #1209.

The 'Ortho' image represents the older type of film, which had no sensitivity to red.  Most old (pre-WW2) railway photos are of this type and can be very misleading if used to interpret liveries. 

There is an article with more information about how Photoshop handles colour on my website at http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/technical/brightness/bright1.htm

Mike

I took the liberty of doctoring it in Photoshop

 

I think the very light buffer beam is a give-away!  I have a good B/W filter for Photoshop from www.photo-plugins.com that simulates the colour response of various film emulsions very well!  I like your idea of adding a few scratches!

Great pub - both in prototype and model form

Tentative creative railway photo. Lichen on a concrete railway boundary fence at the Bluebell Railway.

I like this (especially with my natural history photography hat on)  The railway link might be thought a little tenuous, though.

Mike

I took this view of Caerphilly Castle today at Swindon Steam Museum

Mike

I found SCARM very useful, when I wanted to work out how to include a 3-way point into an existing layout that was based largely on old Hornby-Dublo track (all in the library!).  My railway also has an 009 section on an upper level and this is shown as well, on the 3D view.

Mike

Circus Belli is in town. There is a (translated) catalogue of events in Plattling at http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dplattling%2Bgermany%26biw%3D1024%26bih%3D441&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=de&u=http://www.plattling.de/iframe.asp%3Fnaviid%3D%257B9B900E76-ECA5-4DF6-BFC2-F3F2A0D25A4C%257D&usg=ALkJrhhiHmUig7J0ZDc6BXte7lK_NU4Rdw

Very hot in Plattling today - 37C.  The shunters seem to have been laid up all weekend.

From the catalogue description, it seems that AHM simply used standard N-gauge track.  Why not measure the rail depth?  The 'code' is just the height of the rail section in thou.