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Florence Locomotive Works

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    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted

    7 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

    Bluing? If I were going to do that, I would use a chemical process with one of the various gun-bluing products; Hoppe's for example.

    Those do work, but the color is not very controllable. For small components like these the best method is to blue them using a brass plate and heat, so you can control the color and keep the finish constant over the surface. 

    • Like 1
    • Informative/Useful 2
    MikeOxon

    Posted

    That's a very interesting model Mike. Unusually Brunel's biography (by Rolt) only makes passing mentions of it.

     

    With regards to the driver sleeping with the horse, its unlikely. Your average horse can only lay down for 3.5 hours before it becomes unable to stand up, unless its going through prolonged labor. That's why stalls are never really big enough for a horse to lie down comfortably in, as its quite an ordeal to stand up a horse, especially a sick one which is when they most often lie down.

     

    Douglas

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    • Informative/Useful 2
    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted

    On 28/05/2021 at 17:02, J. S. Bach said:

    On the Pennsy, they were referred to as "pot" signals. If it survived my move, I have one somewhere.

     Might I suggest setting it up at the end of your driveway?

     

    8 hours ago, Edwardian said:

     

    Re the top photograph, there is no trace of planking on the platform surface.  I would be tempted to treat such a platform as masonry, to surface with something like fine sandpaper or chinchilla dust and to interpret the edging as brick with an overhanging single course of stretchers above the rendered side and then bricks set with their headers facing the line to form the coping.

     

    Re the lower photograph, the dwarf signals are what in the UK would be referred to as ''ground signals''. I could not say off hand whether they were a LCDR design of a type adopted or introduced by the SE&CR.

     

     

     
    Yes that would make more sense than timber. I was thinking of just coating the entire platform(s) in a fine plaster rather than working with chinchilla sand. 

    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted

    On 27/05/2021 at 00:46, Edwardian said:

    Good to see a pre-Grouping project taking shape. There will be others far better qualified than I to comment on SE platforms, but here are two examples that seem to offer some encouragement.

     

    Halstead, a SER station opened 1876 and later known as Knockholt. This is a wooden station.  The platform appears to be masonry, however, as it looks to be edged with brick (quite common a common alternative to edging stones). The view is given as c.1880.

     

    20210527_062312.jpg.f7a6e1a32da12f65af8c989a11b6b293.jpg

     

    Another SER timber wooden station of the period, Bromley (1878) is said to have had platforms "edged in timber".  Quite what that means, I'm unsure.  Considering Bromley, is it possible to interpret the edging at Knockholt as timber planking, not brick?

     

    Whatever the construction of Knockholt station platform, the effect is of a smooth, rendered, platform face beneath the edging.

     

    The only other example I have so far spotted is at the LCDR's Canterbury, later known as Canterbury East, of 1860, in a picture dated to the 1890s. Here the platform is very striking, with no apparent edging/coping or overhang, it looks like nothing so much as a huge concrete slab, you can even see where it's chipped at the edge to the right.  

     

     20210527_062234.jpg.bc707f4ed7e1e3b3ba1cd28166dc2cfe.jpg

     

     

     

    Thank you James, that was most informative.

     

    Wood edged platforms could be a possibility. They would have noticeable disadvantages over conventional materials though, such as the cost of having to have some whopping great big pieces of oak creosoted probably up in Sunderland at Armstrong Addison Ltd. Or if the SECR creosoted its own sleepers in bulk then perhaps those would have been used at no cost to the company? 

     

    On an unrelated note, are those what we call in the USA "dwarf signals" to the left of No 16's tender in your post?

     

    Douglas

    • Like 1
    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted

    7 hours ago, Mikkel said:

    SECR 1907, this should be good! :locomotive:

     

    I like the idea of a strawberry loading scene. Some LSWR examples:

     

    gettyimages-146111306-2048x2048.jpg.ebf71aa3eaf5f78b3e2b921677e1118c.jpg

    Baskets of strawberries being loaded onto a London and South Western Railway train to market, June 1922. Source: Getty Images, embedding permitted.

     

    There is also this little Twitter thread, which I think you can access without an account:

     

    PS, see also: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/263019784692?hash=item3d3d3369f4:g:iBAAAOSwcgNZNC5Q

     


    Thank you for that Mikkel, that is a very interesting few photos.

     

    7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

    You've found a good image there Mikkel.

     

    Look closely at the left-most van, and you will see that it is actually a 6W (I'm pretty sure) passenger coach, with battens fitted on the inside of the windows. If we could see inside, we would find shelves for strawberry baskets, in place of seats and luggage racks. Apparently the LSWR did this with redundant ^W coaches, because they were short of vans for "the flush".

     

    Its quite a late photo, I think, post WW1, possibly even post -1923. There is another very good set of photos showing this operation pre-WW1, where all the berries are in long-handled wicker baskets, which were returned empty after use to the farms, but here I think we are seeing disposable cardboard and tin (for the handles and lips), or thin wood, trugs.

     

    It ought to be time to discuss the strawberry harvest, berries should be ready in a few weeks from now, but here the weather has been all back to front this year (May was in March; March has filled the whole of April and May), so my few plants are looking very retarded indeed, likewise all other fruits.


    Thank you Kevin,

     

    That was a very interesting read as I’m new to southern stock. I think our strawberry’s may already be in the stores, or our season has already passed. All I know is that peach season is mid July through August here. Blueberries have a similar window I think.

     

     

    Douglas

    • Like 1
    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted

    4 hours ago, MikeOxon said:

    While I'm sorry that your Broad Gauge diorama has been abandoned, I think the SECR is a good choice.  There are several SECR enthusiasts on here to provide information.  Yellow brick is a feature of some stations - see, for example:

    Mike

    Thank you Mike,

     

     

    The broad gauge project ended after I realized that it might be more work than I wished to put in, however I still have the engine.

     

    SECR looks very interesting though, and I’ll take a look at that link.

     

    Douglas

    Florence Locomotive Works

    Posted

    On 04/02/2021 at 14:43, agt613 said:

    I appreciate the standard of work that goes into your weathering but wouldn't the buildings be pretty new in your period? Just a thought. Grah

     

    Yes I do agree. I think at some point a more L&M looking station will be acquired, as normally they were stone rather than brick, excluding the big Manchester Terminus. 

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