7mm Buckjumper's Workbench - Latest: GCR D8 open wagons

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
Jon - could you expand on your comment on the green and indian red please?

:))
The job myself and the rest of the paint team were doing was re-painting the tender of C-O-T after it had major repairs to it. The repairs exposed a massive thickness of paint in one or two areas so rather than completely strip it straight away we carefully removed various layers of paint from one or two areas, mostly by simply chipping away at it! Some of the layers hadn't taken to the surface below it and revealed some very old paint in remarkably good condition which was then compared with swatches of what we thought were the correct colours. The green that was unearthed quite close to the metal under about 25-30 layers of other colours was presumed to be from "early days" and seemed to be a much blue-er green than any GW green than I'd ever seen and was duly matched by Tekaloid for us. Traces of Indian Red or whatever name it goes by were similarly discovered and matched.
This was of course about a year or so after our little BR lined black jape...!
JF
 

Buckjumper

Flying Squad
But as for colours I have never been able to find any evidence in the form of colour photos to show what colour they were before they were BR Blue. I can't find a maroon one or any green ones as the vans are always too dirty and virtually all the photos you can find are black and white.

There is a good little book Southern Railway Passenger Vans, I have a copy somewhere but even that comes to no firm conclusion on what colour they were inthe late forties to late 60s period.

I've been offered the photo on this page on the Rails of Sheffield site as an example of one in very faded crimson, and I have to admit it looks more like a washed-out red than a coating of grime. The quality of the desaturated nature of the reproduction doesn't help much, but if I aim for a slightly bolder version of that colour I can leave the exact description of it fairly vague...
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Adrian

I have done 4 of these vans theya re nice kit to build and lasted in service until the early 1980s and went everywhere, there are even photos of them at Kyle of Lochalsh in BR days.

But as for colours I have never been able to find any evidence in the form of colour photos to show what colour they were before they were BR Blue. I can't find a maroon one or any green ones as the vans are always too dirty and virtually all the photos you can find are black and white.

There is a good little book Southern Railway Passenger Vans, I have a copy somewhere but even that comes to no firm conclusion on what colour they were in the late forties to late 60s period.

Richard

That seems strange: it is extremely unlikely that any SR built parcels vehicle ever carried maroon since their maintenance was a matter for their home region but Eastleigh certainly painted them in the standard SR coaching stock colours of the time, i.e. crimson or green. One of Dave Larkin's Bradford Barton albums has a portrait shot of one which he says was still in crimson c. 1969. Since he took the photo and the book must have been produced only a couple of years later I'm inclined to take him at his word. It's almost certain that the ply-sheeted batches of CCT and PLV were turned out by BR in crimson when they were built. I certainly have seen colour pictures of freshly painted SR parcels vehicles, unmistakably in green. Glen Woods on the SR coaching stock yahoo group has laid his hands on Lancing Works' in/out book and this records repaint dates precisely. I saved the files, I'll have a look and see what parcels stock is mentioned.

Adam
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Adrian

I have done 4 of these vans theya re nice kit to build and lasted in service until the early 1980s and went everywhere, there are even photos of them at Kyle of Lochalsh in BR days.

But as for colours I have never been able to find any evidence in the form of colour photos to show what colour they were before they were BR Blue. I can't find a maroon one or any green ones as the vans are always too dirty and virtually all the photos you can find are black and white.

There is a good little book Southern Railway Passenger Vans, I have a copy somewhere but even that comes to no firm conclusion on what colour they were in the late forties to late 60s period.

Richard

That seems strange: it is extremely unlikely that any SR built parcels vehicle ever carried maroon since their maintenance was a matter for their home region but Eastleigh certainly painted them in the standard SR coaching stock colours of the time, i.e. crimson or green. One of Dave Larkin's Bradford Barton albums has a portrait shot of one which he says was still in crimson c. 1969. Since he took the photo and the book must have been produced only a couple of years later I'm inclined to take him at his word. It's almost certain that the ply-sheeted batches of CCT and PLV were turned out by BR in crimson when they were built. I certainly have seen colour pictures of freshly painted SR parcels vehicles, unmistakably in green. Glen Woods on the SR coaching stock yahoo group has laid his hands on Lancing Works' in/out book and this records repaint dates precisely. I saved the files, I'll have a look and see what parcels stock is mentioned.

Adam
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Adam

Let us know what you find as I'd love to know having spent many hours to finding to get some hard facts in the past.
I have to say Southern stock isn't really my thing.


Richard
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Richard

The Southern may not be your thing, but it is mine and I must admit that I'm slightly baffled; Gould does record the colour that some things were painted in his book (Bulleid's plastic PMVs for example) though I agree, not everything. The general policy was that BR(S) NPCCS was painted to match the coaches. Exactly what happened between the '30s and Nationalisation is another question of course, but there really isn't much debate that SR parcels stock went from Crimson to Green after nationalisation. How many of the things were actually painted Crimson is another question, but clearly some were - the plywood PMVs built in 1950 must have been.

Note how this shot clearly demonstrates that the things were a different colour (grime, most probably, but green beneath):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52467480@N08/6920453879/in/set-72157629428443335

These are probably the clearest pictures: Green, even planked, PMVs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_christie/8535073908/in/set-72157625418636168/

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/srpmv/h1e701a93#h1e701a93

By way of a bonus a green (almost certainly at that date) van B with orange panels which signify a stove, I think:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/david_christie/8375657831/in/set-72157625418636168

and a van C likewise:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52467480@N08/6850787076/in/set-72157629255295712

Part of this was the southern's way of doing things - they were almost as perverse as Swindon. The BR Mk1 GUVs that came to the SR were for the Okehampton car carrier (discussed ad infinitum/ad nauseum on SEMG) and were built in maroon: Eastleigh repainted them as soon as they could.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/barkingbill/5218534950/in/set-72157603696486994

A clear, colour, shot of one painted Crimson (or Malachite) is something I haven't yet found.

Adam
 

Overseer

Western Thunderer
Did you notice the roof weathering on the van in the second photo (by David Christie)? How would that have come about? If anyone can reproduce that convincingly on a model they should get a prize.
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Did you notice the roof weathering on the van in the second photo (by David Christie)? How would that have come about? If anyone can reproduce that convincingly on a model they should get a prize.


No idea how it came about but the rain strip must be newly installed and painted by the look of it. Quite what has made the roof look like that is anyone's guess.

Adam
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Adam

Some nice pictures there but the elusive crimson one is still to be found.

Its clear that most of these vans were green.

Richard
 

Crab and Winkle

Active Member
If its of any use to anyone (or if they live nearby) there is the grounded body of a SR CCT in Faversham boatyard that is used as an office/store. I had a bit of a look at it in 2008 and while I remember much peeling paint I can't remember the colours underneath. It was still there in 2010, although I only glanced at it in passing there are also at least 60 grounded vans there of various types being used as storage sheds.
 

Buckjumper

Flying Squad
Well it's been a very long time, in fact 223 days since the flood, but at long last there's a definite light at the end of the tunnel, even if it's still a way off. Eventually ten rooms were severely affected either directly or by secondary damage, and taken back to brick and concrete. Where there were timber frames they were removed and ceilings propped up, and my workshop was razed to the ground. It took until the end of July to dry the house out, but we've got one room completed with two more due for completion in a couple of weeks or so. Three rooms have yet to be started, so we're still in a process!

Anyway, the main thing is my new workshop has risen from the silt, and is just waiting for the sparky to come and hook up the juice, which will probably happen at the same time as the two almost-completed rooms.

What it means is that I now have somewhere during daylight hours where I can cut slivers of glass and slosh MEK without being a danger to the kids, though without electricity or lighting soldering and airbrushing still isn't possible.

Enough of the waffle, you want pics. For those of you who take the MRJ regularly you may remember a lovely little essay in 7mm on the Mid-Suffolk called Debenham. The layout was sold (and is now owned by a member of Western Thunder!) and the builder is working on a new light railway for which I built a J68 and a J15. Last year he also asked if I would weather a couple of ex-GE 6-wheel coaches which he was never entirely happy with.

So first up is a D&S kit of a composite to diagram 208. This was originally built and painted by Danny Pinnock many years ago, and in the interim given a little weathering, and this is how it came to me:
GER composite_original.jpg

Last winter I waved the magic wand over it, added some judicious drybrushing and at long last I've finally got round to reglazing it with 0.13mm glass and here is the result:

dia.208_composite_02.jpg
 

Buckjumper

Flying Squad
I'm hoping that the J15 will make an appearance soon?

No. 65389 has already seen the light and can be found here and also back on page 4. However there are two more J15s in the nearly ready pile, both having suffered a little cosmetic damage while escaping the deluge. Once I get the electric hooked up...
 
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