Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[billbedford]

While you're tuned in Bill please, perhaps you, or somebody else, can answer the question I included in a recent e-mail to you, regarding the function of this printed part I found in one of three GCR six-wheeled carriage kits that you sent me.
Mystery item.jpg

Is this a clue?

[mick b]

Even the Top window bars have the same extreme variation in shades, surely one piece of wood for that section not the multi sections as shown.

Do you think Doncaster had 60' lengths of teak available for second-class carriages in the early 30s?

Its the window width not the carriage

[billbedford]

Que?

[mick b]

The window bar on the right looks weird !! as do the others in the original photo.

[billbedford]

Aren't those windows the standard 4-pane sliding vents that were used on contemporary Gresley stock?

[mick b]

DON36_196 window.png (62.51 KiB) Viewed 5914 times

The Wooden bar on the right hand window , the others are Vents. it looks like a Humbug sweet or similar

[billbedford]

I really don't understand what you are getting at.

[Atlantic 3279]

While you're tuned in Bill please, perhaps you, or somebody else, can answer the question I included in a recent e-mail to you, regarding the function of this printed part I found in one of three GCR six-wheeled carriage kits that you sent me.
Mystery item.jpg

Is this a clue?

Buffer instr.png

More than a mere clue. Thank you.

[NZRedBaron]

I don't know if it applies, but earlier today, I found an image of a postcard from the GCR era, showing the inside of a Barnum on dining coach duties; the walls were painted in a dark red, with the furniture upholstered in a lighter red. Would that have continued in LNER days, do you think?

[Atlantic 3279]

I've been away for a couple of days, hence my slower than usual reply, but that colour postcard sounds interesting. Presumably it is a monochrome image hand-coloured by an artist. I imagine the dark red panelling may be an attempt to represent varnished mahogany, which I think was a GCR preferred finish. Maybe the lighter red of the upholstery is an artistic representation of the appearance of the well-lit red-brown?

I don't remember seeing any suggestions that the LNER deliberately or systematically altered the interior finishes of pre-group coaches if they were in satisfactory condition anyway, so the mahogany panelling may not have been altered. If re-upholstery of seats became necessary I think red-brown was a standard colour for LNER third class upholstery anyway, so from the modeller's point of view the original colours would seem to be equally suitable for an LNER period model.

[NZRedBaron]

Well, here's the picture, if you're interested, from the Great Central Railway Rolling Stock Trust's website:

[Chas Levin]

That is so gorgeous! Thank you for posting, very pleased to have seen it

[Atlantic 3279]

I can now return to track laying as I regard my diversion into Barnums as a completed exercise - hooray! With brake end ladders refitted, corridor connectors glued in place, roofs cautiously weathered to match the earlier two examples, underframes weathered too and the new bogies for all four coaches treated similarly, I'm happy to accept that the four vehicles match sufficiently to run as a set. Under close scrutiny the roof profiles are marginally different, the Jidenco examples have slightly more plain side showing above window level, and the 3D printed pair have better detailing of the solebars although those are not so perfectly straight as the metal ones of the Jidenco pair, BUT, with the other discrepancies that I have eliminated or minimised and the finishes carefully matched it is hard to spot any of those niggles in the "out on the layout" context, whether in motion or static.

The new 3D printed pair, seen from both sides:

In both of these views, a Jidenco example substituted on the left:

...and it looks as if a smudge on the camera lens has spoiled part of each image towards the left!

[Dave]

Very nice, are you bringing them on Sunday.

[Atlantic 3279]

I have room to bring the new pair...or possibly all four.