Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[melmoth]

@MrWolf If you have access to a copy of Great Western Aspects by Kevin Robertson (isbn 9781909328303), there is a 40 page article on the Economic System of Maintenance which includes a much clearer picture of what is described as 'a wayside telephone and occupation-key hut' (page 44 of book). I'll try to take a photo of the photo if I can get a moment this morning, but time and technology are against me right now.

Edited September 10 by melmoth
omission

[Darlington_Shed]

Always happy to go in pursuit of someone else's rabbit, I found this one:

https://www.osbornsmodels.com/noch-14306-scales-187-scale-ho-scale-lineside-phone-box-laser-cut-minis-kit-50395-p.asp

 

Of continental origin but looks very like the one in the original photo. I'll let someone else do the scale conversion 

[Limpley Stoker]

Here’s one I found in an odd corner of my shed- seems to have a phone line installed ! Here is the publication too .

 

 

 

[melmoth]

1 hour ago, melmoth said:

@MrWolf If you have access to a copy of Great Western Aspects by Kevin Robertson (isbn 9781909328303), there is a 40 page article on the Economic System of Maintenance which includes a much clearer picture of what is described as 'a wayside telephone and occupation-key hut' (page 44 of book). I'll try to take a photo of the photo if I can get a moment this morning, but time and technology are against me right now.

 

Et voila...

[Siberian Snooper]

On 09/09/2024 at 16:23, MrWolf said:

 

A bus would just result in another big hole in the backscene...

 

A tractor would be a good idea, but, I'm trying not to overpopulate the layout with vehicles and / or figures particularly at this end.

 

Even today, Aston is a quiet place, somewhere the tourists just pass through on the way to Clun castle.

 

I've only planned for a few figures, one at the garage, immersed in swearing at a recalcitrant Austin 7, then two or three at the station.

 

 It's a bit of a balancing act.

 

How about a four legged tractor, with or without a cart, or even pulling a tree trunk out of the plantation.

 

 

[ChrisN]

21 hours ago, melmoth said:

 

Et voila...

 

This is interesting as having a couple of days ago looked to see when the GWR installed telephones in the Great Western Journal it had an article from 1903 saying they had put an exchange into Paddington.  Does this phone line go to the nearest box or further?

[Compound2632]

14 minutes ago, ChrisN said:

This is interesting as having a couple of days ago looked to see when the GWR installed telephones in the Great Western Journal it had an article from 1903 saying they had put an exchange into Paddington.  Does this phone line go to the nearest box or further?

 

My understanding is that all the signal post and signal box phones were on an area circuit, and that depending on which button you pushed, you could speak either to the local box, or from one box to an adjacent box, or to the whole circuit, or to area control. But I may be speaking out of turn, thinking of Midland / LMS practice rather than GWR practice, so would welcome clarification.

[Captain Kernow]

46 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

My understanding is that all the signal post and signal box phones were on an area circuit, and that depending on which button you pushed, you could speak either to the local box, or from one box to an adjacent box, or to the whole circuit, or to area control. But I may be speaking out of turn, thinking of Midland / LMS practice rather than GWR practice, so would welcome clarification.

That's pretty much the case as regards the ex-GW boxes I was associated with in work days. I seem to remember that there was a list of telephone bell codes you rang, depending on which box you wanted to speak to. I don't think there was anything to stop others on the same circuit listening in to your conversation, either!

 

[woodenhead]

13 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

That's pretty much the case as regards the ex-GW boxes I was associated with in work days. I seem to remember that there was a list of telephone bell codes you rang, depending on which box you wanted to speak to. I don't think there was anything to stop others on the same circuit listening in to your conversation, either!

 

And there was a time where domestic phone lines were shared between households where it was possible to listen to your neighbour on the phone.

[St Enodoc]

29 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

That's pretty much the case as regards the ex-GW boxes I was associated with in work days. I seem to remember that there was a list of telephone bell codes you rang, depending on which box you wanted to speak to. I don't think there was anything to stop others on the same circuit listening in to your conversation, either!

 

"Anyone on?"

[lezz01]

Ok so now I've stopped looking I'll be finding pics of these huts everywhere.

Regards Lez.

[Nick C]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

My understanding is that all the signal post and signal box phones were on an area circuit, and that depending on which button you pushed, you could speak either to the local box, or from one box to an adjacent box, or to the whole circuit, or to area control. But I may be speaking out of turn, thinking of Midland / LMS practice rather than GWR practice, so would welcome clarification.

On ours (heritage railway - I don't know how authentic this is to earlier practice), there's a single omnibus line between the boxes for signalman to signalman conversations, but each box has it's own concentrator for the signal post telephones, so that the phone is connected directly to the controlling box, and the signalman knows from which signal he's being called.

[MrWolf]

Thanks go out to @lezz01, @GWR57xx, @Captain Kernow, @melmoth, @Darlington_Shed, @Limpley Stoker and @SimonHMT for their efforts and contributions on the matter of the very small shed.

 

I think that I have enough information between the photos and the drawings of the fogman's hut in order to draw up something convincing and dig out the plastic sheets.

 

Typically, I had started at the wrong end of the book shelves and my copy of Great Western Aspects was at the other end. 

It did also mean a skim read of Great Western Infrastructure 1922-1934 ISBN 978-1-909328-25-9 that that also has some very interesting information within particularly in relation to signalling, another job on the to do list.

 

[MrWolf]

A slight diversion from the telephone hut are these GWR storage huts which arrived early this week from Matt, @Brinkly at Dartmoor Model Services.

Thanks also to @Graham T and @gwrrob for tracking them down as I couldn't remember who made them.

 

Straight out of the box, I'm impressed by the roofing, its edges are very thin and well defined.

 

 

I'll give them a waft of primer followed by the house colours.

 

I only actually need one for Aston, the other two I have a plan for and although it's a way off, I think it is a good idea to support anyone who is making niche items like this.

[MrWolf]

I've had the crayons out and using the details from other GWR huts plus the photos of original huts, I've made a drawing of how I think the telephone hut should look.

 

[Tim Dubya]

17 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I think it is a good idea to support anyone who is making niche items like this.

 

Couldn't agree more there Rob.  I've been squirrelling away bits like this for years.  Use it or loose it, I say.  Maybe someone out there will produce a phone hut 3D print one day?

😜

 

Edited Saturday at 17:37 by Tim Dubya

[Winslow Boy]

6 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I've had the crayons out and using the details from other GWR huts plus the photos of original huts, I've made a drawing of how I think the telephone hut should look.

 

Sorry Rob can't resist but look it's got four sides and a pitched roof.

 

I'll go and lie down in a darkened room as all this excitement is too much.

 

Matron the pills.

[chuffinghell]

10 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I've had the crayons out and using the details from other GWR huts plus the photos of original huts, I've made a drawing of how I think the telephone hut should look.

 

It’s a shame you don’t have a friend that could draw one and 3D print it for you 😉

 

Were in Kidderminster this weekend so walked to the SVR for a look around, going again tomorrow to ride on the choo choos

 

Anyway took this

 

 

Also after seeing this….

….I’m wondering if I should add a CC3 to my range

 

Edited Saturday at 20:03 by chuffinghell

[Darlington_Shed]

2 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Anyway took this

 

That's interesting, 'cos when I look at that blurry photo Rob first posted I could easily be persuaded it has a curved roof.

[MrWolf]

2 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

It’s a shame you don’t have a friend that could draw one and 3D print it for you 😉

 

It did cross my mind but I dismissed the idea as you're likely to be up to your ears with 3D work.

You may have just talked yourself into a job... 😉 

 

I suspect that it's something that other people might be interested in too and could be printed in batches?

 

2 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Were in Kidderminster this weekend so walked to the SVR for a look around, going again tomorrow to ride on the choo choos

 

Anyway took this

 

 

Now that's a top shelf shed! Not seen one that small before. It's like some kind of armoured Portaloo... 

At a rough estimate based on 2'6" wide sheets of 2" corrugations I'm thinking of a footprint of about 2'10 x 3'6".

Height to the top of the door arc 6'6", top of roof 6'8"-6'9".

 

 

 

2 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Also after seeing this….

….I’m wondering if I should add a CC3 to my range

 

 

Interesting, I suspect that the only challenge will be allowing enough lateral movement in the centre axle, although I have a few ideas on that one.

[MrWolf]

17 minutes ago, Darlington_Shed said:

 

That's interesting, 'cos when I look at that blurry photo Rob first posted I could easily be persuaded it has a curved roof.

 

I suspect that tin hut is a later version of the wooden telephone hut, or possibly something that contained an Elsan chemical toilet in the 1920s.

[Captain Kernow]

12 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

 

That's also a rather nice looking lamp.

 

[MrWolf]

Looks to have a working mantle in it too.

[Graham T]

You can get a nice little laser-cut fogman's hut from Railmodel.  Looks like they have improved the hinges since I got mine too.

[57xx]

17 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Anyway took this

 

 

 

I hope you give it back afterwards!