GWR White Wagon Roofs.

[Bigmet]

Effectively so, yes. The white lead paint was first and foremost a caulking for the canvas roof covering to make it watertight. (If there had been a cheaper equally effective waterproofing paint formulation in use then the roofs would have come out whatever colour that different formulation was.) It was all going to be covered in the exhaust and dirt of the steam worked railway very quickly once in service, so no point painting it a different colour like grey. That would cost additional money..

[b308]

Mind you, what looks even sillier is that the Hornby Railroad coaches ride 2 or 3mm too high, which at 4mm to the foot is a long way.

Probably a relic of their past, Triang, then Triang-Hornby locos always had couplers/buffer beams a couple of mil too high, as the reviewers in the modelling press in the 60s and 70s were always pointing out!

[Bigmet]

At least it is very easy to correct on coaches, by cutting down the boss on the underside which rests on the bogies. Exactly the same basic idea as reducing the ride height on current Bachmann diesels for the same effect.

[UrbanHermit]

Yes, I've been coming round to thinking I'll just have to do that. What toll would you recommend for the job? (Whatever it is, I probably haven't got one...)

[UrbanHermit]

Er, that should have been TOOL.

[Bigmet]

I'd use a side cutter in a rotary tool. Back in the day, a small medium cut file (unclip the underframe truss for access) having first made a couple of vertical cuts to the required depth with a razor saw to assist in gauging when adequate material had been removed.

[Bufferstop]

The only white roofs I've ever seen have been on recent restorations on heritage lines.

[End2end]

The only white roofs I've ever seen have been on recent restorations on heritage lines.

And layouts!

4WheelFinished2sm.jpg (58.85 KiB) Viewed 1332 times

Interesting thread this. I never knew about the hanging paintbrushes et al. Thanks for sharing/enlightening.
Thanks
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[TimberSurf]

Interesting thread this. I never knew about the hanging paintbrushes et al.
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I know very little about GWR, but I do know a lot about one somewhat unknown Railway company.
The LR Company was one of the earliest railways to be established, but had a very checkered history. The reigning King at the time was (not only rich) but also very much a benefactor for backing the latest technology and ideas. The history book is not very clear, due to the lack of records and writing at the time, so some of the details are not always black and white! In fact a lot of the stories emanating from court are more rumours than fact.
It is conjectured that one young gent positioned himself as the Chief Engineer for a few years at the LRC, having wooed the King with his wacky idea's, but over time was rumbled as a lunatic, due to the failure of his contrived mechanisms, to bear fruit. It is purported that the King eventually fired him and that he subsequently went on to work for the GWR, but only lasted a few month's as he tried to regurgitate his LR plans with the more worldly engineers at the GWR.
As the current incumbent, I am trying to document as much of the LR history as I can and will eventually write the story to be published on the Lumsdonia website. You will have to wait to hear more stories about 'bakelite wheels','The winged coach' and the of course the infamous court case of 'Lumsdonia vs Hornby'

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Wrong thread

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Railways were so much more efficient when unicorns pulled the coaches.

Thanks
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