Dapol C32 Service Station - corrugated asbestos or iron roof?

[Bigglesof266]

Re the corrugated roof on the 1957 Airfix No. 3 Service Station kit (current Dapol C32 reissue Petrol Station). Its relevance? Painting and weathering presentation.

Would that roof more likely have been corrugated asbestos or corrugated iron sheet?

We had long panel asbestos sheet roofing in Australia in the late 1940s and early 1950s post war building boom. Its deployment was so common in contemporary housing and industrial buildings of the time it was tantamount to standard practice.

Having a look at images online of buildings in the UK of the era, those I've found of corrugated asbestos roofing there present most frequently as shorter sheet almost tile like panels. Was this the only type of asbestos roofing deployed at the time in the UK, or were both tile and long panel sheet types deployed?

Why? The sheet/panel length moulding in the Airfix/Dapol kit looks like corrugated iron to me, but realising it could well be either it strikes me as more likely asbestos would have been used in the austerity UK of the early to mid 1950s due to cost and availability. Which do you think most probable?

Thanks.

[Mountain]

We had both in use in the UK. Corrigated iron sheets were very popular as the old sheets were quite thick. It was common in the early years in Wales to put corrigated iron sheets over the thatch roofs in old cottages as instead of changing the thatch every 25 to 30 years, with the sheets on top the thatch acted as a warm insulator and the old thick iron sheets lasted over 100 years. It is only the modern thin sheets we get today that don't last so long. (10 to 30 years).
Aspestos was considered an ideal alternative. Its only main downside was that the material is brittle so one has to be careful if one has to go on an aspestos roof as one can potentially fall straight through. Ok, the modern regulations mean one is not allowed to use aspestos if the building is used as a business serving food, but it is a shame really because as a material, it can last years if it is looked after... Though to prevent leaks it may need painting with a thick membrane type of paint as rain has been known to seep through. My Dad used to do this on occasions. But there again, corrigated irom needs painting as well, which was always a black paint because it was made from a coal/tar like paint which was naturally black. Other colours cost at least twice the price, if not more, so no one used other colours around here.

[Bigglesof266]

Not really an answer to my question, but anecdotally interesting recall of your experience of the time nevertheless. Thanks Mountain.

I grew up in a house with a corrugated asbestos sheet roof. Lived there 1961 through 1976, returning periodically until 1981. It's still standing surprisingly, although the roof has since been replaced with a galvanized tin one in the intervening 40 years. Almost everything else surrounding both sides along the street has since been bought for the current land value alone, and demolished to make way for unit blocks. That house was built sometime between 1949-1952 at a time when all building materials were in short supply and demand was at crisis point with many returned soldiers and their families awaiting housing allocation living in housing camps in either tents or redundant former military barracks constructed by the Americans here during WWII. Although we had not had the bomb damage Germany or the UK had, due to the men being away during the war impacting on such a then still small population, no construction had occurred since 1939 pretty much, so there there was no private rental housing to be had.

The asbestos roof on my house and its ilk weren't painted, and still had the shade and look of bare concrete through the 1960s. Only with exposure to the harsh Australian sun, dust, pollution and weather generally over three decades did it start to take on a less pristine look, gradually blackening. It was very hardy and never leaked. Apart from torrential summer thunderstorms, very little rain where I then lived with bright sunshine and 25C+ temps 11 months of the year.

Galvanized steel, usually colour coated Colorbond roofs these days, are still common here even in new building today, particularly in my neck of the woods as they reflect the Queensland sub-tropical summer heat and are resilient to our harsh climate and summer weather. i.e. fierce afternoon thunderstorms with torrential rain often accompanied by large hail. Our current home, a modern rendered lowset completed Oct 2007 has a high pitch Colorbond Surf Mist roof with 5" Anticon insulation directly adjacent the roofing panels.

[captrees]

I'm thinking asbestos. The 'ripples' seem too big for a tin roof. There's a pic came up where it was painted as per corrugated iron and it looks wrong. Either might be painted in reality. We live in a very old house with a tin roof and most of it is painted and could pass as Colourbond.

[Bigglesof266]

Thanks for your thoughts captrees. My wife grew up in country Qld. Nearly all roofs back in the day on those Queenslanders built decades previous were natural galvanized steel or occasionally but less frequently, pre-painted red ochre.

Upon reflection I'm thinking asbestos weathering detail for that garage roof as well.

[Bigmet]

Re the corrugated roof on the 1957 Airfix No. 3 Service Station kit (current Dapol C32 reissue Petrol Station). Its relevance? Painting and weathering presentation.

Would that roof more likely have been corrugated asbestos or corrugated iron sheet? ...

Long panels of corrugated asbestos were in common use in the UK post war, until the general ban came in; typically on commercial buildings. (Housing was dominated by tile roofs, clay and concrete.)

I'd gauge whether the model is roofed with corrugated iron or asbestos by the width and form of the corrugation.
Scaling about 4", and formed as a continuous curve = iron.
Scaling >6" and with any flat sections at the peaks and troughs of the corrugation = asbestos.

Of course that long ago toolmaker may have cunningly blurred the difference so you can interpret it anyway you choose...

[Bufferstop]

If you treat as asbestos the "thick edge" will not be so overscale, if you want it to represent corrugated iron you need to thin the edge using a needle file on the underside of the profile. Although steel wasn't in plentiful supply in those times second hand corrugated iron was, from all of the Nissen huts and other temporary wartime structures which were being torn down. I can remember painting a friend's father's home built garage using red oxide primer on the scrounged sheets he used to build it.

[Mountain]

They do actually look very similar especially in model form, and to be honest, though a garage was more likely to be aspestos it may have been either.

[Bigglesof266]

Useful, and interesting, information all. Thank you. My favourite section of Hornby Magazine ordinarily turned to immediately after the (new tool) model presentation to which it is invariably directly related is always Evan Green-Hughes' "Reality Check" e.g. This month Jun/'21 , the aesthetically magnificent steamlined Coronation Scot.

Re the 1957 Airfix No.3 "Service Station", -I built mine from the Dapol reissue C23 "Petrol Station", I was initially inclined to go with corrugated iron, but upon reflection corrugated asbestos wins the day. Either would realise sufficient suspension of disbelief, iron better so with Bufferstop's edge mod suggestion.

I am in awe of the sculptors and toolmakers of the day. Given that it is now 64 years since this kit was initially released, that it still scrubs up so well as a base structure which with a modicum of added detail available to us now can be altered to present so well is kudos indeed. And still, last I looked, so affordable.

Another question whilst on the subject of original Airfix extant 'the fire' Dapol reissue buildings.

The (Oakham) Signal Box (Dapol C005) windows. Is anyone aware of/can recommend some (figuratively) drop in LMS style replacements? I bought the Ratio 539 kit ones, but they are closer to accurate 1/76 scale methinks and aren't a direct drop in replacement intended for the Airfix kit. The double windows can be fudged to look rather standoff suspension of disbelief, but the small ones are far too undersize for the Dapol kit window spaces even before cutting away the frames.

Had an enjoyable day yesterday putting these together for a nostalgia themed 1960s childhood 'playing with my train set' layout currently a WIP.

[Bigmet]

I am in awe of the sculptors and toolmakers of the day. Given that it is now 64 years since this kit was initially released...

That's nothing! There are gold objects from thousands of years ago, the quality of workmanship of which cannot be exceeded by current practitioners without resort to tools unavailable in the past.
https://www.rct.uk/collection/69742/the-rillaton-cup
It was very instructive to hear the modern goldsmith who made a replica for the British Museum, which the museum allows visitors to handle on occasion.

Back on model railway, the real loss was that the toolmakers at Triang and elsewhere were fully capable of producing excellent models, correct in dimension and appearance. Yet these businesses had them turn out moulding tools for inaccurate product, often 'nearly right' but with a few dimensions 'off' and detail appearance incorrect. But once in a while a decent scale model would 'escape'; Triang's bogie brick wagon and trestrol for example which brush up very nicely with current wheelsets etc..

[Bigglesof266]

Thanks for the link Bigmet. Always interested in such minutiae. I was an avid "LOOK AND LEARN" reader as a child. Lucky me, my mum spotted the first issue on one of her forays into the city and brought it home for me. International magazines reached Australia by sea in those days, so issues here were irregular and months behind original issue date, the occasional issue never reaching us at all. Had to order it in those days, and from a city newsagent to ensure a copy would be obtained from the distributor and kept until it could be picked up. How I loved that magazine!

I was a "Trains,...Trains,...Tri-ang Hornby Train Sets!" and Airfix kit in a hanger-header plastic bag child. I suspect it's difficult for anyone who didn't live that mid-1960s peak boomer period as a participating child to accurately comprehend the enormity of the impact our cohort had upon toy manufacturers of the day. Dinky, Scalextric, Matchbox, Corgi, Airfix all expanding and prodigious in their output.

[Bigmet]

Thanks for the link Bigmet. Always interested in such minutiae. I was an avid "LOOK AND LEARN" reader as a child...

Me too. We had it from the first edition. The greatest gift it gave me was the prompting to request and receive an Adult library ticket (Hertfordshire library service was powerfully ageist back then!) in order that I could borrow some of the books it mentioned. I had to produce a letter from my primary school confirming that I would benefit from this, which dear Mary Cann provided. (She made sure I was using it too, regularly asking what I was reading, and making suggestions for investigation; and when I left for secondary school a long reading list was supplied, she was an educator through and through.)