On the Road

[Chas Levin]

Wonderful collection David - I was just reading about them in the Scalefour magazine last night... inspires me to make a few more myself, as I do build the occasional road vehicle but I haven't done many of this sort of period.

[David B]

Thank you, Chas. Many vehicles from the pre-Grouping era went on for many years, some up to WW2. I remember seeing traction engines and a steam lorry in the mid-50s and one of my earliest memories is seeing a pair of ploughing engines working. They have been restored and are at the Lincolnshire Museum. A few years ago, I had the opportunity at a show to go on a drag being worked by a pair of ploughing engines. One of the engines was one of those I saw as a child.

[Chas Levin]

That's a very nice thing to have seen David. I am gradually modelling more pre-grouping railway rolling stock so in fact, pre-grouping road vehicles will fit in quite well...

[David B]

I still have the vintage 'Le Mans' style Bentley unmade as I doubt one of these would end up as a scrapper!

They went in to scrap yards, just as any old car would. A lot came out later though. Its totally conceivable for a '50s scrap yard to have an old Bentley.

A vehicle scrap yard would make an interesting addition to a layout or even a small diorama. Any takers? Having invested years making my models, I have no desire to scrap them just yet.

[martin goodall]

A query occurred to me that David may be able to answer. A couple of his models are very attractive replicas of pre-WW1 vehicles (1906/1910). Am I right in thinking that these might possibly still have been seen on the road in the early 1920s (say 1921-22), especially in country districts, or would they have seemed 'old-fashioned' by then? Cars like the Austin 7 and Bull-nose Morris range (e.g. 'Oxford' and 'Cowley' tourers) were beginning to appear in the first half of the 1920s, so maybe things like a De Dion Bouton might have been left in the back of the garage or in and old shed by that time. Any comments?

[You can tell I am fishing for an excuse to acquire one or two kits for these earlier vehicles while they are still on the market. So far my kit mountain only starts with cars produced from 1920 onwards. Unlike David, I have not yet found time to turn any of these kits into actual models.]

[bécasse]

The late James Gray amassed an absolutely vast collection of photographs of greater Brighton and Hove which the Regency Society, with the assistance of various sponsors, have scanned and placed on line at http://regencysociety-jamesgray.com.
Whilst the way that they are displayed can make it hard work to go from one district volume of photos to another, they are an incredibly useful source of all sorts of historical information on things like dress styles, road vehicles and even road surfaces, inter alia. James Gray was an expert in dating photographs (which is easier with such a vast collection taken in an area like this where the exact dates of various changes were known) and one can be certain that if a photograph is dated, and most are, that date will be 99,9% correct or very close. Although the majority of districts covered were urban/suburban quite a few were still rural at the time the photos were taken.

[David B]

Martin. I am guessing here, but I would imagine the de Dion (1904), early Rover (1906) and Renault AX (1908) might have been scrapped by 1920 but others in the Scalelink range such as the 1914 Vauxhall (with the boat tail), Aquilla 'Italiana' of 1913 could well be still going in the 1920s. At the bottom of the page (remember to click on 'view all' at the top) are a couple of commercial Ford Model T items, which could also still be on the road.

In the list, as well as the Bullnose Morris trio, is a Buick tourer (1924) which I have not made and quite a list of other 1920s cars.

Not all early vehicles were scrapped. If they had been, we would not have the London Brighton run today.

Don't forget, anyone reading this, that the chap running Scalelink intends to retire in August and so far has not sold the range or business, so these kits may well disappear altogether.

[David B]

The late James Gray amassed an absolutely vast collection of photographs of greater Brighton and Hove which the Regency Society, with the assistance of various sponsors, have scanned and placed on line at http://regencysociety-jamesgray.com.

Thank you very much for this link. I can see myself spending some time immersed in these photos. I was not aware of the archive - a great find.

[Enigma]

A vehicle scrap yard would make an interesting addition to a layout or even a small diorama. Any takers? Having invested years making my models, I have no desire to scrap them just yet. [/quote]

Here is part of the scrap yard on Enigma Engineering with 2 of the Jet cars slowly rotting away into the undergrowth. I'm sure Ivor B. Gunne would consider selling them for a reasonable offer

ScrapCars.A.jpg

[David B]

Like

[David B]

I have not been posting about my road vehicles as I have been writing the articles which have appeared in Scalefour News. Now we have had several issues - we have just received Issue 236 - with the Editor's permission, I wanted to make the articles available on my thread. There are some more articles to appear this year, so I will post them in due course a few weeks after they first appear in the News.

From News 232, May 2023:

Article_OnTheRoadIntroduction.pdf

Scalefour News 233, July 2023:

Article_OnTheRoadHorseDrawnVehicles.pdf

Scalefour News 234, September 2023:

Article_OnTheRoadSteam.pdf

No article appeared in issue 235 and the current issue is 236. In 236, the article covers steam lorries and will be put here after issue 237 appears which should be in May.

[Chas Levin]

Hello David, thanks for posting these; I've very much enjoyed reading the articles so far but it's also useful to have them available digitally,

[Winander]

it's also useful to have them available digitally,

Hello Chas, the entire magazine is available digitally, including the back issues, https://www.scalefour.org/members/newsarchive/

[Chas Levin]

Thanks Richard - I've gone there before for older back numbers but I hadn't thought about using it as a source of more recent issues: funny how we can have blind spots about things, isn't it?