Finally, I am in a position to start the lettering. While the underframes have their initial dry after a dose of dirty gunge, let's look at my options.
The period of these models is late 1880s to the end of the Broad Gauge (1892). If I may, I'd like to call on the WT Hive Mind to help me pin down what I am expected to apply.
Beginning with the running numbers, this is fairly straightforward. The numbers are duplicated on each side. For the van, they seem to be applied to the upper eaves panels between the luggage doors and lookout, and the panel out from the guards door. This information is based on Fig 56, page 54,
Great Western Coaches Vol 1 (Russell), which shows a contemporary narrow gauge V13 passenger luggage van in the livery I'm trying to recreate. For the S6, the numbers are again in the upper eaves panels, in the large panels nearest the ends between the outer compartments.
Now, we get complicated. I have read through as many times as I can the article
Passenger Coaches by John Lewis, published in
The Great Western Way (HMRS), which outlines liveries from the earliest days of the GWR. I will quote some of that publication to see if it makes any sense.
Starting with the S6, because it's the simpler of the two, it seems each door should have "THIRD" in the waist panel below each droplight. Company identifiers seem to be either entwined monograms or the garter device, if they are applied at all. The problem I have is the entwined monograms I have from CPL (item 1C) are mahoosive. In fact, I now note they are the same as the loco monograms.
I can't use these, even though they might be correct for the period, as they are simply far too big. Which leaves me the only other option, that of the garter device.
(For future reference, can anyone recommend suitable small entwined monograms from another source?)
These appear inverted because they are spirit fix not waterslide. They also include the supporters, which may or may not be suitable for the current situation. I think I can use the garter device, but I have enough in stock for two coaches provided only one device is applied per side. Where, on a five-compartment coach, would the device go? The central door?
Lewis says:
Until about 1904 GWR coaches could be identified by the use of either one of the garter devices or the entwined monogram in a small size. The problem with trying to define rules of how they were used is made difficult by the lack of clear, dateable, photographs taken in the 1870s or early 1880s. For some reason, too, the first garter device often did not photograph very well. It would appear that in the 1870s some coaches had no company identifier … Photographs show that by the early 1880s the garter device was in use on coaches with First Class accommodation either on the doors … or between the doors below the waist panels.
I am open to correction, but I read that to say a third class coach in the period being modelled
may not have had a company identifier applied. The entwined monogram, however, was used on third class coaches. D'oh!
Back to the V8. According to Lewis, the word "GUARD" on the door waist panel didn't come into regular use until the early 1890s. I take this to mean it can be left off, and this is supported by some photographic evidence. Equally, "PASSENGER LUGGAGE" might also be left off, seemingly only applied to luggage compartments on passenger carrying vehicles. However, the V13 referenced above shows only the running numbers but does have the luggage door wording, though this is slightly earlier than the period I'm working to, being dated to the 1870s.
Summing up, if I letter the S6 with running numbers and a single garter device without supporters (possibly offset to the left of the central door), and the V8 with running numbers and the luggage door lettering, would I be in the ball park?