Sunday, November 2, 2014

Werris Creek Station - More Colour Information

Today I received an email from Tony McIlwain with a number of photos attached.

Thank you Tony, they were very much appreciated and useful.

There were three colour photos of the station along with ten black and whites. The colour photos were from 1972 and two of them have caused a bit of consternation regarding the colour of the awning posts and cast iron brackets. The photos appear to show the posts and brackets as being green. Tony postulated that the green could be the same as that on the window sills of the hotel and refreshment rooms however the sills were green in the 1963 photo in the last post so it is unlikely that it would be the same. It is more likely that the green would be the same as the dark green used on station platform seats, Newcastle Station awning posts and brackets and other railway infrastructure of the era.

Here are the photos as received and then after a bit of adjustment.

Photo 1
Werris Creek Station - 1972 - Vintage Train to Glen Innes - Tony McIlwain
 Adjusted.


Photo 2
Werris Creek Station - 1972 - Vintage Train to Glen Innes 2 - Tony McIlwain
Adjusted

Photo 3
Werris Creek Station - 1972 - Wallangarra Tour return at Werris Creek - Tony McIlwain
Adjusted

The adjustments were made to bring the colours of the buffer beam, the locos, the red brick of the refreshment rooms and the common bricks of the upper storey of the main building to a more correct tone. The photos were also lightened to bring out the detail in the shadow of the awning.

The third photo is included here out of interest as it doesn't add much to the colour information.

After this, I then adjusted a few of the photos from the earlier posts to see what showed.

Here are the 1969 photos, the first clearly shows the brown post and cream cast iron bracket above and the second was lightened to hopefully better show the colour surrounding the white rectangles between the ground floor and the first floor of the refreshment room/hotel building as well as below the gutter. This colour, what ever it is can also be seen above the first floor on the main building.



Now for an answer to the unknown colour around the white rectangles here are some black and white photos taken in 1971.




It now becomes apparent that there isn't a different colour around the white rectangles, it was just a shadow effect. Also shown in the last photo is the single colour of the awning post and brackets, looks green to me.

Lastly John Hurst's photo of 3801 at Werris Creek from the previous post (taken in 1973) has been adjusted to see if the 'cream' trim on the buildings could be more like the paler colour of the trim in the above photos. It may be that this was Light Stone.


It a seems to me that the awning posts and cast iron brackets were painted green sometime between 1969 and 1971. The rest of the paintwork seems to be the same between the two years.

So unless someone else can shed any light on the issue it looks like the posts and brackets will be green as Ron's era for his Werris Creek layout is nominally 1972.

Now, though what is the colour of the trim around the bottom of the walls which shows up well in the last black and white photo and also the window sills of the ground floor windows?

Based on this adjusted Weston Langford taken in 1961 I believe that it is dark brown.

I think that I had better stop at this point, then again I am travelling north in two weeks.


6 comments:

B. Kooistra said...

Ray, from what I can tell from my color-adjusted monitor in natural indirect room lighting, your corrections have introduced a fair amount of green into the photographs.

Ray P said...

Blair

Yes, I can see what you mean however the first step was to use 'Fill Light and Clarity', a Brightness and Contrast setting which clearly shows the bracket as being a light green similar to the window sills above. Unless of course that it is a visual artifact caused by the low resolution of the photo.

The last black and white photo certainly shows the post and brackets as one colour not the brown and cream of the early 1960's.

I think that I have also come to the conclusion that the trim around the bottom of the walls is black.

Hopefully, I will get an answer when I travel north soon.

Ray

B. Kooistra said...

Be sure to take a small piece of sand paper so you can sneakily do some archaeology on the structure!

Colin Hussey said...

Ray

My first time at the Creek was from end 69 to early 71 next from 82 onwards.

In the early time, I am not certain there about the green window trims on the buildings & certainly none on the posts & awnings.

I have a photo taken at night of 3616 at the head of an up tour train taken in around 65 it does show part of the signal box though & from my later reccolections the box & station buildings were very much painted the same, especially in regard to the trims.

From this, & I cannot say with any degree of being 100% on it, the station posts & awnings, along with seats were painted in dark brown, thus more likely dark stone, the same as the bottom of the station concrete.

What I saw over time was in a general way, that seats as well as any awnings & often the awning posts were painted the same colour, & certainly the most common being the dark stone or alternate being dark green.

In the working days, painters usually carried with them the minimum amount of designated colours for stations. Of course high profile stations like WCK may well have been given more attention, but in the later days of pre Shirley & PTC, meaning the late 60's many aspects of cost savings were implimented on the system, & paint being one of them, thankfully that did not cost lifes nor place staff in unpleasant situations that followed.

Colin Hussey said...

Ray

Just a note on what I said previously.

I had a look at the Langford photo of 4813 in 1961 at the creek, without doing much to the original image except in PS, adding a single addition of green in the variations box, & does not lighten it as much as you had already done, it brings the shot up quite nicely.

What is shown is the post outside the ref room as being green, but the spot where the arches come towards the top, looks to be in mid stone, with the curved supports I would suggest is light stone.

Onto the scanned photo, taken in 63, the same post is very much in the dark stone colour as I previously mentioned except for the base which is black. That I would say is how it was during my first stint there, meaning for most of the 60's

Ray P said...

Colin

Yes, I understand that the 1961 post was black base, mid-green post, Mid-Stone post top and cream or Light Stone brackets and that in 1963 it was black base, reddish brown post (Dark Stone?) and cream or Light Stone brackets.

I have a number of photos showing the posts through the years. I think I might do a blog post with the approximate times and colours although it isn't directly related to the year Ron wants which is 1972.

After further communication with Tony McIlwain the 1972 colours look like being black base, mid-green post and brackets.

Ray