Chalk and Pens

Chalk

The station name is picked out in chalk in the flower bed opposite the station building. Mr. Bushnell looks on contemplating when to plant his favourite cornflowers for the summer display.

The letters were cut from the blocks of a rubber stamp printing set, stuck down with superglue and over painted in white.

Pens

Due to lack of photos we cannot confirm the style of cattle pens used at Cliddesden. A Bentworth & Lasham photo shows a brief glimpse of what might be the side of the pens there and it is possibly round horizontal bars passing through vertical posts - a common arrangement. If we search in Google images for L&SWR cattle pens or dock the majority are model railways with only a few real railway pens and mostly in disrepair! One of these is a nice looking pen at Guildford made from wooden boards fixed to concrete posts. The boards are fixed from the inside of the pen to provide a smooth surface so that the cattle do not hurt themselves. Searching on Ebay revealed the Slater's n gauge line side fencing that would work well, with some minor modification, for our pens based on Guildford. The Slater's kit even comes with a bar gate.

As with the style of fence, the arrangement of fences at Cliddesden is also difficult to identify. A 1911 plan in our reference book is far from clear but an ordnance survey map from the same year suggests two pens with access from the adjoining road rather than the goods yard.

Having made the model it seemed entirely logical that the large pen accessible from the road is the main holding pen whilst the smaller funnel shaped pen would be an interim holding pen used just prior to loading. These two pens would make it easier to move individual cattle through the complex thus avoiding animal distress or stampede. Well, that's my theory anyway.

Inside the large pen is a water trough that is meant for 00 gauge but sized better for n gauge and a little wind blown straw on the ground. No cow pats yet though.

David