Photo of model by J. Bradbury Winter

[brettpayne]

I'm a collector and researcher of old photographs, and writer of photohistorical articles for my blog Photo-Sleuth. I've recently written an article about a photo in my collection (attached below) dated 1905 and purportedly of a model by John Bradbury Winter, as per the inscription on the reverse.

Alan Stepney has tentatively, and kindly, identified it as "GOLDSMID, an 0-4-2, designed by Billington and built at Brighton works between 1892 and 1896, and called the D3 class." Apparently Winter is known to have made a model of this engine, "there being an article about it in Model Engineer Vol 7 Issue 80."

I wonder if anyone might have a copy of this issue and would be prepared to scan it for me, please? It would round the article off nicely if I could make a positive identification. Many thanks.

Regards and best wishes,

Brett Payne
Tauranga, New Zealand

Attachments:

[brettpayne]

Here is a scan of the reverse.

Attachments:

[jma1009]

gerry collins (if he's still about) is the chap to speak to of the brighton and hove club. he used to give talks about Dr J. Bradbury Winter. his superb model of COMO is in the brighton museum and must be regarded as one of the most perfect miniature locos ever built. knowing the good Doctor's work, it doesnt look like anything he would have built. my guess is Dr Arthur C. Hovendon, founder member of the SMEE, who had a number of Brighton locos in the early years of the last century. i stand to be corrected, but so far as im aware Dr J. Bradbury Winter didnt build any other miniature loco other than COMO.
the poc just looks too crude to be anything that would have emerged from his workshop. he was more than a perfectionist!
cheers,
julian

[jma1009]

brett,
i have just dug out my old SMEE journals and find in vol.53 (1938) that in that year's ME exhibition was a model of Dr A.C. Hovendon's LBSC locomotive 'GOLDSMID' 1899. he is incorrectly quoted as 'A.G. Hovendon'.
cheers,
julian

[alanstepney]

If the reference I found (as quoted above-ME Vol 7 issue 80) is correct, then that was in 1902.

According to that article, he built two locos, including Goldsmid. (And then went on with Como.)

I suspect they may have been simple "quickies", so not to his usual standards.
Why? I have no idea and to speculate is futile.

[jma1009]

hi alan and brett,

thank you alan for the reference to ME vol 7.

the pic clearly shows a 0-4-2 loco. possibly a brighton D1 tank, or D2 tender loco (same type as COMO). the driving wheels are too small for a 'Richmond' or 'Gladstone' class loco.

the plot thickens!

the fullsize GOLDSMID was the first of Billinton's D3 class and was a 0-4-4 tank loco, made famous by the LBSCR locoman's cab badge. a couple of years later (1895) the name GOLDSMID was transfered to one of Billinton's B2 class 4-4-0 express passenger locos ('grasshoppers').



look at the pic and notice the oversize dome in the wrong place, and the awful chimney base and cap with a ring round it far bigger than the stroudley beading. GOLDSMID was such a well known loco at the time (both as a D3 and then B2) that it would seem inconceivable to name a miniature 0-4-2 loco GOLDSMID. it would be like naming a BR class 2 loco 'BRITANNIA' !

before anyone mentions it i had forgotten to include Dr J. Bradbury Winter's superb silver model of stephenson's ROCKET.

cheers,
julian

[alanstepney]

Ahhh, I had thought (assumed?) that the D3's were 0-4-2.
That will teach me to check before writing!

It would be interesting to read that 1905 article, but that is one of the issues I dont have.

[jma1009]

a bit belated, but today i came across a letter by gerry collins to ME on the 6th september 1974 where he describes how Dr J Bradbury Winter built 2 'COMO's. the first one was abandoned when he started on the second super detailed COMO that is now in Brighton Museum. later the first had a commercial boiler fitted and was finished for his son, running on a track in the garden.

so the model in the pic would indeed appear to have been Dr J Bradbury Winter's, but not the famous COMO.

cheers,
julian

[isc]

Dr J. Bradbury Winter, and his locomotive COMO, form the main feature of the first, and second parts of volume one of Model Engineer and Amateur Electrician, back in 1898. isc