Painting a GWR Signal Box

The Great Western Railway had, in theory, a set paint scheme for pretty much everything, including signal boxes. Or at least that’s what I thought until I started digging through photos of the prototypes!

The main colours are light and dark stone, but some used a lot more lighter stone than others, and that’s what I have gone with.

A consistent feature on brick boxes, as seen at Kidderminster, which is admittedly a recreation, is the use of grey bricks around the base, doors and windows.

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The last time we saw this model was in March’s issue, where I built it, but left the model in raw MDF. The first stage was to spray it with white primer, to let the MDF soak this up, as well as providing the colour for the window frames. This is then masked off, and the red brick painted using a sponge, with Humbrol 70 (Brick red) and 62 (Leather).

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Picking out the grey bricks in Humbol 66 is fiddly and time-consuming, but there is no other way than using a small brush to carefully colour each face. After a couple of hours, you’ll want to model a different railway company, but the end result is worth it.

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Once the paint has had a couple of days to dry, I wipe small amounts of ready-mix wall filler over the surface, scraping it back to leave the brick faces as clean as possible. A final polish with a piece of sponge finishes the job, leaving the paintwork looking nice and tidy, no matter how it looked before this stage.

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Glazing the windows, some of which slide over each other, completes the exterior, and I think the result shows the quality of the Intentio kit.

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Ratio’s kit is a modern plastic moulding with nice, crisp parts. There’s some clever planning too. Painting the levers while they are on the sprue is easy as there’s enough space to get a brush around, and when you cut them off, only the white plaque and black foot need to be touched up.

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Levers slot into the base with a tiny dot of plastic cement, but it pays to take time to line them up as neatly as possible. Remember, they only have two positions unless the signalman is operating them. The order here is random, but if you are modelling a real box, you might be lucky enough to find a photo to use as a guide.

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Instruments and bells are found on a shelf that will sit over the lever frame. Ratio obviously intends its kit to be used in small boxes, as there are only two of each. If your line is busier, some 3D-printed, or even simply scratchbuilt, extras might be a good idea.

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Our signalman needs to be kept warm, the windows in steam-era boxes let in terrible draughts, so a stove is an essential feature, along with a comfy armchair. After the photo was taken, I cut the pipe level with the top of the wall.

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Of course, the chimney needs to poke out of the roof, so I drilled a hole and poked some plastic tube through it. It’s pretty close to aligning with the pipe inside, but as it’s difficult to see from the outside, I didn’t worry too much.

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Finally, a stand-up desk holds the train register, where every movement will be recorded. Old registers are found on the shelf above, and a clock supplies the time. I should put the clock more central, but it is firmly glued to the walls now!