Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Warehouse Wednesday: Modern times


Bit of a rubbish picture today - I had to shoot it from a train as we approached Reading station.

The main interest was the big self-store warehouse. It's a pretty typical (nowadays) tin shed but with a large advertising sign on the end. Presumably this is selling its services to those looking out of the train windows.

Modellers could use to this good effect. Using a standard building, the old Hornby Skaledale R8773 industrial building would be good if you can find one, or perhaps the Wills modern warehouses. Add a sign printed on the computer and you are good to go. Best of all, the sign van use the name of the imaginary town your layout is based on.

Of even more interest though was the state of all the sidings around the station. Vast areas of track provided with overhead - and it was all squeaky clean. Maybe this formation hasn't been in place long but I was really struck by the lack of dirt anywhere. Even the concrete looked clean. No weathering powders required.
R8773
R8773

2 comments:

Huw Griffiths said...

Would this have been somewhere near West Reading?

The reason I am asking is that, a couple of decades back, I seem to recall some of the sidings around there being used to store Modernisation Plan DMUs - real DMUs, with a window behind the driver's cab, which let passengers see where they were going.

By the time I passed the area (on some of the few "classic" DMUs still in traffic), a lot of the units being stored there looked very rough indeed, which made me wonder if they were awaiting an appointment with some scary guys armed with gas axes.


Anyway, I don't doubt that some of the signage on various industrial and retail sheds is to advertise to train passengers. In much the same way, signage in other places is almost certainly to advertise to people passing them on motorways - even if, officially, only for drivers to see when they are stuck in traffic. Yes. Right … .

Andy in Germany said...

It shows we've been in Germany a long time: I don't recognise company logos in the UK any more.

The latest electric locomotives in Germany are designed to carry advertising, presumably for people who can read very fast indeed.


And on the subject of advertising on motorways,presumably the mobile phone masts are only to make sure drivers stuck in traffic get good reception. Aye, right...