Collections - Gene Kingsley
Gene is quickly building himself a good collection from local finds and has kept me regularly informed of what his latest finds are.
LMS over GPO
Even the much maligned Standard Cordeau is always worth a second look when out and about. These three, 1931 Bullers examples, are a classic example of how insulators became mixed up at the factory, unless they were meant to be over printed? Was this an example of new old stock reuse or simply the GPO insulators had been made as speculative order and were never actually sold to the GPO?
Gaskell & Grocott Oil Bath
Gaskell & Grocott are a very elusive company when it comes to insulators. Internet references are few and far, actual insulators are rare with the standard Cordeau being the most popular example found, usually dated in the 1960s. I have a Large Terminator, several Cordeaus, a brown Shackle and that's about it, so to see an Oil Bath by them gives hope as they must have been making insulators probably prior to 1900 up until the 1960s.
Saltglazed Brothers?
From recent comparisons, I believe these are insulators were made by Denby. See the Denby page for more informnation
More Saltglaze and a SideKnob
Sideknobs!
The best of a rather fine Ebay purchase
A Double Glazed Bullers
This brown Bullers Cordeaux is a standard Cordeaux with a second, top glaze in milk chocolate brown. The large BULLERS LTD is unusual in its size as the standard large BULLERS LTD is usually of a narrower font.
Heavy Haul
How's this for a days collecting - not bad eh!
Recent line clearance in Gene's area has revealed a cut down pole route and as can be seen items recovered include a pair of Langdons, 1 made by Taylor Tunnicliff & Co., some standard Cordeau reds, 1967, 10 purple Wades letter variations are L, M & E, a bright white terminator stamped LNMR 14, see next entry and a pair of blank large Terminators - a cracking days collecting
What Happened To The Quality Control?
One specific item included in the above finds was a bright white medium Terminator made for the London & North Western Railway, dated 1914. What makes this stand out from the rest is the impressed mark, instead of correctly impressing LNWR14 the W was placed upside down and we now have LNMR14!
Now, I'm pretty sure from a manufacturing point of view the maker / stamper did not impress one letter at a time i.e. L then N then M(W) then R etc it would be far to time consuming and the overall impressed mark would be far more irregular. I suggest a stamp was made in one piece or they had a tool which allowed for individual characters to be placed within it to create the final stamp and the mark was impressed in one go, hence the relative regularity of the stamp and the deeper end letters caused by the left to right rolling action of the tool within the stampers hand as he used it.
This begs the question - how many were made like this before they noticed?
As it is believed that the bright white porcelain insulators were manufactured abroad and thus the spelling error may not have been noticed, could there have been a whole consignment delivered to the UK before anybody realised the problem?
A very interesting find indeed!
Fuller Langdon Over-Glazed Brown
This Corrugated insulator is made of brown clay and coated with a rich chocolate brown, high gloss glaze
It was fired standing on its head leaving the rough machined top face unglazed except for a bit of overspill from the main body and some remnants of the kiln floor / sagger bottom.
Of note is the mark, PATENT FulleR & Langdon, and its capital R at the end of FulleR, odd!
A Large Bullers Terminator
No introduction needed here, it's a large Terminator made by Bullers
It's crazy man!
This LYR Terminator, although heavily crazed, has a superb impression, infact the best I have seen to date.
An Argentine Anomaly
This image shows a standard line insulator with a top wire groove made for use in Argentina. Nothing unusual there you might say, but to find it in the UK, then that is unusual. It is assumed that bright white porcelain insulators were probably made in Eastern Europe, so it looks like this one may have been mis packed and ended up here.
FCNEA equates to the Argentine North Eastern Railway
Jobsons Brothers Varley
This Jobson Brothers Varley looks in great shape with a good impression. As is often seen with this make of insulator the impression quality varies
The inner shed is of bright white porcelain and is in excellent condition, I guess the spindle must have unscrewed easily
Reds in the wild!
They are still out there! Reds still on poles, still standing and on derelict lines, can you believe it
Two shades of Brown
On the left, a Bullers Ltd London brown Cordeaux and on the right a Taylor Tunnicliff variation
Time for a Teaser!
Can anyone shed, no pun intended, light on the full non-abbreviated name for E.S.R. ? This particular insulator originated from the Melton Mowbray area.
This is a standard Cordeaux stamped with the Bullers logo on the top surface, dated 1940 and impressed with the initials E.S.R. on the top slope. Obviously 1940 is well after the Railway Grouping of 1923, when many independant railway companies were merged to form the 'Big Four' so to what does it refer if not a railway company?
The No.17 - A Bouncer among Potheads
Think about all the people you know, among them will stand out 1 person who was just out of scale to the rest. He was in size 12 shoes at school when everyone else wore 7s, you know what I mean. Well Gene has found the insulator version of this phenomenon among some Potheads, labelled the No.17
As you can see the No.17 is much larger than a Standard No.16 Pothead. The reason for this extra size is unknown and as with the large Taylor Tunicliff Pothead, it is rare.
A Terminator Trio
This image shows an interesting trio of Terminators. From left to right, An LMS probably pre 1940, an unmarked, more orange, probably post 1940 and what appears to be a Gaskell & Grocott.
Of note is the Orange Red Terminator. Later Reds appear to be coloured over the glaze and are more orange in colour, usually have a more matt finish and have a low wear tolerance. Pre 1940 Reds are under glaze coloured, darker in colour and have a high gloss finish. Due to the colour being under the glaze, they wear much better but are more supseptable to cracking.This may be due to being fired twice.
A process change caused by a high post firing failure rate may have led to the change to overglaze colouring. Examples of under glaze are known from 1938 to about 1942 before they change to over glaze.
An Upside Down LMS
An interesting find has prompted me to write a separate page, titled, An Upside Down LMS. See for your self and please comment.
Buried Treasure
Recently Gene has found a buried hoard of early insulators, many of which, as in my find, are sadly broken.
White Varley Insulators
Brown Varley Insulators
Varley insulator made by Warden & Co, Westminster
Varley insulator made by Clark, Muirhead & Co, Westminster
Varley insulator made by Latimer Clark, Muirhead & Co Ltd
A white Varley Z Type made by Taylor Tunnicliff and a brown Z Type from Fuller, Bow
Bullers Brown Z Type Varley Insulators
Bullers Brown Varley No. 8 Insulator and inner shed
Bullers Varleys Trio
A Trio of Potheads
Pothead Lids of three different heights are known to exist in the UK and Gene has managed to obtain an example of each, in ceramic no less! The higher than standard lids are rare in themselves but to find mint examples in ceramic is a real bonus.
A Taylor Tunnicliff Side Knob!
A Side Knob is a rare variant of a normal Pothead. Available with one or two diametrically opposite knobs, they are used to terminate aerial wires and redirect them through 90 degrees, usually down into the building onto which the Side Knob is attached.
A Gang(?) of Large Terminators
Oooh err! I can feel them ganging up on me!
These four Large Terminators are all made by Bullers within a 10 year window of each other yet have different stamping and even lid size
From Left to Right we have; Bullers Logo with P8411 underneath in the usual place, on the body side, Bullers Logo dated 1934, Bullers basic hand holding insulator logo only and P8411 impressed on top rim (very unusual) and finally just P8411, no Bullers Logo.
Langdons
This tantalising find gives a clue to what still remains to be found / collected. For a collector who does not own a Langdon or for that matter never seen one in real life this is truly a great find. Until I had acquired my first intact Langdon (late 2005), This type of find was the best I ever came up with, infact I still have them all!
Three lovely cleaned up treble shedded Langdons seen in a more unusual setting!
The two end examples are marked Bullers Ltd London and the centre example is plain
Purple Wades
As if to rub it in, Gene has now found 2 mint purple red wades plus some other damaged examples
They both have the usual Wade Hand Logo and a letter stamp underneath. One is marked M as in my own example and the other L.
The meaning of these letters still remains ellusive and if any knows or has a theory please contact Teleramics
Further data on Wade and its markings can be found on the Wade page
