A picture paints a thousand words.

Inevitably it boils down to pictures - preferably as many as possible. My own interest and knowledge base is in London - I have a large library of London Transport books to refer to. The restrictions of my shelves and wallet, and also my wife, mean that I can't acquire reference books for every bus company in the country. If you have photos or references thereof then please let me know. Remember - the building that may be very familiar to you will probably be unknown to me!

Pictures should ideally be...

•  an overall view - this is perfect, showing everything and also a little space or piece of the adjoining building to reassure me that there's not another bit 'further along'. Such photos are rare and usually there are buses that get in the way!
• a colour view - to give brick, stone and paint tones. Colour is always problematic. A picture in a quality book I have, showed a garage to be built from yellow brick. It turned out that the bus in the foreground had been in the shade and during computer 'enhancement' of the photo, the brick had been changed from the true red!
• an historic view - I prefer to depict the models in the 'classic' fifties or sixties period prior to NBC let alone the modern era of privatisation!  I will often include alternate labels and signs to cater for later periods though - the recent Maidstone & District Tunbridge Wells kit is an example and can be built in classic M & D or Arriva style.
• a view showing details of doors and windows etc. Garage doors often hide in the shadows. On an overall shot the window detail can be indistinct due to reflections in the glass. A view of a bus outside the garage might just have a window in the background that could give me the information I need!
• a view of any signage, especially logos. The signs on a building can be very important in setting the scene and period.
• a view giving some details the side elevations - at least the part close to the frontage. Inevitably the models are usually just a frontage, but depending upon the situation they can be deeper.

A fictitious example

Imagine that I receive this picture of Sunnytown garage. It shows a simple masonry entrance surround. Obviously a modern picture - no trace of original signage and that modern shuttered door would be a modern fitment. If a period photo could be found showing signs and doors it could be done quite easily. But... what of the building on the left - is it relevant? Are there any other entrances?

Another photo of Sunnytown garage. Maybe this historic 'tramshed type' building was demolished and replaced by the one in the previous view. This could be built - there's some reasonable door detail - but how many triangle topped sheds would there be - we can see two in the picture but there might be many more- some tramsheds were huge!

A third view. This shows the classic signage on the masonry entrance. Maybe this and the tramshed style are different parts of the same building? Note how the entrance has a centre pillar - modern buses are larger - or maybe bus drivers of years gone by could steer better!

A view captioned 'at the stop outside Sunnytown garage'. This shows the end of the tramshed section and a rather nice feature of a wall with poster frames, and company name above. A nice area where two or three models could be posed, perhaps with passengers at the stop.

Another, rather boring view from a book detailing the history of 'Northern Blue' - perhaps the book on your shelf that I don't have. It's captioned 'the new art deco offices built at Sunnytown in 1934.' Could that be a garage entrance to the right? Notice how the left hand end appears to be rounded in typical art deco style.

An interesting picture that shows the connection between the masonry entrance and the tramshed, with a little link building - maybe the key to the whole project!

So do I have enough information?

Well what do you think? Can you work out what goes where?
Is there enough to put together a model?

There's still not quite enough - the number of triangular topped sheds is not clear. Also compare the masonry surrounds to the first and last picture - very similar apart from the extra centre pillar in the old picture, BUT why is the parapet wall at the top of the third picture different?

Often it is a confusing mass of information that I have to deal with. I could probably take a guess at this point but it isn't proved.

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Sunnytown garage looks like this...

A rather nice scene in which to display one's Northern Blue model bus fleet. The original ex-tramshed with it's small office, had a large extension added in the thirties which had an adjoining office building. A nice mix of styles perfect as a backdrop for a photo of the latest offering from EFE.But what about that odd third photo with the different parapet? Of course that was the rear entrance added with the thirties extension - where you used to do your bus spotting in the seventies because you could get in without being seen from the offices. YOU knew it was there but have you told me?!

The above gives an example of the fun I have putting these kits together. I can't get everything right but I do my best. If you have photos or can point me towards references then I might be able to do the garage that you knew well.

Even if you only have one 'useful' looking picture I'd like to see it - I'm gradually building up a file of garages from all sorts of companies, and in time may be able to put together the pieces of many jigsaws!

Please email me via the contact page.