It's time I turned my attention to some rolling stock that isn't 16 ton mineral wagons. I started to think what else would look good hung behind a grubby blue diesel, give me a bit of variety yet not have a long fixed formation? A bit of searching helped me decide a mail rake would be useful - I could expand it later with some weird and wonderful additions, but for now enjoy weathering some of Farish's excellent coaching stock and still run it in a realistically short rake.

I ordered a blue / grey BG, which seem to almost ever present in these type of trains, and an all-blue GUV van (with motorail branding, but small enough to ignore!). Then the fun bit - wash of black and burnt umber oil paints, Purity Seal varnish spray, then attention with some weathering powders. I tried not to go too overboard, even though photographs I've seen show these vehicles in some shocking external condition - presumably mostly running at night meant a wash wasn't the priority?! - although I found I needed to bring out the door detail with an additional wash of Citadel nuln oil (black ink to us mortals) carefully painted into the crevices. I was worried this wouldn't key to the surface (it really doesn't like glossy surfaces) but the varnish coat had prepared it.

I couldn't resist trying this photo whilst the camera was out too, it really shows how far N gauge has come. These items are pretty much out of the box, with the only modification to the Class 24 is the cutting off the NEM coupling pocket and adding a Dapol dummy screw link. The rest are the details supplied in the box. I'm very happy with these, and itching to add a few more vehicles as I see them. I feel like there is a constant standard across my fleet, and I'm trying to make sure my latest purchases maintain this. I've moved on some of my modern stock to try and help me to focus on this era.