Prior to WWII did PO coal wagons run with unpainted replaced planks?

[Martin S-C]

I've been away from the small scale railway hobby for a couple of decades and on my return at the start of this year found a lot of changes. One of these is manufacturers now providing factory weathered wagons and locos. I've taken a look at a few of the wagons and one thing that struck me at once is the number of PO coal wagon models offered with unpainted replaced planks (URP for short, and because I'm not going to type it out over and over!). As soon as I saw these models I wondered how correct they might be and so started several months of checking photos in various wagon books (Turton, etc) and Wild Swan and Lightmoor Press titles on various railways. I haven't turned up one single example of a pre-WWII PO coal wagon in such a condition.

I raised the subject on two Facebook groups (UK Freight Wagons and Realistic Railway Modelling) and no-one there could comment either way.

Does anyone else think manufacturers like Bachmann and Hornby are doing the modelling hobby a dis-service by producing incorrect wagons? I have come across some beautiful quality modelling work showing distressed wagons but in pre-WWII livery and it bothers me that otherwise very skilled modellers might be being led astray by poor examples from the industry.

 

Or does anyone have photographs that indicate that such wagons running in this condition were more common than my research has indicated?

 

Of course during and after WWII such sights were commonplace - but then every wagon carried either wartime pool markings or, post 01/01/1948 BR markings.

[Steamport Southport]

I tend to agree when it comes to the pre war era.

 

If they were going for repairs then they would almost certainly have received a lick of paint. At least a touch up. After all they were basically moving advertising hoardings.

 

Are you going to let people see how poor quality your company is by running scruffy or damaged wagons? Can't see it myself.

 

 

 

 

Jason

[brossard]

Martin, the wagons pictured are intended to depict post nationalisation condition I believe.  I think Jason is right that PO wagons prior to 1939 would have been properly repainted.

 

BR branded many of their wagons with new numbers: PXXXXXX, load and tare.

 

Here's my rendition of an ex PO wagon around 1960:

 

 

Wooden wagons were rapidly phased out in the late 50s/early 60s.

[Martin S-C]

Hi John

 

The Bachmann wagons are not post WWII because they have no BR or pool markings - which are very obvious things (per your correct example). The wagons are in pre-1939 livery. This is exactly my issue.

 

Yes, I'm aware of the wartime pooling markings. There was an early style that involved re-marking the owners details and wagon number in small lettering on the lower left planks. This didn't last long and I've never seen it modelled. The later "P" markings on black panels replaced this system and we all know it later became the BR standard.

 

While wooden wagons were scrapped in their tens of thousands in the 50s and 60s many lasted to the end of steam. They are common in photos until 1968. Certain wooden opens lasted into the 1970s and 1980s in departmental service and in specialist traffics such as China clay.

I have this photograph that shows loading of pit props during wartime but which bears no exact date. You can see that the WOMBWELL of Barnsley PO wagon in which the man is standing has unpainted planks yet does NOT carry any wartime pool markings. Interestingly the third plank down to the right of the door has been replaced with the lettering repainted on it in a simple form without shading. The planks above and below it show the original shaded lettering, so this wagon bears the marks of some attempt at keeping it looking respectable plus new wood unpainted planks elsewhere. The top plank is also new but painted. This photo would prove me wrong if it were undated but the person who sent it to me stated it was taken during wartime. We also know it's wartime because the diagonal strap towards the end-door has been painted white - a wartime marking. Perhaps it does carry pool markings but the three damaged planks on the lower left were replaced and the markings were on there and have yet to be redone, and the tare weight mark is obscured by the young man throwing the piece of timber. Or possibly so many wagons required re-lettering with pool markings in late 1939 and early 1940 that many ran for months without them and received damage during that time.

 

Note the A(?).H.DEWEY wagon of Portsmouth to the left also carries no pool markings yet although its in poor condition it has no replaced planks either, at least not on the area we can see.

 

This one photo is tantalising in that it seems to break the rules yet it may not.



Even so this only gives the modeller a window of perhaps 12 to 18 months of the early war period when a livery such as Bachmann supply might be called accurate (and even then, no white painted end door mark).

Edited September 18, 2018 by Martin S-C

[Edwardian]

I've been away from the small scale railway hobby for a couple of decades and on my return at the start of this year found a lot of changes. One of these is manufacturers now providing factory weathered wagons and locos. I've taken a look at a few of the wagons and one thing that struck me at once is the number of PO coal wagon models offered with unpainted replaced planks (URP for short, and because I'm not going to type it out over and over!). As soon as I saw these models I wondered how correct they might be and so started several months of checking photos in various wagon books (Turton, etc) and Wild Swan and Lightmoor Press titles on various railways. I haven't turned up one single example of a pre-WWII PO coal wagon in such a condition.

 

I raised the subject on two Facebook groups (UK Freight Wagons and Realistic Railway Modelling) and no-one there could comment either way.

 

Does anyone else think manufacturers like Bachmann and Hornby are doing the modelling hobby a dis-service by producing incorrect wagons? I have come across some beautiful quality modelling work showing distressed wagons but in pre-WWII livery and it bothers me that otherwise very skilled modellers might be being led astray by poor examples from the industry.

 

Or does anyone have photographs that indicate that such wagons running in this condition were more common than my research has indicated?

 

Of course during and after WWII such sights were commonplace - but then every wagon carried either wartime pool markings or, post 01/01/1948 BR markings.

 

 

I agree with the previous responses; only after the Private Owners ceased to be privately owned would I expect replacement planks to be left bare.

 

I cordially dislike the practice of printing wagons in liveries not suitable for the tooling. I understand why manufacturers do it, but I don't like it!

 

They are a trap for the unwary.  I must have wasted a good deal on money buying inaccurate wagons in good, not to say blind, faith.  The problem is that it is is quite a tall order to build up anything like a comprehensive library of PO wagons - consider the expense of amassing the numerous, but fairly content-random, Turton volumes - and I have not made the investment.  Checking the bona fides of a RTR wagon release is, therefore, not open to many of us.

 

I have inadvertently circumvented the problem by changing to pre-Grouping, so know that the RCH 1923 steel underframe POs that are the staple of RTR out-put can all be safely ignored, regardless of livery.  If my primary interest still lay in the 1930s, I'd still be grinding my teeth.

 

Best rough guide advice I can give is to avoid anything rated "10 tons", as odds on that will be an earlier livery stretched to fit a 1923 RCH 12-ton 7-plank mineral wagon.  Oxford, bless, managed to go one better and announce a livery showing the wagon registered to LSWR on a 1923 RCH 5-plank.  The livery dates from, IIRC, 1895, and the only thing that the wagon to which it had been applied had in common with Oxford's model was that they both had 5-planks.

 

Remember those Hornby Dublo 0-6-2Ts?  Looked like N2s, but seem to have been produced in every company livery they could think of.  Well, things have moved on and that sort of thing would not now be acceptable, even in the mass market;  but that's what the RTR manufacturers are still doing with wagons.  IMHO it's high time the market matured further and started to reject these fakes.  

[jim.snowdon]

The replacement of planks, which would have been due to, essentially, to deterioration through rot probably more than anything else, woud have been predominantly a works job, in which case pre-1939 the wagon would have been treated to at least a lick of paint on the repaired parts, if not a proper repaint. Planks could, in theory, be replaced in the field, but I would suggest that the majority of "outdoor" repairs would have been to deal with defects in the running gear or drawgear that were sufficient to result in the wagon being stopped until repaired.

 

Nor, were PO wagons given "wartime pool markings" simply because there was a war on. The application of the wartime "small print" markings was only undertaken where the extent of reapirs was sufficient to render the owners details and wagon details had been rendered unreadable by virtue of repairs. Wagons simply retained their owner's livery, in ever more faded and work-worn state until they were mopped up by BR. Even then, BR did not repaint any of them until well late in the 1950s - as and when they went through a wagon repairers all they got was the necessary black patches for the numbers, capacity, tare and bottom doors where applicable.

 

Jim

[Martin S-C]

 

Nor, were PO wagons given "wartime pool markings" simply because there was a war on. The application of the wartime "small print" markings was only undertaken where the extent of reapirs was sufficient to render the owners details and wagon details had been rendered unreadable by virtue of repairs. Wagons simply retained their owner's livery, in ever more faded and work-worn state until they were mopped up by BR. Even then, BR did not repaint any of them until well late in the 1950s - as and when they went through a wagon repairers all they got was the necessary black patches for the numbers, capacity, tare and bottom doors where applicable.

Jim

 

I have not come across this before. Have you a source for this please?

[jim.snowdon]

Hi John

 

The Bachmann wagons are not post WWII because they have no BR or pool markings - which are very obvious things (per your correct example). The wagons are in pre-1939 livery. This is exactly my issue.

 

Yes, I'm aware of the wartime pooling markings. There was an early style that involved re-marking the owners details and wagon number in small lettering on the lower left planks. This didn't last long and I've never seen it modelled. The later "P" markings on black panels replaced this system and we all know it later became the BR standard.

 

While wooden wagons were scrapped in their tens of thousands in the 50s and 60s many lasted to the end of steam. They are common in photos until 1968. Certain wooden opens lasted into the 1970s and 1980s in departmental service and in specialist traffics such as China clay.

 

I have this photograph that shows loading of pit props during wartime but which bears no exact date. You can see that the WOMBWELL of Barnsley PO wagon in which the man is standing has unpainted planks yet does NOT carry any wartime pool markings. Interestingly the third plank down to the right of the door has been replaced with the lettering repainted on it in a simple form without shading. The planks above and below it show the original shaded lettering, so this wagon bears the marks of some attempt at keeping it looking respectable plus new wood unpainted planks elsewhere. The top plank is also new but painted. This photo would prove me wrong if it were undated but the person who sent it to me stated it was taken during wartime. We also know it's wartime because the diagonal strap towards the end-door has been painted white - a wartime marking. Perhaps it does carry pool markings but the three damaged planks on the lower left were replaced and the markings were on there and have yet to be redone, and the tare weight mark is obscured by the young man throwing the piece of timber. Or possibly so many wagons required re-lettering with pool markings in late 1939 and early 1940 that many ran for months without them and received damage during that time.

 

Note the A(?).H.DEWEY wagon of Portsmouth to the left also carries no pool markings yet although its in poor condition it has no replaced planks either, at least not on the area we can see.

 

This one photo is tantalising in that it seems to break the rules yet it may not.

 

Image9.jpg

 

Even so this only gives the modeller a window of perhaps 12 to 18 months of the early war period when a livery such as Bachmann supply might be called accurate (and even then, no white painted end door mark).

That picture could date from anywhere after 1939 to post 1948. Wagons, both PO and railway owned, became common user unless marked otherwise. There is also a strong probability that the Dewey wagon is not fitted with end doors - I would hazard a guess that Dewey's were local coal merchants, in which case they would have no use for either end or bottom doors. The load would have been shovelled out by hand.

 

Even the presence of SR on the 8-plank wagon on the right does not restrict the pcture to being pre-1948, as it was some time before BR got round to changing the company lettering to the regional prefixes.

 

Jim

 

Jim

[jim.snowdon]

Jim

 

I have not come across this before. Have you a source for this please?

Apart from it being something that has been well understood for a long time, I would commend you to a read of "The 4mm Coal Wagon" by John Hayes, if only for the considerable number of pictures. I am not certain that this is still in print, but it was published by Wild Swan in 1999, ISBN 1 874103 48 8.

 

Jim

[petethemole]

The photograph is one of several taken during WW2 featuring "Bevin Boys" at work unloading pit props (men conscripted into the mines instead of the forces; one man it ten, I believe). https://www.alamy.com/bevin-boys-mining-training-canterbury-kent-england-uk-1944-as-part-of-their-training-at-a-colliery-near-canterbury-bevin-boys-throw-pit-props-onto-piles-during-a-physical-training-lesson-with-their-ex-army-instructor-alex-hamilton-according-to-the-original-caption-pt-is-specialised-is-designed-to-strengthen-up-the-trainees-and-to-give-them-experience-in-handling-pit-props-their-pt-is-also-useful-for-props-are-brought-from-the-railway-waggons-and-stacked-image178171193.html. 'P' serial numbers were allocated by BR after nationalisation and I believe stood for Private rather than Pool.

[Martin S-C]

Jim

 

John Hayes himself mentions "wartime pool lettering" and this is on the ISBN page of "The 4mm Coal Wagon".

It was clearly done, and other examples of DENABY wagons on the same page directly contradict your statement that it wasn't.

I do however accept the point that with hundreds of thousands of wooden pooled wagons on the system it would have taken a considerable time to "P" number them all, but its clear from the wartime photographic evidence that a programme to undertake this was put into action, regardless of condition of the wagon. However I find its also true that some wagons lasted a decade or more after the start of the war without ever receiving these markings.

Thanks for your input however, I have learned something new (or it's more likely I forgot something I once knew!)

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...Of course during and after WWII such sights were commonplace - but then every wagon carried either wartime pool markings or, post 01/01/1948 BR markings.

 

 

I feel it is safest to go with acceptance that the wartime and immediately following period was as much a mess as that untidiness of pit props in the other photo you have posted. Everyone I know, and all those now deceased that I have known, who played their part in WWII pretty much concur that it was the biggest shambles they have ever known!

 

These ex PO wagons are often so filthy that any identification from photos is problematic, other than where a distinctive feature of a livery happens to survive. Of all the wartime and immediately after features the oblique white stripe indicating the end door does seem to be the most frequently identifiable, and the absence on the two end door models illustrated I think might be justifiable criticism, along with the real blooper on 'Eales and Roberts' where the replacement unpainted plank going through 'Roberts' somehow has the original livery reproduced on its top edge. Registration badly out...

[The Johnster]

Bevin Boys were conscripted conscientious objectors to combat, who were still willing to 'do their bit' to aid the war effort and thus employed in unpleasant but stategically vital work in industry replacing men who were serving in the armed forces; many did work connected with the coal industry and were expected to work underground.  Most people held them in contempt as cowards, but they acted largely out of conviction, and had often physically tough and dangerous jobs to do.  

 

They've made a right mess of those neat stacks of props, and are probably not making a particularly skilled job of loading the wagons either.  Correct loading of props was important to restrain the load while the train was moving or subjected to shunting shocks, and to maximise use of the wagons.

[Nick Holliday]

Jim

 

John Hayes himself mentions "wartime pool lettering" and this is on the ISBN page of "The 4mm Coal Wagon".

 

It was clearly done, and other examples of DENABY wagons on the same page directly contradict your statement that it wasn't.

 

I do however accept the point that with hundreds of thousands of wooden pooled wagons on the system it would have taken a considerable time to "P" number them all, but its clear from the wartime photographic evidence that a programme to undertake this was put into action, regardless of condition of the wagon. However I find its also true that some wagons lasted a decade or more after the start of the war without ever receiving these markings.

 

Thanks for your input however, I have learned something new (or it's more likely I forgot something I once knew!)

I have to agree with Jim Snowdon on this. He clearly stated that war time pool lettering was only applied when the state of the original livery made it difficult to determine the name of the owner and the number of hte wagon, and not a blanket instruction.  There are several examples of this lettering in John Hayes' book, but these are generally outnumbered by the examples that were seen during and after the war in their orignal livery, albeit a bit battered.  For example, on the page cited, there is little to suggest the five wagons in the view taken in 1942 had wartime lettering, nor are they showing signs of repairs.  Similarly, on the previous page, in the picture taken in 1948, three of the four wagons clearly visible have no evidence of war time markings, only the Charringtons' wagon carrying its crudely stencilled name and number.  Many other photos in the book show no signs of wartime lettering, even though some were taken after nationalisation.  The renumbering in the PO scheme took a long time to implement, and so a battered, but reasonably legible, wagon could be seen without additional markings for some years post-nationalisation.  I would also point out that, in general, the "pool" lettering would not have been obscured by the P#### patch, so some evidence of its appllication would survive.

On page 85 of the book there is another 1942 train picture, in which all seven legible PO wagons have no evidence of additonal lettering, nor do they show any evidence of obvious repairs.  I am sure I have read elsewhere that for many years during the war there were sufficent resources in both man-power and materials to keep most wagons in good order, and it was really in the period after the war that standards slipped, for various reasons.  Obviously severe bomb damage could result in major repairs, with perhaps short cuts taken to get the wagon back in service, but it should be remembered that the replacement wagons that were built to replace written off stock appeared in traffic in a full livery, albeit usually with small and simplified lettering, similar to the war pool lettering.

Just to back up the evidence in Hayes' book, I randomly selected one of Keith Turton's collection. No. 9, although he tends to go for rather more pristine examples, and is not always able to date photos accurately. For example: A Baker & Kernick wagon has had its new P number painted directly on the orignal livery, with no signs of any alternative earlier lettering or numbering, and has a couple of replacement planks to boot. Three Dalton Main also have no pool lettering, although snapped in 1940 and 1946. A Thomas Hardy wagon underwent a repair in 1944, and even a year later looked in good shape, with no pool lettering, a weathered version of hte livery it had carried perhaps ten years earlier. There are other examples in this vollume which look as if they are of the right period, but without dates it would be unfair to mention them.  That just leaves another thirteen Turton books, five Bill Hudson volumes and a handful of the Lightmoor books to go through!

Getting back to the original post, and to summarise the above; at the beginning of the war wagons would have generally been in their original livery, and maintained thus for several years, the appearance of unpainted planks occuring towards the end of the war and afterwards. Those wagons whose number and/or ownership details were obscured would have this information stencilled on the bottom left of the side, the so called Wartime Pool Lettering.  After the 1948 nationalisation, a programme of renumbering the PO wagons into a single system was commenced, but this was a slow process, and many wagons were scrapped without receiving a new number. The Bachmann wagons under discussion therefore could be said to represent the state they might have appeared in from approximately 1944 to, say, 1956. The only problem I have is with the Harrison and Eales & Roberts wagons. Given the state of the planking as portrayed, the former has no clear ownership or number, and the latter has no number, and they should have some reproduction of the wartime lettering to convey this information.  The Elders wagon, however, is clearly identifiable, and so can be said to be authentic.

[Martin S-C]

Thank you gents for all your input. It seems that for years I've been working under the misunderstanding that around the start of 1940 an organised programme to mark up the ex-PO wagons was undertaken. That didn't happen, or if it did happen it happened very slowly with many ex-PO wagons running in increasingly battered condition before being so marked and some even being scrapped before the BR marks were applied. I think the main result of my error was that I inferred that "no pool markings must equal pre-1940" and that assumption was false.

This old dog has learned a new trick.

 

Thanks all.

[Steamport Southport]

Bevin Boys were conscripted conscientious objectors to combat, who were still willing to 'do their bit' to aid the war effort and thus employed in unpleasant but stategically vital work in industry replacing men who were serving in the armed forces; many did work connected with the coal industry and were expected to work underground.  Most people held them in contempt as cowards, but they acted largely out of conviction, and had often physically tough and dangerous jobs to do.  

 

They've made a right mess of those neat stacks of props, and are probably not making a particularly skilled job of loading the wagons either.  Correct loading of props was important to restrain the load while the train was moving or subjected to shunting shocks, and to maximise use of the wagons.

 

Not entirely true. Conscientious Objection was still a prisonable offence unless you registered for it and you still needed a good reason. However some were "put down the mines" rather than punished.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscientious_objector#United_Kingdom

 

 

Bevin Boys were entirely conscripted by drawing of lots. It was well after the start of the war and was mostly teenagers.

 

Some of those conscripted were quite vocal about it as they wanted to serve in the forces. I read somewhere that Eric Morecambe always reckoned his health problems were caused by being sent down the mines and he wanted to join the RAF instead, but they refused.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevin_Boys

 

 

 

Jason

[john new]

Logically if it broke at loading point it wouldn't have left the loading yard as the load would have a potential for falling out through the breakage gap(s). If it broke during unloading surely, pre-WW2, that yard would simply make it safe to run empty and send it back as the repair problem was the owner's not the recipient yard/company. Not something I've looked into although I do remember seeing a few in the 50s with patched in planks. Are there extant photos of empties going back to the home yard with missing/snapped planks or an obvious external bodge fix?

 

EDIT - see Fat Controller's informative answer to this below.

Edited September 18, 2018 by john new

[Pint of Adnams]

We also know it's wartime because the diagonal strap towards the end-door has been painted white - a wartime marking.

The diagonal stripe indicating an end door was introduced long before WW2. Originally it stretched the full length of the wagon side from the lower corner of the fixed end to the upper corner of the door end and was first specified in May1924. The LNER originally used red, but the LMS complained that it was not readily visible and so it was changed to white from early 1926. The change to the shorter diagonal stripe took place during mid-1938, prior to the commencement of WW2. The introduction of the 'V' markings to indicate bottom doors also took place in 1924.

[Fat Controller]

Logically if it broke at loading point it wouldn't have left the loading yard as the load would have a potential for falling out through the breakage gap(s). If it broke during unloading surely, pre-WW2, that yard would simply make it safe to run empty and send it back as the repair problem was the owner's not the recipient yard/company. Not something I've looked into although I do remember seeing a few in the 50s with patched in planks. Are there extant photos of empties gong back to the home yard with missing/snapped planks or an obvious external bodge fix?

I'm not sure what the arrangements were with 'domestic' coal wagons, but 'shipping' coal wagons were examined and repaired following unloading. Some of the big companies, such as Powell Duffryn and Amalgamated Anthracite, had their own facilities ; others used works operated by subsidiaries of the wagon builder, hirer or lessor, or those of third-parties. The number of 'repair facilities' was vast; even into the 1960s- my home-town in South-west Wales boasted about half-a-dozen, ranging from multi-road covered sidings to a single-track with jacks to lift wagons to change springs and bearings.

Timber planks were easily replaced, by un-bolting or unscrewing; whether anything more than a coat of red-oxide primer over any new bolts, would be applied, is a moot point. It would depend, I suspect, how urgently the wagon was required, and what repair and maintenance contracts were in place.

[jwealleans]

One of Keith Turton’s books includes details of repair agreements. Full repaints were specified every 3 years, where the railway companies usually worked to 7. Wagons were better maintained than we tend to think and often viewed as advertising.

[Martin S-C]

The diagonal stripe indicating an end door was introduced long before WW2.

 

The introduction of the 'V' markings to indicate bottom doors also took place in 1924.

I think you may be confusing company vehicles with private owners?

 

On company vehicles yes, the end door markers were in use in the 20s and 30s. On PO wagons, no. The introduction of painting the side strapping irons white on PO wagons to indicate an end door is a WWII thing. Reference Nick Holliday's post #14 on this.

 

There is a difference in livery practice between what the railway companies did and what private owners did.

 

Conversely I have several photos in my collection of LNER and LMS wagons running in the 1930s with unpainted replaced planks.

 

As to bottom door markings the same applies.

Edited September 18, 2018 by Martin S-C

[jim.snowdon]

To take the theme one step further, whilst all PO mineral wagons went into a common pool, and were effectively marked by default (ie no special marking at all) , some specialist PO wagons, such as the bulk salt vans and grain wagons, were excluded and marked "NON POOL".

 

Jim

[wagonman]

As Jonathan says, the normal PO wagon repair contract was for 7 years and included 2 full repaints, so at the beginning of the war most PO wagons would have been in very good condition with paintwork probably no more than four years old. New wagons built during the war tended to receive a utility livery of black paint and small white lettering as it was necessary to note the ownership of wagons in the pool as they were still technically privately owned – indeed owners were still liable to pay for repairs on wagons they may not have actually seen for years. It was only at the time of nationalisation that ownership passed to the BTC (or NCB if internal users) and compensation became payable. After that, the next visit to the 'works' would have seen a Pxxxxxx number painted on. Each workshop was allocated a range of numbers and applied them to the wagons in whatever order they came through. David Larkin has done a lot of work trying to reconnect the P numbers with their original wagons, but I suspect most records have been lost or destroyed.

 

Don't forget, at the beginning of the war there were something like half a million PO wagons in use... 

[Ian Smeeton]

I found this shot of Paisley Canal. This is an extract of the original

 

Thiose with better and more knowledge than I will be able to tell if these are exPO or Railway Co wagons.

 

I can see at least 2 wagons with missing chunks of woodwork

 

It is a little later than is being discussed (1952) however, it looks like repairs are being carried out 'in the field'

 

 

Link to main photo here: https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/SAW046354

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Dunsignalling]

Whatever the merits/demerits of the unpainted look applied by Bachmann to some of their PO wagons, there are a couple more things to be borne in mind.

 

Following the depression of the early thirties, many PO wagons, especially those belonging to small traders who only owned a few, received only the most essential maintenance. The appearance of many got very down-at-heel and planks only got replaced when they were in danger of ceasing to contain the load.

 

When they did get replaced, any retouching of the finish might not have been carried out to the same standard as the original signwriting. If one has the guidance provided by the letters on the planks above and below, it doesn't take a Michaelangelo to join them up and, reduced to 1:76 scale, the inferiority isn't going to be that noticeable. 

 

Take photos in books on PO wagons with a pinch of salt. Their authors would have sought out illustrations showing the liveries in the best condition and they are often works or owners' pictures, taken before the wagons had even carried their first load. As such, they will not reflect the typical in-service wagons of the period.

 

Unpainted planks? Probably rare. Varying degrees of filth and minor damage? Probably the norm well before the outbreak of WW2.

 

So don't take too much notice of the rose-tinted specs brigade, either.

 

John