Derby Lightweight odd pieces?

[boxbrownie]

Just got around to fitting decoders etc  to my DL bought ages ago but have found in the package of “add ons” four etched flat plates, I assumed they might be steps but there is no instruction as to where to apply them, if indeed they are steps?

 

Any ideas?

[31A]

Some of the Derby Lightweight units had panels on the bodyside behind the driver's cab door, to prevent damage to the body side when single line tokens were exchanged without the train stopping.  The pieces in your picture look like those.

 

See here for example:

 

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/3725

 

[boxbrownie]

3 minutes ago, 31A said:

Some of the Derby Lightweight units had panels on the bodyside behind the driver's cab door, to prevent damage to the body side when single line tokens were exchanged without the train stopping.  The pieces in your picture look like those.

 

See here for example:

 

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/3725

 

Ah between the Windows, must be it….thank you 31A

[31A]

Just looked a bit further and fond a slightly clearer picture. It looks as though they were a pale colour; I've an idea they might have actually been padded, or made of leather?

 

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/11890

 

[stewartingram]

From meory - and I was eager that Bachmann would include them - they were rather like a bubbly bath mat, with quite small bubbles and very pale green in colour. I believe they were there to lessen body damage when exchanging single line tokens.

[uax6]

The East Anglian Cravens sets had them too, with a frame around them iirc. Were they rubber? I seem to recall a texture of crazing that looked like the rubber wings fitted to the early GPO minors...

 

Andy G

[boxbrownie]

Thank you all for the comprehensive answers, if it was indeed a type of rubber that would explain the “crazing” as back then the anti UV additives were not readily (or even) available and continuous exposure would result in the effect.

 

Now do I paint them pale green….or not? .

[stewartingram]

Yes! My pic of 1 on the last day of the St.Ives loop is attached (1967).

Edited December 6, 2021 by stewartingram

[No Decorum]

I found this slip of paper with my Class 105. The plates were painted the same green as the bodies.