Wright writes.....

[Headstock]

I'm happy with the teak but remind me not to take close up photographs ever again the Foreman has just spotted a drooping ventilator hood.

[RThompson]

 

64xx.png

Bachmann  late 64xx. Cab and bunker modified, flush glazed, top feed removed, renumbered

 

Weathering is a mix of acrylics, enamels and artists pastels.

I would say you have also filled in the wheel centres on the 64xx which makes a huge difference.

[Anglian]

I got the third coat of teak ( basically the darker panels ) on to the brake composite from up the thread, After uming and ahing I decided I will not be weathering it down, instead I shall swap it out for an already weathered example of the same diagram from another rake, thus keeping a variation in finish appropriate to both rakes.. Having photographed the little beasty, I noticed that I've soldered one of the panels in to the double doors slightly cockide, oh well, perfection is but a dream.

 

 

I can see the crooked ventilator as you've mentioned it but honestly the quality of the teak finishing you have achieved is so fantastic that folks would be very hard pushed to see the very minor misaligned part. Have you described the technique on the forum somewhere I could find it? It looks both very lovely bathed in a warm glow but also very convincing.

Edited October 1, 2017 by Anglian

[coachmann]

An interesting point about the re-introduction of lining. I don't think I was aware of that before now.

 

Should the visible edge of the gutter on that GN brake compo be "dirty teak" rather than pure roof colour?

 

Good to see some models of GN coaches, either way.

The gutter should be teak and probably was with some roof overspray I wouldn't be surprised.

 

 

I got the third coat of teak ( basically the darker panels ) on to the brake composite from up the thread, After uming and ahing I decided I will not be weathering it down, instead I shall swap it out for an already weathered example of the same diagram from another rake, thus keeping a variation in finish appropriate to both rakes.. Having photographed the little beasty, I noticed that I've soldered one of the panels in to the double doors slightly cockide, oh well, perfection is but a dream.

That is a very effective 'to scale' grain finish you have achieved, which I have noticed in the past. Few people get this right and not all the people who earn a living from painting & lining can do teak.

[coachmann]

This is how so many ex LNWR coaches looked in my youth with tongue & groove repairs to body panels. One LNWR corridor coach I traveled in to Greenfield had almost as much bare wood panelling showing as paint. The paint was undoubtedly applied in LMS days, probably the prewar lake rather than the postwar maroon. They eventually acquired BR 'insignia'. This is from the earlier batches built around 1916 with long slender buffers and probably didn't last much beyond 1956.

Edited October 1, 2017 by coachmann

[Headstock]

This is how so many ex LNWR coaches looked in my youth with tongue & groove repairs to body panels. One LNWR corridor coach I traveled in to Greenfield had almost as much bare wood panelling showing as paint. The paint was undoubtedly applied in LMS days, probably the prewar lake rather than the postwar maroon. They eventually acquired BR 'insignia'. This is from the earlier batches built around 1916 with long slender buffers and probably didn't last much beyond 1956.

WEB LNWR brake 3rd.jpg

 

Top draw modelling Larry, did you produce the etches with the replacement panelling embedded ?

 

I can see the crooked ventilator as you've mentioned it but honestly the quality of the teak finishing you have achieved is so fantastic that folks would be very hard pushed to see the very minor misaligned part. Have you described the technique on the forum somewhere I could find it? It looks both very lovely bathed in a warm glow but also very convincing.

 

I have at last got my finger out and have promised to deliver an article to Model Railway Journal by early November.

[Andrew P]

Good morning Tony and all, a few pics of the B1 I've just completed from a photo, but unfortunately I cant show that due to copyright.

 

 

 

 

And my Cl 40.

 

 

And an O Gauge Cattle Wagon.

 

 

 

[coachmann]

I like the B1 Andy. Really well done except for the tender underframe and cylinder covers. I can imagine the injector overflow and splash from the rear driving wheels having an affect on the step and leading axlebox area, but not the whole underframe. The cleaners, who have made such a good job on the loco, would have cleaned the surface rust-dust off the side of the cylinder covers.....(speaking as an ex cleaner ha ha).

 

Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out why the rear bogie wheels have been jacked up....

Edited October 2, 2017 by coachmann

[coachmann]

Top draw modelling Larry, did you produce the etches with the replacement panelling embedded ?

Hi, I scribed the planks initially, but they barely showed, so the trusty draftsmans pen was used. The only way to embed them would have meant raised lines instead of grooves on two-stage etchings.

[Rugd1022]

If you have a pristine out of the box collection of stock that you want to tone down a bit and no suitable paint in stock, they are a very good starting point, but most of us that weather have all sort of pots and containers full or part full of foul and disgusting mixes of varying opacity and gloopiness which we can use for weathering and don't need this sort of 'shot in the arm' investment.  

 

A minor drawback, and one rooted in my own opinion rather than any researched factual information, is that, being aimed at military modellers, they tend to concentrate on mud, dust, and faded colours to an extent that I am less convinced is suitable for UK railway modelling especially steam era.  I am critical of much factory applied weathering for this as well.  It is my belief that steam age weathering should be of a much darker overall tone, due to the colour of steam clag and filth which was very heavily contaminated with coal dust.  I have recently weathered a Hornby 42xx which is allocated to my coal train using very dark media indeed, and have had several favourable comments about it from people whose opinion I respect in the matter, which is gratifying; this is a loco which spends it's working life in coal mines, coal sidings, coal unloading facilities, coal washerys, and running around in coal dusty enviroments; brake block dust is not the primary colour!

 

I agree on the steam age weathering Johnster, I know this is a preservation era shot but the typical weathered and 'not cleaned by human hands' appearance of the running plate area shows up quite well here on one of the Manors on the SVR, taken a few weeks ago, there's hardly a hint of brown anywhere with the much darker deposits left in the nooks and crannies after the green painted areas are just wafted over with an oily rag... I've seen this kind of thing done on a large scale live steam Ivatt 4MT 'Flying Pig' and it looked so life like, I think the larger the model, the easier it is to do...

 

 

 

 

 

On a dry day you'd be able to see a lot more texture too, where coal dust settles on the running plates and gets ground in by the crew and cleaner's heavy boots . Here's a slightly older shot looking down on 'City Of Truro' on the Glos & Warks, showing some nice smudging on top of the boiler and firebox...

 

Edited October 2, 2017 by Rugd1022

[The Johnster]

Excellently illustrated, Rugd, and very much the sort of thing I mean. 

 

A feature of my 42xx that has attracted comment is the smokebox, which I have not weathered at all.  Smokeboxes were often slightly different in finish to the rest of the loco, which showed up on black liveries, because they get very hot and are painted differently and at different frequency, often after shed work when the rest of the loco isn't.

 

My approach and methodology to weathering is very much based on splashing it on all over Henry Cooper style and then wiping it off, the extent of weathering being determined by the effectiveness of the wiping off, over which I can exercise quite fine control.  The end result depends on three factors and the relationships between them; the overall colour and dilution of the wash, the heaviness with which it is applied, and the speed with which it dries or is wiped off while drying.  Not a scale approach, and I can do most vehicles in a few minutes, a little longer if I am building up layers to achieve the effect I want.  Many of my models are very subtly and not that obviously weathered, just a light toning down with dirty water, but it collects in the crooks and nannies and has it's effect nonetheless!

Edited October 2, 2017 by The Johnster

[Andrew P]

I like the B1 Andy. Really well done except for the tender underframe and cylinder covers. I can imagine the injector overflow and splash from the rear driving wheels having an affect on the step and leading axlebox area, but not the whole underframe. The cleaners, who have made such a good job on the loco, would have cleaned the surface rust-dust off the side of the cylinder covers.....(speaking as an ex cleaner ha ha).

 

Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out why the rear bogie wheels have been jacked up....

Here's the pic Larry, 

 

I agree about the Bogies!!!!

Edited October 2, 2017 by Andrew P

[grob1234]

Hello folks.

 

I have been away for a little while but have not been idle:

 

https://youtu.be/wvv_HZn6yvg

 

It is part one of my 'Let's Build' series. I'll be following this up with the complete step by step of building this DJH LNER A1. It really is a lovely kit.

 

I will post photos and updates on my C1 in due course as well.

[coachmann]

I would have thought that every railway enthusiast would fully realise that preserved locos weather nothing like everyday steam locos did in steam days. Preserved locos are out from say 10am till 6pm on work that bears little or no relationship to work done when steam was on all-day work in a steam environment.  Cleaners are always on hand (ones hopes) and so-on.

 

At a steam shed in steam days, some diagrams were circuitous and a loco could be away from its home shed for several days working duties in someone else's area. The cleaners wouldn't touch it! Back on its home base, it might get cleaned, it might not. The latter became more prevalent after the war in the rush for easier work!  Not for nothing did ex.works loco soon look externally shabby. Shades of brown were the most common colour on everything to do with the steam railway due to rust created by steel rails, water, steam and fire/ash.

 

Grey was a shade that tended to replace black as paintwork deteriorated. The paint on the footplate in front of the smokebox took some stick because hot ash, sometimes red-hot ash, was ladled and shoveled onto it before it was then thrown onto the deck or in a pit. Running plates got a covering in oil during oiling round and sand spilled while filling sandboxes. Off the loco went on its duty and return for disposal and the sticky mixture would pick up soot deposits and ash until it was a thick slippery cake after a few weeks. A cleaner would have to use a long handled scraper to remove it. Imagine a sweeping brush with a piece of steel bolted to its end.

 

Hopefully, knowing how a machine works helps give modellers clues as to why and where certain types of 'weathering' take hold.

Edited October 2, 2017 by coachmann

[Lecorbusier]

I would have thought that every railway enthusiast would fully realise that preserved locos weather nothing like everyday steam locos did in steam days. Preserved locos are out from say 10am till 6pm on work that bears little or no relationship to work done when steam was on all-day work in a steam environment.  Cleaners are always on hand (ones hopes) and so-on.

 

At a steam shed in steam days, some diagrams were circuitous and a loco could be away from its home shed for several days working duties in someone else's area. The cleaners wouldn't touch it! Back on its home base, it might get cleaned, it might not. The latter became more prevalent after the war in the rush for easier work!  Not for nothing did ex.works loco soon look externally shabby. Shades of brown were the most common colour on everything to do with the steam railway due to rust created by steel rails, water, steam and fire/ash.

 

Grey was a shade that tended to replace black as paintwork deteriorated. The paint on the footplate in front of the smokebox took some stick because hot ash, sometimes red-hot ash, was ladled and shoveled onto it before it was then thrown onto the deck or in a pit. Running plates got a covering in oil during oiling round and sand spilled while filling sandboxes. Off the loco went on its duty and return for disposal and the sticky mixture would pick up soot deposits and ash until it was a thick slippery cake. A cleaner would have to use a long handled scraper to remove it. Imagine a sweeping brush with a piece of steel bolted to its end.

 

Hopefully, knowing how a machine works helps give modellers clues as to why and where certain types of 'weathering' take hold.

Curious to know what your thoughts might be on appearance during the so called 'heyday' of steam. I am modelling the Midland pre 1905 as I like the Johnson Locos pre the introduction of the 'H' boilers. The locos and stock must have worked pretty hard, but the impression is that of an army of cleaners lavishing loving care on both engines and carriages. I would be interested in your views on weathering for this period.

[coachmann]

Curious to know what your thoughts might be on appearance during the so called 'heyday' of steam. I am modelling the Midland pre 1905 as I like the Johnson Locos pre the introduction of the 'H' boilers. The locos and stock must have worked pretty hard, but the impression is that of an army of cleaners lavishing loving care on both engines and carriages. I would be interested in your views on weathering for this period.

Cheap labour was available during the industrial revolution and after. Railway work was regarded as a career; a job for life for labouring classes. They stuck with it knowing there was a ladder to climb that offered prospects. It is generally accepted that locos were kept cleaner in pre-WW1 days and incentive & punishment was the prime mover. The ornate liveries were just asking to be kept clean anyway, but of course there was also a hierarchy of foremen, bosses, management and top brass to see that the lower-orders did their jobs properly. It comes as no surprise to me to see photos of locos pre-1922 with peeling paint on fireboxes, but I'll bet that peeling paint was clean haha!  I seriously doubt a loco ever looked like the ones we saw in BR days. Sometimes, a black & white photo can be interpreted wrongly. 

Edited October 2, 2017 by coachmann

[Rugd1022]

I would have thought that every railway enthusiast would fully realise that preserved locos weather nothing like everyday steam locos did in steam days. Preserved locos are out from say 10am till 6pm on work that bears little or no relationship to work done when steam was on all-day work in a steam environment.  Cleaners are always on hand (ones hopes) and so-on.

 

At a steam shed in steam days, some diagrams were circuitous and a loco could be away from its home shed for several days working duties in someone else's area. The cleaners wouldn't touch it! Back on its home base, it might get cleaned, it might not. The latter became more prevalent after the war in the rush for easier work!  Not for nothing did ex.works loco soon look externally shabby. Shades of brown were the most common colour on everything to do with the steam railway due to rust created by steel rails, water, steam and fire/ash.

 

Grey was a shade that tended to replace black as paintwork deteriorated. The paint on the footplate in front of the smokebox took some stick because hot ash, sometimes red-hot ash, was ladled and shoveled onto it before it was then thrown onto the deck or in a pit. Running plates got a covering in oil during oiling round and sand spilled while filling sandboxes. Off the loco went on its duty and return for disposal and the sticky mixture would pick up soot deposits and ash until it was a thick slippery cake after a few weeks. A cleaner would have to use a long handled scraper to remove it. Imagine a sweeping brush with a piece of steel bolted to its end.

 

Hopefully, knowing how a machine works helps give modellers clues as to why and where certain types of 'weathering' take hold.

 

I did make the point of saying the photos were preservation era Coach, but I think they still illustrate Johnster's point very well, ie: that they're not always caked in brake dust as is so often depicted in model form, and quite often overdone in that respect .

[Tony Wright]

Good morning Tony and all, a few pics of the B1 I've just completed from a photo, but unfortunately I cant show that due to copyright.

B1 011.JPG

 

B1 014.JPG

 

B1 015.JPG

 

B1 009.JPG

 

And my Cl 40.

B1 002.JPG

 

B1 003.JPG

 

And an O Gauge Cattle Wagon.

B1 004.JPG

 

B1 005.JPG

Thanks for posting the images Andy,

 

The B1 is most impressive and very like it is in the prototype picture.

 

May I ask, what's happened to the smokebox dart? 

 

The reason I ask (other than the fact that it's gone somewhere), is that in conducting my loco-clinic at the Wigan Show over the weekend (a splendid event, by the way), it's astonishing how vulnerable modern RTR locos and rolling stock items are with regard to the problem of bits dropping off. Not only that, I had to adjust pick-ups, try and sort out failing motors, puzzle over which screws to undo (of all different sizes) and re-quarter driving wheels. I've now come to the conclusion that more recent RTR steam-outline locos (in OO Gauge), though very well-detailed - at least with regard to the bits which stay on, are just rather poor when it comes down to reliability, longevity, robustness and user-friendliness. When folk ask (as they still do) why I choose to make my own locos, that's the reason I give now (and probably always will). 

 

The problems given by current RTR items don't seem to deter people from buying them, filling their layouts with them and using them to the exclusion of things being built. But, it's the personal making of things which is central to this thread. My thanks for all the excellent examples appearing recently. And, to be fair, to those who've shown us examples of the modified/detailed/weathered RTR locos/stock which they've done for themselves. All personal model-making of the highest order. 

 

Speaking to many folk at Wigan, the perception seems to be that there are more 'collectors' in the hobby than ever in the past. By that I mean those who just buy ready-made things in boxes, open them and plonk the things on the layout (in all scales/gauges). Or, those who pay others to do their 'modelling' for them (in some cases, just about everything). Is the number of actual model-makers in the hobby diminishing? At least one 'younger' modeller at Wigan was preparing to do things for himself. There needs to be many more. 

 

 

I suppose it's because so much was made on this layout, that it was my favourite at Wigan. It's an O Gauge rendition of a bit of the S&D in pre-Grouping days built by the East Kent O Gauge Group. Nothing on this was created by the skill of 'box-opening'. 

 

 

Despite what many might think, I'm not entirely hostile to RTR. I know I couldn't build a Class 66 to the standard of this one seen on Euxton Junction from the Preston MRS (not that I'd want to), and the overall scene (if incomplete) was very impressive. 

 

 

As was Dave Forshaw's Nine Mills in N Gauge, where good use had been made of RTR items. None, however, was just out of the box.

 

Picking up on certain other comments (it's amazing how active this thread is when I'm away!), mention has been made of the potential use of a sort of 'rotary' fiddle yard on LB. As Anglian has mentioned, that would be impossible because the longest trains, plus locos, are near 15' long. Though I have three cassettes, as an operating system I really dislike it, especially where (as in my case) the cassettes have to be drawn out, picked up and placed in position. The risk of damage to stock is ever-present. I've seen cassettes used to advantage in fiddle yards, where they're just moved from side to side, so the idea does have merit I'm sure. 

 

It also makes me consider how many trains I actually 'need'. There are 50 train movements in LB's main line sequence. That's not to say there are 50 trains because each pick-up has three movements - arrive, shunt, depart - and there are light engine movements and trains being put 'inside' as it were. Nonetheless, the sequence takes about two hours to run through, which is enough. 

 

Would I want to represent every train one might have seen passing through LB during the daylight hours of a summer's day in 1958? I don't think so, for a variety of reasons including a lack of storage space (as I've said, I don't like cassettes), the time needed to build them all (I'm not a great writer of cheques) and, even if it were possible, it would be days, weeks or even months before a full timetable was run. 

 

The space I have allows me 20 full-length through roads in the main line fiddle yard. Though two roads are needed for trains departing/arriving from/into the various kick-back sidings, several of the other through roads have two trains in them. There are 12 kick-back sidings, again with one or two holding two trains. The cassettes give me three more trains. Light engines are just placed on and taken off as appropriate. I honestly think that is enough.

 

To do 'justice' to the whole real ECML timetable on a steam-age summer's day, I'd need at least 100 roads in a fiddle yard. It just isn't feasible, especially if all those trains would be full-length, prototypical formations. 

 

Finally with regard to the B1, Andy, do chuck away those dreadful bogie wheels and replace them with something looking like a B1's.

 

Lastly, may I please thank all those with whom I spoke at Wigan, particularly those who donated so generously when I was able to fix their duds (there were two beyond me - sorry)? Mo took in nearly £60.00, which will be donated to Cancer Research.  

Edited October 2, 2017 by Tony Wright

[Headstock]

Being almost in sight of completing my stock list for LSGC (it averaged out about ten carriages / NPC's or thirty wagons per locomotive) I had to remind myself that sometime in the past I had time to build locomotives. I dared myself to go for another close up, this time a subject I built and painted before the need for glasses. I think it still looks OK, Thompson Pacific's require a little brown in my opinion. Hopefully it fits in with the run of the thread. A big dirty Wolf waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting Gresley sheep and convert it into something unnatural.

Edited October 2, 2017 by Headstock

[Clearwater]

On preservation weathering, I was watching last night a Dan Snow programme on the rail system on The History Channel or similar. There were some interesting shots of Bittern during the Mallard 75 runs taken from a helicopter. The loco had a distinct streak, pardon the pun, of smoke dirt along the top of the boiler alongside the mirror like gloss of the garter blue sides. Clearly when we visit preserved railways, we’re mostly looking horizontally but the helicopter shots of Bittern perhaps gave a more modelling perspective.

 

On a similar vein, on another thread, there are various photos of the GWS Railmotor over the last few years and you can see the progressive weathering of its formerly pristine white roof

 

David

[Andrew P]

Thanks for posting the images Andy,

 

The B1 is most impressive and very like it is in the prototype picture.

 

May I ask, what's happened to the smokebox dart? 

 

 

Finally with regard to the B1, Andy, do chuck away those dreadful bogie wheels and replace them with something looking like a B1's.

 

 

Thanks Tony, not a clue on the Dart, I only Air Brushed that area, and TBH I never noticed it was missing. SHAME ON ME, 

Re the Wheels, it's not my Loco, again it's a job for a friend, your dammed lucky he took off the front coupling, hahah

 

Wheels etc are on my to do list, along with Lamps (front and back) for all my Fleet once the main part of KM is complete, I'm working my way down to the Station area, so once the big jobs are done, then I can work back and do all the small bits, like stock, Trees, (I need about 100 I think, and proper size), Road Signs, and detail the Gardens and Signal Mans Allotment etc.

 

The detailing is one area I am looking forward to, as each bit will be different and a challenge.

 

Unfortunately I would say that 90% of our Club are RTR out of the Box, mint condition, and play for Metcalfe United.   

[Lecorbusier]

Cheap labour was available during the industrial revolution and after. Railway work was regarded as a career; a job for life for labouring classes. They stuck with it knowing there was a ladder to climb that offered prospects. It is generally accepted that locos were kept cleaner in pre-WW1 days and incentive & punishment was the prime mover. The ornate liveries were just asking to be kept clean anyway, but of course there was also a hierarchy of foremen, bosses, management and top brass to see that the lower-orders did their jobs properly. It comes as no surprise to me to see photos of locos pre-1922 with peeling paint on fireboxes, but I'll bet that peeling paint was clean haha!  I seriously doubt a loco ever looked like the ones we saw in BR days. Sometimes, a black & white photo can be interpreted wrongly. 

Thanks for this .... relieved that it chimes with what I was proposing with my own weathering attempts .... ie a visually pretty clean and polished overall impression but with a fair amount of grime about the wheels, some heat degradation to the firebox area and evidence of recent cleaning out ... and of course some evidence of smuts and smoke, dirty cab roof etc.

 

So similar to a later loco that hadn't been in traffic too long after a visit to the paint shop ... but with a degree more age showing around the smokebox and below the footplate. I suspect the goods locos would have been a whole lot dirtier though!

[glo41f]

"Unfortunately I would say that 90% of our Club are RTR out of the Box, mint condition, and play for Metcalfe United."

 

You have hit the nail on the head Andy and identified the reason why I no longer go to any of my local Model Railway Clubs these days. Despite the efforts of our Leader and others of his ilk,  there seems to be little enthusiasm out there for extending one's skills or horizons. One club I know of  has spent years re iterating the same theme with a large circuit with the dreadful Peco Streamline track upon which the latest products circulate. ( It has contributed thousands to the Peco bottom line!). No effort is put in to any improvement to the stuff out of the box in any way. This trend is prevalent even in the venerable MRC which is rapidly subsiding into this type of so called modelling where once it was the engine of change and betterment. Attendance there once was greatly enjoyed by being able to see a wide variety of models on the tracks in many scales most of which came from bits of metal or from kits put together with skill and enthusiasm and when I go these days there is nothing but a pile of Hornby or Bachman boxes, the contents of which circulate at great speed to the satisfaction of their owners. I sometimes despair of this trend especially when it morphs into "wish lists" of things like coaches in another livery etc. when it is possible to repaint them and otherwise enhance them as we have had ample demonstration here.  Perhaps the imperative that we had in earlier years to try and make a Hornby R59 Brit into something that looked like one (which was achieved to great effect by the members of Bury St Edmunds MRC on their wonderful Broadland Railway.) has been annulled by the high standard the commercial models now routinely achieve. However, for me and I suspect many others who lurk here, this is not a type of modelling that I can respect. There has to be a large element of personal input which I fully accept can be frustrating and painful (picking up a soldering iron at the wrong end!), but the eventual satisfaction of creating something unique is priceless. 

 

I continue to look at this group as my MRC and greatly enjoy the diversity and talents displayed here.

 

Martin Long

[APOLLO]

I hope you enjoyed the Wigan show Tony, and I also enjoyed meeting your yourself and your (very patient and understanding) wife, and the brief conversation with you on Saturday, mainly to thank you in person for the superb J10 you sold to me a couple of months ago. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction regarding temperature controlled soldering irons, and the range of solders and liquid flux to use. I obtained the said solder & flux at Wigan (Eileen's) and will shortly order a temperature controlled iron. I have a couple of brass American O scale signal kits I've had for years to "have a go at". Who knows where it will go from there -- ?.

 

We briefly discussed our early trainspotting years, and you rightly pointed out that the mere seven year "advantage" you had over me age wise meant so very much back then, I started spotting in 1963 aged 11, steam finished in 1968 when I was aged 16. You will therefore have seem earlier sights I can only now see on Youtube - LNER Pacifics in full flight etc. "Our" Duchesses went in 63/4, just as I started to spot, and I only remember them very briefly.

 

You asked me "Why Brit 15" ? - well, back then Apollo was my favourite steam loco, cabbed her at Stockport Edgeley in 1966, and was behind her same year on a Liverpool Exchange - Glasgow express as far as Preston. That line (now a shadow of it's former self) was straight and level beyond Ormskirk - and she really flew. What memories !!

 

Here is Apollo in 1966 at Stockport on a Llandudno excursion, in that unforgettable unlined "sickly" green !! (not my photo).

 

 

Brit15

[Anglian]

On preservation weathering, I was watching last night a Dan Snow programme on the rail system on The History Channel or similar. There were some interesting shots of Bittern during the Mallard 75 runs taken from a helicopter. The loco had a distinct streak, pardon the pun, of smoke dirt along the top of the boiler alongside the mirror like gloss of the garter blue sides. Clearly when we visit preserved railways, we’re mostly looking horizontally but the helicopter shots of Bittern perhaps gave a more modelling perspective.

 

On a similar vein, on another thread, there are various photos of the GWS Railmotor over the last few years and you can see the progressive weathering of its formerly pristine white roof

 

David

 

 

The last time I saw Tornado, near my home, she was in her blue livery. It was late in the day but still daylight. She was absolutely filthy, especially the rear half of the tender that looked totally black. I thought to myself – that's possibly an 'authentic in service' appearance.