Wagon Matt

Thanks for that, although for my purpose its not an issue as I'm using the chart for the current year.

Hello, Standard 12T vans carried either Van, Vanfit or neither, again down to the interpretation of the personnel applying the livery. This is prior to the implementation of TOPS (Total Operations Processing System) at the end of the1960s which categorised vehicles in to codes with Standard 12T revenue earning vehicles becoming VVV ​Paul Bartlett's excellent site shows some of these Van ​Vanfit Shocvans and other specialist vehicles were allocated to certain traffic. B850498 and sister B850499 were allocated to Tinplate traffic out of Bynea, located in the Western Region and this adorned the side of the vehicle. This is an ex works image of B850333 allocated to the London Midland Region from 1957 and is found in: FREIGHT WAGONS AND LOADS IN SERVICE ON THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY AND BRITISH RAIL, WESTERN REGION Author: J.H. Russell ISBN: 0860931552 ​The little symbol on the van in "Snow" and on a few of the ones I have done are BR Paint Symbols, they are 12 repeating symbols that indicate the year the vehicle was painted. I have continued this system and the symbols I apply match the current year. Wagon repaints were no more than 12 years apart so there was no repeating of symbols (Apparently) I have had a look at your images on Flickr and I'm afraid your fish vans are wrong. The blue spot represents a roller bearing fitted vehicle, but you have modelled open fronted plain white metal bearing axel boxes.

This is a minefield I have explored before. ​Gill Sans Medium type in white was the BR specification ​Indeed this was applied by some and can be clearly seen in the first few minutes of the BTF by Geoffrey Jones "Snow(1963)" From here the waters become muddy very quickly. As stated above it was down to the sign writers that applied the lettering and there own style inevitably came through. I have used many sources, mainly books, and have copied many different styles. ​I predominantly use Gill Sans MT with slight variations and sometimes use details from the LNER Sign writers guide, although it states Gill Sans it is different to that used by BR. For post 1964 scheme vehicles I use Rail Alphabet These are of cause full size vehicles but the problems are the same for the smaller scales.