Yes, I didn't say you couldn't have some weathered wagons. But, are you sure that they are 108/109s? The really big years for building the latter are 1955-57, when Pressed Steel alone were building c200 per week, and they would have been dirty, but not necessarily very bashed about. Certainly by 1965-6 there were a lot of very weathered steel minerals about http://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brmineralweld/e3f67f9ca http://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brmineralweld/e3eb3f5af All I was saying was that heavy weathering could be overdone for a loco type which had basically gone by 1960.
The black panels are interesting. Large panels were being used on other steel bodied wagons from 1952, but I simply could not find any new build 16t minerals with them. I stress new build (and if someone does have photos then these would be very interesting). Chas Roberts for example was using the split box upto 1957. But large boxes do seem to be quite normal at repainting, so by 1960 is common on pre108/109s and was beginning to appear on these as well.
Paul Bartlett