All quiet on the Western front

Unfortunately due to a combination of factors, work on the various projects has ground to a halt. 

However, in my travels around the Great British railway system, I have been noticing some odd weathering effects so I thought I’d share them. 

I noted last year that the weathering of sleepers at Leeds station would look unrealistic if you modelled it as platform 8 is mainly used by electric stock so is not coated with oil as per most roads. 

In a similar vein is this picture from York. Steam specials arriving in York from the south tend to use platform 10 and invariably end up with their chimney under the footbridge. Platform 9 never sees steam (as far as I am aware – I’ve only ever seen it in 10 and 11) so the footbridge doesn’t display the same marks. Again, if you modelled it as thus, you’d be accused of doing a half arsed job. 

  
Other weathering I noticed recently is this little tide mark from a Virgin Trains East Coast HST. I’ll admit, I do like the livery, as I liked the old Midland Mainline blue and white livery, but white on HSTs really isn’t a good idea. (Yes it’s first class, thank you Employer of mine). 

The thing is, if you did weathering on a model with that straight edge, without feathering it, you’d again be on the straight jacket list. 

  
Finally, in this round up of miscellany, not all has been quiet on the Western front… 

and a nice little tribute to Ray Towell. RIP matey!