Over the years many people have asked me to heavily weather steam loco’s. I usually tell them that I can do that, but for my own stock I usually stick at medium weathering. I like to read the numbers and plates after weathering, just my preference. I usually use a scale of one to ten, ten being absolute filth. I do my loco’s up to about six or seven.

I also try to encourage people to vary the degree of weathering, having ten loco’s all heavily weathered is not good. Even towards the end of steam shed pet loco’s always had a little more care than the rest. Add to this nicely clean Railtour loco, and you have your mix.

Below are a mix of loco’s from about four to seven on my scale. All are for a shed layout and have detailed buffer beams both ends. They have mostly been ‘crewed’, coaled and have lamps.