This Loco was purchased as 31296, a named and Factory weathered Heljan Loco. After the removal of the name, numbers and about 75% of the Factory weathering, it was renumbered 31234 as a Stratford (SF) Loco from the late 80’s. By this time and into the early 90’s this was a restricted Loco and basically it worked engineers trains at the weekends. Engines like this were rarely washed and had minimum maintenance, in fact before withdrawal 31234 was in a terrible state. I have given it a Medium level of weathering, as that’s how I remember it!