Two Locos from two different eras. Both are weathered to a light to medium standard.

Class 31 – 31205 as running in the late 70’s.

Class 37 – D6720 as running in early 60’s

This is a story of delight turning to horror. Between us my friend and I had ordered four of the just released Class 31 from Heljan in O Gauge. Imagine my horror when on opening the boxes and finding three of them damaged because of poor packaging. This was the first time I have ever had damage on a Heljan loco (although I know others that had) and immediately rang my supplier, sadly I seemed to be one of many, I was asked to return the three damaged locos for replacements. After testing the locos all were excellent runners – I made the decision that I was going to do the repairs myself and I asked for a discount from the supplier/Heljan – I was refused as it was not Heljan policy. I thought that was an awful decision but decided to keep and repair anyway as the replacements could have the same problems.

The damage on these loco included – Buffers torn off, bogie sides loose, Buffer Beam details fallen off, bogie ends missing and couplings broken. I have now repaired the lot and now have excellent locos, I guess it took me about two hours and I am happy.

The photos below show the finished Locos, the one that was not damaged and a 37 that I am also doing. They all need to be varnished (over the transfers) and then weathered.

As the title says – this is a heavy weathering on a Heljan Class 40. This Loco has become a labour of love over the last few days with extra washes and special attention to the tops of the nose. I would call this about a 8 out of 10 as far as weathering goes, certainly the roof, underframe and bogies could not be much dirtier, the body is subtly streaked with shadow using dark grey and a little light grey for wear and tear.

This was a multi method job using ‘wash and wipe’, airbrushing’, ‘dry brushing’ and a little powder here and there.

Just noticed that I have not done the headcode discs – these will done before calling it finished.

Today I have weathered 50047 to a Light to Medium standard. I think it would be fair to say that the bodysides are lightly weathered and the Roof, Underframe and Bogies are Medium. Most trips through the Washer Plant usually kept the bodies slightly cleaner than the rest of the Loco – I hope I have caught ‘the look’.

This is another of my old friends from the late 70’s. 37054 was a March (MR) engine as modelled, but it did spend some time at Stratford (SF) as well.

This is a light to medium rendition of the Loco in what I would call its heyday. I have subtly highlighted the boiler and safety valves as per the below photos.

A pair of my old friends from the late 70’s. A Dapol O8 re-numbered as O8250 a NR (Norwich) Engine and a Heljan O3 as O3175 a MR (March) Engine. Both are Vacuum braked examples.

Both are medium weathered and are DCC Fitted. Special attention has been paid to bonnet hinges with a little rust of the O8 hinges. The wipe and wash method used again to make the engines look 3D rather than coloured plastic.

Over the years I have weathered several Loco’s for Les as he moved from OO to O Gauge. Les is a ‘Rail Blue’ enthusiast and all Loco’s mirror this period of Railway History.

Here are some photos taken at one of his friends Garden Railway over the last few years.

All photos supplied by Les.

Over the last week or so the weather has been very wet, so I had to work inside doing numbering, detailing and touch up painting. All the Locos are O Gauge and will end up in Australia with an Expat friend.

Each Loco has been fully researched and are totally authentic for his chosen era, even down to warning flashes.

The numbers etc. will be sealed with varnish and then left for about three days before full weathering takes place, I just hope the real weather is kind to me with reasonable temperatures and no rain, fingers crossed.