The Grotty 1960's

D6333 rumbles through Dawlish Warren with an inspection saloon,
22 July 1966. This loco survived to be one of the last 4 in service,
 it being withdrawn in 1972 and in due course was repainted in
BR (Rail) Blue. Photo: Richard Lewis, posted here with permission.

Compared to the present day, Britain's railways were a mucky place 45 years ago, the rest of country wasn't much different then either. Whilst it's easy to mock the grotty 1960's developments, it's easy to see why people were keen to get rid of a scruffy run down past and replace it with a shiny looking space-age landscape.

The state of D6333 in this shot rather reflects the state of grottyness which was frequently the norm. It's not easy to imagine that when the photo was taken the loco was well under 10 years old. At the time, it wiould be comparable in age to a Freightliner Class 66 now. Scary.



D6313 after an initial weathering, captured here running
around its train on the author's Combwich layout.



When I started to weather mine the other day, there was some quite valid suggestion that maybe I went too far, but after looking at a few examples in Richard Lewis' wonderful archive since, I'm beginning to think that mine isn't tatty enough. However my scenario depicts the railway as it was a few years prior, so I may well tidy mine up a little and work a little of the grime off around the cabsides to give a used sheen and to reduce the overly dusty look.

Looking at Richard's photo, flaking paint appears to be a feature of the time and probably the result of cellulose paint being rubbed off with a carriage washing plant. Modern paints are alot better in this respect and anyone who remembers polishing a cellulose finished car will know just how much paint used to end up on the polishing cloth!

It's quite trendy these days to create marks on the windscreen showing where the wipers have kept the glass clean. I had a go using a little cloth to selectively remove the weathering pigment, but after further looking at Class 22 prototype photos, this feature is rarely ever seen, and whilst the engines were often in a right old state, the glazing was generally spotless and probably wiped clean daily. I would appear that I have fallen into the easy trap of modelling a model!