You may be wondering what I mean by this? My models are simply decorated and I like them that way. If the cab has an open back then I will fit a back plate kit and a few dials etc. But if the model has a close cab -I don't. Similarly all my models are 'pristine' not 'weathered'. This is because weathering to the degree that you see it at shows NEVER HAPPENED.

What you see is an illusion of fashion... I would cite the case of an 'O' modeller who went to great lengths to weather his models -only to find that the engines and rolling stock were cleaned every day and the crew with the shiniest engine won a cash prize at the end of the week. This was because a well oiled, clean and grit free loco runs better (and required less expensive servicing) than one covered in grime...

The things to decorate your loco with that you see in the catalogues do occassionaly have some merit, a set of tools in a tool box or a track tools near a platelayers hut for example. On the other hand I have seen American logging locos with so much chain, frippery and nonsence on them that they have turned the poor model from a wonderful representation -into some sort of caricature!!!

Then on the otherhand you have the perfectionist... I would cite the case of some poor individual who examined a de Bousquet made by a friend of mine and complained to him loudly that the end of the bolts were BA not Metric. It was pointed out to him that they did not make metric setscrews and nuts of the required size and that 10 BA was the smallest practical size he could use. (He also said other things that we cannot repeat here...)

There are also the colour freaks! I have a very good colour vision but I am aware that there are some individuals who have colour skews and recogniton problems. At shows you get people complaining that 'this is not Maunsell Green' etc Well the truth is that each shop mixed up its own colour from the strip of tape that Maunsell bought from the Grocers over the road.... The famous Midland Red was a result of an accidental order mistake. The original colour of 'The Midland Counties Railway' colour was 'Strutt Green'. However due to an order mistake they ordered several tens of gallons of 'Markeaton Red'. There is an traditional story that the ordering clerk was colour blind and simply ordered the paint from the chart...

I do not belong to any of these 'camps'. To me my models are representations of what I feel the loco should look like and probably was early in it's working life. They may not be accurate either in: scale, colour, detail level, or mode of operation -but I have never produced one that I was unhappy with.

All of them I consider to be 'work in progress', not finished items, I expect them to evolve or change as I do and the railway does.

regards

ralph

Addendum:

I honestly thought that I had finished with this entry -but things and events have proved me wrong! I got comments from a person who enquired about my first Gauge 3 model and remarked "Is it coal fired?" to which I replied "No. it's ELECTRIC". He was rather upset about this and I had to explain that it was an ELECTRIC traction locomotive and there was not the slightest possibility of it burning coal. Another person told me he considered my models to be "off the wall" and I then explained to him that they were models of real locomotives that existed and had to be sold -unlike the very pretty Roundhouse ones...