Bigmet wrote:There are endless arguments over roof colour
Copy that. Thanks for your input P. Already understood pretty much applicable to all, but especially doped canvas coach roofs during the steam era initial doped colour or network regardless.
Although not having seen first hand the glory that was British steam even in its decline and Indian summer, I am old enough to have witnessed our own, as in an age before private car ownership, my primary public transport until I was six was provided by suburban railway line rather than tram. Until 1960, after which the introduction of new diesels made their ever increasing welcome substitution in the eyes of this child back then, pretty much all surburban trains on our line were headed by steam, usually a tank loco probably of US origin left behind by the Yanks after the war. I well recall the muck and filth of soot coating everything associated with the railway during that time, especially prominant in the three large enclosed busy central through-traffic city stations.
If realisim is what's sought in terms of presentation, clearly weathering is in order whether a mineral wagon or carriage. From an analytical POV, whether sold with grey, white or silver, if the shade of the roof is uniform and pristine, it's a straw argument for any pedant to argue semantics about colour if not going to just as vehemently address the accompanying aspects of soot, weathering and wear and tear. That said, perception is reality as I've said in the past, or "it's my train set". I don't display, so I run pristine for my own enjoyment because it brings me great pleasure. And so I will look to alter minutae such as a crest representative of era whilst ignoring the muck, admittedly a contradiction of logic in service or quest of escapisim. My imagination fills in the necessary omitted detail with the same delight it did when I was eleven or twelve. But in "Blyton Wold", 'Big Brother' isn't watching any of us via CCTV. There, streets are hardly ever dirty, nor stations run down. All good little boys and girls go to bed when they are told to, speak only when spoken to, don't cheek the local constable or <gasp!? their parent
S. Thus do I escape the charnel house of living dead who occupy a contemporary world -if only for an hour or so each day.
Hornby, and Bachmann for that matter, have been notably inconsistent with roof colours in the past. With their Metro Cammell Pullmans, at least Bachmann were consistent within the batch releases. That said, roofs are the easiest and quickest item to repaint overall in <pick a preferred colour> if consistency is required, so the colour they release with doesn't really cause me concern other than to scratch my head perpetually trying to figure out their reasoning other than none at all other than whimsy? Perhaps one of the reasons
moulded in grey might be issued is that it escapes a finishing step required in painting the roofs white or off white? Or perhaps grey roofed carriages just sell better than white roofed and the bean counting statisticians have noticed this? I think consistency of release the more important for those who don't want to refinish. Personally, I prefer white representative of fresh from factory for Pullmans. Caters for those who like cigarette packet card pristine, and easy to alter for weathered effect for those who don't. But it's not something that irks me particularly either way that I would consider it worth arguing over. If I wanted doped white over a grey release, the 'it came out of the box that way' look is too easily achieved to a professionally applied standard with an airbrush.
