Workbench

EXPERT MODELLERS SHOW YOU HOW

Inspired by a trainspotting session at Westbury, George Dent set about recreating the distinctive weathering patterns seen on Network Rail’s IOA wagons, with the help of innovative decals.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORGE DENT

Alighting at Westbury station in March last year, with a couple of hours to kill, my main aim was to ‘cop’ a Class 59 or two.

However, just as I stepped down from the GWR Class 166, a Colas Class 70 was departing with a rake of battered Network Rail IOA ‘Mussel’ wagons. Luckily, I managed to grab a few photographs which, while not particularly great in terms of composition, captured the distinctive weathering patterns of these yellow wagons.

Introduced in early 2009, the IOA was designed to carry bulk loads of ballast and they’re often seen running between Network Rail’s ‘virtual’ quarries. Loaded and unloaded by mechanical grab, the bodies are prone to being bashed around, which leads to their battle-scarred appearance.

Dapol offers attractive models of the IOA in both ‘N’ and ‘OO’, with numerous production batches over the past 10 years or so providing plenty of individually numbered versions. Having seen the real IOAs on countless occasions during my travels, I’d been thinking of challenging myself to replicating the unusual weathering patterns for some time.

That trip to Westbury galvanised me into action and, luckily, some time later I met Jo Alder of Steadfast Models at an exhibition and was impressed by his weathered ‘N’ gauge IOAs. It turned out that Jo had created sets of waterslide decals to depict the various bumps and scrapes, which removed the need to create them freehand with a paintbrush. I asked if he could do me some in ‘OO’ and, thankfully, he said yes!