Highland Railway Type B goods brake van completed.

Highland Railway Type B goods brake van c. 1899.

Pictorial evidence for the livery of the Type B van is elusive and mostly to be derived from the well known photo of HR 23 at Perth in about 1904. Part of the van can be glimpsed in the background beyond the engine. The position of the insignia on the van side is clear and I have positioned the initials HR with 53 below accordingly on the model. The photo shows part of the word BRAKE centrally on the right hand panel, so GOODS must have appeared on the left hand panel. It seems probable that this particular van had no beading in the middle of the outer panels as this would have disrupted the lettering. A photo of part of Type B van no.47 in Highland Railway Album clearly shows a central bead to the end panel, the model similarly has a central panel bead so the lettering has been located between this and the door. between 1902/3 and 1912 records tell us that van roofs were mid grey, prior to this and later vans were turned out with white roofs though this must have discoloured quickly.

A name board for the name of the guard and the home station is located low down on the left of the van. The only description of the colour of Highland Railway brake vans at this time I've come across is that they were "rich red oxide", they may have had vermillion ends in their early days too though this is not certain, nevertheless I've painted the ends of the model red. I used Precision Paints' P436 Caledonian Railway freight wagon oxide for the van sides and lightly weathered the van with an airbrush.

The current Highland Railway Journal for Spring 2019 carries an article on the construction of this model which a second follow-up article in the next Journal will conclude.