British Railways jobs

Hi All.  The duties performed by lots of young men climbing all over locomotives, I don’t recall seeing many young women working on the Railway’s , in YouTube videos, cleaning out the boiler etc. They were on the bottom rung of the ladder to become a driver, if they followed their orders and kept their noses clean, and finally passed their exams, worked their driving days, etc pleasing the Loco inspector , but, as far as model Railways are concerned one either gets a brand new straight out of the shed (box).  Short of having multiples of each Loco which is a bit OTT, Best wishes Kevin 

For many years most railway jobs were not open to women.  They were admitted to the more menial roles and clerical positions during WW2 (and I think to a limited extent also during WW1) but were, by and large, not retained.  Those were "jobs for the boys".  For reasons which were a part of society at the time it was thought normal for a woman to stay home and clean the place (including manually laundering all the clothes and bedding - no machines in those days) ready for her husband's return from work but cleaning locomotives, trains or even railway offices was not acceptable.  It didn't matter that she might have been on her hands and knees half the day scrubbing floors and steps - climbing inside the frames and up into the hidden motion of a grimy, and possibly still hot, steam locomotive on shed was no place for a woman.  

In different times we now have legislation preventing such discrimination were anyone to try it.  There are female locomotive cleaners and footplate crew on the heritage railways though not (to my knowledge) on main line steam locos.  Their time will come.  They are still few in number and even fewer willing and able to dedicate the time needed to work up the ranks and train as NR-authorised drivers.  There are however plenty of female train drivers among the national operators.  Glasgow Subway is renowned for its female drivers who make up most of the workforce on the "Clockwork Orange".  

Ready-to-use model people are therefore correctly all male in the steam-era footplate and shed grades.  If one is representing modern-era preserved steam on a heritage line then it isn't too hard to find models of females which can be suitably repainted.  

I have a substantial collection of motive power.  As is generally well-known I weather my own stock though some is bought factory weathered and either left as bought or discreetly added to.  

With two exceptions nothing is duplicated.  Some locos are heavily weathered, some less so and some again presented almost ex-works for a variety of appearances typical of the real railway.  A very few items are untouched largely because I consider they might at some time become more valuable in pristine boxed condition than "played with".  Residual or future value is not a reason for me to collect rolling stock; it is for some people.  

I don't see a need, personally, to have the same locomotive offered in shiny, dirty and rusty versions.  Others may have different opinions.  The only duplication in my collection - and which is intentional - is of two different versions of the same D600-class "Warship" loco released by Kernow MRC and of two very different version of the same class 37 carrying different numbers and liveries but the same name.  

Other than that each item is unique.  If I want a filthy loco I can run one; if I want a clean one I can also run one but it will be a different number, may be in a different livery / differently detailed or even of a different class altogether.