Sutton Dock

Private owner wagons would tend to kept relatively clean as they were advertising and the owners wanted that visible. In most pictures they look relatively clean but not spotless. Probably sending a boy along the line with a brush in tha case of a colliery. A small scale merchanmt with a couple of wagons quite likely to wash them. The railway company goods stock on the other hand can look quite grubby.

Thanks that is helpful - I don't have any private owner wagons at the moment, I will have to do some more research. I have a few weathered vehicles - I will try and post a few pictures over the weekend. 

Mark, I use three link / screw couplings and nothing looks better even if they are slightly overscale. They can be infuriating until you get adept at uncoupling, I use a wire uncoupler attached to a cheap plastic torch that was given to me by a Taiwanese insurance company in the days when I was gainfully employed. I'm still experimenting at finding the ideal shape of wire for uncoupling and I'll report in my own blog once I find it, if indeed I do. As a suggestion why not get a couple of pairs of three link couplings, attach them to two wagons and see how you go with coupling and uncoupling them. You'll need to bend up some wire and I would certainly recommend attaching the wire to a small cheap torch.

 

As regards private owner wagons, I would recommend that you have a look at the PowSides website. I have just ordered two from them, they have a range of over 700 and as far as I can see are based on the Slaters kits, these were outstanding. They haven't arrived yet so may be disappointed but there is a lack of decent wagon kits these days, it was so much easier ten years ago but we didn't know it then!

 

John

Hi John - that is a good idea with the 3-link and the use of a torch! I'll give that a try and report back.

 

Thanks for the PowSides website - I had not heard of this company before. 

 

Mark