Oxford Rail - LNER Cattle Wagon

[micklner]

Steve Bank's website has very useful info and tells the stark truth about just how bad the Oxford Cattle wagon is.

 

Also MRJ issue 87 of 1996 has a very comprehensive article about 9' and 10' wheelbase developments.

 

Mr Banks site is a bit extreme in his criticism, as he is on many other matters. 

 

The model with minor modification is very good , the corrections are simple to do.

 

For the price it is good value. It is however a poor choice, they should have done the 10ft wheelbase version which had a much longer life.

[Garethp8873]

Mr Banks site is a bit extreme in his criticism, as he is on many other matters. 

 

The model with minor modification is very good , the corrections are simple to do.

 

For the price it is good value. It is however a poor choice, they should have done the 10ft wheelbase version which had a much longer life.

 

I fully agree mick.

 

When I first got the LNER Cattle wagons, I knew immediately they would be refurbished with the corrections. Now they've been refurbished, repainted and lettered, I am more than happy to see them on the layout along with the unfitted Parkside Dundas example I have.

[Edwardian]

I fully agree mick.

 

When I first got the LNER Cattle wagons, I knew immediately they would be refurbished with the corrections. Now they've been refurbished, repainted and lettered, I am more than happy to see them on the layout along with the unfitted Parkside Dundas example I have.

 

From what I've read, for those wanting a shorter W/B LNER cattle wagon, it is worth buying Oxford's model and amending it.  The issue of what standards one should expect from a manufacturer is, then, a separate issue from the question of how usable a model is (assuming the purchaser is concerned about accuracy in the first place).  A number of recent releases by newer entrants have been littered with errors, but some are quite easy to correct, whilst others are not, so I tend to think in terms of utility rather than purely accuracy when considering a model. 

 

I am not sure whether I'd really justify the presence of this wagon on a layout, but, if it was a fit, I would buy the Oxford model and correct the errors, as several here have done to very good effect.  

Edited October 5, 2017 by Edwardian

[Tim Lewis]

There were two Parkside LNER Cattle builds in BR bauxite on display in the showcase at Scaleforum. They had been put on Dave Bradwell's etched 10' underframe and had the appropriate bracing brackets that were added to the 10 foot AVB wagons. They looked superb. A pricey way to do it but the fine brakegear really did it for them. They were with a LMS Cattle built from a David Geen kit which also looked nice.

Those were my cattle wagons - glad you liked them!  Here's a picture of one:

 

I've done 5 of these (more pics on workbench thread if you're interested.  I've got a few more Parkside kits in stock still to do but, in the light of more recent information, I need to re-assess the 'balance' between LNER and other types of cattle wagon in my cattle train).  These were a fair amount of work, but a reasonable end result.  These were of course done before the Oxford model came out.  If I were starting again, I'm not sure whether I'd start with a Parkside kit or the Oxford model, as they're probably an equal amount of work to bring up to the spec./standard that I'm aiming for.  The errors on the body are irritating, but the main issue with the Oxford model is that, as micklner said, they "made a poor choice" (perhaps because they had already released some 9' wagons and could somehow re-use some stuff?).  In my book however, that doesn't really excuse releasing it in incompatible liveries though - you kind of expect manufacturers to do their research properly these days.

 

Using a Bradwell underframe is not an especially pricey way of doing it - they are £15 for two which, if you're going to refine the underframe or add sprung W-irons anyway, isn't too bad - and they are wonderful etches.

 

Incidentally, the picture above shows that, despite what has been said earlier in this thread, you can actually see the partition supports on both sides at once!

[Lu4472ke]

Has anyone had one of these apart? if so how do they come apart?

[Nile]

To remove the body from the chassis you have to remove the buffers. These can be pushed out from behind.

[Garethp8873]

Food for thought... the LNER Cattle wagon in the background of this photo, a 9ft or 10ft example?

[Ben Alder]

Here is a crop of it.

 

[Tim Lewis]

Looks like the number begins E196xxx which makes it one of the 10' wheelbase ones (diagram 122 from memory?). Highly unlikely that any of the LNER 9' ones would have survived this late.

[Garethp8873]

On 28/01/2022 at 11:09, Tim Lewis said:

Looks like the number begins E196xxx which makes it one of the 10' wheelbase ones (diagram 122 from memory?). Highly unlikely that any of the LNER 9' ones would have survived this late.

 

Brilliant!! That saves me money!!

[Tim Lewis]

Happy to be of service!