Oxford 7-Plank open wagons

[phil gollin]

.

 

No one seems to have noticed that the BR Weathered versions have arrived.

 

 

OR76MW7015 7 plank wagon in BR grey - weathered

 

and

 

OR76MW7016 Pack of three 7 plank wagons in BR grey - weathered

 

All four with different "P" numbers

 

.

[AGR Model Store]

Yep Seen them, Have them ...

 

http://www.agrmodelrailwaystore.co.uk/oxford-rail-or76mw7015-7-plank-mineral-wagon-br-grey-p75934-weathered?search=76mw70

 

 

http://www.agrmodelrailwaystore.co.uk/oxford-rail-or76mw7016-7-plank-mineral-wagon-set-3-br-grey-weathered?search=76mw70

[Black Marlin]

I stand to be corrected here, but having bought them... aren't they painted incorrectly? I thought the little black box with the two white diagonal lines indicated that *both* ends of the wagon open, when obviously only one such end is represented on the model. Can anyone confirm this?

Gavin

 

*Edit - I am to be corrected: those markings indicate the presence of opening doors in the wagon's floor.

Edited October 14, 2016 by Black Marlin

[Nile]

The marking you refer to indicates doors in the floor. You can see two of them in the middle.

[phil gollin]

.

 

These wagons really seem unloved !

 

No one has noted that the unweathered/pristine versions have arrived ;

 

76MW7013  -  7 plank wagon in BR grey

and

 

76MW7014  -  Pack of three 7 plank wagons in BR grey

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

 These wagons really seem unloved !...

 It's one thing as the livery horse wagon type with the eye candy sales appeal of the bolder and more colourful possibilites among private owner liveries. But in the simple BR grey livery styles I suspect the influence of a long available, more accurate and varied RTR competitor; which has enjoyed a 16 year uncontested run to harvest whatever the sales potential was.

[JZ]

Picked up a 3-pack from East Somerset Models today. They are now drying of on the workbench after being weathered. One nice little touch is the poseable brake handle.

[The Johnster]

I am attempting to make up a rake of 16 tonners in BR grey 1950s livery, bit by bit so I don't notice the cost, and recently bought an Oxford one to go with it.  This is my first Oxford product and I am pleased with it, my only grouse being the white walled tyres.  The livery and lettering is well executed and I cannot fault it, it is my only wooden 16 tonner with the rail over the end door modelled, and beats everyone else's, 7 planker or steel, hands down for interior detail (shame I'm going to bury it all in coal).  If I see another one with a different number I will probably dip into my pocket for it on site!  Yesterday bought a couple of Baccy steel ones, of which I have to renumber one, and while I am quite happy with those I am struggling to see why they cost 50% more!

 

Well done Oxford; more of this sort of thing I say!!!

Edited February 11, 2017 by The Johnster

[prtrainman]

It's one thing as the livery horse wagon type with the eye candy sales appeal of the bolder and more colourful possibilites among private owner liveries. But in the simple BR grey livery styles I suspect the influence of a long available, more accurate and varied RTR competitor; which has enjoyed a 16 year uncontested run to harvest whatever the sales potential was.

I'm sure you are right as other people have ticked the 'agree' button but for the uninitiated please can you elaborate on how the competitor model is 'more accurate & varied'. Only asking as I already have some of the competitor ones & was thinking of getting some Oxford ones to expand the fleet.

 

With thanks.

[The Johnster]

Worth reminding ourselves that, at the moment, only Ox and Baccy are producing 16ton/7 plank mineral wagons with the correct wheelbase, so so far as I am concerned they are the only ones worth considering.  I ultimately need a 10 wagon rake, small beer by many standards, and so far have only managed to source 3 in early BR livery plus one ancient Airfix kit with a chassis on it's last legs, one, the Oxford, in the local Antics and the 2 Baccy in a local shop that is not as good as it used to be. In both cases I exhausted their stock!  A trip to Lord and Butler, who are main Baccy stockists and carry a good range of Oxford, may well rectify matters, but of 6 mineral wagons, 2 (ancient Dapol) are the wrong wheelbase and one is on it's way out and will only be good for posing at the back of a siding shortly.

 

Again, well done Oxford, keep up the good work!

[57xx]

I'm sure you are right as other people have ticked the 'agree' button but for the uninitiated please can you elaborate on how the competitor model is 'more accurate & varied'. Only asking as I already have some of the competitor ones & was thinking of getting some Oxford ones to expand the fleet.

 

Have a gander through this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/95119-oxfordrail-wagons/page-1

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Have a gander through this thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/95119-oxfordrail-wagons/page-1

 To save a bit of time. my posting from that thread:

 

"The more you look, and compare to the 1923 RCH drawing and photographs, the more you see. They are very nice and crisp, but some features are flat out wrong.

 

The most visible are the clips for the capping strip which immediately dates them post the 'new PO livery' period, it's wartime and BR service appropriate; and the hinge bar and end door arrangement is incorrect for 1923, it's the arrangement on the wartime build steel underframe type I think. What's that horizontal groove doing across the face of the bufferbeams? The reinforcing plate at the bottom of the cornerplates, only one drop door where it should be either two or none...

 

At this point the buzzer goes BEEP!   nul points....

 

This is shaping up to be like Hornby's Brush type 2, to pick on a similar problem child. Very neatly moulded, splendid detail, great paint finish and applied lettering etc. : but no amount of quality in the execution compensates for fundamental errors in the appearance. A three pound coin is always wrong, even if produced to the standards of the Royal Mint.

 

Oxford would do well to start again on this one if they really are pitching at the top slot."

 

In BR livery, naturally enough there's no concern about the clips to the capping strip, those are now appropriate.

 

Bachmann have offered scads of BR grey liveried 7 and 8 plank, fixed end and end door, with and without bottom doors; and this back in the day when they were bowling them out at a fiver. That must have mopped up a lot of the demand.

Edited February 16, 2017 by 34theletterbetweenB&D

[The Johnster]

By 'the competitor model' we mean Bachmann, and it is, so far as I can see, an entirely reasonable model which is fairly accurate, and IMHO the same can be said for the Oxford once you paint out the stupid white walled wheels, but of course Oxford do not do a steel bodied version and are in this sense less 'varied'.  Since the days when rtr 00 gauge started manufacturers have made a basic 16ton mineral wagon and extended the range by selling it in a variety of liveries, both railway company and private owner, and over the years most have fallen foul of the trap of using their standard 10 foot wagon chassis under it, which is itself a scale foot too long for a mineral wagon and results in the body dimensions being similarly wrong, with the door and end panels being stretched to compensate.

 

So, to answer prtrainman's point from post 9, for the purposes of BR period modelling at least, I see no reason why Bachmann 16ton mineral steel and 7 plank wagons should not be mixed in the same train as Oxford 7 plank ones of suitably liveries.  I doubt that a Baccy and an Oxford 7 plank running together in such a train would be distinguishable from each other to anyone who didn't know what the numbers were on each.  What would look wrong is to include a Hornby or Dapol wagon of either type, but with the 10' wheelbase and oversize bodies that those manufacturers still provide; from the appearance point of view it would be better, if you already have a train or trains of such wagons, to stick with the incorrect size than mix them, but of course the best course of action is to stick to the correct size Bachmann/Oxford wagons in the first place.  It's just that if you have a large layout with a couple of hundred Hornby/Dapols in 4 or 5 50 or 60 wagon trains and a few more in pickups and on sidings, you are going to have to dig deep to replace them all!

 

There is of course the Dapol ex Airfix plastic construction kit steel 16 ton mineral, cheap and cheerful but an accurate enough model with a correct wheelbase.  This can be made into a reasonable runner with the addition of a bit of weight, but if you need a lot of them you need to factor in the time for building, painting, weathering, and lettering them as well as fitting your choice of coupling; I believe the kit still comes with the Peco coupler which dates from the Silurian era and was designed by Trilobites.  Actually, these would be fine within a rake...  I may even invest in a few myself, but for now need to concentrate on rtr to build up a train reasonably quickly while progressing other areas of what is still a very unfinished layout.  They have the advantage of opening side doors so can be posed while empty or half unloaded in coal yards and such.

Edited February 16, 2017 by The Johnster

[Andy Y]

Some new livery sample pics of forthcoming issues.

 

 

 

 

[meatloaf]

Its the chatterley whitfield one im waiting for. Will go nice with the potteries wagon i picked up from hobby goblin today

[The Johnster]

I now have a 10 wagon rake of coal wagons which all have the correct wheelbase.  Apart from the Ox and two Baccys mentioned earlier, the antediluvian Airfix kit one has now been relegated to the back of a siding and is posed with a door open and a heap of coal in each corner.  When I say all of them have the correct wheelbase, not all have 9' wheelbases, as one is a Hornby 21t hopper (I know I'm pushing it a bit as these normally ran in block trains, or at least blocks, in South Wales), and Baccy ex LNER 21t double door 7 planker, bit of a beast...  

 

The other 5 are all Baccy, 2 wooden with no end doors, 1 steel, 1 steel slope sided, and a lovely wooden one in heavily weathered 'MOY' private owner livery with BR number and coke rails.  Not sure about the 2 with no end doors; I can't remember ever seeing such a thing in South Wales where all coal wagons had end doors for tipping into ships at the ports, but in my pre-teen days I was much more interested in engines and wouldn't have noticed.  I've also dug up an MOD liveried steel one, Baccy I think, which needs a bit of fettling before it goes into service. 

 

I think this sums up Oxford's problem to some extent.  Of a 10 wagon rake, Baccy have supplied 8 of 4 different designs, all in 'period 4' BR livery.  It is a hard market for a new firm to break into, even with competitive pricing.  Hornby and Dapol are just missing a trick by not producing wagons with the correct wheelbase; Hornby have certainly shown what can be done with the 21t hopper, which has the best interior detail I have ever seen on an rtr wagon!

 

But I want more, more I say, now, more... so there may well eventually be a train of empties, which will feature the Hornby hopper, as I need to mix liveries a little more.  All my wagons are in BR livery, except the MOY which dates from the austerity period when wagons were not painted, simply numbered and lettered.  A few more of these, and one or two (or three, or four) in big 4 post war liveries at varying stages of decay, and we can mix and match things up a bit!

[PMP]

 

 

The Oxford Rail seven plank for BR era is in fact a pretty good starting place. It does need a bit of work, but if you want to make a 'Big Four' built seven plank there is no better starting place bar none

https://albionyard.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/oxford-seven/

[Cor-onGRT4]

Some new livery sample pics of forthcoming issues.

 

OR76MW7029 7 Plank Triple.jpg

 

OR76CK7002 7 Plank Coalite.jpg

 

OR76MW7004B 7 Plank Weymouth.jpg

 

OR76MW7027 7 Plank Milner.jpg

Anyone noticed the changes on the hinge bar arrangement on the end door of the new releases this last week, Rickett, Steetley & co and Weymouth.

It has got an improvement, the hinge bar is now on top of the end door and not behind it, they lowered the end door a bit and wit it also the capping strips are gone on the end door.

So they have improved this fault on these wagons.

But with the new Rickett wagon I have 2 questions, mentioned everywhere and on their site it should have 3 hole disc wheels, but it have spoke wheels, correct or not.

And searching for the prototype wagons I found out the common name was Ricketts, looking on pictures of these wagons these name were painted  as Ricketts and not Rickett as Oxford did are they wrong?

Ricketts fleet contained more than 4500 wagons, could it be they used two types of naming ? 

[57xx]

image.jpg

 

The Oxford Rail seven plank for BR era is in fact a pretty good starting place. It does need a bit of work, but if you want to make a 'Big Four' built seven plank there is no better starting place bar none

https://albionyard.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/oxford-seven/

 

What did you use for the T strapping on the end of the ex-LMS 7 plank?

[Garethp8873]

Just been browsing Hattons and I have spotted OxfordRail are doing GWR, LMS, LNER and SR 7 Plank Open Wagons. Was anyone else aware that these were being done at all?

 

- Oxford Rail OR76MW7034 7 plank open wagon 0153 in Great Western grey

- Oxford Rail OR76MW7036 7 plank open wagon 216954 in LMS grey

- Oxford Rail OR76MW7037 7 plank open wagon 158646 in LNER grey

- Oxford Rail OR76MW7035 7 plank open wagon 18179 in SR brown

 

 

 

 

[PMP]

What did you use for the T strapping on the end of the ex-LMS 7 plank?

Sorry 57, missed this first time, I used microstrip/evergreen plastic strips. Glue the two flat sides down to make a pair of parallel strips, and then fill the channel with the vertical or right angle strip. Wait until it sets rigid and then sand/file the vertical strips to shape. Once happy with that I make the coach bolt heads from Archers transfers 7mm rivets. Once painted it all looks the part.

[David Bigcheeseplant]

Does anyone know how to seperate the body and chassis of these wagons?

 

David

[PMP]

Does anyone know how to seperate the body and chassis of these wagons?

 

David

Yup.

 

Remove buffer heads, they pull out. Remove buffer bodies, they pull out too in a linear pull, they are a square shank.

Cut (if glued) the rod between chassis v hanger and body molding v hanger.

Pull brake hanger safety strap outwards, it’s a pin fixing if I recall, and the internal chassis will drop out. This includes W irons, wagon weight and internal v hangers. I remove coupling hooks by tapping them from inside, pushing them out. About a five minute job.

 

Do be careful though, despite this being the best starting point for a big four built RCH seven plank, it’s really easy to upset the finescale police by doing so

Edited December 6, 2018 by PMP

[David Bigcheeseplant]

Thanks I will give it a go as I have a Brassmasters chassis to fit.

[Porcy Mane]

Does anyone know how to seperate the body and chassis of these wagons?

 

David

 

If the six plank open is the same as the mineral, I used a slightly different method to P. I found there was less chance of damage by using a SM (or exacto) no 17 blade as a wedge to ping off the buffers etc. rather than pulling them out. My floor was still a tight fit in the body so the no. 17 blade again to lift the floor moulding out from one end.

 

 

P

 

I see (feel) them Russians have been in and out of your place quite a bit today P. The bu**ers don't half rattle my window panes when they fly over my gaff!