Omega and Perivale Waggons

[Nick Holliday]

At the recent Astolat MRC Exhibition I picked up a couple of unbuilt PO Wagon kits. One is by Perivale Waggon Works, the other by Omega Model Co of Portsmouth. Both of them comprise a full etched chassis, the PWW one coming with white metal body castings and the latter a set of plastic mouldings. I am vaguely familiar with the Perivale range, as they were reviewed in MRJ at the time they came out, and I have always wanted at least one, as they were based on the less common steel underframed Gloucester wagons. However, at the time they were seen as the Rolls Royce of wagon kits and priced accordingly, I seem to recall they were around four times the price of a normal kit, and I couldn't justify the expense. The scan of the etching shows the amount of detail incoprated, and probably shows how complicated it will be to build.

I have never heard of Omega before. Can anyone shed light on them? The etching looks pretty good, if a bit basic compared to the Perivale one, but probably easier to put together. It seems to have been produced as a general purpose underframe, and the body mouldings, a neat looking 7 plank end door 1923 RCH open, appear to have been a later addition.

[5050]

I've got a load of those underframe etches (or something very, very similar!) - but for the life of me I can't remember where they came from! I've had them for a l o n g time, easily 20+ years I would have thought, and whoever sold them to me had a vast quantity of them. I have a feeling he might have obtained them from the etchers rather than from Omega or Perivale themselves.

 

If I remember anything else - which could happen at any unforeseen moment - I'll be back!

[Turin 60]

I think Perivale came & went in the early eighties, they were really a fine quality kit, I have one to build in the pile of unbuilt kits! As to Omega I also have a couple of chassie kits from them with a shop address in the old Tricorn centre in Portsmouth. Don't know any more than this I'm afraid.

 

John.

[EHertsGER]

At the recent Astolat MRC Exhibition I picked up a couple of unbuilt PO Wagon kits. One is by Perivale Waggon Works, the other by Omega Model Co of Portsmouth. Both of them comprise a full etched chassis, the PWW one coming with white metal body castings and the latter a set of plastic mouldings. I am vaguely familiar with the Perivale range, as they were reviewed in MRJ at the time they came out, and I have always wanted at least one, as they were based on the less common steel underframed Gloucester wagons. However, at the time they were seen as the Rolls Royce of wagon kits and priced accordingly, I seem to recall they were around four times the price of a normal kit, and I couldn't justify the expense. The scan of the etching shows the amount of detail incoprated, and probably shows how complicated it will be to build.

perivale.jpg

I have never heard of Omega before. Can anyone shed light on them? The etching looks pretty good, if a bit basic compared to the Perivale one, but probably easier to put together. It seems to have been produced as a general purpose underframe, and the body mouldings, a neat looking 7 plank end door 1923 RCH open, appear to have been a later addition.

omega.jpg

Well if scarcity influences value, your investment just rose as I threw out a box of the omega chassis the other day...'orrible looking things, but I don't go much on Ming Dynasty either...

[DayReturn]

I bought Omega Models' kit for a Midland Johnson 1327 class 4-4-0 in 1979 with all my savings from Warwick Model Shop a few days after graduating.  I'm writing this now because I'm finally making significant progress with it more than 40 years later after several false starts.  It was their only loco kit and the only other things I've seen are as above a wagon chassis and I think some other item came up on eBay in recent years, possibly etched parts to do with trackwork.  I'm glad in hindsight that I didn't make much progress with it at the time else it would have finished up an unrecoverable mess.  (And I've never noticed any other completed instances of the kit either.)  It was a very early foray into the etched brass kit concept and has lots of faults, chief among them being to etch frames in the same very thin gauge brass as the bodywork, likewise the coupling rods, whereas some aspects are quite idiosyncratic, notably the cab sides and splashers with beading etched in relief on one panel and a second full thickness panel to sweat it to, the latter with tabs to position into the running plate.  One common mistake he *didn't* make was to half-etch boiler bands on the boiler cladding and thus render the boiler ultra thin.  He merely left some pilot holes for a nice turned brass chimney and dome and safety valver case.  The chassis was intended to use a Keyser motor (that sets its period firmly pre-dating sophisticated small motors) and the kit was supplied with Kean-Maygib moulded plastic sprung hornblocks for all 7 axles.  That's where the assembly faults begin - there isn't clearance in the flimsy bogie for the bogie hornblocks and bogie to swivel under the mainframe cutouts.  The whole assemblage would be featherweight and the frames would bend under the required amount of weight.  Now I can remedy these and other faults with the aid of home cut frames with rocking beam suspension on the drivers and a central sprung bogie pivot as the third leg with cut down sprung hornblocks on the bogie in place of the intended 'conventional' push-along two-holed arm.  The new bogie has a large chunk of brass to ensure that it can counter unwanted forces through inertia in its own right, as well as push the chassis into curves.  The boiler and firebox now carries a chunk of brass round bar stock glued inside the etched wrap to give if serious weight and the rear floating axle is driven from the tender, also weighted to counter the motor torque and with tender and driver pickups.  The tender drive uses a simple screwdriver and slot style clutch, mainly to keep motor fore and aft thrust on the motor bearings instead of on the cardan shaft joint.  The 7 foot wheels mean that the actual gearbox is now underslung and well under the cab floor, using a Gibson gearbox because I needed to use it on something eventually.  If all stays together well and to plan, I may spoil it with a set of Brassmasters inside motion that I am itching to break out and tinker with preferably before my aging eyesight no longer gives me the chance.  I know nothing more about the maker, Omega Models of 67A The Tricorn, Portsmouth and long gone to re-re-redevelopment - the Luftwaffe, 1960s Brutalists and 1980s planners all had a go at Portsmouth, not sure who won but the citizens certainly didn't.

Edited June 1, 2020 by DayReturn

[5050]

Photos, Day Return, photos!  Sounds a very interesting chassis construction method, would love to see it.  Going back to the wagon chassis, I have an instruction sheet from Maygib for an identical chassis to the Omega one so perhaps they took over the design.  I have built some - but the etchings are not exactly very good (being polite!) and I did struggle a bit at times. Maygib suggest supergluing it all together.  Perhaps I came into possesion of a job lot of seconds.  A bit of bodging can work wonders - especially when its all hidden under paint..................