Wickham Green

Lynmouth ??!? ............. I thought the Lynton & Barnstaple closed before the days of all-steel hoppers !

OOPS ! ......... have I created a giggling 'Miss Strawkins' ? .......................... doesn't bear thinking about !

Without going over old ground concerning the resemblance of those two models to the wagons they're supposed to represent - let's say it's unlikely that SHELL/BP and ESSO tankers would have been seen together very often : Each would have run between their own refineries and distribution depots and it's possible that tankers for smaller 'rival' depots could have ended up in the same mixed freight going in the appropriate direction ........................... Carlsberg, on the other hand, would have been carried in six-wheeled stainless steel tankers with the necessary HAZCHEM warnings !

Mike King comments that 10% ( if i remember rightly ) of Southern coaching stock was still in Maunsell green at Nationalisation - so the green ones CAN be used on an early B.R. layout ( Until someone comes up with a photo of each particular vehicle in Malachite ! ) ......... they'd probably have lost any lining by that time and gained Bulleid insignia : the latter should be easy enough to change ( Though the lack of late period NO SMOKING triangles from the trade would be problematic as always.).

Positively barmy in the office here too ............. an' it's rather warm as well .................

........ maybe on the same slow boat as the Model Rail USA tank !!?!

Hattons notification says "will arrive with us on or after Friday 29th July" so they're not committing to despatch/delivery until, perhaps, some time early August .............. "or after" ! ............................... as for the birdcages, have they got out of the drawing office yet ? ( As far as I know the 'H' class to pull them is still in the rumour factory, unfortunately.)

Split spoke wheels seem to have been used on ( some ) new build wagons into B.R. days though I'd guess they would have been second hand/refurbished as disc wheels would have been cheaper to produce once the technology was developed in the 20's. The Southern rarely used split spoke wheels on new construction - as opposed to their innumerable 'rebuilds' - so maybe they were thought to give a smoother ride to the cattle ........ the 'northern' Companies, on the other hand, seem to have been quite happy to use disc or split spoke as available. Swindon, of course, had to be different and always used 'solid' spoke wheels before changing to disc.

Hornby are showing the Southern green ones as the same date - but Hattons are still showing 18th August for the latter ............ we'll see !

Absolutely no reason why you wouldn't have found an L.N.E.R. cattle wagon anywhere on the U.K. standard gauge network - cattle wagons been Common User since 1927 ...... well, most cattle wagons had : not those of God's Wonderful Railway - they always had to be different !

Yes, I try to shelter myself from airports as much as possible - and railway stations that think they're airports : can't remember whether there's a 'spoons at St.Pancreas ??!?

Thought I'd seen a post from Graham Muz on this - but it doesn't seem to be on this thread .......... anyway, a certain Cornish supplier is advertising this loco in Southern black lined in green - and I guess that's what the other stockists will get in due course ........................... and talking of due course - has anyone heard anything about progress in the last few aeons ?

My 'light sabre' has been safely retired ......................................................... for the summer - but it'll be spewing forth flames ( hopefully once only ) when winter comes. ( Don't tell H.&.S. ! )

Might just look a wee bit - shall we say - unexpected if a long train of cattle wagons all happened to have been shunted out of the sidings facing the same way ?

hmm ....... must have very small pizzas over there .............. . Yes, it's nice to see Hornby introducing split/open spoke wheels though to be honest I hadn't realised this was new for them ! ..........I, too, will be replacing them with Gibsons though : apart from the matter of flange profiles they will have a die=cast finish which - while fine on yer average model railway - does lead to extra drag ( and noise ) in a long train [ not sure about dirt pick-up ].

You could have a half decent model of a cattle wagon for a mere tenner ! .............................................. though, off hand, I can't remember which is the decent half : is it the half without the vacuum cylinder - or the other half without a vac.cylinder which should have one ??!?

The price is probably plunging at this very moment ......... a bit like the £ after Brexit ....................................... I'm intrigued by the diecast underframe : how on earth are they going to attach the axleguards firmly yet flexibly - so they can spring the wheels in - without compromising the see-though look of the chassis ? ................. presumably it'll be some sort of Clever Design !!?!

About 98% Off Topic - but http://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/news/the-engine-shed/how-to-transport-your-coke-and-cattle/ is worth a browse !

Looking good ! : http://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/news/the-engine-shed/how-to-transport-your-coke-and-cattle/

Next weeks almost done now ........ did the two samples manage to hatch out of their boxes and make their way to the studio ?

They were going to call it "LET'S KEEP THIS DAMNED HEAVY PARTITION ON THE WAGON, ANYWAY, SO IT DOESN'T GET LOST" - but the sign writer decided "LARGE" would be more economical on paint.

I'd guess most - if not all - of the non-anchor tanks would have been ex Air Ministry type and a lot of those ( I nearly said the majority ) would have had open/spit spoke wheels from new and, like you, I think of that as an archaic feature ....... but is that strictly the case ? - does anyone know when ( three-hole ) disc wheels became universal for new construction ? - did it vary from builder to builder ? - did the war have an effect on this ? - were there just zillions of perfectly sound old wheels knocking around at the time ? ............. anyone got any thoughts ?

October !!?! - nobody's told a certain Merseyside emporium who still list them as July & August OR AFTER ......... quite a while after.

To be fair, silly and avoidable errors notwithstanding, the Oxford model probably IS the most accurate pre-nationalisation cattle wagon on the British ready-to-run market today .......... but I suspect it'll be eclipsed very soon ( "on or after 15th July" last time I looked ).

I think that before the S.E.C.R. four-wheeled vans ( and Southern / B.R. clones ) parcels probably rode on longer ( = softer ) springs than they deserved !