Cambrian Railways & GWR

Cambrian Railways started building the 'low sided wagon, with dropsides' at their Oswestry works in the late 1890's. The dropside wagon was by far the most numerous wagon design in the Cambrian fleet, which by grouping comprised several hundred out of the 2,200 items of rolling stock subsumed into the Great Western Railway. Due to the success of the design batches were sub contracted out to well established manufacturers such as Ashbury's and Pickering's.

The design hardly changed over the years although there were some differences in the sheeting. The 51L Model represents an example of the Oswestry built wagon using grease axleboxes and a more 'decorative tongue and grooved' timber sides. All wagons were probably built with 'single sided' brake gear however, it is possible that some were modified to 'either side' pattern during routine maintenance and repair. There is evidence that some wagons were fitted with Morton cam brakes at some time. Many of these wagons survived to GWR ownership and it is known that some of the original equipment was replaced with GWR standard components (notably GWR oil axle boxes in favour of the Cambrian Grease axle boxes).

The wagon's principal, but by no means exclusive, usage was shipping of slate throughout the United Kingdom and to ports, and therefore would have been a frequent visitor to most goods yards throughout the country. Other uses were for the shipping of bulk goods throughout the Cambrian Railways network

Wagons of this pattern are known to have been in service with the Great Western in the mid 1920's. However during this period the GWR decided to phase out wooden underframe vehicles and it is thought unlikely that few if any examples of this vehicle survived beyond 1931.

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Made from white metal our model has separate sides/solebars including springs and ends; etched brass w-irons complete with grease axle boxes and white metal buffers with steel heads. Parts to make either side brake gear are included. A plastic embossed floor is supplied. Our instruction sheet includs detailed lettering and painting information. To download the most recent assembly instructions, current Version 2.01 released September 2007, 2 Sides A4 (113kb pdf file).

To read the instructions you will need Adobe Acrobat reader (v3.01 or better). Click 'Get Acrobat Reader' to get a copy of Acrobat Reader: Note this may involve a long download of between 0.5 Mb & 8 Mb depending on the selected version.

Don't understand our terminology? most terms and phrases are explained in our glossary.

Items required to complete the model:-

• Wheels: 12mm diameter open spoke wheels.
• Paint - we recommend Precision Paint or in some cases Humbrol Acrylic: see Cambrian Railways wagon liveries for product numbers.
• Three link couplings.
• Transfers - we recommend Dragon Transfers and HMRS for the GWR period; see Cambrian Railways wagon liveries for product numbers.

Information on Cambrian Railways rolling stock components may be found here.

Paint, wheels and transfers are available from our sister company Wizard Models.

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this wagon click Wizard Models.

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The Cambrian Railways Album, Volume 1- P69
The Cambrian Railways Album, Volume 2- P31
British Goods Wagons from 1887 to the present day; R Essery

A list of railway book sellers may be found here.

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