Midland Railway, MSJS, Brecon & Merthyr, GWR, LMS

The Clayton six wheel carriage stock provided the mainstay of the Midland and MSJS services, with over 1200 of these five variants produced between 1878 and 1895. Indeed some were built by both the G&SWR and NBR to Midland drawings. The vast majority survived well into the LMS period with even a few stragglers surviving to the mid 1950's often used for specialist engineering purposes.

We produces 5 variants on the basic 31'0" arc roof design these are:

• Diagram 493; 5 compartment third; with over 760 built between 1884 & 1895.
• Diagram 494; 4 compartment lavatory third; with 42 built.
• Diagram 504; 4 compartment third; with over 220 built between 1878 & 1892.
• Diagram 516; 4 compartment luggage composite; with 200 built between 1884 & 1885.
• Diagram 516; 4 compartment lavatory composite 19 converted from luggage composites.

These distinctive arc roof carriages were introduced from 1878 and became a part of the Midland scene. Indeed the Midland was a large user of the 6 wheel carriage. Carriages were used on Scottish Joint services until replaced by bogie stock and on suburban services throughout the country. A small number of thirds and composites saw service on the Brecon and Merthyr Railway and were scraped in 1928. Although there are no clear records as to the withdrawal dates it is known that some survived to British Railways, the last confirmed sighting being a diagram 493 third which was scrapped in 1955.

The original build specification used oil lighting, but between 1892 and 1902 these were converted to gas, and it is presumed that the later built carriages had gas lighting at build. The Chowbent model allows for both. Other modifications occurred over the years including conversion of 19 D516 luggage composites into lavatory composites in 1892, and the conversion of full fists or thirds to lavatory thirds or firsts. Such stock was in demand for long distance services particularly the Scottish Joint Services.

The Clayton 6 wheel carriage was designed to be marshalled into sets with two third brakes and as many full firsts and full thirds as required. Rakes of vehicles would often have additional wagons added for a specific service, typical additions were:-

D379 4 ton meat van, (if fitted for inclusion in passenger trains).

or the 25'0" vans

D529 Brake van

D420 Parcels van

D418 Fruit & Milk Van.

However most carriages ran as loose carriages in ordinary trains. They were in regular use with bogie stock into the early LMS days.

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this wagon click Wizard Models.

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Our six wheel carriages are made from etched brass and includes a etched brass roof and sprung brass buffers. The chassis is flexible allowing for operation in EM and P4 in addition to OO.. White metal and investment castings for detailing the roof ( oil lamps, gas lamps, oil lamp covers, and torpedo vents) and underframe (axleboxes,gas tank, vacuum cylidar) are supplied. These allow for a choice of oil or gas lighting with torpedo vents for the Edwardian era. The model is supplied with comprehensive instruction sheets, transfers ('Methfix' and 'Pressfix' type) and glazing.

Please refer to the assembly instructions for details. To download the current Version 2.00 released September 2004, 7 Sides A4 (64Kb Acrobat 3.01 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: 14mm diameter Mansell carriage wheels
• Paint, we suggest Precision Paint

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this wagon click Wizard Models.

supplies a wide range of Midland Railway rolling stock components see here for details.

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Midland Carriages, An illustrated review; D Jenkinson, R Essery, P110-114
Midland Railway Carriages Volume 2, RE Lacy and G Dow, P257, P264, P433
Historical Carriage Drawings Volume 2, LMS and Constituents, D Jenkinson, P94
Midland Railway Carriages Volume 1, RE Lacy and G Dow, P104-111, P121

A list of railway book sellers may be found here.

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