|
Wagons Produced for the Loddon Vale Model Railway Club
This club is based at Grazeley, just to the south of Reading, Berkshire and meets on Tuesdays
To visit their web site, click on the club name above
Since 2002 I have attended their annual show which nowadays is held in May at the Arborfield Community Centre in the Arborfield Garrison. This is very easy to get to as it is just off the A327 Reading to Camberley road, and just to the south of Wokingham - where I was born and lived until 1966.
The first wagon I produced for the club, in December 2003, was "Isaiah Gadd" of Wokingham.  The club Chairman wanted something for members to give as gifts and was not associated with any show. This was followed the following May with a container wagon, "Ernest Reeves" also of Wokingham.  I presume that the idea of gift-giving amongst club members did not catch on - as this has not happened since!
  For the show in 2005 I produced THREE wagons (Those were the days) - "Drake & Mount" of Bracknell in 00-gauge and "Huntley & Palmers" the biscuit manufacturers of Reading in both 00 and N-gauges - my first N-gauge model.
2006 saw the introduction of another N-gauge model, "Fear Bros" of Staines.  This was also meant to have been done in 00, but another company (a chain of shops) were doing this by Bachmann - though it was quite a few months late! The 00-gauge offering this year was "G Talbot" of Reading.
By 2007 I was beginning to think I would run out of ideas of wagons local to the East Berkshire area and then found "R Toomers" also of Reading, in 00-gauge, whilst the N-gauge offering was the "Isaiah Gadd", Wokingham wagon.
 By the following year I needed a drink!  So I produced the "Horlicks" of Slough wagon in both N and 00 gauges. The museum at the Horlicks factory were very helpful and provided my customers with plenty of the real stuff! I was tempted to produce the wagon with a load of Horlicks - perhaps not one of my better ideas!!
 May 2009 saw the unusually-named "Woolcombers" of Reading found in a little publication The Modeller's Sketchbook of Private Owner Wagons" by AG Thomas - a three-volume pamphlet of drawings of wagons seen. Both gauges were represented, and in both cases, much sought-after (if Ebay prices are a guide!).
Spotted on a model railway dislay of Marlow Station, in an ironmongers shop in Marlow, was a couple of wagons marked up as "Porter & Son" - one grey and one brown. These were hand-built one-offs, so in May 2010 I had them done by Dapol, but without running numbers! The idea was to get transfers done so that those who wanted more than one, could have different numbered variations. Unfortunately, my normally reliable transfer maker, let me down and this delayed their proper introduction until after the show that year. However a previous set of transfers enabled me to get a batch out for the show itself.
Then, last year, I produced the "Maidenhead Industrial Co-operative Society". This was possibly one of the most attractive wagons I have ever had done - very fitting as I lived just outside Maidenhead for 18 years and my wife comes from there as well (and she's industrious and co-operative!!!*).
 2012 saw a wagon spotted by one of my customers who I meet at nearly every Loddon Vale Club show - "Alexander Bros" of Hungerford.
At the 2013 show I had become involved in producing O-gauge wagons, so the original wagon was resurected in this gauge.
For a short while, my three O-gauge limited edition wagons were seen on Nigel Adams splendid "Willowbrook Marsh" layout. The "Huntley & Palmers" wagon is seen above, crossing over the creek, hauled by a diminutive 0-6-0 diesel shunter, complete with skirting panels for on-stree working. These shunters used to work around Ipswich Docks.
* and attractive!
|