Latest News 12 November 2008:

Five new wagons now available - see links

See them at the Warley Exhibiiton 22/23 November

-------------------------------------------------------------

Ready to run, but.......

As produced by Dapol, these wagons are VERY light (typically about 30 grams). Some customers have observed that they suffer derailments. I am still investigating the problem (my layout is out of action at the moment) but suspect that adding weight will assist to solve the problem. There are various methods. My mentor, David White, suggests visiting your local tyre shop and to gather up some discarded wheel weights. Another method is to use "Liquid Lead" - effectively tiny lead shot, which can be sealed in place by a dilute soluiton of wood glue.

My name is Leslie McAllister and I hope over time to be worthy of my chosen trading name Provincial Wagons, by producing replicas of wagons from the railways of all four of Ireland’s provinces. Our first wagons will be from Leinster and Ulster, the provinces through which the Great Northern Railway of Ireland ran.

While there are a number of model Irish locomotives available, there is very little for them to pull! To date, a number of people have approached the problem with wagon and coach kits. There are also a number of ready-to-run passenger vehicles. 

Not everyone has the skill to build a whitemetal or brass kit, soProvincial Wagons haslooked at other ways to produce model wagons to pull behind the locomotives which many of us have collected over the years.

A chance meeting with Martin Dean, late proprietor of Wessex Wagons, who just happens to be an enthusiast for the railways of the Emerald Isle, encouraged me to produce some Irish outline wagons using the “specially commissioned wagon” route.

Another name must be mentioned - David White. He had been looking at the possibility of commissioning exact scale models of Irish wagons, but discovered that the set-up costs were pretty prohibitive, so that must wait! He has been instrumental in encouraging me to get started on this venture and continues to give enthusiastic advice and input.

We realise that simply painting British wagons in Irish colours is not good enough for many modellers, but we hope that our wagons will allow others to make a start in Irish modelling, rather than not start at all because it’s all a bit too hard! The Provincial Wagonsrange of Irish Goods wagons will now allowyou to make that start into Irish railway modeling more easily.

Provincial Wagons has been created because of my interest in Irish Railways. This grew from railway modelling activities in my ‘teens. When a railway society was formed at my school, I joined to gain an insight into “the real thing”. My interest in railways blossomed from there and my travels in search of working steam have taken me to about 25 countries. (I have detailed logs to prove it!). I have served on the RPSI’s council and am currently the publications officer for the Irish Railway Record Society in London.

Although my greatest love is the steam engine, I am first and foremost a railway enthusiast, so my model collection includes a very large number of diesels and electrics (and steam, of course!) from countries for which I have a particular affection. My first Irish models were two railcar sets in Great Northern colours. The steam engines, built from Terry McDermott’s excellent kits followed. Now, I want wagons to pull behind them and while there are kits of some wagons, the time to get them built and the cost encouraged me to look at other ways to populate my trains!