15 November 2011

Exhibition update and NEXT wagon

This is  WARLEY weekend at the NEC!

Find me on Stands E26 & E27 

(The 171 Appeal Stand and the IRRS)

I shall have some stock there on display, but maybe not on direct sale. If you require wagons, please let me know in advance and I will have them with me. I have stocks of brake vans and cattle wagons.

Coming soon -

Scale SLNCR Cattle wagon

See the prototype at Warley, also my new tank container as used for the carriage of beer (and NIR diesel fuel!).

CIE Gunpowder Van. This arrived ten minutes ago. The van is based on a photo taken by Ger McMahon at Tralee in the 1970s. It appears to be a gunpowder van, but may by then have been in traffic as just another van. If I can unearth any better description, I'll include it here. It offers a break from the usual profile of vans which CIE had.

Note that this is just a scan!

Limited edition of 108 wagons.

RRP £13.50  or €15.50

CIE Bagged Cement Van. This is the GNR(I) van which I have produced already, but as it ran in the days soon after the dissolution of the GNR(I). So, gone are the letters "GN" and in their place the famous emblem - The Flying Snail.

Note that this is just a scan!

Limited edition of 100 wagons., of which 65 are left

RRP £13.50  or €15.50

UTA Van. This is a repeat of my earlier wagon, but with a different running number.

Also a scan.

Limited edition of 108 wagons, of which 80 are left

RRP £13.50 or €15.50

Remember that these prices INCLUDE postage

Note that multiple orders

will usually attract a small discount, IF I can save on postage. For example, I will post the two new CIE wagons for €30 or £26.

Now rolling out of The Works

My latest "mass-produced" wagon is a private owner coal wagon - No.58 of the once large fleet owned by Belfast coal merchant John Milligen and Co.

Like the prototype, numbered in a distinctive diamond on the end -

Irish Private Owner wagons were few and far between, but Charles Friel turned up a couple of photos of these wagons taken on GN territory, one half-hidden behind a loco! No.58 was one of those in the photos.

We are all indebted to him and the photographer, as they provided the evidence on which the wagon is based. It simply had to be modelled, even if out of most of our periods! I don't know when the wagons ceased to be used, but it could have been as early as World War II. Des Coakham remembers seeing some of them at Belfast York Road about then. He remembers them as being red, so the model is in Carmine Red. A dab of that colour will give you the equally valid numbers 5 or 8!

I hope that you agree that they will make a colourful addition to an Irish goods train. Also the higher profile of a five plank wagon breaks up the monotony of a string of four planks!

You will be able to buy it over the counter at the Bangor exhibition on 16/17 April, or after 25 March, by post - I have to do the certificates!

Limited edition of 130 wagons.

Recommended Retail Price:      £17.25          €20.00

which includes postage.

Yes, it's steep, but the wagon requires three paint jobs and the associated artwork. I'm unlikely to do the wagon again, so might as well do it right! It includes end numbers, as in the prototype, which was a short five plank wagon, as mine is. It is pretty close to the 'real thing', except that it doesn't have the curved wagon ends of the original!

Dapol's rices have risen steeply, so my early wagons are going to look a lot cheaper than those which I will produce this year - maybe time to grab a relative bargain?

I should say that the Milligen is a special case and I don't expect later wagons to be so expensive.

My handmade wagons will be outside this arrangement as they generally will require special boxes which won't go together in a package with the "Dapol" type, so their prices will remain inclusive of postage.

 

And maybe?

A loco? If you can produce wagons in resin, then what next? Coaches, vans, or even a loco?
I am discussing the possibility of producing a RTR Irish steam loco. The idea is to find a suitable donor chassis from the Hornby or Bachmann stables which has wheel diameters and wheel spacing similar to an Irish prototype. The produce  a loco  and tender body to suit. We seem to be looking at about £200 an engine.
No-one will be surprised to learn that I am looking at a
GNR(I) 0-6-0 as a possible starter - a "Big D" - that is a Class SG3. One of my regulars has asked me for a Class WT 2-6-4T (like the preserved No.4).
Thoughts (printable, please!) by e-mail to the usual address!

Brakevan Availability News

I have a small supply of brake vans on hand, and others will arrive before the exhibition, I hope!  

My brake van in the preserved "IVAN" livery, that is with the vertical ironwork picked out, should be available in October. I have a waiting list! Price £65. As a taster, this is the first one out of the box from Raymond Kane.

See 'GNR(I) wagons' for full details.

 

Old news - but a useful reminder, now being widely used -

 

I have now  got my Euro Account at the Ulster Bank in Monagahan up and running.  See "ordering from us" for full details - no more Paypal surcharges! 

 

 

Who are we?

 

Now, for new viewers, the original introduction from 2008, so you know just what Provincial Wagons is about! Since then, I have produced and sold over 2,000 wagons, which are running on layouts as far apart as Ireland, Norway, Canada and New Zealand.

 

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 were 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, so Provincial Wagons has looked 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 Wagons range of Irish Goods wagons will now allow you 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 twenty years 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!

 

Provincial Wagons has commissioned Dapol to create some Irish wagons, which will be sold as certificated limited editions with around a hundred of each wagon being offered. The wagons will have to be "OO" gauge, because they are based on existing British "OO" scale models. All of the wagons are the subject of much research to get the livery and lettering as close to the real Irish Railways thing as is reasonably possible.  Each wagon will include some description of building dates (where known), purpose and if possible, its fate!

 Other wagons are in the pipeline. Watch this site for news or register your interest by sending your e-mail address to us at news@provincialwagons.com.