Oxford Rail five-plank wagon

◆ SCALE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Oxford Rail OR76MW5001 RCH 1923 five-plank open, T. Bowler livery ◆ PRICE £10.95 ◆ AVAILABILITY Oxford Rail stockists or www.oxfordrail.com

This is Oxford Rail’s latest release – a five-plank open wagon to the Railway Clearing House’s 1923 standards wearing the livery of South West London coal merchant T. Bowler. The RCH was originally formed to deal with commercial revenues, and subsequently established various design standards which enabled independent manufacturers, as well as railway companies, to build rolling stock to a common set of standards. These standards covered leading dimensions and braking equipment. Oxford’s new wagon matches the RCH 1923 dimensional data with an accurate scale 9ft wheelbase. It scales up to measure 16ft 6in over headstocks, with a width of 8ft. The body moulding is crisp and the details such as ironwork and bolt heads well formed, and with no tooling marks. The sides and ends of the wagon are commendably thin and, internally, the sides have basic structures to represent the side door aperture and a wooden floor represented by planking correctly oriented across the body. Within the wooden floor there are two sets of drop doors. These would be unusual in a 1923 five-plank standard design wagon, being far more common to the higher sided RCH types. The buffers are of an RCH type, but a little on the lightweight side. At one end the buffers, incorrectly, have a set of lugs that prevent the wagon floor end boards moving. These lugs aren’t required for a wagon where no end door is fitted. The model makes use of Oxford Rail’s 9ft wheelbase chassis, previously used under its seven-plank coal and coke wagons. Axle boxes are a representation of the RCH oil-filled type with five leaf springs suitable for this weight of wagon. The brake gear is well represented and features a particularly effective open brake lever guard. While the axles are very free-running, the split-spoked wheels were uncommon on a 1923 wagon. Couplings are standard tension lock types in an NEM socket. Overall, it’s a good model of a 1923 RCH standard five-plank wagon. However, the only concern is the livery, which is applicable for wagons built prior to 1923. The builder’s plate on the solebar and other associated labelling suggests that this is a 1903 wagon from Hurst Nelson of Motherwell, with a repair plate from the Wagon Repairs Company Ltd. Ian Pope of Lightmoor Press was able to provide data relating to both T. Bowler and a livery drawing dated 1933 for a Bowler five-plank end-door wagon. The typeface looks correct, however the spacing of the main lettering and wagon top is incorrect. On the model the lettering blocks are too closely spaced and the main lettering too tall. These discrepancies may have resulted from the fact that Oxford Rail has access to different reference material but, as the dates on the livery indicate, I suspect we’re using the same source. The livery application is excellent, however, the printing is clear and the white is opaque. The internal wagon colour is a warm plain brown colour and evenly applied. It’s a good representation of a 1923 RCH Standard five plank wagon, but it’s let down by the incorrect livery with the use of a pre-1923 colour scheme.