My friend, Mick Bonwick, passed away earlier this year. His loss to the model railway community is massive - if you've never read his blogs on RMweb covering weathering projects, you are in for a treat.
Anyway, as you might expect, some of his model railway detritus arrived at the railway club for sale. Heaven knows what they will make of all my own tat, but I suppose I won't be there to care.I looked through and picked out a few weathering bits and this wagon.
Why, you might ask. Well, for a start, I guessed no-one else would want it, and I always feel sorry for an underdog.
Also, Pugh and Co. wagons were produced by Hornby in the 1980s and given away with new locos - I got one with my Jinty. These were red, and I wonder which is the more accurate colour. There's some nostalgia there.
It's a bit of a mystery. Mick wasn't (as far as I know) a collector, so why did he own this?
Also, who made it? It's wooden with metal bits on the chassis, and wrapped in printed paper. I'm thinking an early Peco Wonderful wagon perhaps?
2 comments:
When I saw the photos (and before reading the text) I wondered whether it might be a Wonderful Wagon; though I've never seen an early one, this does have a certain Peco-ness about it.
I have got some early 00 bits (eg: Kenline and ERG wagon kits and a Nucro chassis that came in a sealed envelope!) but none of the fittings look the same as this one, especially those distinctive buffers.
If it is a WW , one thing this has got that more modern ones don't is coloured solebars, the couple of WW kits I have lack them although one is black (Tarmac open) so doesn't need them anyway.
Somewhere I've got a sheet with printed sides and ends for a PO coal wagon, IIRC this also has solebars although it may not be from the same maker as I think the stlye of the drawing is different.
Whatever it meant to Mick, at least it's something for you to remember him by; the Pugh/Hornby connection is nice too.
I quite often pick up bits of prehistoric 00 at shows, they're often in boxes under the stall, usually unbuilt and can mostly be had for very little money; I sometimes wonder what happened to their original owners and whether they ever got around to building other items.
I hope you find out the origin of this one!
Simon.
There is an advert for a card printed wagon matching this description in an old Hamblings catalogue that happened to be within grabbing distance of my desk. I used to love that shop.
Post a Comment