AN EARLY ‘JUBILEE’ WAGON FOR O GAUGE

The North British Railway introduced its ‘Jubilee’ wagon in 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, and this became its standard mineral wagon by the end of the 19th century. The end door facilitated bulk unloading and the side doors were for local deliveries. The wagons had grease axle boxes, a brake on one side, and a capacity of eight tons.

Wagons built from around 1895 onwards had sprung buffers, and these are the wagons portrayed by the Peco Parkside kit. Earlier builds had ‘dumb’ (or ‘dead’) buffers. My own 7mm:1ft scale project is set in the 1890s, so it seemed sensible to buy the Parkside kit and build it with dumb buffers to help emphasise the period of my layout.

I used rectangular styrene rod for the dumb buffers and this material is sufficiently robust to let the model survive the usual rigours of shunting. I also included a plywood floor from Poppy’s WoodTech. The remainder of the build used the parts included in the Parkside kit.

This is a pleasant project for the modeller new to O gauge who has built one or two plastic wagon