It's all made in China, and the build quality isn't outstanding but is bearable and should withstand a few years good service.
When I saw the flat bogie wagons I thought "Ahh, with a bit of work they'll look good behind my Merlin Beck" as all the wagons are based on continental practice, the RhB in particular.
The flat wagons, which is what I'm reviewing, come as a pack of two and for £29.99 at the full RRP each flat wagon works out at roughly £15. They come in a choice of four colours; yellow, green, grey and brown. I went for brown, as it will look good behind my Merlin after its refurbishment.
My plan was to whip the wheelsets out and replace them with long axle 32mm ones like the ones GRS and Brandbright supply. On closer inspection, the wheelsets fitted have spacers moulded on the back with a metal axle running through them. So I can just file the spacers to suit without going to a lot of expense and effort
I will have to check the flanges though, as they look a bit big.
Also apparent in the pic, is that there's quite a bit of moulded in detail such as braking equipment.
The LGB pattern couplings easily unscrew from the bogie which again is a nice moulding and is quite close to the L&B diamond frame type. Another nice feature is that the bogies have built in compensation, which I didn't expect and originally thought was slip shod build quality!
The centre buffers simply clip in, so I'll be removing these and fitting Accucraft square head choppers in their place.
The body is another clip in arrangement, with the sides being seperate from the ends. So you could have a flat wagon with ends, or a plain old flat wagon. Or, with some surgery, a stake wagon.
Also available are verandah brake vans (£29.99) in grey, yellow, green and brown and a tank wagon with a working handwheel and filler plus handwheel drain valve. To get around copyright they've put the word 'Shall' on the side instead of 'Shell'
The tank wagon is £22.49.
