Garden Railway Forum

Deviating slightly from the title of this thread, my current build is not 1/16th scale at all, to explain:
I intend to model a representation of Chirk interchange sidings as part of my garden railway. The real life sidings were the point at which GVT freight was transferred to the GWR standard gauge Shrewsbury to Chester line. This fascinating photo was taken at the interchange sidings sometime late in the life of the GVT. It shows the manual means by which slates had to be transferred from the GVT wagons to a standard gauge wagon. It is my plan to build a few suitable standard gauge wagons to sit alongside my version of Chirk interchange sidings. My 1/16th GVT stock is the same scale as 3 1/2” gauge standard gauge models and I intend to build a couple of wagons at this size. However, inspired by the current photo competition topic, I thought I’d try to recreate the scene in the original photo. I therefore needed a suitable standard gauge wagon quickly and decided scratch building in 3 1/2” gauge would not be feasible in the timescales!
The standard gauge wagon being loaded with slates in the original photo is, I think, a Midland Railway 8 ton 5 plank end door wagon to Diagram 531. I coincidentally already had a Slaters Gauge 3 (2 1/2” gauge) kit for the similar and significantly more numerous Diagram 299 non end door wagon (an impulse eBay purchase). Gauge 3 works out at about 1/22.5 scale so is somewhat smaller than my 1/16th scale. However, standard gauge wagons in this scale are still significantly larger than the diminutive 1/16th slate wagons so, with a bit of forced perspective, could still make a suitable backdrop for a photo.
I have almost finished building the Slaters kit. It is mostly built exactly as Slaters intended except I have modified one side to allow the door to hinge open. Springs, couplings and internal strapping will be added after painting. This is a lovely kit and a real joy to build, everything just fits perfectly with a really good level of detail. The most time consuming part is adding the individual cast bolt heads, of which there are somewhere around 250 to be cut out and glued on!

I hadn't realised the Slaters kits were wooden. I assumed they would be plastic.
I seem to recall the station also had an interesting device for inverting the line's mineral wagons. Will yours be a working model?

Rik

Holy hell, that's a gorgeous kit.

ge_rik wrote: ↑Fri Feb 20, 2026 8:31 amI hadn't realised the Slaters kits were wooden. I assumed they would be plastic.

According to the web site they are plastic;
https://slatersplastikard.com/linePage. ... pid=G3W028

Maybe Dursley's used actual wood for the body ?

My kit is definitely uses plywood for the body and underframe. The Slaters website has the instructions available for download which shows the wood construction. I’m not sure if Slaters has subsequently updated the kit to a resin body or if the description on the listing is an error (it mentions a roof that an open wagon obviously doesn’t have!). I also have the Gauge 3 MR brakevan, that one is a resin moulding

Durley wrote: ↑Sun Feb 22, 2026 7:51 pm The Slaters website has the instructions available for download which shows the wood construction. I’m not sure if Slaters has subsequently updated the kit to a resin body or if the description on the listing is an error (it mentions a roof that an open wagon obviously doesn’t have!).

Almost certainly a copy and paste error on their web site then.

Slaters sell great kits, but the instructions often leave a lot to be desired.