Mathieson Models

MATHIESON MODELS

An authentic celebration of Britain's mining heritage in N gauge

44 LIVERIES CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

New page for kitbashers here

Following requests from various quarters we have been producing extremely limited runs of wagons by over-painting stock that has been proven to be slow to sell. Setting up the pad printing equipment dictates that some of the earlier wagons put through the process can have flaws in registration or print quality but, given the unusual nature of some of the wagons, it is likely that modellers and collectors will want to either run them to add variety to their fleets or will want to ensure that there collections are as complete as possible.

The wagons do not have the benefit of absolute clarity in the small type that those produced in runs of hundreds of wagons do. This is simply because the limited numbers do not justify the scrappage rate incurred in fine tuning the registration of printing pads and model. Furthermore achieving optimum consistency of ink to achieve the very finest of lines can also be difficult in limited runs when printing onto the raised moulding. If the wagons are to be produced at all then a balance has to struck between offsetting (sometimes simply meeting) production costs versus anticipated sales.

The wagons are still interesting and, notwithstanding the issues highlighted above, do merit inclusion in our range on the proviso that purchasers are aware of the shortcomings they may exhibit.

These models will never be available through retailers and numbers will be very strictly limited. Runs will vary but will never exceed fifty wagons of a particular type. If sufficient interest is shown it is possible that certain wagons that may have belonged to larger colliery fleets, such as the Lewis, will be reproduced under a different running number but that again would be subject to a limit.

The first wagon ought to be of interest to anyone with a knowledge of the coal mining industry. The Senghenydd Colliery in South Wales suffered the most serious single disaster in British coal mining history with the loss of 439 lives on 14 October 1913. The wagon represents one of the 10 ton vehicles used by the mine before the disaster - the majority of photographs of the scene show 12 ton stock - and is based on a vehicle in one of Keith Turton's excellent books on private owner wagons. It is likely that we will produce another variant of this livery to mark the centenary of the explosion next year.

MW0029 Lewis Colliery. £8.50

The next three models have been crafted to meet requests of modellers for more vehicles from the Gloucester and Somerset areas. The 14'6" end door seven plank wagon was common in this area but finding suitable liveries has been challenging. Various views of collieries and marshalling areas exist but few offer sufficient clarity of detail to allow us to use our preferred technique of tracing the actual sign writing visible on the photograph and converting it into pad printing artwork. 'The Purified Flock and Bedding Co Ld' wagon of Nailsworth is something of a peculiarity and 'Clement's Tump Colliery' of Coleford appealed to our roots - you don't enough reference to 'tumps' anymore.

The final wagon in this offering makes reference to a shipping address of Queen's Square in Bristol to satisfy modellers of the Somerset and Dorset.

MW0030 Purified Flock. £8.50 (50 wagons produced)