Garden Railway Forum

Purchased at Llanfair last year, and intended as a winter project, this was how far I got with these kits before breaking my forearm in February. I had intended to purchase the 5 plank sheep waggon with opening ramp, but picked up a plain 5 plank instead, so i had to modify it and build my own ramp. The kits don't come with the fittings for opening doors as standard, it's an extra. I hadn't realised this when I purchased them, so got the door kit for the cattle waggon when I started the build.To describe these door components as fiddly to complete (for me, at least) is an understatement! I hadn't realised how much my fingers had turned to sausages over the years - but I got there. I did purchase the running gear sets at the same time as the kits - more on that later. After the enforced layoff, i finally managed to complete the models in May, but only realised today that I hadn't taken a 'completed' photograph, so I did that this morning. A few observations on the Linesdie Hut kits (not intended as a review, but relevant to the build:
The detailing of the ply laser cut parts is excellent, and all parts went together well with excellent instructions provided, but they do not make a 'robust' model. These are not kits to build to allow children to move around the line - or hamfisted friends come to that I'm plenty hamfisted enough on my own, and have found that after each session where I've used them I've needed to complete minor repairs. Sadly, as a result, I've now decided that these are now only going to grace a siding as background character, rather than travel to other lines, or contribute to freight movements on the GWLR.
The door furniture supplied for making the working doors are not scale items - consisting of copper wire and small split pins, but the detailed instructions are clear and the end result is a passable working representation of the hinges and draw bolts. I cheated on the opening top doors on the cattle waggon, but I'm not telling you how! For my sheep waggon, I just used bits and bobs to produce the same effect. Also, the opening doors/ramp do add to the fragility of the model - worth bearing in mind if you intend to run them on your line.
Finally the running gear sets are complete, but they are just IP Engineering products - and actually work out cheaper bought direct from IPE.
in the hands of a skilled model maker, these make excellent models, with the caveats about fragility, but I think the combination of the opening doors and the 'lattice' structure are the reason for that - I've no reason to think their other kits would be so delicate.

Those wagons look good, well made and beautifully finished.
Having made some of their kits myself I agree they are well manufactured and very well laser cut.
My own experience has been with passenger stock, probably more substantial than wagons. The finished items are some of my personal favourites on my line.
Off to Llanfair on Sunday, probably come home with more kits.

look very nice but do you think the ply is a bit too thin. 2mm ply would only be equivalent to 1.5 inches. I would imagine they woould need to be quite tough to keep the sheep in.

Don

Lovely coaches there Peter, and of course beautifully built and finished. They make splendid items of rolling stock. I suspect that, as you say, the more 'solid' nature of passenger stock makes for a more sturdy model.
Don, looking at the pictures I took at Welshpool, I think 2mm may be overscale! The planking on the preserved cattle truck was only about 3/4 inch thick!

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Tue Aug 27, 2019 8:48 am
Don, looking at the pictures I took at Welshpool, I think 2mm may be overscale! The planking on the preserved cattle truck was only about 3/4 inch thick!

That is surprising I would have though that too flimsy to keep sheep in. I cannot imagine the original was that robust. Perhaps scaling factors make the model less robust.

Don