Royal Arsenal shipment wagon in 006.5...

I've been muttering about making a slightly larger wagon available for 006.5 for sometime, and after spotting a photo of what looked like a 1 plank version of the Deptford wagons used at Sand Hutton I spoke to Mark Greenwood...

He confirmed it would be easy enough to develop from his existing designs for a 009 version of the Sand Hutton wagon - so we have a true 006.5 chassis, and seperate body. The prototypes arrived from Shapeways last week and I wasted no time in fitting magnets and wheels - they run very nicely, their short wheelbase actually improving performance compared to the smaller Heywood wagons (also pictured here). These will be available, hopefully before Christmas, thanks to Mark and Narrow Planet, in the 6point5 range in packs of three...

They are a good match to the imminent Avonside tank engine, where the narrow Heywood wagons work better with the Ruston Proctor. already in the range. The prints are crisp, and show good detail both inside and outside - I'll be painting them up shortly to use in promotional material.

Finally, here they are compared to the 3 plank Deptford/Sand Hutton body - this is one of Mark's designs he let me have as a prototype, it's mounted on a Busch skip chassis, but you can see it's a good match to the new 1 plank.

Watch this space, exciting times in our new 006.5 venture! More soon...