Tanat Valley 3 by Peter Drost
The 2018 Wagon Building Competition - the Results
The 2018 AGM has come and gone and with it the Wagon Building Competition ably judged by Gordon Gravett — to whom go our warm thanks. Now that the dust has settled — to be honest not that much dust was raised in the first place — it is time to congratulate the winners and commiserate with the losers, not that there are any really given the high standard of the (few) entries: there was but half a mark between the winner and the runner-up in the kit-built section.
Yes, in response to previous criticism, there were this year separate categories for kit-built and scratch-built vehicles. That the latter category only attracted one entry is unfortunate, but the judge was content that it easily reached the high standard required for a winner and so it was that the builder, Peter Drost was awarded the prize for his model of a turn-of-the-century 10 ton tank.
Peter Drost’s winning entry in all its naked glory.
The judge was asked to mark each entry on eight criteria (all relevant to S7 modellers) with five marks for each criterion. All of the kit built entries achieved a score better than 35 marks.
There were four entries in the kit-built section, the winner being — you may already have guessed from the size of his entry’s photograph — Alan Turner for his rendition of a Charles Roberts-built rectangular tar tank wagon built from the Slater’s kit and extensively weathered — though Messrs Walkers do seem to have been very neat when loading the tar!
There were two subtly different renderings of the 14 ton Class A tank wagon, one from Ian Roll who used a Meteor Models kit to portray a Regent tank in 1950s condition with transfers by Slater’s — the small lettering is exquisite.
The other 14 tonner was built by Alan Benson using the Slater’s kit as the basis. At the time of writing I have no other information on this entry.
Graham Beare’s entry was the modern — well it’s modern to an old Georgian like me — 45T Monobloc air-brake wagon — built circa 1965 and finished in BP livery for late 1980s. Made from a JLTRT kit and finished in cellulose paint with transfers by Fox and Railtec.
The competition for the 2019 AGM has already been announced, but to remind you the theme this time is for livestock wagons — again separate sections for kit and scratch-built vehicles. Please note this is for LIVE stock so no meat vans please. It’s not as if there isn’t a wide choice: everything from double-deck sheep wagons, cattle trucks, to passenger rated prize cattle vans and horse boxes. That’s passenger train speed rated, not the accommodation, so no Thameslink EMU sets. That would be too ‘Modern Image’. I understand this category does not include Hounds’ Vans, unless you like eating dogs. No doubt more details will become available when everyone is back from their holidays.
