Modelling Wagon Loads In OO Gauge

Modelling Wagon Loads In OO Gauge

Railways were originally built to transport & handle goods & freight across the country. From flat wagons to open wagons, vans, hopper wagons & specialist freight wagons, the railways have & had many different designs & types of wagons. The huge range of books, videos, & many railway websites covers the fascinating subject of railway wagons. Ranging from the very early days of freight on the railways, right up to the present day of railway operations.  Seeing the freight/goods train consists on real railways over the years, gives us ideas & inspiration for creating prototypical freight trains to run on our layouts. This then leads to creating & modelling various types of industrial, factories, depots, etc to run our model freight trains to & from, thus giving a layout a sense of purpose. 

From Wagon Loads To Layout Inspiration

The types of wagon loads you'd like to haul on your layout sensibly lead you to a variety of ideas for your layout in terms of buildings, locations and landscapes. Maybe you could build a China Clay loading point, rail-served factory, mill or depot, or quay/dockside. Other ideas could include a mine, dairy, power station, container depot, wagon works, oil/fuel depot, or even a nuclear flask transfer point! These are just a few examples of scenes and locations you could include in your layout. As you can see the list is pretty endless. So a wide variety of interesting loads can be created for your model railway wagons which tie in nicely to the scenes you create.

When running goods & freight trains on our layouts, many of us, myself included, have often run trains of empty wagons. Unless modelling an empty wagon working, like the real thing, wagons need to be loaded with goods & freight. A loaded freight/goods train adds more scenic interest to a layout, as well as makes a layout more fun to operate with loading & unloading wagons.

Realistic Loaded OO Gauge Wagons

Here are some examples of some of our palletised load kits being put to good use as loads for wagons. This photo below was posted by Trevor in our Railway Modellers community. It features his impressive BR Speedlink freight working loaded up with palletised loads. You can imagine standing on the platform watching the fully loaded freight train passing through the station.

On the rear half of his Speedlink freight working, he's used our AX035-OO Wrapped Timber Loads which are supplied in packs of 6. And if you look closely at Trevor's photo, you'll also notice that each load has also been safely secured with ratchet straps. These are ideal for securing wagon and lorry loads on modern image layouts. These are available in a choice of two lengths and two colours:

Mixed Freight Wagon Loads

Moving north of the border now, with a short freight train working on Dave Watson's layout, Dean Park Station. Here he's loaded the two open wagons with a mixture of different freight & goods, which creates an interestingly loaded train. In the front wagon, Dave has used the following kits:

In the rear wagon, we have:

Wagons loads don't of course have to be construction materials like bricks, timber & insulation of course. Many minerals and aggregates are of course transported by rail. These can be created easily using blocks of washing up sponge, roughly carved to shape to fit your wagons, then dressed with ballast, stone powders or coal.

Steel Wagon Loads

Steel is another load which is often transported by rail. Steel loads take a variety of forms from sheet steel, steel coils and also RSJ's & large beams. Here Terry has created wagon loads from parts left over from building one of our kits. As modellers, of course, we never throw away. There are always spare bits and pieces that can be recycled. In Terry's photo below, he's used some of the roof girder sections from our KX026-OO The Old Workshop kit as well as steel plate section textures which also come with the same kit, for his bolster wagon. 

That particular wagon could be part of a demolition train which is being used to transport sections of railway infrastructure that is in the process of being demolished, for example.  

Open Wagon Loads in OO Gauge

Staying with the theme of old railways & railway infrastructure, other excellent wagon loads for open wagons are railway sleepers, rail chairs, and rail fish plates which are perfect for railway engineers' trains & railway demolition trains. Our example below shows a railway departmental wagon loaded with sleepers.

Here we've picked out some suitable items for loading up your railway engineering wagons. And of course, you can also include sections of old rail too. Paint them in suitable rusty-looking colours for old sections of rail. Here's out list of suitable rail-related OO gauge wagon loads that you may find useful:

If you're modelling in N gauge, we also have a set of suitable railway sleepers:

Another great load for departmental wagons is the AX173-OO Network Rail Bulk Bags. These are easy to assemble and make great loads when filled with ballast, sand and other aggregates.

In The next photo below, he's used another interesting method of transporting large steel plates. Here he's made a wooden A-type frame which sits inside the open wagon, to which the large steel plate has been secured for transportation. Why use an A-frame? Due to the size of the plate, the A-type frame allows for wider steel plates to be transported than would normally fit within the standard railway loading gauge (basically… track width).

Notice that this time, the load has been secured with lengths of fine chain, just like the real thing would be. If you are looking for suitable fine chains for securing wagon loads or other uses around your layouts/dioramas we have various suitable chains in stock which include:

Van Wagon Loads In OO Gauge

Some model railway van wagons feature actual opening doors. The Electrotren Continental Cargo Van Wagon and Hornby's BR VIX Ferry Van are two such examples. These are great for recreating loading & unloading scenes on your layouts & dioramas. 

In this freight depot scene, we've used a continental sliding-door cargo van wagon by Electrotren, adding palletised loads in the form of the AX028-OO Palletised Loads which make up eight palletised large box loads.

Here are some other suggestions which we've picked out of the range which will make for suitable loads for your van wagons:

Hopefully, the suggestions above should give you a few ideas for wagon loads to add interest to your goods, freight & railway engineers' trains. There are many more different types of loads that we've not mentioned here, that are also worth checking out. A quick Google search, a flick through railway books (you can always find them in charity shops), and magazines, as well as visiting the real railways to observe how different types of freight are carried on the railways. We'd love to see what loads your trains transport on your layouts. Drop us a line with your photos.

Keep on shuntin'

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