Gauge 2 Vans
Collected from a variety of sources, these vans are principally from
before the First World War, although some may date from the '20's,
or even later.
NE Cattle Wagon, wood, branded 'Lowko'. This
van is in excellent condition, but has been repainted with the
'Lowko' logo hand painted on the underframes. It came very
affordably from a G1MRA vintage group meeting.
Covered Van in wood with sliding doors, legended 'EB' on
top of original 'NE' markings. This little van came from the Rugby
Vectis auction and is one of several vehicles in the collection
marked 'EB'. I guess this was the owner's initials, and so wonder
who 'EB' was. The auctioneers were no help in finding out where the
models came from.
*November 2021. It has come to light that the October 1925 edition
of "Model Railway
News" contains an article by a certain Ernest Blackburn
describing the construction of 2 1/2" gauge rolling stock. One of
the illustrations shows a wagon lettered 'EB'. Is this the same EB?
Perhaps one day we will find out!
Carette 'Large' Cattle Wagon, c. 1910. One of
about a dozen Carette wagons acquired about 20 years ago from a chap
in Coventry. All had been overpainted, quite reasonably, and formed
a collection along with the Carson Flash Steam 'Experiment', the
same one that I now own. The goods vehicles were all G1, although
this is a G2 model which I've subsequently re-gauged. All the models
were marketed by Bassett lowke before WW1.
I paid about £100 for the whole lot, and ran them at various G1MRA
shows with G1 Locos like the Bonds Precursor tank and the Bing
'Cauliflower' 0-6-0. The asking price for the Experiment was far
beyond my means and I had to wait another 20 yrs before finally
acquiring it!
Large cattle wagon, wood construction, origin unknown. Has opening
doors and might be by Bassett Lowke, but not known for sure.
Midland 'Large' Cattle Wagon, wood
construction, acquired from Michael Wrottesley. Origin unknown,
perhaps scratch built.