Carrying the Goods

The majority of the goods stock on Meifford is used for transporting slate. These are either used for carrying the large slabs of slate, taken to be processed, or the finished product coming from the Meifford Slate Works!

Finished slate is either transported by barge from the Meifford Canal wharf, or taken by train to Llyddiarth for onward journey by road. Slate, of course, is also widely used locally.

Reality...

Slate!

For transporting the large slabs of slate on the line Meifford posesses a rake of ex Pike Brothers end-tipper wagons. These have actually been built from etched brass kits made by Locos n Stuff - five tippers and a 'runner' wagon which is required to enable coupling to a loco, due to the large overhang on the tippers.

These were quite challenging to build as they included a very large number of small parts to attach and indeed each chassis is formed and then soldered up from 5 individual parts!

  Wagon & Runner (Left) and Loaded Slate Wagons at the Wharf    (click to enlarge images)

 The 10 slate wagons have been built from etched brass kits obtained from the 7mmNGA and represent the type of 3-ton wagon that was in use on the Ffestiniog Railway. These kits are also quite challenging as the body is formed from a single etch which needs folding very carefully! Again, the effort is rewarded with some fine models.

Other Goods

There are a small number of other wagons and covered vans in use, usually one or more are attached to the daily passenger trains. They are all made up from kits, a mixture of Peco and Port Wynnstay. The Port Wynnstay goods vans often need a bit more work than others, such as furnishing roofs and floors, but make up into nice models.