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Goodbye to some old friends

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As some of you may know, and there was also a clue in my IRM handle, I have collected Wrenn Railway products for longer than I care to remember

Recently I decided that the collection was surplus to requirements as my Irish collection seems to expand by the week

After a lot of searching I found a trader in the UK who was willing to take the lot, I had had a few guys who wanted to cherrypick the nicer bits but this guy was willing to take all the railway stuff, Locos Coaches & wagons

 

The collection of spare wagons were first to be packed away

 

 

P1080822_zpszezuhdo5.jpg

 

 

P1080824_zpsprup1re8.jpg

 

This came to 15 Banana box's worth, 1 box holds 76 normal sized boxes or 60 long boxed ones

 

There are also 3 box's of Coaches in this lot, 38 coaches in a box

 

P1080840_zpsuvxianks.jpg

 

Box of spare coach parts and box's

 

 

P1080827_zps3ucvdmkr.jpg

 

Next were the locos. 174 of them on poor Granny Brackens best table

 

Locos%201_zps78xqw09s.jpg

 

 

Locos%203_zpsed2jvra8.jpg

 

Every box had to be cataloged with the contents and because of weight the locos were packed in with wagons to help distribute the weight.

 

Lastly the collection itself was boxed away, and if I wasn't such a miserable auld bastard I might have shed a tear or two, some really hard to find and one off wagons that I had forgotten about.

 

So before the clear out, (there is another press to the left)

 

Wrenn%20before_zps8brlb2yv.jpg

 

And after..

 

Wrenn%20after_zpsrlejsfhc.jpg

 

Granny Brackens dining room now looks like this

32 banana boxes and another one for some sets that would not fit in a banana box

 

 

2009-11-30%2013.36.02_zpsqymoze14.jpg

 

 

32%20X%20Boxs_zps6bzfryfw.jpg

 

Patiently waiting for a man with a van to arrive and hand over a brown envelope

Edited by WRENNEIRE
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Just a little aside to show how collecting can get a little out of hand

This is a fairly ordinary wagon, W4635P Coal Wagon, Higgs London, in the first series or Period One box

 

P1%20Box_zpskwuslbdb.jpg

 

This wagon also came in Dark Grey & Light Grey

 

P1%20Dark%20Grey_zpsstnt6qzj.jpg

 

P1%20Light%20Grey_zpsvpy2nwtv.jpg

 

When they came out first the wagons came with a set of Hornby Dublo couplings, but after about 18 months Wrenn decided to charge 1/6 for a set of couplings and they stuck a label on the back of the box to indicate this

 

P1%20Box%20Rear_zpskvi6ismw.jpg

 

So now instead of only 3 wagons in the collection I have 6, 3 without labels and 3 with, see where this is going?

 

Period 2 came next, this is when they merged with Tri Ang

 

 

P2%20Box_zps9mqqmtqh.jpg

 

 

There were 5 different coloured wagons issued during this period, Dark Brown, Light Grey, Dark Grey, Green and Light Brown

Another distinctive piece of their production was overlabelling existing box's with different labels as can be seen on the right hand side box

 

P2%20Box%202_zpsgnh70hsc.jpg

 

P2%20Light%20Grey_zpslb1adywo.jpg

 

So instead of collecting only 5 wagons I had to collect 10, 5 of each.

 

Light Grey

P2%20Light%20Grey_zpslb1adywo.jpg

 

Dark Grey

P2%20Dark%20Grey_zpswgcxoc4x.jpg

 

Green

P2%20Green_zpsykugnlvt.jpg

 

Light Brown

P2%20Light%20Brown_zpsrf6eicdq.jpg

 

Period 3 came next with only 2 wagons issued during this period, Grey & Green

However another variant appeared during this period and that was a long boxed wagon, where the company ran out of the shorter box for these wagons and then used longer boxes for their utility wagons to box up wagons to fill an outstanding order

Also the plastic inners that protect the wagons are now classified as WA1, the previous inners were plain/unclassified.

 

P3%20Long%20Box_zpsd9jsejiz.jpg

 

So a normal Grey,

 

P3%20Light%20Grey_zpskkmud436.jpg

 

And Green

 

P3%20Green_zpsjyiea1ld.jpg

 

Overlabelling was also common during this period and labelling on one end only cropped up from time to time

 

P3%20Box_zpsxwwga5sc.jpg

 

So 2 wagons now become 8

 

And finally Period 4 wagons where only 1 wagon was issued and they had dropped the P prefix from their previous issues, W4635.

 

P4%20Box_zpsmfbbeoms.jpg

 

But as you can see there are 3 different coloured box's, so 1 becomes 3

So 27 Higgs wagons collected and I am sure there are a couple of varients I missed over the years

Edited by WRENNEIRE
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Some more Period 4 variations

Coach inners were used when no plastic ones were available

Cut in half and stapled together

 

Yellow was the more common one

 

P1090029_zpslufcaj81.jpg

 

White less common

 

P1090025_zpsytriuyae.jpg

 

Older period 3 box's were labelled thus on the rear

 

P1090030_zpszfbuoref.jpg

 

And for anyone interested these are some Coupling conversion sets, some different packaging as you would expect with this crowd.

 

P1090032_zpsmheojadl.jpg

 

So 3 more variations, 30 Higgs alone!

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Wow Dave. That is an amazing collection. I salute your courage and practicality for making what must have been a difficult decision. It may have been the end of one particular era, but I am sure it will mark the beginning of a new era for you.

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What a fantastic collection and how difficult the decision it must have been to part with. I suppose with all that extra cash you will replace it with another collection that is of course if there is anything out there you have not already got?

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Wow, there comes a time when you reckon enough is enough, Same happening with my own plastic kits, I don't have enough lifespan left to build them all not to mind keep them when they are built.

 

You guys are lucky to have one interest. I have the RC Planes, Boats, Trains to contend with!!

 

Whats the new user name going to be then , Murphyeire?

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