R26 L Sheep Wagon - includes etched details.
The steel framed sheep wagons represented by this kit were built in batches from 1896 up to 1925 and for many years were included in the consists of goods trains all over the state. They featured a gable roof and were numbered from 1 to 1252. Wagons 1 to 452 had the brake cylinder on the opposite side of the wagon to the handbrake, whilst 453 to 1252 had the handbrake on the same side as the brake cylinder.
This kit specifically represents wagons 453 to 1252, however a small alteration to the solebars, detailed in the assembly notes will allow a model representing wagons 1 to 452 to be constructed Fifty bogie sheep wagons, coded LL, were built at Newport in 1928. The design was based on the four wheel L wagon, however the LL featured around roof and was wider than the L. More four wheel wagons followed, with L1253 to 1332 built in 1938 and L1333 to 1432 followed in 1953. These last two batches were constructed of Cor-Ten steel and featured a round roof. With the closure of many branch lines in the 1970s the fleet of livestock wagons was gradually reduced in number so that by 1976 there were only 697 sheep wagons remaining on register. Further reductions followed until V/Line (as the Victorian Railways had become) finally withdrew from the carriage of livestock in October 1986.
*The model illustrated has been fitted with couplers (not included).