16mm AGM Wrightscale kits

We look forward to seeing friends old and new at the Garden Railway Modellers Association AGM in Peterborough. 

We are pleased to say that we can offer Wrightscale WD kits for £48. This includes parts to make two bogies ie enough for a bogie wagon, axles and nylon wheels. Kits are available without wheels for £43

Wrightscale 16mm scale WD bogie. Each kit contains two bogies.The original design represented a light but durable item that was reliable under fire.

The Péchot system bogie well wagon kit is available for £104. This does not include wheels and axles. You will need 4 pairs of wheels, 4 axles. To be authentic, wheels should be of the solid disc type. We recommend Slater’s coarse scale 3’1” wheels – part 7112.

The Péchot flat-wagon provided a reliable maid-of all-work for the French Army. During World War 1,  a lighter version was produced by Decauville. This was the inspiration for the British WD wagons. Wrightscale 16mm kit

The Péchot bogie-mounted crane is available for £68=50. This includes a crane kit with counterweight and a Péchot bogie. To complete the kit, you will need two pairs of wheels, as above.

Rail-mounted crane on Péchot bogie (brakewheel removed). The Péchot bogie was a very solid protottype for the WD bogie (see above), The crane was a way to handle high explosive shells safely. Wrightscale 16mm kit.

The War Department bogie, as produced for WD Light Railways in 1916 was revolutionary in various ways.

It marked a departure in military thinking. In the first years of the War, everyone was looking for a breakthrough, encirclement of the enemy and a quick capitulation. As Major General John Beith (Ian Hay) put it in 1916

‘In the old days, a general of genius could outflank his foe by a forced march or lay some ingenious trap or ambush. But how can you outflank a foe who has no flank or lay an ambush for a modern Intelligence department?’

The first revolution was the trench system.

The trench was supposed to be a temporary shelter in a war of movement. In fact, from 1914-18, vast armies were positioned in the field in trenches. From 'Illustration' magazine.

Time and again, the breakthrough had proved to be an illusion – not before many horses and mules had died at the Front. Usually men were the beasts of burden. The basic army pack was substantial. Ian Hay recalls of the private soldier ‘His outfit is provided by the Government and he carries it himself. It consists of a rifle, bayonet and a hundred and twenty rounds of ammunition. On one side hangs his water bottle containing a quart (about one litre). On the other is his haversack occupied by his iron ration, an emergency meal of the tinned variety which must never be opened except on the word of his Commanding Officer – and such private effects as his smoking outfit and an entirely mythical item of refreshment known as ‘the unexpended portion of the day’s ration’. On his back, he carries a pack containing his greatcoat, water proof sheet and such changes of raiment as a paternal government allows. He also has to find room for a towel, a house-wife and a modest allowance of cutlery. Round his neck he wears his identity disc. In his breast-pocket he carries a respirator to be donned in the event of encountering an east wind and gas from the enemy. He also carries a bottle for dampening the respirator. In the flap of his pocket is a field dressing.

Slung behind him is his entrenching tool.

Any other space about his person is at his own disposal….’

So burdened, for the first two years, the British had to march to the Front.

German soldiers on the advance March 1918. Drawing by Georges Scott. Plenty of equipment is in evidence - trenching tool in the foreground. From 'Illustration' magazine.

The second revolution was freight carrying. For over a year, everything, food, water, ammunition and the wherewithal for making trenches habitable had to be carried in. This might be on foot through communication trenches. These were

‘sunken lanes the best part of a mile long. It winds a great deal. Every hundred yards or so (100m) comes a great promontory of sandbags necessitating four right angle turns…. A stream cuts the trench at right angles, spanned by a structure of planks labelled LONDON BRIDGE. … Presently we arrive at PICADILLY CIRCUS, a muddy excavation from which several passages branch… After passing through TRAFALGAR SQUARE six feet by eight (under 2x2.5m)  find ourselves in the actual firing trench, an unexpectedly spacious affair … with little toy houses on either side. They are hewn out of the solid ground, lined with planks, painted, furished and decorated. .. One eligible residence has a little door nearly 6 feet high (1.8m) a real glass window with a little curtain. Inside there is a bunk, washstand and desk…’  

The heavier supplies were conveyed stealthily by night on carts or on the backs of mules. The amount of freight needed to supply the trenches was enormous, around 160 tonnes daily per mile of active Front. Time and again, the British Army were caught by a lack of supplies.

The third revolution was in favour of railways.

A 16mm model of a WD D-class wagon, body by Swift Sixteen which accurately represents wood, drawbar, rivets and hinges of the original. The bogies are by Wrightscale which  represent the light, resilient originals in crisp detail. 

The railway was the most efficient technology for the period. Between 1914 and 1916, the more ingenious regiments started their own narrow gauge trench systems, using what could be scavenged or ‘borrowed’ from around using a variety of gauges and designs.

A lucky few could use French systems or captured German material. The British Army took over French lines at Hersin and Saulty l’Arbret in early spring 1916.  These were an eye-opener. Originally based on the Péchot System which the French Army had adopted in 1888, these were mighty midgets – trains with 40 tonnes of freight carried along 60cm gauge lines, rapidly laid to serve the Front. Instead of lengths of track butted together, there was fine prefabricated track or fully engineered rails on sleepers. Instead of little trolleys, there were bogie wagons – if a trolley was needed for a small load, a bogie could be used. There were steam engines. By 1915, the French and Germans were beginning to use petrol-engined locomotives as well.

French inspiration for British WD. 16mm model of a Péchot wagon byWrightscale

General Kitchener disapproved. Early lorries were tried. Their wheels cut country dirt roads to ribbons, they guzzled fuel and broke down frequently. They were much improved by the end of the War but in the Somme offensive of July 1916 they added to the problems. Once Kitchener had died, and Lloyd George was facing a ‘shell crisis’ on the Front and a PR disaster on the Home Front, the War Department Light Railway was designed.

There are ways in which this railway was revolutionary.

Unlike the normal railway, these were quickly laid on the most basic of permanent ways. Once a system was no longer needed, it could taken up and laid elsewhere. Because it was so easily dismantled, few traces have been left.

The WDLR was a testing ground for new technologies, such as the internal combustion engine.

It was, above all, a wake-up call for little England. In was based on French (and German) influence. The British WDLR used the metric 60cm gauge, just like the French, not the more customary Imperial 2’ gauge. This was sensible, so that trains could run on each others’ tracks. 

WD D-Class bogie wagon. 16mm model by Swift Sixteen on Wrightscale bogies

The WD bogie wagon was a departure. In the beginning, and when the improvised railways were semi-official, to designs by the Engineer in Chief of each army corps, little four-wheelers were used. Brakes, where fitted were ratchet-lever.

Then the engineers saw the advantages of the French bogie wagon and a home-designed ‘Class C’ bogie wagon was built. Springing was rudimentary, there was no progress in the brakes and loads were limited to 7 Imperial tons.  

Then came Programme B (autumn 1916) and the true WD bogie wagon. Though weighing very slightly more, the classic D-Class WD bogie wagon could take a load of 10 tons (9tons 12hundredweight) to be precise. The bogies had laminated spring axles boxes and brakes operated from a brake pillar. There was a small perch for the brakesman at the end of the bogie – uncomfortable to be sure, but a lot more convenient than operating a brake ratchet at rail level. This was developed from a Decauville design, a lighter, simplified version of the magnificent Péchot platform wagon. WJK Davies described the D-class as a ‘versatile and efficient vehicle’.

In the end, nearly 15,000 wagons of various descriptions were supplied to the British, Canadian and ANZAC sections of the Western Front.

It could be argued that the War was won (or conceded) elsewhere, but if the British had crumbled completely in Northern France the War could have been lost in spring 1918. Fresh supplies, new trenches dug to the rear and reinforcements rushed in … all these helped to stabilise their Front. The tiny trains kept them in the business. 

Wrightscale model of a WD Baldwin 4-6-0 tank engine. 495 were built for the British Army.

Our policy on Data Protection and your Privacy   

Those of you who have put their names on lists of interest may be wondering about changes to the law on Data Protection. As you know, changes come into effect on May 25^th. We have considered the implications of these changes, and how the information we hold might affect your privacy.

We currently store our email address book online. It simply has name and email, no other personal details. All of you who email and expect a reply go into this email address book automatically. Every couple of months, I try to remove the ‘once onlies’  Everyone who emails us has the right to have their address removed immediately. We shall remind every first contact of this right. This is our only online data-base.

Our interest list is held off-line. In it, we try to include date of contact, a full name, postal address and phone number as well as email. This is because email addresses keep changing and we need an alternative way of keeping in touch. We, for example, have been obliged by our providers to change our own email address at least three times. We do not keep other personal details such as partner’s name, date of birth etc.

We do not hold any bank details online. Our policy is cash or cheque if at all possible. Where a customer requires the use of bank transfer, we shall discuss he situation beforehand. Privacy during the transaction will be ensured by the systems of the banks involved. Our bank is the Clydesdale. Their privacy policy is stated at

cbonline.co.uk/gdpr 

If you wish any email correspondence deleted after a payment, please inform us. We do not hold details online. We do not use internet banking.

Before May 25th, our Webmaster will put our privacy policy on the Wrightscale website.