Goodbye to some old friends

[WRENNEIRE]

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

Box of spare coach parts and box's

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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)

 

 

And after..

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

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

Edited March 2, 2016 by WRENNEIRE

[BosKonay]

 

End of an Era Sir!!!

[Dave]

Holy Moses! That must have been hard to let go

[Broithe]

Will I being seeing them at the Stafford fairs...?

[Warbonnet]

Was always a treat to see the collection when I visited Dave. End of an era, but onto your next project!

[jhb171achill]

Wow! That's amazing, Wrenneire!

 

As warbonnet says, on to the next project...

 

I had to get rid of my garden railway stuff a few years ago, though it wasn't anything remotely like that amount!

[WRENNEIRE]

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

 

 

This wagon also came in Dark Grey & Light Grey

 

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

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

 

Light Grey

 

Dark Grey

 

Green

 

Light Brown

 

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.

 

 

So a normal Grey,

 

 

And Green

 

 

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

 

 

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.

 

 

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 March 2, 2016 by WRENNEIRE

[WRENNEIRE]

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

 

 

White less common

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

So 3 more variations, 30 Higgs alone!

[Noel]

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.

[Kirley]

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?

[steventrain]

Sorry to see your Wrenn collector pack up and gone.

[WRENNEIRE]

Following in your footsteps Steve

Couple of nice late issue Locos in the haul that I picked up from you

[josefstadt]

Is a change of direction on the cards? I suppose you'll have to change your site name - how about 'No Wrenn Is He' (with apologies to Lucy Lu)!!!

[DiveController]

Had been wondering about your collection, Dave. Glad the deal worked out! BIG collection. Congrats.

[irishthump]

Jayzus.... There's going to be a van driver with one hell of a bad back tomorrow!

[Broithe]

Jayzus.... There's going to be a van driver with one hell of a bad back tomorrow!

 

Carrying Wrenn's wallet..?

[jhb171achill]

No, that'll be a 40ft trailer driver, not a van driver.....

[Broithe]

Health & Safety - 'twould be better with a Hiab.

[Glenderg]

All this, and not a word about who, or what the actual Higgs wagon is about! In all seriousness Dave, how long did it take to assemble all of that? It can't all have been Fleabay?

[Weshty]

Absolutely gobsmacked Dave. What a massive collection, and no doubt every feasible permutation collected. Fair dues on the decision to move on to something new. That's called being decisive.

[GSR 800]

No, that'll be a 40ft trailer driver, not a van driver.....

 

You want to load the boxes from the front AND the back? In that ?( little berlingo ) heh, come here till I show you the back!

[Georgeconna]

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?

[amdaley]

That's an incredible collection Dave.

I hope you got a decent price for it all.

[WRENNEIRE]

I was thinking Wrennlesseire George

[Weshty]

I was thinking Wrennlesseire George

 

That's a good 'un.

 

Or how about:

GanWrenn (Irish)

Wrennlos or ohneWrenn (German)

SansWrenn (French)

SinWrenn (Spanish)

SenzeWrenn (Italian)

Edited March 15, 2016 by Weshty

[BosKonay]

Wrennimithe ?

[Noel]

wrennimithe ?

 

limaeire

[Garfield]

Wrenneire'd

[Weshty]

Dear God. What have we started?

[GSR 800]

Well you could have a Hornby related name, but...Hornby, wrenniere

If you don't get it, too bad..

Edited March 16, 2016 by GSR 800

[Warbonnet]

Discussion for 21mm has now been moved here http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/5458-21mm-discussion

 

Let's keep this thread about Dave's collection. Cheers.

[WRENNEIRE]

Cheers Fran

But I dont have a collection any more.....