Soviet Bogie Platform Wagons

In my continued proces of building up a collection of Soviet narrow gauge rolling stock, two platform wagons arrived today by mail. Quite unusual for such rather rare prototypes they are out of the box delivered finished and ready for service (even if I don't have a layout to use them on).

 

Two new platform wagons unpacked and photographed in the garden with a MD-54-2 and a piece of mining machinery as load.

The protoype for the models is a simple steel framed platform wagon with sheet metal floor and cast steel 'american-style' bogies and central couplings. Pockets for stakes to enable transport of wood etc. are placed on the outside frames. Several types of platform wagons were built by Demikhovo Engineering Works (DMZ) with some of them having very low sides and some strengthening beams across the load area - probably for transporting logs. The Demikhovo Engineering Works (Демиховский Машиностроительный Завод, ДМЗ) in Demikhov near Moscow was founded in the Soviet Union in the 1930's building machines for the peat industri including bogie hoppers by the thousands. Today the company is the Russian Federation's main producer of EMU's. 

Drawing and data sheet of almost identical platform wagon built by DMZ.

Works photograph of a platform wagon from Demikhovo.

The wagons are handbuilt in Ukraine by the Ukrainian 'Miniland' model railway organisation that is best known for operating Ukraine's largest 1/87 scale model railway in Kyiv. They are not what I would consider cheap, but the quality/price ratio is well balanced and I already have more models on order. Packaging on arrival from Kyiv is top quality, and once cardboard box and bubblewrap was removed I had a tailor-made lasercut wooden box in my hands. The box will help protect the models from all but the most viscious mishandling.

The contents laser engraved on the lid of the wooden box supplied as a safe home for the models.

With the lid off the wagons can be seen fitting into the foam lining of the box. Thin plastic wrapping makes it easy to extract the models.

The models correspond to available drawings of Demikhovo platform wagons and both are assembled with care, bearing no visible marks from glue, solder or files etc. The wagons are equipped with full underside detail like air tank, pipes and brake rodding. Paint is well applied, probably by air brush, and the lettering is clear and the wagons carry individual numbers and appropriate data.

Platform 1930 in light grey livery.

Braked platform 1262 with steel brake compartment built from steel sheet and profiles.

Underside detail on platform 1930. The only thing missing is the brake shoes.

As an extremely utalitarian design the Demikhovo platform wagons weren't the kind of rolling stock anyone took a particularly interest in. Consequently most images show prototype wagons heavily weathered and worn. As long as all eight wheels touched the rails and the couplings pointed in the right direction all seems to have been fine. I look forward to add weathering to the models in the future. For the time being they will stay in their nice box.

Platform wagon loaded with two concrete elements. This particular wagon seems to have been light grey in a distant past. Surely an inspiration for my future weathering work on the two models.