The first of my pick up freight is a six wagon rake. This is for my oval garage layout so it has no shunting capabilities, it just comes out of the fiddle yard and after a circuit goes back in. As such it has my fixed coupling method. This rake can be run in a late steam era or in an early diesel  scenario. I try to get my wagons rakes to do multiple era’s if possible and this rake could just do very early seventies.

One thing I have forgotten to mention on other wagon posts is that I remove all wheelsets on coaches and wagons and carefully paint them, I usually use Howes track colour or similar. I then carefully clean all the treads with thinners. I hate to see a nicely weathered wagon with silver or shiny wheels beneath it. It also looks odd if airbrushed and part of the wheel gets sprayed and the other half doesn’t.  I have to say I do this on even the most modern wagons as I think it helps with the overall character of the wagon or coach.