Like many other light railways the Weston Clevedon & Portishead line purchased a number of wagons from the Midland Railway, using them for internal services between the companys' wharf and customers along the line delivering coal and other products brought across the Bristol Channel from South Wales and Forest of Dean ports. The Midland Railway wagons were evidently robustly constructed as, despite the light railways' limited budget for repairs, the GWR considered a number of wagons fit to travel to Swindon following closure of the line. However photographic evidence suggests not all of the wagons were actually built by the Midland itself...
The WC&PR wagon stock list shows 8 3-plank, 14 5-plank and 2 7-plank open wagons coming from the Midland Railway. 2 of the 3-plank were short 7-feet wheelbase wagons, while the remainder seem to be the common MR 3-plank dropside wagons, used by many companies as ballast wagons. The 2 7-plank wagons appear to be 1887/1907 RCH type wagons with Gloucester axleboxes, while the 5-plank wagons include a number of standard MR 5-plank opens, while some examples have different construction details. It seems some of the wagons sold by the Midland Railway were ex-private owner types.
The introduction of the 1887 RCH wagon model by Dapol provides a close match for the Midland 5-plank open and the WC&PR 7-plank wagons, while the later 1923 5-plank body s a closer match for some of the WC&PR wagons and the Black Rock wagons, which we plan to produce in the earlier black livery applied to the motley collection of wagons initially employed by the quarry company.