P is for Preiser's Plastic Population and 'Pology!

There is - in 'Edit' - from January an article on the Preiser Columbus set, which never got published (it will be in the next few days!) and I found it there the other day and thought "Why did I take poor photographs of the instruction sheet and box when I could've scanned them?", so I dragged the box out of the attic to retake the images, only to be reminded that all the wagons were there. I had photographed them ages ago . . .

Family 'snap'

. . . July, 2012 to be exact; intending to blog them at the time, but the shot never got added-to, and wound-up in Picasa with everything else!

Now - most of the wagons in the above image are from one source: Gary Worsfold, who not only donated them to the Blog, but went to incredible efforts to send them to me twice, at his expense, after Royal Fail and Parcel Farce had conspired to send them back to him . . . in New Zealand!

Late 1970's-1980's packaging

I had thanked him privately at the time (2011! Where does five years just bugger-off to?), but with the fighting of a court case and moving house only to then go off to college (where the shot was taken on the flocked, rubberised 'carpet-burn' floor-covering!), I never got round to posting them by way of providing a more public thanks, rather gloating on them in private like some selfish horse-drawn, transport-Gollum!

More modern boxes

So, in the last few weeks I have been photographing the living-hell out of all of them, and will be having a Preiser (with a bit of Merten, Airfix etc...) season, not a month, not a week, just until I get bored with them - a week or two?

And not just wagons, I've updated the Columbus, we'll look at nudes, properly (the only way TO look at them!) and a few other bits and bobs, even some military, but not much, and all of it small scale, so those winging about people Blogging small-scale the other day (he makes it up as he goes along), can go and look at something else for a week or two!

N-gauge versions

Some of the wagons have also been pantographed-down for the TT and N gauge ranges, and these are the current N gauge offerings, I would imagine a few more have been so reduced and are retailed on a rotation, but these may be it? Of particular interest is the shortened log-trailer to the right which currently isn't available in any other size.

Above - Preiser's own 'Suggestion for Arrangement'

Below - Unpainted draft-horses

As you can see - I'll also be mining the current (on-line, downloadable) catalogue with screen-caps, along with bits of my own paperwork, but mostly the season will be by way of much-thanks to Gary Worsfold for the donation of the wagons (and other items), as I am a big fan of wagons, didn't have many Preiser examples and had blogged what I did have back at the start of the blog.

The lower shot shows a complete set of six heavy-horses from the big drays we'll be looking at, along with two of the common wagon pairs and a horse also used singly with a U-shaped draw-bar, all from set 327's but as we'll see soon: I'm not that sure if they all belong. There are other draft horses and they are useful for other jobs, while the plumes can be removed form the ponies, for less salubrious work-a-day jobs, as taxi-pullers etc!

Cheers Gary, and many thanks; I hope I do them - albeit late - justice. Sorry for taking so long to get a proper grip of them!