MWT/MoT Wagon Decals

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Configure Your Decals

To order a set of decals for a Ministry of (War) Transport wagon you will need to configure its specification. This will consist of a number of steps, as described below.

To accommodate a wide range of scales, dimensions are normally specified in scale feet and/or inches, rather than model mm. Where an arbitrary dimension value is requested below, you can enter a value either in feet and/or inches, which will be taken as being a prototype value, or in mm, which will be taken as a model size value. Please be sure to include the units in your specificaion. A calculator and look-up table to help convert scale inches into model dimensions (or vice versa) is available here (opens in new browser tab/window).

In the boxes below, where a marking is not required, leave blank or set to "None". If you do not wish to specify a deviation from standard (e.g. marking letter sizes), leave blank or set to "Standard".

1. Wagon Livery

The first step is to select the basic livery for your wagon:

Colours with an R-number are from the Railmatch range of paints, those with an H-number are Humbrol. It is believed the MoT bauxite colour was the same as LMS bauxite, but in case you disagree, a selection of other bauxite colours is available.

This will determine the basic layout (hopper or mineral wagon), and decal sizes for items like end stripes. The sizes are based on my range of detailed drawings for the appropriate wagon types, but can be overidden using options below.

Styles used for MoT name and tare weight.

2. Lower Left Markings

Usually M.W.T, M.O.T., or M.o.T., as illustrated to the right. Enter the letters and punctuation as required, and follow with "L", "M" or "S" for large, medium or small "O" letter size. Applies to mineral wagons only, leave blank for hopper.

For mineral wagons only, the standard size was 3in.

The standard size was 3in., for both mineral and hopper wagons.

The mineral wagons were 14 or 16 tons, the hoppers were 21 tons. Please include "T" or "TONS" and any punctuation as required.

The standard size was 2in., for both mineral and hopper wagons.

3. Lower Right Markings

Typically tons-cwt, sometimes with quarters too. As illustrated to the right. All four basic weight formats could be used with or without the "TARE" label. Please enter "TARE" if required, and separate the numbers with "T and C" for the large separators, "t and c" for the small separators (they will still be upper case letters), or hyphens or stops and spaces as required.

The standard size was 2in., for both mineral and hopper wagons.

5. Door Stripes

For mineral wagons only, leave blank for hopper wagon, or for the standard size determined by my drawings.

This is the overall width of the stripe between its ends, not the width (thickness) of the line. With the height, these define the size of the rectangle within which the stripe forms the diagonal. The standard line width (thickness) was 2.5 in.

Decals for wagon solebar.

6. Solebar Markings

Decals for solebar markings are designed to occupy the full height of the channel recess of the solebar. Some (e.g. plates) may be provided with additional cutting guides to facilitate cutting the decal closer to the edges of the plate.

Maintenance Data

Maintenance markings generally consisted of L. or P. (meaning Lift or Paint), followed by date as month-year, or sometimes day-month-year. Enter the dates on two lines (or three for greater vertical spacing), in the order required. Include the "L" and "P" and punctuation and spaces as required. Leave blank if not required.

The standard size was 1in., for both mineral and hopper wagons, but could be subject to variation.

Hopper Markings

The MOT number plate and hopper operation controls shown were only used on the d167 hopper wagons, and decals will be included as appropriate. If needed, the number plate will be made up using information entered elsewhere.

 

Decals for registration plates.

Private Owner Registration

Ministry-owned wagons were generally registered with the railway companies as private owner wagons. Typical registration plates are shown to the right.

To allow for variations, please include abbreviation and punctuation to be shown on the plate.

 

Decals for builder's plates.

Builder's Plate

The available builder's plate decals are illustrated on the right.

Where required, the date will be as specified above for the registration plate.

7. Confirm Configuration

Finally, please specify the scale for your decals, whether you want large or small body side decals (as described above), together with a short label (name and/or number) that can be used to distinguish this wagon decal configuration from any others you may add to your basket:

Small decals are a little bigger than the markings they contain. Large decals are designed to fit a complete panel, as described above.

The uniqueness of this label is important because if you add two different wagon decal sets with the same label to your basket the more recent specification will overwrite the old. You can, however, use this feature to update the specification of decals you have already added to your basket. The label you enter will be automatically prefixed with "MOTWagonDecals ".

Once you have selected the appropriate options above to configure this decal set, click on "Confirm Configuration" above to proceed to the next stage of the ordering process. (This will also temporarily store the information you've entered should wish to navigate away to another page, as will the "Save Settings" button above.) You will then be taken to another page showing the information you've entered. From there, you will then be able to either add the set to your basket, or return to this page to change your specification.