Jump to content
 

Kernow MRC PRA china clay wagons


Andy Y
 Share

Recommended Posts

KERNOW MODEL RAIL CENTRE PRESS RELEASE - PRA CHINA CLAY WAGONS OO GAUGE

 

We are pleased to announce we have commissioned the PRA China Clay wagons in OO Gauge as an exclusive model.  This will be produced by the same factory that made our Bulleid Diesels.

 

PRA.jpg

 

Prototype History

Fourteen PRAs were introduced in 1983 by Standard Wagon at Heywood. They had underframes recovered from APCM PVV vans that had had an open box body built on them at Reddish in mid 1982 with TOPS owner code SRW.  They were numbered RLS6303 – 6316.  The PRAs went out of use during the early 1990s. They worked from Pontsmill in Cornwall to Scotland for Wiggins Teape.

 

When first converted the livery was all-over grey, including underframes and buffer shanks.  The underframes and buffer shanks were later painted black, although the entire livery was usually buried under layers of grime!

 

 

The Models
Eight models are being produced, four finished in the as-converted livery and four with the later black underframes.

Each of the running numbers will be finished to match the prototype markings.

The model features very fine detail with many separate parts, including etched walkways.
 
The models are priced at £39.99 each. with a saving of £5 per wagon with the bulk pack of four wagons.  Customers be charged in full when placing their order.  Customers not wishing to do this will have to wait until the models arrive to place an order, at which time the bulk pack will rise in price.  We expect the models to be ready by the end of 2018.
 
Models available to order: - 
 
SB007box.jpg
 
SB007A PRA China Clay Wagon (late) RLS6313 £39.99

 SB007B PRA China Clay Wagon (late) RLS6314 £39.99

 SB007C PRA China Clay Wagon (late) RLS6315 £39.99

 SB007D PRA China Clay Wagon (late) RLS6316 £39.99

SB007ZA.jpg
 
 
 SB007ZA PRA China Clay Wagon (late) Pack of 4 £139.96

 
SB007box.jpg
 
SB007E PRA China Clay Wagon (early) RLS6305 £39.99

 SB007F PRA China Clay Wagon (early) RLS6309 £39.99

 SB007G PRA China Clay Wagon (early) RLS6308 £39.99

 SB007H PRA China Clay Wagon (early) RLS6308 £39.99

 
SB007ZB.jpg
 
 SB007ZB PRA China Clay Wagon (early) Pack of 4 £139.96

 

 

Please note the roof cover on the livery samples have the incorrect colour which will be corrected for publication.  Also one of the samples suffered broken buffers in transit - this will not be the case on the production model!
 
Further information is on our dedicated web page - http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/pg/163/PRA-China-Clay-Wagon
 
 

 

 

 

  • Like 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

I cannot believe my not a chance of it happening guess has come through.   

Now to do some selling so that I can afford a pack of 4! 

 

Oddly enough I dont think the plasticard version I was cutting at the SWAG members day will get built now!

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Forgive my ignorance, but were these wagons run in block trains, or could they be mixed with other wagons in the same train, please?

As the newsletter says, there were only 14 so they were mixed with other wagons. They regularly ran to Scotland.

 

Photos here https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/chinaclaypra Not so dirty/dusty as a lot of wagons.

 

Paul

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Paul. Yes, the fact that there were only 14 did suggest they might be mixed, but they could also have been an exclusive train of 14 wagons, or even a block of 14 wagons as part of a larger train. 

I think the wide range of these wagons is a master stroke of choice by Kernow, appealing to modellers outside of Cornwall and the West Country, so hopefully widening their sales.

Edited by SRman
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Forgive my ignorance, but were these wagons run in block trains, or could they be mixed with other wagons in the same train, please?

It could range from 1 wagon to 6 or 7 (possibly more),  I have found photos on Flickr showing 6 in a rake, 4, and 1 (all on the mainline).

 

They did run on their own on the Ponts Mill > St Blazey working (along with a CAR brake van), at St Blazey they would be formed into the next Speedlink service up to Scotland.   The number of wagons in the rake would depend on the level of demand at that point in time.  I guess its possible that more than one trip working from the works would be formed into the same Speedlink service. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

very nice indeed, the Kernow page has some excellent photos of the wagon at work that gives you a good idea of how to  mix up a longer consist. I'm thinking now a couple of these along with the something like the forthcoming IRM Tara Mines, Mixology heaven!

Link to post
Share on other sites

That has surprised me! In a good way of course :)

 

I suppose my ever expanding "era of interest" just gota bit earlier. Ponts Mill closed in, I think, 1992 but I like the idea of a correct propelling move a lot.

Link to post
Share on other sites

These definitely used to be in 1's or 2's in that Speedlink service that ran the length of the country (Mossend - St Blazey ??) in the early 80's passing Preston south around 10ish each weekday along with the Tullis Russell wagons  ..............................

 

The lip-smacking possibilities that now exist as there will be a "PVV" underframe in the open especially as Accurascale haven't bowed immediately to my request to do the APCM van next ........................ :laugh:

 

Anyway another great wagon .................. we've never had it so good indeed.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

These definitely used to be in 1's or 2's in that Speedlink service that ran the length of the country (Mossend - St Blazey ??) in the early 80's passing Preston south around 10ish each weekday along with the Tullis Russell wagons  ..............................

 

The lip-smacking possibilities that now exist as there will be a "PVV" underframe in the open especially as Accurascale haven't bowed immediately to my request to do the APCM van next ........................ :laugh:

 

Anyway another great wagon .................. we've never had it so good indeed.

 

As there were only 14 of them, I reckon the bigger sales potential is selling underframes only so we can build PVV vans to go with the Cemflos.

 

Mike.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Very nice. We had a scratch built PRA for Lizzy originally. Shame as I don't have a china clay layout anymore! Might have to get a couple to go with the Tullis Hoppers. You never know when another layout idea will take hold!

post-6673-0-92576300-1532105411_thumb.jpg

post-6673-0-92576300-1532105411_thumb.jpg

  • Like 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
Link to post
Share on other sites

KMRC has created a new wrinkle in the pre-ordering transaction here with the offer of a reduced up-front payment. So long as the product is well illustrated and a reasonably firm timeline is in place, (as appears to be the situation in this case) this does not seem unreasonable to me.

 

It is consistent with a couple of their recent commissions where they honoured pre-order pricing for payments prior to delivery, and offered to commissioned product at a higher price for people who had not pre-ordered. That was more accidental based on changing market conditions in China, but this is intentional which I think is fair.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Well done, Kernow! 

 

Problem is, they're going to make the current seriously flawed models of WHL diesels - classes 37 and 27 - very silly in comparison. Could you commission all-new models of those too? 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...