Accuracy of GWR Vans - Farish/Peco

[Rods_of_Revolution]

I purchased for a small sum (£10 for 12 wagons) a lot of older/cruder N Gauge wagons with the intention of using them on a BR(WR) layout set in the 1950s/60s.There's a few decent wagons in the bunch that I have rebuilt with metal wheels, added weight, NEM pockets and weathering, but there are a couple of wagons I'm not sure about.

 

The first wagon is Peco NR-43W, which is a GWR 12t twin vent van. How accurate is the model? Would this have survived in GW grey, would have been repainted completely or simply patch painted? Would it have had any new braking systems added?

 

The second wagon is Farish 2404-LN01 which is another 12t twin vent van, but it's of a design I can't seem to find a photo of. It looks almost SR style with the ironwork but with GW profile ends. Is it a work of fiction?

 

Thanks you in advance for any and all help.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack

 

 

 

 

[BernardTPM]

The Peco van is reasonable for a model from circa 1972. The Farish van is the Southern design, though (to save money) Farish used the same roof as they did for their LNER van, so the roof lets it down. Oddly enough the Southern did build some of their vans for the GWR during WW2, so truth can be stranger than fiction! Whether the number is right though, I don't know.

[Rods_of_Revolution]

The Peco van is reasonable for a model from circa 1972. The Farish van is the Southern design, though (to save money) Farish used the same roof as they did for their LNER van, so the roof lets it down. Oddly enough the Southern did build some of their vans for the GWR during WW2, so truth can be stranger than fiction! Whether the number is right though, I don't know.

 

Thanks Bernard, that explains things. Perhaps I'll take the body off and plonk it in field on the layout, I've certainly seen old storage vans with odd shaped roof replacements.

[The Johnster]

The Peco van is reasonable for a model from circa 1972. The Farish van is the Southern design, though (to save money) Farish used the same roof as they did for their LNER van, so the roof lets it down. Oddly enough the Southern did build some of their vans for the GWR during WW2, so truth can be stranger than fiction! Whether the number is right though, I don't know.

 

The production of railway goods vehicles during WW2 was under the control of the Ministry Of Supply, as raw materials had to be prioritised for military use.  As it happened, Ashford works had a large supply of wood pre cut to build vans in their distinctive 'thick and thin plank' style, originally devised as an efficient use of different sized planks supplied by the sawmills, and were given the job of building vans to the SR standard design for the Southern, LMS, and GW as this pre cut timber was of limited use for anything else.  I have 2 LMS Ashfords on my layout, one in LMS and one in early BR unfitted grey livery.  Ashford built about 8,000 of these for the LMS, and several hundred for the GW.  I would work under the assumption that the number of your GW van is correct until you find out otherwise; Farish usually got this sort of thing right.

[81C]

The running number are 114269 - 918 and 650 built to save you twiddling your fingers.