TTA wagon eras and numbering

[young37215]

I am trying to get an understanding of the variety of liveries found on Bachmann’s standard TTA wagon. Basically I am trying to work out which ones are appropriate for my early 1980’s era. I have read what I can in Larkin’s Working Wagons but don’t feel any closer to an answer. I am also particularly interested in numbers and when they changed from 4 to 5 digits which I guess is TOPS related.

 

can anyone shed some light or point me to a reference source? 

 

Thanks

[hmrspaul]

Whilst the Bachmann model is of only one type of numerous different TTAs including the conversions from TTV this may help.

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/?q=tta

 

Paul

[young37215]

Thanks Paul, 

 

My searching of RMWeb for TTA references yesterday did not find anything. When I searched Google this morning it brought up the threads below which go some way to answering my questions. I know the Bachmann TTA is not necessarily a perfect replica of the TTA for my 1980's era but it is good enough for me. 

 

Was the change from 4 to 5 digit numbering due to TOPS?

 

 

 

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Stenson Models do a range of items to allow an upgrading of the wagon and making subtle differences to give a bit of variety.

 

http://www.stensonmodels.co.uk/product-category/all-products/4mm-products/wagon-detailing/

 

Mike.

[hmrspaul]

8 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

 

Was the change from 4 to 5 digit numbering due to TOPS?

 

 

 

 

Sorry cannot get rid of these boxes. TTAs often as TTB are 1966 onwards. BR  began to require vacuum brake from 1958 for the new builds but then changed to airbrake in 1966. Many of the wagons seen as TTA in the 1980s were originally vacuum braked. And of course the 45t GLW of a TTA was also very new it went from 35t to 40t to 45t to 50t maximums over about 7 or 8 years and every time there were redesigns.

 

Some of this is described in

Bartlett, Paul W. & Fidczuk, Peter (1991) Tank wagons, part 4. 35—ton GLW vacuum brake tanks,Model Railways vol 8 part 1, pp 25 — 31. (8 colour & 8 bw photos & 5 other b&w)

 

Fidczuk, Peter & Bartlett, Paul W. (1991) Tank wagons, part 5. Early Monobloc tank wagons, Model Railways vol 8 part 7, pp 346 — 353.

(13 colour & 8 bw photos & 4 other b&w)

 

Bartlett, Paul W & Fidczuk, Peter (1992) Tank wagons, part 6. SMBP 45ton GLW tank wagons,       Model Railways vol. 9 (part 4) pp 182 - 188.

 

Yes the entire private owner fleet was a mess before TOPS. It was only in the late 1960s that BR even asked each company what they had that was able to run on the mainline - the files are at the HMRS study center. Although at nationalisation every non tank wagon remaining in private use was listed by the RCH there does not appear to have been a similar list for tank wagons.

So the early work of TOPS was to give an individual number to every wagon - and that is when the five figure numbers came in, with a suitable prefix acronym of the owner. And this remains today, they appear to have managed never to have duplicated a number. The company codes are changed - this has happened a lot recently with many wagons being sold between companies - like VTG having acquired lots of wagons internally used in Britain. And for tank wagons there was an early change, The largest fleet was SMBP and the yellow plates were [all] produced and then the companies split up the joint marketing operation with wagons split between SUKO 60% and BPO 40%. I have a SMBP TOPS plate of a wagon I photographed - they were sold for coppers at Collectors corner - but I don't think I've ever seen a photo of a wagon with these plates.

 

Perhaps also worth mentioning that TOPS codes were often absent from Private owner wagons for many years. BR did add them to their own fleet quite quickly, sometimes quite crudely, but seem to have relied on the companies to know their own wagons and, of course, the information available on TOPS printouts .

 

Paul

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by hmrspaul

[hallmodelspares]

Fox transfers carry some items though worth checking before ordering the era they relate to