Wagon mystery (or....mystery wagon!)

[Halvarras]

Long story short (I hope!) Back in the late 1970s I bought David Larkin's 'Pictorial Survey' series of five softback books on BR wagons and NPCCS, published by Bradford Barton. On page 56 of the volume on 'Private Owner Freight Wagons' is a photo of Shell-BP No A7287 in Lubricating Oils division livery, which DL himself described as "distinctive", at Dundee in 1971. It certainly caught my attention as it looked quite 'modern' in my eyes compared to other similar tank wagons, but I didn't think anything more about it until about 12 years ago when I bought a DVD by B&R Video entitled 'Steam into Cornwall'. During a shunting sequence by Falmouth Docks Peckett No 6 this very same tank wagon A7287 was spotted on the end of a rake - after I stopped choking on my tea I rewound it to make sure I wasn't seeing things! No, there it was. I remember thinking at the time that if Bachmann ever produced a model - and many RTR wagons were based on photos in these books - I'd have to buy one. But nothing ever appeared........or so I thought......

 

Just one month ago while idly trawling online for something else, up comes this image of Bachmann 33-512. What the......! I just missed one on Ebay, then incredibly last week Hattons took one in, so I grabbed it and here it is, with the book which started it all.....

The date stamp on the box end flap says December 2008. Until about 18 months ago I had a set of Bachmann catalogues 2003-2018 but I gave them away before moving house - if this model was listed surely I'd have seen it, unless I had a ginormous and persistent blind spot. I can also scarcely believe I've never seen one on layouts in magazines or at exhibitions or on sale anywhere new or used. Until now! Totally baffled!!

Whilst this invisibility can't be explained, perhaps somebody who still has Bachmann catalogues from 2007-9 would kindly check whether 33-512 was originally advertised in a different livery to that subsequently released? Or was it simply never listed? If it was listed back then I really must have been suffering that ginormous blind spot...... !!

 

[2mm Andy]

Neil,

 

I don't know if this helps;

 

https://www.modelraildatabase.com/wagons/details/1235/

 

If it is correct, the model was released in 1999, which might explain why it wasn't shown in your catalogues, but doesn't explain the date stamp on the box the model came in...

 

Andy

[Halvarras]

18 hours ago, 2mm Andy said:

Neil,

 

I don't know if this helps;

 

https://www.modelraildatabase.com/wagons/details/1235/

 

If it is correct, the model was released in 1999, which might explain why it wasn't shown in your catalogues, but doesn't explain the date stamp on the box the model came in...

 

Andy

 

Andy,

 

Many thanks for checking, I've had a look at that link and I see what you mean - 1999, so before my catalogues! Here's a photo of the date stamp (the box appears to be original, no sign of label being swapped):

The only explanation I can come up with is that mangled first digit being a '9', not a '0', making the year of manufacture 1998, so the model went on sale early 1999. All photos show it with the screw-on small couplings. I attempted to nail down the timing of the introduction of these on the database and discovered that Bachmann had few if any locomotive releases during 1998. That seems to be the year they made the switch from the old larger Mainline couplings to the smaller type, which required tooling changes on a number of models, but the fixed version quickly gave way to the pivoted NEM style. If this was a 2008 model it would surely have had NEM pockets.

So 1999 makes sense, but the fact that it escaped my attention for 22 years not a mere 13 doesn't!!

 

Neil

Edited July 17, 2021 by Neil Phillips
Trying to type while eating a pasty - being a bloke, can't multi-task!