W&U Tram Cars - Non- Titfield Versions!

[rapidoandy]

Everything about the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway was unusual and its coaches were certainly no exception. Six four-wheel coaches were initially used but, in 1884, the year that the line opened to Upwell, two bogie coaches were delivered.

 

These two vehicles were some of the most unusual – or eye-catching depending on your point of view – coaches used in Britain. They were built by the Great Eastern Railway under order A17. Composite No. 7 was built to Diagram 602 and Second No. 8 to Dia. 603.

 

Both vehicles were outwardly similar to look at. They were both just over 37ft long (over buffers) and had a maximum height of 10ft 2in – rather squat by railway standards. No. 7 could hold ten First Class passengers and 22 Second, whilst No. 8 had a total capacity of 34 Second (later Third) Class passengers. However, details like body panelling and roof layout were unique to each vehicle.

 

They remained almost unchanged physically during their working life with the exception of modified footsteps . After passenger services on the W&U ceased on December 31st 1927, both vehicles were transferred to the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway in Essex where they worked until that line closed in 1951. They retained their unusual longitudinal seating until the end.

 

 

Stardom them beckoned for No. 8. It starred in the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt – complete with bar! It was earmarked for preservation by the British Transport Commission and was even restored into GER livery. Sadly, due to a misunderstanding, it was scrapped on March 9th 1957.

 

No. 7 was sold and its body became an onion store before being rescued for preservation. Acquired by the M&GN Society in 2002, it has been fully restored -complete with a Titfield-style bar.

As with all Rapido models these models feature a high level of detail on the outside, underside and inside including different roofs, interiors, end steps, handbrakes and other detail fittings as seen on each carriage at different times throughout its working life. All interiors will be fully visible with a removable roof. Coaches are available individually in LNER and BR liveries as well as No. 8 as it is today.

 

 

 

Sadly, only one of the tram cars survived into preservation. But what if things had been different? We are pleased to announce a ‘What If’ version of these vehicles in BR lined crimson with BR carriage crests.

After filming The Titfield Thunderbolt the starring tram car was returned to revenue use – but kept the bar to serve 1st class passengers on the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway. Eventually the pair needed work and were sent to Stratford where they received a general repair and repaint into standard BR coach livery complete with lining, roundels and window markings – well that’s our story!

 

 

RRP for each vehicle is £74.95. Order yours today by speaking to any Official Retailer or direct from us at www.rapidotrains.co.uk/wisbech--upwell-bogie-tramcars/

Edited August 26, 2022 by rapidoandy

[toby_tl10]

Hmm, did not expect the general release to be priced the same as the Titfield Thunderbolt version.

 

I already have a J70, guess I'll order a pair

[rapidoandy]

7 minutes ago, toby_tl10 said:

Hmm, did not expect the general release to be priced the same as the Titfield Thunderbolt version.

 

I already have a J70, guess I'll order a pair

 

Thank you!

 

The price was based on the project as a whole. The Titfield versions obviously have licenses etc to be factored in, whilst the non-Titfield ones have far more tooling to cater for the different roofs, sides, interiors and steps etc. 

 

Andy

[Martin_R]

The ‘what could have been’ BR liveried pair have received my EOI - brilliant! Definitely need some 04’s with skirts if / when they are produced. As a 5 year old I can definitely remember the sights and sounds of the W&U, imagine if the line had lasted long enough to be preserved.

[NHY 581]

Fab. 

 

Rob. 

[Flyingscotsmanfan]

I was hoping these would be announced at some point… I’ve preordered one of each of the LNER liveried ones.

[scots region]

I'm a sucker for alternative liveries, so if the BR ones ended up causing headaches you can blame me. 

[Ribird]

These look great! (Along with the train pack!) A few questions;

 

Is the preserved model (no 7), the only model that has the handbrakes fitted, correct?

 

Secondly, the little circles in the windows of the ex-LNER version (not the BR lettering one), I would assume those are non-smoking/smoking symbols? (I only see this on retailer images)

 

Third, in one the previous announcements, Rapido had said that the roof is not removeable. Has this been changed? Or the wording should be "If you can get the roof off...."?

 

None of these questions will have any change in outcome of my purchases, they'll still happen 😉 

 

Thanks,

Ribird

[Corbs]

15 minutes ago, Ribird said:

These look great! (Along with the train pack!) A few questions;

 

Is the preserved model (no 7), the only model that has the handbrakes fitted, correct?

 

Secondly, the little circles in the windows of the ex-LNER version (not the BR lettering one), I would assume those are non-smoking/smoking symbols? (I only see this on retailer images)

 

Third, in one the previous announcements, Rapido had said that the roof is not removeable. Has this been changed? Or the wording should be "If you can get the roof off...."?

 

None of these questions will have any change in outcome of my purchases, they'll still happen 😉 

 

Thanks,

Ribird

 

AFAIK the handbrake wheels were gone by LNER days, the two GER tram packs have handbrake wheels fitted,

https://rapidotrains.co.uk/wisbech--upwell-bogie-tramcars/

 

The circles in the windows of E60461 are 'No Smoking' roundels. E60462 did not appear to have them in any photos I have seen.

 

The roof has been confirmed that it will be removable.

 

 

[Ribird]

5 hours ago, Corbs said:

AFAIK the handbrake wheels were gone by LNER days, the two GER tram packs have handbrake wheels fitted,

https://rapidotrains.co.uk/wisbech--upwell-bogie-tramcars/

 

The circles in the windows of E60461 are 'No Smoking' roundels. E60462 did not appear to have them in any photos I have seen.

 

The roof has been confirmed that it will be removable.

Thanks for the info on the handbrakes and No Smoking roundels. I zoomed in on the GER tramcars and can now make out the black handbrake. My bad for missing that. 

 

For the roof, in the July 15th monthly announcement they said "The roof isn't removable so this is the view of the interior you'll more likely get to see on your layout! You can almost imagine Mr Valentine leaning on the bar and telling the disgruntled passenger that yes, he does indeed own the ruddy railway". This was under the interior shot looking through the car inside the Titfield version of the tramcar. That's why I was asking if the roof is now removeable 

[PhilJ W]

Great looking models. Now working out if there's any other suitable rolling stock to go with them. Apart from wagons and vans I don't see much.

[Bernard Lamb]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Great looking models. Now working out if there's any other suitable rolling stock to go with them. Apart from wagons and vans I don't see much.

Stoke ferry six wheelers?

You will need a van for the guard unless you only run mixed trains.

Bernard

[Corbs]

11 hours ago, Ribird said:

Thanks for the info on the handbrakes and No Smoking roundels. I zoomed in on the GER tramcars and can now make out the black handbrake. My bad for missing that. 

 

For the roof, in the July 15th monthly announcement they said "The roof isn't removable so this is the view of the interior you'll more likely get to see on your layout! You can almost imagine Mr Valentine leaning on the bar and telling the disgruntled passenger that yes, he does indeed own the ruddy railway". This was under the interior shot looking through the car inside the Titfield version of the tramcar. That's why I was asking if the roof is now removeable 

Later news was that the factory figured out how to make the roof removable 😎

[Bucoops]

Anything is removable. The real trick is to make it possible to put it back on again and it still look the same 😉

[Ribird]

1 hour ago, Corbs said:

Later news was that the factory figured out how to make the roof removable 😎

Huh! Interesting! Where was this stated? (More so I can figure out where I missed reading that. I try to be very thorough when reading their announcements) 

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Stoke ferry six wheelers?

You will need a van for the guard unless you only run mixed trains.

Bernard

They never ran on the Stoke Ferry branch (unless your going to invoke rule 1) They were transferred to the Tollesbury Light Railway where they ran with specially modified ex GER 6 wheel stock. The modifications were  smaller wheels to bring the floors down to the same level as the W&U stock with a corresponding raising of the buffer beams. End doors and a drop plate and a passageway through the carriages so that the guard-conductor could collect fares. The Hornby generic coaches are not a bad match for GER coaches but the end windows of the guards vehicles would have to be altered.

[Bernard Lamb]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

They never ran on the Stoke Ferry branch (unless your going to invoke rule 1) They were transferred to the Tollesbury Light Railway where they ran with specially modified ex GER 6 wheel stock. The modifications were  smaller wheels to bring the floors down to the same level as the W&U stock with a corresponding raising of the buffer beams. End doors and a drop plate and a passageway through the carriages so that the guard-conductor could collect fares. The Hornby generic coaches are not a bad match for GER coaches but the end windows of the guards vehicles would have to be altered.

Where do you think the modified ex GER 6 wheel stock came from? 

Try GER Nos 10 and 11 which became LNER 63255 later 62262 and 62261  both ex Stoke Ferry.

Thank you and goodnight.

Bernard  

[PhilJ W]

If you are modelling the W&U it was mostly coal in and agricultural products out, principally soft fruit. For the highly seasonal soft fruit traffic a standard four wheel BG was used. This was fitted with a desk for the goods clerk so that all the paperwork would be ready for the run to market, most of the vans used were fitted fruit vans.

[PhilJ W]

4 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

Where do you think the modified ex GER 6 wheel stock came from? 

Try GER Nos 10 and 11 which became LNER 63255 later 62262 and 62261  both ex Stoke Ferry.

Thank you and goodnight.

Bernard  

The ex W&U coaches were transferred directly to the TLR and never ran on the Stoke Ferry branch as I stated.

[Bernard Lamb]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

The ex W&U coaches were transferred directly to the TLR and never ran on the Stoke Ferry branch as I stated.

I never said that they did run on the Stoke Ferry branch.

Both the Stoke Ferry branch coaches and the W&U coaches ran together on the Tollesbury line. Which is what I wrote in answer to a question about what other stock could run with the W&U coaches.

What is the matter with you?

Bernard

[mdvle]

22 hours ago, Ribird said:

Third, in one the previous announcements, Rapido had said that the roof is not removeable. Has this been changed? Or the wording should be "If you can get the roof off...."?

 

 

[Ribird]

1 hour ago, mdvle said:

 

 

Ah ha, that's where I missed it! Thank you! 

[MarkSG]

This creates an interesting dilemma for me. I bought a couple of the J70s when they were originally released, and have been (slowly!) working on a W&U inspired layout ever since. But my original design was for a purely goods layout, because in the era I'm modelling the W&U didn't have any passenger traffic and although my model is based on a fictional extension to Welney and beyond, I assumed that my fictional history otherwise follows much the same timeline. But, maybe, just maybe, there's an argument for assuming that a longer line would have kept passenger traffic all the way to closure as well. But then I need to rethink part of the layout to include passenger facilities, which weren't part of the track plan. Hmm. I'm very tempted, but I do wonder if this is possibly a rule 1 too far. 

[PhilJ W]

No such thing as a rule 1 to far.

[Dungrange]

On 27/08/2022 at 16:42, Ribird said:

Huh! Interesting! Where was this stated? (More so I can figure out where I missed reading that. I try to be very thorough when reading their announcements) 

 

It was also stated in the first post in this thread.

 

On 26/08/2022 at 12:01, rapidoandy said:

As with all Rapido models these models feature a high level of detail on the outside, underside and inside including different roofs, interiors, end steps, handbrakes and other detail fittings as seen on each carriage at different times throughout its working life. All interiors will be fully visible with a removable roof. Coaches are available individually in LNER and BR liveries as well as No. 8 as it is today.