Rapido OO Gauge LMS Dia1666 5-plank open

[The Johnster]

 

It's been 'breathed on' by time, use, and an industrial steam railway environment, the new taken off it, and now looks perfectly at home on the layout.  Tx Rapido, good work!  It's the most I've ever paid for a small wagon, but I'm happy with it.

[AY Mod]

3 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

It's the most I've ever paid for a small wagon, but I'm happy with it.

 

"Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten".

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

the layout is BR(W) c. 1955 so one needs to remember that for every two ex-GW wagons there should be one of these!

 

I'd say more than that, 1:1 minimum.  There were probably nearly as many of these wagon as the other three of the big four combined in 1955, and they were pool, so flooded the system.  If you feel the need for another 5-planker on a whim, it should probably be one of these, the idea that there would be a majority of ex-GW wagons on the WR in 1955 is a bit of a myth.  There were some BR refurbished fitted D1666s still around in the 70s when I was on the railway; the overwhelming majority of pre-nationalisation design vans and wagons by then was LMS, even most of the Ashford vans were LMS wartime builds.  I'd say the majority of sliding door vans were LMS designs. 

 

Of course many of these were still being delivered new in the early to mid 50s.

[Wickham Green too]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

... the idea that there would be a majority of ex-GW wagons on the WR in 1955 is a bit of a myth. ...

Specifically talking about Open Goods Wagons ( three planks deep and up ) these were Common User across all Companies from  1917 so you'd probably struggle to detect any regional bias after 1925 - let alone '55 ! 

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

There were some BR refurbished fitted D1666s still around in the 70s when I was on the railway;

 

I would expect those to be the steel-framed D1667s? But built at the same time.

[The Johnster]

10 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

"Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten".

 

Quite.  If you bought it there's no point in moaning about what you paid for it, because paying for it indicates that you found the price acceptable, or you wouldn't have bought it.  It costs what it costs and it is up to the individual to decide whether or not he wants to part with his beer vouches, but I have to say that I have little patience with those who moan about prices and issue dire warnings about the future of the hobby.  It's an expensive hobby, the Chinese are fed up with being exploited, get over it!

 

Beer and fags going up in the budget are classic examples.  For years, I've listened to blokes in pubs; '10 bob a pint!, Well you won't see me paying that, I can tell you!   He's there at opening time next day, all the same...  Take no notice of them!

[65179]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I would expect those to be the steel-framed D1667s? But built at the same time.

 

Not sure that BR fitted either.  Certainly for vans it was the 10ft wb ones that gained the vac gear.  Hasn't this been covered on here before?

 

Simon

[Aire Head]

4 hours ago, The Johnster said:

There were some BR refurbished fitted D1666s still around in the 70s when I was on the railway;

I believe you are referring the very numerous D1892 family of wagons. This was in fact several diagrams of wagons related to the thickness of materials used which from modelling viewpoint doesn't make any difference. This family of wagons were also numerous with around 14,000 existing all told making them the most numerous of the big four 10' WB steel underframe wagons.

[Compound2632]

8 hours ago, Aire Head said:

I believe you are referring the very numerous D1892 family of wagons. This was in fact several diagrams of wagons related to the thickness of materials used which from modelling viewpoint doesn't make any difference. This family of wagons were also numerous with around 14,000 existing all told making them the most numerous of the big four 10' WB steel underframe wagons.

 

At any rate, survivors into the 70s would have been steel-framed, the wood-framed wagons having been extinguished a decade previously - 1958 being the tipping-point.

Edited September 19, 2023 by Compound2632
sp.

[Dunsignalling]

9 hours ago, 65179 said:

 

Not sure that BR fitted either.  Certainly for vans it was the 10ft wb ones that gained the vac gear.  Hasn't this been covered on here before?

 

Simon

 

They wouldn't have needed to be fitted.

 

There were still unfitted wagons running well into the 1970s, and beyond; 16T and 21T minerals being the prime examples.

 

Off-hand, I don't recall exactly when they were finally banned from traffic, though. Early to mid-80s I think, but later in engineer's use.

 

John

Edited September 19, 2023 by Dunsignalling

[Captain Kernow]

17 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

"Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten".

That was the slogan from a posh, expensive, bespoke garden shed company that we had the misfortune to try many years ago.

 

Or, as I said to their fellow, when he came round for the umpteenth time to repair the shoddily made door and fix another leak, 'the price is remembered long after the quality has expired'...

 

We never exchanged Christmas cards.

 

Edited September 19, 2023 by Captain Kernow

[Captain Kernow]

So, serious question, are the BR liveried ones also about to be released, please?

 

[Dunsignalling]

6 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

So, serious question, are the BR liveried ones also about to be released, please?

 

Hi Tim

Mine have already departed from my Hatton's trunk, along with 1501 and a few other bits.

 

John

[hmrspaul]

In the official BR booklet on wagons to be VB 1st edition Nov 1956 the ex LMS list only has steel framed wagons and only wagons that are in known number blocks. Surprisingly OT include the Roadstone wagons diag 67a and all the brake vans 73xxxx series ! [note 

 

Surprisingly to me the list does include LNER opens with wood frames - I haven't looked but suspect all are 10ft wb. Shildon had laid down a line for building wood frames very late on - and included building a batch of hoppers for BR. No SR or WR wagons with wood frames are included (they would have been rare by then I would suggest). 

 

How much of this was done before the 2nd edition of December 1958 which asked for destruction of all edition 1 (didn't happen happily). Far fewer wagons of the LNER listed, the LMS list now includes the pre-batch numbered Gunpowders - some of which survived VB into the 1980s. This list also, for the first time, includes BR numbered wagons some of which were 9ft wb - Gunpowders, China clay, Sand

 

The 'going VB or AB' happened area by area during the 1980s - it is why I managed to capture some unusual ex SR departmentals a long way from the SR at places such as Northampton PAD. 

 

The last unfit flow was IIRC the Coil C's & Js working to South Wales docks.

 

As my photos show, I had to work hard to find a very few, very destroyed, Diag 1666 opens. 

 

Paul

[Wickham Green too]

19 minutes ago, hmrspaul said:

... No SR or WR wagons with wood frames are included (they would have been rare by then I would suggest). ...

They would have been pretty old if they had survived to 1956 - the Southern didn't build any timber-framed wagons this side of about 1925 and the last record of anything timber-framed from Swindon is probably lost in the mists of time !

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

the last record of anything timber-framed from Swindon is probably lost in the mists of time !

 

Early 1880s or thereabouts.

[RapidoCorbs]

41 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

So, serious question, are the BR liveried ones also about to be released, please?

 

They are all here now :)  The whole range arrived at the same time.

[AY Mod]

As appealing as a bacon sandwich on Sunday morning.

 

[The Johnster]

1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

So, serious question, are the BR liveried ones also about to be released, please?

 

Mine arrived two days ago, BR  livery; they are already released. 

[Compound2632]

42 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

As appealing as a bacon sandwich on Sunday morning.

 

 

This photo shows very well the representation of the inwards joggle of the brake vee-hanger just below the solebar. It's details like that that really make this model stand out.

 

One unprototypical point: turn a real wagon upside-down and all the floor planks would fall out!

[Captain Kernow]

Thanks all, this is one release that I will definitely acquire!

 

[Pteremy]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

One unprototypical point: turn a real wagon upside-down and all the floor planks would fall out!

 

Don't give them ideas like that!

[hmrspaul]

3 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

They would have been pretty old if they had survived to 1956 - the Southern didn't build any timber-framed wagons this side of about 1925 and the last record of anything timber-framed from Swindon is probably lost in the mists of time !

As I said rare, I know the GWR wouldn't have had any, but for the SR 30 years old is comfortably inside the 40 years life of a wagon. 

 

Paul

[hmrspaul]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Early 1880s or thereabouts.

But I don't know enough about the tens of thousands of wagons inherited by the GWR in 1923. Why does everyone only think of Swindon when they see GWR. [To answer my own question, because that is the impression Atkins et al give.)

 

Paul

Edited September 19, 2023 by hmrspaul

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, hmrspaul said:

But I don't know enough about the tens of thousands of wagons inherited by the GWR in 1923. Why does everyone only think of Swindon when they see GWR. [To answer my own question, because that is the impression Atkins et al give.)

 

Those are both valid points. In my case, simply because I inhabit a pre-grouping world, most of the time. 

 

Sometimes not, though:

 

 

I've given my BR-period Rapido D1666 a quick wash with grotty black, losing that pristine toy look. Here it is in company with a couple of wagons built from Cambrian kits: on the left, their D1666, intended as a posed wagon in a goods yard scene; on the right, their steel-framed D1667, still in LMS bauxite. How likely is that in 1955?

 

I also had a go at scrawking away at the inside of the top plank of the door on each side, to represent the barrow plank that, for reasons discussed earlier in this topic, Rapido have chosen not to attempt themselves:

 

 

i'm not sure how noticeable it is on the dear side; the quick lack-of-paint job on the inside makes it a bit more evident.

 

Apologies for the yellow cast to the photo.