Not-quite-Minks

[rapidoandy]

Rapido Trains UK is to offer modellers of pre-Grouping railway companies a ready-to-run vehicle, akin to the ‘generic’ four- and six-wheel coaches offered by other manufacturers… only this time, it’s a metal-bodied van.

 

The GWR pioneered the metal-bodied van, better known as the ‘Iron Mink’ and the basic design was adopted by not only private wagon builders but other railway companies. Other railways and builders would use what was essentially the ‘Iron Mink’ body but use underframes and fittings to their own design.

 

 

Sales & Marketing Manager Richard Foster said, “We thought we’d take advantage of the fact that the metal-bodied vans built by other railways were so similar to our GWR Diagram V6 ‘Iron Mink’ to offer ready-to-run vans to modellers of railway companies and private owner organisations where the pickings of RTR models are quite slim.

 

 

“We trust that modellers will overlook any slight prototypical inaccuracies in order to enjoy highly authentic and well-researched liveries on a beautiful looking and refined model.”

 

 

The order book for Rapido’s ‘Not-quite-Minks’ range is now open but modellers only have until April 28th 2023 to place their orders. Orders can be placed through Rapido UK stockists or direct on our website.

 

Pre-order here:

https://rapidotrains.co.uk/not-quite-minks/

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by rapidoandy

[NHY 581]

Great news and quite acceptable. I appreciate that the artwork, production etc is probably past the "advanced stage" but......

 

What about those used on the Bishops Castle Railway ? 

 

 

Rob.

[Compound2632]

52 minutes ago, rapidoandy said:

Rapido Trains UK is to offer modellers of pre-Grouping railway companies a ready-to-run vehicle, akin to the ‘generic’ four- and six-wheel coaches offered by other manufacturers… only this time, it’s a metal-bodied van.

 

Neatly argued!

[thetalkinlens]

Great news for this N.E.R. modeller!

[ossy5190]

Another excellent announcement!

 

Just an observation on the CR van (definitely not intended as a criticism). Caledonian Railway Wagons by Mike Williams lists the wagons as allocated to Stevenston rather than Stevenson. Not that that would put me off buying a couple.

[MarkSG]

There's one on there that really should have been left to1st April for the announcement. Or possibly held back until the 5th November.

[Buhar]

32 minutes ago, ossy5190 said:

Another excellent announcement!

 

Just an observation on the CR van (definitely not intended as a criticism). Caledonian Railway Wagons by Mike Williams lists the wagons as allocated to Stevenston rather than Stevenson. Not that that would put me off buying a couple.

The Nobel dynamite facility at Ardeer was better connected to the G&SWR but the Caley had a link from their spoiler line to Ardrossan harbour, the nearest station being Stevenston.

 

Alan 

[DavidH]

2 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

Great news and quite acceptable. I appreciate that the artwork, production etc is probably past the "advanced stage" but......

 

What about those used on the Bishops Castle Railway ? 

 

Rob.

 

There are so many of the Ratio van available second hand, it's dead cheap to modify them and repaint rather than cut up/modify a nice new Rapido Mink. The transfers are black anyway, so a sheet of transfer paper in the laser printer doesn't need any special inks. And they come in two colours - "stone" or "white" (plus rust and dirt), but we're not really sure when each colour was applied to which ones ... and because they were hand lettered, the transfers aren't ... quite ... any known font. So my transfers are something of a compromise.

But Rapido, if you do ... please do have a word with the Bishop's Castle Railway Society, keeper of the only remaining railway building in Bishop's Castle! I'm sure we can sell some, or even take a small donation for every model sold. Hint Hint :-)

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by DavidH

[Phil Bullock]

1 hour ago, MarkSG said:

There's one on there that really should have been left to1st April for the announcement. Or possibly held back until the 5th November.

And what a cracker it is!

[MarkSG]

44 minutes ago, Phil Bullock said:

And what a cracker it is!

 

Unfortunately, the 1907 design is a bit too late to be hauled by Rocket.

[Dungrange]

I note that the Notice on the door of the Great Northern version is a little different between model and prototype.  The model plate looks much squarer, while the prototype photograph on the Rapido website is much wider (almost the full width of the door that it is located on).  However, I agree that it otherwise looks close enough and there aren't a lot of G N liveried wagons out there!

[Compound2632]

19 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

I note that the Notice on the door of the Great Northern version is a little different between model and prototype.  The model plate looks much squarer, while the prototype photograph on the Rapido website is much wider (almost the full width of the door that it is located on).  However, I agree that it otherwise looks close enough and there aren't a lot of G N liveried wagons out there!

 

The notice plate on the NBR van differs a bit from the example in Tatlow, LNER Wagons Vol. 3, most noticeably in the layout of the wording. Rapido have used a common plate across all four gunpowder vans; it appears to most closely resemble this:

 

 

[Embedded link to catalogue image of Midland Railway Study Centre item 28493.]

 

This is reputed to be off a Midland gunpowder van.

 

I am hypothesising that around 1905 there was a session of the Locomotive Engineers and Carriage and Wagon Superintendents Committee at the RCH that agreed a specification for gunpowder vans, as many companies built rather similar-looking vans in the four or five years following. I am working my way through the minutes of that committee at the National Archives but I'm only up to 1899 and embroiled in eitherside brakes. The form of wording for the notice would form part of that specification, perhaps with a sketch.

 

I'll let you know...

Edited March 16, 2023 by Compound2632

[NHY 581]

Rapido's version.....

 

 

Rob

 

 

[298]

6 hours ago, DavidH said:

There are so many of the Ratio van available second hand, it's dead cheap to modify them and repaint rather than cut up/modify a nice new Rapido Mink. 

 

Unfortunately these aren't the days of spending your pocket money in Woolies on a Saturday on an Airfix kit, and the markets between buying RTR and doing your own kitbashes are quite separate.

 

I hope these don't end up being regarded in the same way as Hornby's Hull & Barnsley van, will Rapido be doing a KitKat liveried one?

[Jammy2305]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I am hypothesising that around 1905 there was a session of the Locomotive Engineers and Carriage and Wagon Superintendents Committee at the RCH that agreed a specification for gunpowder vans, as many companies built rather similar-looking vans in the four or five years following.

 

I am of the opinion/belief that the GER vans fall under a similar category, although my copy of Tatlow is packed away currently so I can't confirm/look into this further. They certainly seem similar enough...

 

- James

[Compound2632]

34 minutes ago, Jammy2305 said:

I am of the opinion/belief that the GER vans fall under a similar category, although my copy of Tatlow is packed away currently so I can't confirm/look into this further. They certainly seem similar enough...

 

Looked it up for you. There was a type built 1898-1905, not illustrated (10 extant in 1922) and a second type built 1909-14 (18 in 1922) which does indeed look very minkish. I notable local variation is the provision of steps , with the "notice" fixed lower down, at eye height to a man standing on the ground.

 

A version that I'm surprised Rapido haven't gone for is the LNWR Diagram 43A gunpowder van, which was pure mink apart from the axleboxes and was painted red. There were half-a-dozen of them. They've even been done RTR before:

 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by Compound2632

[AY Mod]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

A version that I'm surprised Rapido haven't gone for is the LNWR Diagram 43A gunpowder van,

 

I did ask Andy about LNWR vans and he said they hadn't found any close enough, maybe worth looking again for a future batch.

[chuffinghell]

22 hours ago, rapidoandy said:

…..We trust that modellers will overlook any slight prototypical inaccuracies…..

 

 

Could I be allowed to use the above statement when posting stuff on my own layout thread please? 🤪

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2023 by chuffinghell

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

I did ask Andy about LNWR vans and he said they hadn't found any close enough, maybe worth looking again for a future batch.

 

That is weird. LNWR Wagons Vol. 2 pp. 134-136. The very same Mike Lloyd drawing as is used in All About is reproduced! 

[Jammy2305]

36 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Looked it up for you. There was a type built 1898-1905, not illustrated (10 extant in 1922) and a second type built 1909-14 (18 in 1922) which does indeed look very minkish. I notable local variation is the provision of steps , with the "notice" fixed lower down, at eye height to a man standing on the ground.

 

You're a star! Thank you!

 

- James

[rapidoandy]

So the big problem with the LNWR vans is that the warning plate is moulded onto our doors and it falls right underneath the lettering (likewise the same van in LMS days). The result looks rather odd and we though would not go down well enough to warrant it in the range without re-tooling the door which we don’t want to do at this stage.

[Dungrange]

Ok, so that explains the difference between the warning plate on the model and the warning plate on the photograph that you've worked from.  I guess we just need to assume that the original plate fell off and was replaced by a different plate that matches the one you have modelled.  I'm sure such things happened. 🙂

[NHY 581]

6 hours ago, rapidoandy said:

So the big problem with the LNWR vans is that the warning plate is moulded onto our doors and it falls right underneath the lettering (likewise the same van in LMS days). The result looks rather odd and we though would not go down well enough to warrant it in the range without re-tooling the door which we don’t want to do at this stage.

 

 

And this is the trade off. The are a number of potential re-liveries available. There will be prototypical inaccuracies in respect of the tooling vs livery and we must be prepared to overlook that and accept these models for what they are. 

 

Either that or shuffle off and start chopping things about. 

 

As another example, the notice on the Cambrian van should be on the right hand door as you look at it, according to available photos.......but the model looks none the less utterly glorious for that. 

 

Rob

[Compound2632]

Perhaps it would have been better not to make the notice part of the body molding but just print it on... (I expect fewer people would have noticed than have noticed that the notice is wrong in each livery, except the Fawkes van, of course.)

Edited March 17, 2023 by Compound2632

[thetalkinlens]

On the N.E.R. example, the warning plate is on the left door on the model, but the photo in the NERA archives it is on the right door.

 

I was going to ask if that was intentional, but going on the last few posts can see the reason. I'd much rather have the van available as advertised than not at all.