Sonic Models Announce N Gauge Vanwide Triple Packs

[montyburns56]

I'm surprised that there isn't already a thread about this, so.....

 

Sonic Models have today announced their next N Gauge range, the BR 12T Vanwide Ventilated Vans Triple Packs

Available to pre order now for £69.95 each

£10.00 deposit required at checkout to secure yours

Exclusively from Rails of Sheffield

The eight triple packs include seven Vanwide packs plus one VEA.

 

A variety of liveries to be released such BR Bauxite, BR Departmental Olive Green VQV, BR Freight Brown VEV and BR Railfreight Red/Grey. Take a look at some early sample images in this email along with the artwork.

 

https://railsofsheffield.com/collections/n-gauge-vanwide-van-sets

 

[Flying Pig]

Looks very promising.  Can someone untangle the dates during which the various BR brown liveries were being applied to Vanwides, please?  I'm aware of course that wagon liveries overlapped due to long intervals between repainting.  That being so, wouldn't some mixed sets to suit various eras be good idea?

[Glencoe Model Railway]

I believe these were originally released a couple of years back and sold through the guys at Revolution Trains. I missed out on the red/grey ones so this announcement is most welcome. A triple pack suitably ordered. 

[Revolution Ben]

1 hour ago, Glencoe Model Railway said:

I believe these were originally released a couple of years back and sold through the guys at Revolution Trains. I missed out on the red/grey ones so this announcement is most welcome. A triple pack suitably ordered. 

 

Hi there,

 

For clarity, Revolution assisted with the first Sonic model, which was the air-braked VEA, which represented the converted wagons post (I think) 1978.  

 

This release does include some of the long sold-out Railfreight red/grey VEAs but is predominantly of the original vacuum braked vanwides, which have not been available before now.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Nile]

So same body on a new chassis?

[Steven B]

Yes. When originally built in around 1961 they had vacuum brakes and plain bearings. The VEA rebuilds from 1977 had air brakes, roller bearings and FAT 19 suspension allowing operation at up to 75mph. 

 

Prior to the full rebuild, several hundred of the vac' braked vans had their plain bearings replaced with roller bearings at the behest of the MoD (TOPS VEV). This meant they could be used for explosives traffic without having to have the bearings inspected every time they were loaded. Interestingly, Sonic/Rails's art work for the VEV shows plain bearings which I believe are incorrect for that code.

 

More history here:

https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/br-vanwide-and-vea-wagon-story

 

What's slightly disappointing is that the models within each triple pack are copy and paste as far as livery detail is concerned. Only the wagon numbers are being changed. On the original VEA releases there were several different variations on each livery with variations in text locations etc. Without this variation and given the text size, Sonic might as well just produce a single wagon number in each pack.

 

 

The vacuum braked version hasn't been available RTR before - a kit version was made by Parkside and is now owned and produced by the NGS.

 

Steven B.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Steven B

[JSpencer]

7 minutes ago, Steven B said:

What's slightly disappointing is that the models within each triple pack are copy and paste as far as livery detail is concerned. Only the wagon numbers are being changed. On the original VEA releases there were several different variations on each livery with variations in text locations etc. Without this variation and given the text size, Sonic might as well just produce a single wagon number in each pack.

 

 

It would doubtless be more complex and expensive to mix up different liveries in different packs. Equally most people wanting a matching rake would need more sets to get that rake, where as someone wishing to mix can do so on 2 sets.

In anycase one can always swap with different friends. Perhaps the only slight issue, is that there is only one RF red set....

As for different running numbers, this has now fortunately become the norm. Granted in N you probably need a good magnifying glass, but better with unique numbers than them all being the same.

 

[scottystitch]

For one, I'm very happy with triple packs of the same livery, suits me just fine. That said, Steven makes a good point about variations of the same livery in packs.

 

Best

 

Scott.

[Steven B]

I can understand not mixing the different eras within a single triple pack; It's that the wagons are identical apart from the running number that's most frustrating me, particularly comparing them to the initial release of the VEA.

 

Compare images for the first release:

https://www.hattons.co.uk/directory/versiondetails/5003/sonic_models_n_vea_vanwide_van?instock=true&onorder=true&soldout=true

 

Each wagon is slightly different - for example, there's different styles of Railfreight logo, white on black vs white on body colour TOPS panels and different location of depot logos.

 

These changes are much more noticeable than a different running number.

 

 

Steven B

[Flying Pig]

Well, I seem to have been posting in invisible ink, so I'll repeat meself.  Given that these vehicles were build rather late for traditional vehicles, it isn't obvious to me what liveries they would typically have carried at different periods.  The modeller's notion of matching rakes as mentioned above is a fiction for many types of wagon over most of their working lives and possibly particularly so for ones built close to and possibly overlapping a change of livery style.

 

So, can anyone say what combinations of liveries would have been seen on these wagons in say 1967, 1973 and 1979?

[John M Upton]

I managed to get hold of just one VEA from the first release and have been very pleased with it, nestling in among my NGS kits built ones and warmed over ye ancient tooling Farish VAA's.  I shall get some more!!

[bluedepot]

I would buy one or two of each from vev, vmv, bauxite late (with vanwide label), olive zqv...

 

the departmental one for the engineers.

 

the others just to add in when I run a late 70s or early 80s mixed vacuum braked train.

 

I hope rails take the feedback onboard and offer some wagons as singles.  i mean they are n gauge vans, they only need a very tiny box to put them in for posting out. doesn't seem that complicated to do.  peco are managing it with their vanfit.  farish manage it with their 4 wheel vans.

 

 

tim

 

[RichardT]

2 hours ago, bluedepot said:

i mean they are n gauge vans, they only need a very tiny box to put them in for posting out. doesn't seem that complicated to do.

Hmmm.  So “all” Rails have to do is break up the pre-packed triple packs, find new small boxes to put the loose vans in, then send them out individually? With all that extra labour (by far the most expensive part of any process nowadays) I suspect you’ll end up paying as much for a single van as for a triple.  I’d suggest just swapping vans with fellow modellers through an advert on here, in the NGS newsletter, on the Ngauge Forum or at your local club if you have one. Or repaint the liveries you don’t want.

 

Richard

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by RichardT
Spelling

[D9020 Nimbus]

I think he means that Rails should have had single wagons as well as triples to sell—not to break up existing triple sets. These are exclusive to Rails, so I assume it is their decision rather than Sonic's to offer only triples.

[csiedmo]

Rails seem very fond of packaging their second hand stock into rakes (a bit annoying when you’re after an individual item) so not the biggest surprise that they’re doing it with new items too. I do like that the triple packs are offered but it would be nice to have singles available as well for those who want them, just as Farish do with their steel minerals these days. 

[D9020 Nimbus]

The rakes are even worse as you often have several identical wagons grouped together. Rails have lost a lot of sales to me due to that policy.

[csiedmo]

On 08/12/2023 at 14:59, Flying Pig said:

Well, I seem to have been posting in invisible ink, so I'll repeat meself.  Given that these vehicles were build rather late for traditional vehicles, it isn't obvious to me what liveries they would typically have carried at different periods.  The modeller's notion of matching rakes as mentioned above is a fiction for many types of wagon over most of their working lives and possibly particularly so for ones built close to and possibly overlapping a change of livery style.

 

So, can anyone say what combinations of liveries would have been seen on these wagons in say 1967, 1973 and 1979?

 

Here's some vague answers to your very reasonable questions.

S2301-01 original condition, so 1962 onwards. Probably quite a lot still like this up to receiving TOPS codes.

S2301-02 original condition with Earle's cement labelling. Was Earle's cement based in Hull? 

S2301-03 boxed lettering, so 1964 onwards, but you'd fancy with them being so new at that time, that the boxed letting wouldn't be applied early-on to many vehicles.

S2301-04 original condition but with yellow marker (I've forgotten what that is). Don't know when they started being added but there's a 1968 photo of B784290 with the marker.

S2301-05/6/7 with TOPS codes so about 1974 onwards?

S2301-08 railfreight so about 1984 onwards? 

 

Cheers,

Ed

 

 

[hmrspaul]

32 minutes ago, csiedmo said:

 

 

S2301-03 boxed lettering, so 1964 onwards, but you'd fancy with them being so new at that time, that the boxed letting wouldn't be applied early-on to many vehicles.

 

 

Cheers,

Ed

Good comments. Few of my photos show the boxed style of lettering even in those surviving into the 1980s (remembering 550 had been taken for the VEA programme)

 

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brvanwide

 

Paul

[scottystitch]

51 minutes ago, csiedmo said:

 

 

S2301-02 original condition with Earle's cement labelling. Was Earle's cement based in Hull? 

 

 

Cheers,

Ed

 

 

I was assuming so, yes.  

 

https://images.historicenglandservices.org.uk/historic-images/aerofilms-collection-1919-2006/earles-cement-works-epw010839-4577703.html

 

This link shows the railway connection, to a large extent:

 

https://www.cementkilns.co.uk/cement_kiln_wilmington.html

 

Best

 

Scott.

Edited December 11, 2023 by scottystitch

[Steven B]

23 hours ago, csiedmo said:

S2301-04 original condition but with yellow marker (I've forgotten what that is).

 

The yellow marker shows the wagon is "circuit working" - i.e. on a dedicated out and back working, usually on a predefined route. 

 

 

Steven B

[Flying Pig]

On 11/12/2023 at 13:54, csiedmo said:

 

Here's some vague answers to your very reasonable questions.

S2301-01 original condition, so 1962 onwards. Probably quite a lot still like this up to receiving TOPS codes.

S2301-02 original condition with Earle's cement labelling. Was Earle's cement based in Hull? 

S2301-03 boxed lettering, so 1964 onwards, but you'd fancy with them being so new at that time, that the boxed letting wouldn't be applied early-on to many vehicles.

S2301-04 original condition but with yellow marker (I've forgotten what that is). Don't know when they started being added but there's a 1968 photo of B784290 with the marker.

S2301-05/6/7 with TOPS codes so about 1974 onwards?

S2301-08 railfreight so about 1984 onwards? 

 

Cheers,

Ed

 

 

 

Thank you - that's a great help.  The following article expand on the history of the type (I hope it is available free for you as it was for me - I am not a subscriber) :

 

https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/br-vanwide-and-vea-wagon-story

 

I note that there are no general use vehicles in the later liveries: pack 05 (VMV) and 06 (VEV) are both coded for MOD use, whereas the standard code was VWV.  VEV should have roller bearings (the middle sample shown in the OP does, but the underframe appears to be the mode extensively rebuilt VEA type).  I have no idea how strictly vans were kept to designated traffic, or how widespread MOD traffic was, so this may not be a serious restriction to modellers of the TOPS era.

 

As to mixed packs, Revolution did a mixed pack of United Molasses liveries for their 35t tankers.

[Crepello]

Thanks to Paul’s photos we can see they had Oleo buffers. Silver shanks may need to be applied.