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I don't think this has been mentioned before (if so I have missed it and apologise) but Harburn Hobbies have commissioned Rapido #967025, a limited edition 5-plank wagon in the livery of the Callendar Coal Co. Ltd. of Falkirk, which is now available. Details here: https://www.harburnhobbies.co.uk/acatalog/SPECIAL-EDITION-for-HARBURN-HOBBIES---Rapido-967025--Callendar-Coal-Company-Falkirk--10550.html#SID=147

Super, I can't resist a Grangemouth wagon. The roof walkway being of the wrong type is the most obvious issue, but these always benefit from replacement anyway.

Interesting. Sounds like there may just have been a handful for wagonload traffic. It would still be nice to know where they ran, and to find a picture to see how close the Bachmann representation is / judge what could be done to improve it. 60197 is preserved, but it will doubtless have been altered a bit since its days as a TTF: https://nationalwagonpresg.wixsite.com/home/about-1

Yes, but the Bachmann ones are supposedly vac braked and have an older type BP logo, and now that I look again they also lack hazchem markings which suggests late '70s. Hence my interest - I don't think I've ever seen pictures of green tankers in that time period. The first place I checked was your excellent website of course. Assuming that the models are prototypical I'm thinking they were either not very numerous or had a restricted area of operations.

It's bound to be in Fife. There was a lot of coal traffic north from Fife to Dundee and Aberdeen (which was the reason for O4s, then O1s and finally Austerity 2-8-0s being allocated to the former NBR system). I wondered if it was "Earl of Wemyss" but I'm not sure the spacing is right for that. (Edit - having said that it was bound to be Fife, on second thoughts it might have been Stirlingshire/Lanarkshire as that would have been more convenient for transport to Brechin on the CR)

Does anyone have information about the dates / operations of the prototypes for Bachmann's TTF tankers in BP Lubricants livery (37-590 and 590A)? I've not been able to find any photos, but the combination of TOPS numbers and vacuum brakes presumably means late-'70s to early-'80s. Presumably these would have operated from a specific plant and been less widespread than the more common grey or black oil tankers?

Pacers. An unknown species in Scotland, but common as soon as you crossed the border to Northumberland or Carlisle. Also class 31s and 56s which were exceptionally rare visitors to Scotland at the time (late '80s).

There has been discussion of the end hatches before, though it didn't lead to a definite conclusion: Sliding windows in the end of vans - UK Prototype Questions - RMweb I have read in a book that they were for loading, because prior to that I'd always assumed they were vents. Perhaps the book was wrong, and the square hatches on LNER vans were particularly small. However on the CR van there are both bonnet vents and these hatches, which seems odd if the hatches are just vents. The CR did have a lot of seasonal fruit & veg traffic so maybe merchandise vans got additional vents for that.

My assumption is that the goods were still loaded and unloaded through the main doors, but having a small hatch in opposite corners allowed long items to poke out the other side during that process, before being drawn back in. Thus the van could carry items the full length of its load space that otherwise could not fit through the side door. It seems like a good idea and obviously the LNER persisted with it, but the fact that it was not adopted as standard suggests that the hatches may not have been used much in practice.

I believe these were for loading long thin items which couldn't fit through the centre door.

I understand they may have used AB1952/1928, which is in working condition at the Doon Valley Railway. 965004 and 965007 appear to represent that locomotive.

The 1977 casting is not at all accurate. All LMS Period III corridor composites were 60' long, whereas the old Hornby composite scales at (about) 57' so as to share a chassis with the brake third (and has plenty of other problems, but being the wrong length is not fixable). Hornby could very usefully expand their carriage ranges to allow people to run accurate rakes, and the LMS composite is an obvious gap to fill. However it would need to be an all-new casting as other than the bogies and some small parts there would be no commonality with the 2005 models.

I agree that with the retooled Heljan 47 due soon there are bound to be some more 47s from Bachmann. Personally I’d like to see the IC Mainline liveried 47550 that Farish released a couple of years ago scaled up to OO. IC Mainline is a neglected livery – Bachmann did 47832 as a regional special but that had the earlier version of IC Mainline with the full yellow ends. Also hitherto neglected are the large logo Scottish Region 47s with their distinctive depot logos, domino headcodes and snowploughs, which is surprising given the enduring popularity of contemporary ScR large logo class 37 models.

Not sure when this came out, but not mentioned here yet: https://www.jaegerndorfer.at/katalog/9d897d742a~H0_Katalog_2024_ANSICHT_V15.pdf

Thanks all who replied. I think the message is clear that outwith urban settings the type of station layout I was hoping for is at best vanishingly rare, so it would be difficult for a model using such a layout to capture the character of a typical rural station. Back to the drawing board I think.