BR Dia. 1/227 'VIX' Ferry Van

[Dan Griffin]

3 hours ago, jonhall said:

 

Were any of those 3 built by Pressed Steel? The Ashford D plates have the number prefixed with GB78xxxx rather than the usual Bxxxxxx, and I wondered what the PS ones have?

 

Thanks

 

Jon

One set of plates i have start with GB the others are B. I’ll post a pic later

[JSpencer]

I just placed an order for a pair of these. 1 in Bauxite and another in RF International red/grey.

 

I have to say that these are VERY welcome having waited so many years for them. Earlier this year I did contemplate getting another Hornby one to replace the well worn 1990s (UK make) version but as there were NO major improvements (even the couplings looked to be the monster old ones), I could not be motivated to buy one.

 

But the Rapido versions.... As Andy said "Oooooh". So in with an order for a pair.

 

I hate to say it, but this shows one area where Hornby are going wrong. Digging out tools that date from Triang-Hornby days are re-releasing them. Maybe Ok for newcomers and railroad.... but their VIX is seriously obsolete for me. And "BIM" Rapido strike another blow against Hornby doing an all new version.

 

Well with 4 our of 12 new models announced so far in 2 months.... I wonder what the remainder will be...... 

[Dan Griffin]

9 hours ago, jonhall said:

 

Were any of those 3 built by Pressed Steel? The Ashford D plates have the number prefixed with GB78xxxx rather than the usual Bxxxxxx, and I wondered what the PS ones have?

 

Thanks

 

Jon

Jon,

 

here are a couple of my plates. One is GB and the other B. The third one is at dads. 

 

this has been weld repaired at some point in the past. And this one has a higher tonnage than the Pressed steel version below. 

 

 

this is a favourite one of mine  as its the van Hornby made it the state it was in, whilst it was in the yard. 
 

regards

 

Dan

Edited February 27, 2022 by Dan Griffin

[Waveydavey]

I notice that on the photos at the start of this thread that there are no strengthening flanges (or whatever they are called) on the two ribs on the van end. Every VIX I've ever looked at has them so I'm wondering if they are going to be a separately added part that hadn't been added when the photos were taken.

[rapidoandy]

1 hour ago, Waveydavey said:

I notice that on the photos at the start of this thread that there are no strengthening flanges (or whatever they are called) on the two ribs on the van end. Every VIX I've ever looked at has them so I'm wondering if they are going to be a separately added part that hadn't been added when the photos were taken.

 

We are tooling up both types as they changed at some point in time. I will ask the project manager but as I understand it both the straight and flared type will be produced as correct for the liver/number.

 

Thanks

 

Andy 

[Porcy Mane]

Nice buffers!

 

P

[drjcontroller]

Further to my previous post, I have now heard from Rapido who have confirmed the axles measure 25.7mm from point to point.

Hope that's of use.

 

Douglas

[The Stationmaster]

On 28/02/2022 at 11:40, Porcy Mane said:

Nice buffers!

 

P

Continental innit, gotta maintain the Berne Rectangle otherwise them foreign folk over the Channel won't be happy.

[Covkid]

A question which maybe Mark Saunders or Paul Bartlett might be able to answer.  I see to recall some Jugoslavian ferryvans over here in the UK which look quite similar to these vans but with angular roofs.  Is that a rather dodgy memory or a fertile mind, or was there such a beastie ?  Obviously dimensions would have been pretty similar to fit the UK loading gauge.  

[Fat Controller]

46 minutes ago, Covkid said:

A question which maybe Mark Saunders or Paul Bartlett might be able to answer.  I see to recall some Jugoslavian ferryvans over here in the UK which look quite similar to these vans but with angular roofs.  Is that a rather dodgy memory or a fertile mind, or was there such a beastie ?  Obviously dimensions would have been pretty similar to fit the UK loading gauge.  

There were some German wagons which had sliding doors, an angular sliding roof (and end doors, I believe)These were still around in the 1980s.

There was a Belgian type that had a roller-shutter flat roof., and lasted into the 1980s. 

An older 'angular' type was of an earlier generation, with an apex roof, and was built as both ordinary and insulated vans; these were operated by FS (Italy), and lasted into the 1970s

The only JZ examples I've seen were similar in design to the VIX, and were carrying humanitarian supplies to Bosnia.

Books worth seeking out are:-

'International Train Ferry Wagons in Colour' by David Ratcliffe

'Non-Pool Freight Stock 1948-68, Volumes 1 and 2' by David Larkin; this has some nice views of older types.

[Mark Saunders]

The only Yugoslavian van I recall were similar to the BR ones! It appears to be pretty much a European design wit variations.

[jonhall]

The BR VIX is a 'UIC ORE Type 3 van' and a number of administrations had vans with all the same principle dimensions, although they all had differences as well.

 

The UIC ORE was a standards group a bit like the Railway Clearing House, but obviously for European standard wagon types.

 

Jon 

[hmrspaul]

On 10/03/2022 at 15:50, Covkid said:

A question which maybe Mark Saunders or Paul Bartlett might be able to answer.  I see to recall some Jugoslavian ferryvans over here in the UK which look quite similar to these vans but with angular roofs.  Is that a rather dodgy memory or a fertile mind, or was there such a beastie ?  Obviously dimensions would have been pretty similar to fit the UK loading gauge.  

As mentioned there were thousands of these vans passed for ferry use registered by various Continental administrations. There may well have been pitch roofed vans from Yugoslavia in earlier years - Italy operated many - but in later years there were two distinctive Yugoslav vans, a long one similar to the BR version  https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/ferryyugoslavianvan . But, they also had a nice short one, unlike most other administrations at that time https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/ferryyugoslavianvan/ef46a5b4f  In O gauge the Lima ferry van can be modified to make a reasonable representation of these - as shown on the GoG Forum. 

 

Paul Bartlett

[Dogmatix]

Wouldn't mind some of these in H0. There are some ferry wagons around in H0, but no British ones that I know of.

[Banger Blue]

On 26/02/2022 at 19:31, montyburns56 said:

If any retailer wants to commission a limited edition....

 

 

By nigelmenzies

 

A certain company from Margate must have seen your post (doesn't appear to be a limited edition though):

 

https://uk.Hornby.com/products/br-ferry-van-2140144-3-era-7-r60113

 

Apologies if it's bad form to post a competitors products on a manufacturer specific part of the forum! 😬 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Banger Blue

[69843]

Whilst looking for something completely unrelated, I came across some photos of the lengthy test trains.

So who's going to pony up and do a test train? 🙂

http://www.traintesting.com/freight_wagon_testing.htm

[montyburns56]

14 hours ago, Banger Blue said:

 

A certain company from Margate must have seen your post (doesn't appear to be a limited edition though):

 

https://uk.Hornby.com/products/br-ferry-van-2140144-3-era-7-r60113

 

Apologies if it's bad form to post a competitors products on a manufacturer specific part of the forum! 😬 

 

 

Wow, £30 for a 50 year old model!

[russ p]

1 hour ago, montyburns56 said:

 

Wow, £30 for a 50 year old model!

Looks like it still has triang type couplings too 

[CUCKOO LINE]

Recent previous version was £21.99  !!!

 

 

[Zero Gravitas]

This is still bad form, but have you read Hornby’s description on their web site:

 

“Supplying vital loads of cargo for many hundreds of steam locomotives, the Ferry Van Wagon is a practically universal feature of the railway, part of the scenery as surely as the sight of a station or a locomotive”

 

which is interesting, to say the least...

[Enterprisingwestern]

17 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

 

Wow, £30 for a 50 year old model!

 

Where?? Where??

Oh, sorry, not that sort of model!

 

Mike.

[JSpencer]

In their latest news letter, Rapido have resorted to puppie appeal in the hopes sell these. They don't appear as popular as hoped.

 

A surprise maybe, but equally not a wagon people buy in rakes. All I can is, come on. No need for the old Hornby model with these cute puppies on the way.

[Darius43]

On 10/04/2022 at 07:38, Zero Gravitas said:

“Supplying vital loads of cargo for many hundreds of steam locomotives, the Ferry Van Wagon is a practically universal feature of the railway, part of the scenery as surely as the sight of a station or a locomotive”

Reads like the sort of gobbledygook that a sub-par “creative writing” software package would spit out.  That or ITV’s automatic subtitle machine…

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

 

[John M Upton]

I don't know why but I have always had a soft spot for the old Ferry Wagons.  Only one I ever managed to photograph was a tatty Satlink liveried one at Horsham about 1994 on my ancient Kodak Instamatic:

 

EDIT - Is that another one to the right there?

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by John M Upton

[roythebus1]

17 hours ago, Darius43 said:

Reads like the sort of gobbledygook that a sub-par “creative writing” software package would spit out.  That or ITV’s automatic subtitle machine…

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

 

The DB had ferry wagons that were used for railway spares provision between German and Crewe Works. I've seen photos of them many years ago but couldn't tell you what type they were. They may have been "standard" DB vans but were certainly labelled to work to Crewe Works. Maybe someone else can remember?