Dapol has received ‘first shots’ from the tooling for its all-new ‘OO’ gauge Powell and Duffryn JHA bogie aggregate hopper wagons for assessment by the company’s development team.
Built by Powell and Duffryn for Amey Roadstone Construction (ARC) in the early 1990s, these high capacity wagons were delivered in outer and inner configurations for use in semi-permanent aggregate train formations. The outer wagons featured traditional buffers at one end, while these were omitted at the other (inner) end, while inner wagons were bufferless at both ends.
Dapol’s wagons will reflect these differences with inner and outer wagons planned. Inner wagons will feature buckeye couplings at each end, while the outer wagons will include a buckeye at one end (inner) and small tension lock coupling in an NEM pocket at the other (outer) and will also feature a working end-of-train lamp, which will be digitally controllable through a 6-pin DCC decoder socket.
Following hand assembly of the first-shot components, any necessary amendments to the tooling will be made before factory-assembled prototype samples are produced.
Ten 'OO' gauge models are planned for the initial batch of releases which are set to appear in original ARC olive and grey and Hanson blue and grey (two outers and three inners per colour scheme).
Prices are set at £55 for inner wagons and £60 for outer wagons, with release currently slated for the second quarter of 2024.
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