Hornby has filled a prominent gap in the market with its new ‘OO’ gauge wagons. TIM SHACKLETON checks over the fine detail.
Coke is a very bulky mineral for its weight and was usually transported in wagons that, for a similar payload, were significantly larger than equivalent coal-carrying designs.
New in from Hornby are these fine models of the London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) built vehicles and the follow-up BR diagram 1/151 vehicles for ‘OO’ gauge. Both were announced in Hornby’s 2016 range.
The LMS wagons seen here represent a batch of 200 coke hoppers built by the company in the 1930s. The design was based on an earlier type of private owner wagon that was operated in limited numbers by industrial concerns such as United Steel. The LMS design was perpetuated by BR with a batch of 400 near-identical wagons delivered in 1949 to Diagram 1/150.
Hornby’s supremely accurate bodyshell for the LMS wagons correctly captures the distinguishing feature of these early coke hoppers – one-piece lower bodysides. Wagons from the second batch of 1/150 wagons entering service in 1950 had two-piece sides with a riveted cover plate at the centre join line, but were otherwise very s…
