'OO' TUA Caustic Soda tank next for Revolution
Revolution Trains has revealed that its next ‘OO’ gauge project will be a TU013A TUA caustic soda tank wagon for ‘OO’. The manufacturer is teaming up with Rainbow Railways for this latest ‘OO’ gauge model, with 21 different models planned.
Introduced in the late 1970s, 28 TUA wagons were built by Standard Wagon of Heywood for TRL, who subsequently leased them to ICI for use on caustic soda traffic radiating from their Mond works in Cheshire. They featured dark blue painted barrels with orange solebars and TRL/ICI ‘Mond Division’ branding.
In later life, the ICI branding was painted over with some receiving ATO Chemicals branding, while 12 were reallocated to china clay slurry traffic in the late 1980s between Burngullow in Cornwall and Aberdeen. These wagons also gained English China Clays (ECC) branded blue livery.
Revolution Trains’ all-new model of the TUA is at an advanced stage of development, with CAD work complete and tooling due to get underway during June. Models will feature a wealth of separately applied plastic and photo-etched parts, RP25 wheelsets, small tension lock couplers in NEM pockets and will be designed for simple EM/P4 conversion.
Available exclusively through Rainbow Railways, there will be 11 differently numbered models in original ICI livery, four in original livery but with ATO Chemicals branding, four in ECC blue and two in debranded china clay form.
Prices have been set at £35 each for early-bird pre-orders, rising to £40 each in due course.
Visit www.revolutiontrains.com and www.rainbowrailways.co.uk for more information.