| Home | Products | Links | Ordering | Contact Us |
Prototype History
Shock absorbing wagons were first built by the pre-nationalisation railway companies and British Railways continued to build them to its own designs, as represented by this kit. Certain fragile goods such as glass and bricks were susceptible to damage during shunting. The wagon body was connected to the chassis by means of springs on the outside of the solebars thus absorbing more of the 'shock' of rough shunting than just the buffers.
The Kit
The kit consists of a pair of plastic sprues which make up the floor, sides and ends, as well as the vacuum cylinder, and the trapezoid shapes for the sheet rail. The sheet rail itself is formed from a piece of brass wire (included) and can be modelled in the 'up' position or the 'down' position. Pre-cut pieces of plastic strip are included to fill the chassis over the coupling and to represent the cover over the spring on the solebar. The model rides on the proven Peco NR-121 10ft WB Chassis (steel type solebars) which requires slight modification.
The kit can be purchased with transfers to suit either the 1948-1964 period (early bauxite) or the later post-1964 period (late bauxite) or without transfers at all.
The sprues can be purchased on their own (without the brass wire, transfers, plastic strip and instructions) for those finescale modellers who wish to build their own chassis.
