MULLETS COMING BACK INTO STYLE!

Revolution Trains is offering BR’S distinctive ‘fishbelly’ Borail wagons, and their air-braked engineer’s derivatives, the Mullet, Parr and Super Tench, as its next wagons in both ‘00’ and ‘N’.

Dating from 1959, British Railways built a total of 165 flat wagons – some with bolsters (Borail B) and some without (Borail C) – for carrying concrete beams, girders, rail and other heavy loads. The wagons had 8ft plate bogies, vacuum brakes and solid fishbelly underframes, rather than traditional trusses, for strength.

The wagons were exceptionally useful and, in 1981, most of the fleet was rebuilt with air brakes, new Y25 bogies, revised decks with tensioning ratchets and recoded BRA under TOPS.

After a short period on steel traffic in the Speedlink network, most were transferred to the Civil Engineers Department and given new TOPS codes and ‘fishkind’ names YLA Mullet (with bolsters) and YQA Parr (with longitudinal baulks for sleepers).

In 2010, some YQA Parr wagons were refurbished and fitted with ISO modules with drop-down mesh side doors. They retained the YQA code, but were renamed Super Tench. Many remain in service in 2021, 60 years after they were built.

Revolution’s models will feature NEM couplers, the manufacturer’s usual levels of accuracy with prototypical variations in bogies and brake equipment and numerous separate wire, plastic and photo-etched parts where appropriate.

All versions will be available to pre-order via the Revolution website for a limited time at a lower, early bird price, which will increase in due course. CAD work is complete and first samples are due shortly. The models are expected to be ready to ship in Q1-2 2022.

Web: www.revolutiontrains.com