GWR ‘MINK A’ AND OPEN WAGONS FROM RAPIDO

With Rapido’s GWR ‘Iron Minks’ and four-plank open wagons due to arrive imminently, Rapido has now also announced more GWR wagons for ‘OO’, in the form of the Diagram O11/O15 five-plank opens and the Dia. V14/V16 ‘Mink A’ vans.

The GWR added a fifth plank to its existing open wagon design in 1902, leading to the five-plank version becoming a ‘standard’ general freight open, examples of which continued to be built into the 1940s. Both the Dia. O11s and O15s were introduced in 1911 and were virtually identical, with a capacity of 10T riding on a 16ft underframe with GWR self-contained buffers. However, the Dia. O15 differed by being equipped with vacuum brakes.

The GWR built 10,815 Dia. O11s between 1911-1919 and 2,105 Dia. O15s up to 1922, with examples lasting well into BR days; several have made it into preservation.

It’s often forgotten that the GWR built thousands of wooden-bodied ‘Mink’ vans from 1892. The ‘V14’ and ‘V16’ designs were virtually identical and were both introduced in 1912, with construction continuing into the 1920s. They shared the same body, underframe, ‘W’ irons and axleboxes. The key difference was that the ‘V14’ had vacuum brakes whereas the ‘V16’ was unfitted. Over 8,000 of these wagons were built in total.

The open wagons will feature full external and underframe details, along with optional parts to fit the Williams patent sheet supporter rail, while the ‘Mink As’ will be offered with spoked or disc wheels, long or short rain strips and horizontal or vertical planked doors.

Liveries and running numbers have yet to be confirmed but Rapido plans to open the order book – and begin tooling work – soon.