Rapido N Gauge OAA open wagon

[BernardTPM]

On 26/11/2022 at 13:28, John M Upton said:

Farish do/did do an OAA but it is a very ancient Poole Era tooling and hasn't been produced for many years now, the OBA and OCA are to modern standards but they never went back and added a new OAA despite already having a chassis.

The OBA/OCA chassis would not be suitable for an OAA as they are different lengths over headstocks and with different brake arrangements, despite having the same wheelbase, so they would have had to start from scratch like Rapido. As I did have a hand in the original Farish OAA/VAA design I did ensure that the chassis was correctly dimensioned and detailed as far as they were willing to go at that time and without excessive coupling distances between vehicles, certainly compared to their standard chassis at that time. But that was over 30 years ago!

 

The same basic chassis would be suitable for SAA, VAA, VBA and VCA (and the vacuum piped *-*-B sub variants) and any of the later rebuilds from any of the above, such as the Russell coal container flats, Sea Urchins, mesh-sided etc.

Edited December 26, 2022 by BernardTPM

[Benn]

On 23/12/2022 at 10:40, Crepello said:

Don’t worry, all my stock has easi-shunts or nemcoups and nothing got broken.

 

The pocket shouldn't really be sticking out beyond the end of the wagon, though. It won't be doing the wagon any favours visually, and there doesn't appear to be any need for such an arrangement.

[Ed-farms]

According to their Facebook post the OAA's are here and passed QC control. I have had payment taken by Rainbow Railways for the Corpach set so looking forward to seeing these

[westie7]

As I'm only after a few of mixed liveries, tempted to get a few packs and split them if anyone else is thinking similarly 

 

Cheers Mark 

[Crepello]

2 hours ago, westie7 said:

As I'm only after a few of mixed liveries, tempted to get a few packs and split them if anyone else is thinking similarly 

 

Cheers Mark 

I’ve ordered a triple pack of the freight brown with yellow spot. If you’re interested in one or two, let me know.

[Steadfast]

The OAAs do look nice, but are out of era for me as sadly the wooden door OAAs had gone by my modelling period. From talking to Rapido on several occasions it sounds like the mesh sides, which ran for nearly 25 years, are unlikely to appear.

So, do I get a set for conversion opportunity? I'd love a load of these to tack on the back of Mendip hoppers, but that may be a bit too much of an involved project, but one or two for use on ballast trains may be achievable.

And of course other conversion to other types that shared the same running gear are possible too hopefully.

 

Jo

Edited October 12 by Steadfast

[westie7]

6 hours ago, Steadfast said:

The OAAs do look nice, but are out of era for me as sadly the wooden door OAAs had gone by my modelling period. From talking to Rapido on several occasions it sounds like the mesh sides, which ran for nearly 25 years, are unlikely to appear.

So, do I get a set for conversion opportunity? I'd love a load of these to tack on the back of Mendip hoppers, but that may be a bit too much of an involved project, but one or two for use on ballast trains may be achievable.

And of course other conversion to other types that shared the same running gear are possible too hopefully.

 

Jo

 

So when you were talking to Rapido, did you get any idea of whether the chassis would be used for anything else .. like FPA?

 

Or is it chop chop time 

 

🤣

Mark 

[Steadfast]

3 hours ago, westie7 said:

 

So when you were talking to Rapido, did you get any idea of whether the chassis would be used for anything else .. like FPA?

 

Or is it chop chop time 

 

🤣

Mark 

Pass, only OAAs I was interested in at the time I'm afraid

 

Jo

[Steadfast]

I'm just going to leave this little YouTube link here for the mesh enthusiasts. 

It just looks so wrong! We have 59s and Mendip wagons in both major scales, these would set them off a treat. The mesh sided OAAs ran from 1999 to 2023 in various traffics. Mendip use ended in the mid 2010s, but the use on ballast workings lasted right until the end in 2023. They also worked out of Peak Forest, on concrete blocks similar to the Merehead work.

 

Jo

 

Edited October 12 by Steadfast

[Steven B]

I'm hoping Rapido get the ABN/Speedlink bug and follow these with some matching vans. VA, VB and VD varieties would be rather nice. Then there's the OTA...

 

Steven B

[Ed-farms]

If they made an OTA I would be a happy man,  I do have  couple of Chivers OTA's to build so maybe I should get them done to encourage them

[Crepello]

The OAAs are lovely.Maybe a bit glossy but highly detailed and they run well. Unfortunately one of mine has lost a buffer somewhere. It would be nice to hear from Rapido on the availability of spares.

[Jim Martin]

3 hours ago, Ed-farms said:

If they made an OTA I would be a happy man,  I do have  couple of Chivers OTA's to build so maybe I should get them done to encourage them

Come on, you know the rules: no RTR until after you've finished building the kits.

[Steven B]

I've built the Chivers kit and converted a TPM VDA but still no RTR OTA. I guess I've not done enough of them (it took 30 Cawood PFA before Revolution did their version!)...

 

 

Steven B

[Jim Martin]

On 15/10/2024 at 12:51, Steven B said:

I've built the Chivers kit and converted a TPM VDA but still no RTR OTA. I guess I've not done enough of them (it took 30 Cawood PFA before Revolution did their version!)...

 

 

Steven B

That's the spirit!

[bluedepot]

they run very nicely (esp for a fairly long wheelbase wagon in n gauge)

 

decent weight and free running

 

I've tested mine out just now and no derailments or uncoupling 

 

 

https://youtu.be/4lYcHF-UjBc?si=9xEGYJ_vlmTnEGOb

[03060]

Corpach set ordered from Rainbow Railways, others may follow if cashflow allows.

[Steven B]

Where did the loaded Corpach ones run from?

 

Steven B

[03060]

20 hours ago, Steven B said:

Where did the loaded Corpach ones run from?

 

Steven B

Not sure off the top of my head Stephen, I'll look in the Speedlink and train formations books in the morning (wife's in the way of me getting to them now 🙄) but I think that there were at least two different flows to and from Corpach, one for bales of pulp in and one for paper out which resulted in both Northbound and Southbound trains whilst on the WHL sometimes containing both loaded and empty OAAs in the same train which puzzled me for a good while, especially as the sheeted loads looked similar shapes.

 

Presumably the Northbound loaded wagons contained the very square looking sheeted pulp bales imported via the docks at Methill and the empty wagons were returning from having delivered the paper produced by the mill, with the opposite happening on the Southbound trains.

 

Other wagons such as OBAs and OCAs could also be used on these workings and then to further confuse matters they were also all used for the Aluminium block traffic from the Alcan works as well.

 

I'll try and find some photos to illustrate this and somewhere I've seen wagon load tickets from these wagon flows and it's been discussed on another thread. 🤔

 

Regards,

Ian.

 

David Larkin's Speedlink vol.1 p.120 has a Corpach lettered wagon at Bury St. Edmunds in 1984 if that helps.

 

David Ratcliffe's BR Air Braked Wagons p.7 comments "However, they (OAAs) were most associated with newsprint traffic to customers in Bristol, Cardiff and London."

 

Pensnett (?) and Wolverton are also mentioned as destinations for Corpach's paper in Freight Only vol.3 (Michael Rhodes and Paul Shannon.)

 

 

Edited Friday at 08:16 by 03060
Info added.

[Stuart A]

I wanted to buy a couple of ex TPM VDA conversion kits from the NGS at TINGS but was told they're not avaialble as they were being reviewed, and there was a new chassis being developed or sourced for it

[Crepello]

I’m assuming that Rapido launched the OAA with the plan to produce common-chassis air-braked vans in future. I’ll be looking for an announcement in their next newsletter!

[Steven B]

I think the VAA and VBA could make use of the OAA chassis, although the mounts for the suspension links are s little different. The majority of the VDA were very different so would need a new chassis anyway.

 

Having had a closer look at mine, are these the first N Gauge wagons with brake discs depicted on the inside faces of the wheels as well as the outside?

 

Steven B

[Hamm 69]

I'm patiently waiting on my raifreight three pack and bauxite yellow spots being delivered from a we'll known weathering shop but seeing we're on the discussion of speed link I would hope that rapido do the redland livery versions that ran with roof tiles from Stirling to Gateshead old shop sidings distribution yard. Ran in a rake of five but would go for the twelve,six loaded six empty. The you tube video has also gave me a #1 thinking.as odd as it might look the redland oaa would look good behind my redland pga's

[Crepello]

21 hours ago, Steven B said:

I think the VAA and VBA could make use of the OAA chassis, although the mounts for the suspension links are s little different. The majority of the VDA were very different so would need a new chassis anyway.

 

Having had a closer look at mine, are these the first N Gauge wagons with brake discs depicted on the inside faces of the wheels as well as the outside?

 

Steven B

I hadn’t noticed that! I think they must be.

[bluedepot]

do the sides bow in very slightly?