GNR 8-Ton Covered Vans

[rapidoandy]

 

Designed and built by the Great Northern Railway, the 8-Ton van was conceived as a multi-purpose express covered goods vehicle and was subsequently constructed in numerous variants to accommodate more specialised traffic.

 

Introduced in the early 1900s, they were produced in 4 body styles: non-vented, end and roof vented, end-vent only and roof-vent only versions. The vans were built on a conventional 10’ 0” wheelbase underframe, however with a length of 22’ 5” over the buffers, and 19’ 0” length over headstocks they were quite long. This made them ideal for quickly transporting a large number of perishables and goods across the GNR network and beyond.

 

 

In addition to the conventional goods traffic, specific versions were also built to transport meat, fruit and other more hazardous materials. Conversions of 26 of the wagons took place between 1914 and 1916 to make them suitable for the carriage of explosives and gunpowder. Following the end of WW1 a further 49 were subsequently altered into insulated meat vans. Versions were also produced for the traffic of fruit, which included fitting shelves on the inside and side steps for easier access. Our research shows these being used for regular services on the adjacent Great Eastern Railway, with Wisbech being a permanent destination marking on some vehicles, so a perfect accompaniment for our J70 tram locomotives.

 

 

The GNR works at Doncaster built these in their droves and by 1941 the LNER showed a whopping 1739 vans still in service, 253 of which were assigned as fruit variants. Despite a large number of them being scrapped following WW2, just under half of them made it into nationalisation.

 

The last surviving example of the GNR 8-Ton Van, Engineering tool van E432764, had been lined up for preservation by the National Railway Museum, but it was subsequently scrapped, thus consigning the diagram to the history books. Our model will feature the usual wealth of detail, including varying end and roof vents, and stepped and non-stepped versions. The models are also fitted with metal bearings that will help with smooth running and shunting.

 

Edited Monday at 11:06 by rapidoandy

[MarkSG]

Nice. You can never have too many vans!

 

(Well, technically you can, as opens were more common in the steam era, but, still)

[Dick Turpin]

Now that is good news!

[gwrrob]

Nice and will go well with the Oxford Rail offering albeit a better quality.

Edited Monday at 11:53 by gwrrob
Spelling

[Dungrange]

29 minutes ago, rapidoandy said:

Following the end of WW1 a further 49 were subsequently altered into insulated meat vans.

 

Were the insulated meat vans produced for a specific traffic route, or did these travel quite widely?

 

31 minutes ago, rapidoandy said:

Versions were also produced for the traffic of fruit, which included fitting shelves on the inside and side steps for easier access. Our research shows these being used for regular services on the adjacent Great Eastern Railway, with Wisbech being a permanent destination marking on some vehicles, so a perfect accompaniment for our J70 tram locomotives.

 

Were these a post-war conversion as well, or were the fruit versions in service earlier and are there known alternative numbers for the ones marked 'Fruit'.  I note the reference to 253 Fruit marked variants still being in service in 1941.

 

Final question, I note the models all appear to be fitted vehicles.  Was that the case?

[BMacdermott]

Hello everyone

 

Many congratulations to Rapido on yet another interesting announcement!👍

 

Within The Results of The 00 Wishlist Poll up until now, we have only had room to list most pre-Grouping stock 'aggregated' - such as Freight Stock GNR.

 

That listing was High Polling in 2022.

 

When we run again (around Christmas this year) you will find many more vehicles listed 'individually' and, I'm pleased to say, the GNR Van was one of them.😎

 

We wish Rapido all the best for a successful product.

 

Brian (on behalf of The 00 Poll Team)

Edited Monday at 14:16 by BMacdermott

[Pteremy]

Some diagram numbers would be helpful, not least for those of us who need to research whether it would be appropriate to have any of these vans.

[Jammy2305]

1 hour ago, Pteremy said:

Some diagram numbers would be helpful, not least for those of us who need to research whether it would be appropriate to have any of these vans.

 

From Tatlow:

 

 

The meat van appears to be 20A/38 4096.

 

No.8354 is noted as "blt '11" which I take to mean built 1911.

 

No.20962 appears to be from the 20A/40 lot and so I intepret that as also being built circa 1911, although interestingly only 13 were allocated specifically for fruit in 1922?

 

- James

[Jammy2305]

2 minutes ago, Jammy2305 said:

 

From Tatlow:

 

 

The meat van appears to be 20A/38 4096.

 

No.8354 is noted as "blt '11" which I take to mean built 1911.

 

No.20962 appears to be from the 20A/40 lot and so I intepret that as also being built circa 1911, although interestingly only 13 were allocated specifically for fruit in 1922?

 

- James

 

I should clarify my own post - It appears No.8354 was converted from a 6 ton perishable meat van into an 8 ton insulated van (20C/47 4101). A date for conversion is not given.

 

- James

[Jammy2305]

2 hours ago, Dungrange said:

Final question, I note the models all appear to be fitted vehicles.  Was that the case?

 

According to Tatlow, yes. All were fitted with automatic vacuum brakes from new.

 

- James

[2750Papyrus]

Excellent choice, hope to see more GN and other ECML vehicles in due course.

 

Still hoping for some GN/ECJS six wheeled bogie clerestory coaches to run with the singles and Atlantics and a Sentinel steam railcar!

[Dungrange]

1 hour ago, Jammy2305 said:

 

 

 

So it looks like those with just six roof vents and no end vents (as depicted by the first model),  were far more numerous than the other versions.  I can't see much difference between the unmarked version with roof and end vents and the version marked for fruit traffic and given that they don't appear to have been given a separate diagram number, I'm assuming the differences between the fruit and non fruit versions are largely internal.  The fact that the number of fruit vans increases between 1922 and 1940 implies that they were converted as demand for fruit vans rose.

 

Interesting that they are titles GN/CLC vans.  I wonder if any were marked with CLC and if so, why Rapido aren't producing a CLC liveried van.

[rapidoandy]

2 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

 

So it looks like those with just six roof vents and no end vents (as depicted by the first model),  were far more numerous than the other versions.  I can't see much difference between the unmarked version with roof and end vents and the version marked for fruit traffic and given that they don't appear to have been given a separate diagram number, I'm assuming the differences between the fruit and non fruit versions are largely internal.  The fact that the number of fruit vans increases between 1922 and 1940 implies that they were converted as demand for fruit vans rose.

 

Interesting that they are titles GN/CLC vans.  I wonder if any were marked with CLC and if so, why Rapido aren't producing a CLC liveried van.

 

The CLC vans were built with different brakes and a few other minor differences but wouldn't quite fit on our tooling. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

1 minute ago, rapidoandy said:

The CLC vans were built with different brakes and a few other minor differences but wouldn't quite fit on our tooling. 

The well developed habit - out of necessity - among drysiders, of modifying RTR product as required will deal with that. Always grateful for suitable items!

[NHY 581]

Excellent news ! I can see more than a couple  heading to Ewe. 

 

Rob

[rapidoandy]

7 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

Excellent news ! I can see more than a couple  heading to Ewe. 

 

Rob

I think as soon as weekend after next probably…

[Michael Hodgson]

5 hours ago, Dungrange said:

 

Were the insulated meat vans produced for a specific traffic route, or did these travel quite widely?

 

I would have though those insulated vans would have also have been suitable for fish traffic, but it seems they didn't get used for that.

[Mol_PMB]

2 hours ago, rapidoandy said:

 

The CLC vans were built with different brakes and a few other minor differences but wouldn't quite fit on our tooling. 

A 'nearly right' CLC liveried version might have been a suitable commission for a model shop on the CLC route? I'm sure there's one in Widnes...

[hmrspaul]

E 432764  a poor photo of it in the store at the NRM years before they destroyed it. https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/lnercoveredmerchandise/e2313a258  As can be seen it was Engineers black 

 

Paul

[iak]

34 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

A 'nearly right' CLC liveried version might have been a suitable commission for a model shop on the CLC route? I'm sure there's one in Widnes...

There is and they deal with Rapido. 

Shame Hattons exist no more...

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

At last, a manufacturer has remember that there was a 'Great Northern Railway'. Everybody seems to avoid it like the Plague.

 

manna

[Dunsignalling]

 

Can anybody advise how long these lasted in revenue-earning traffic on BR, please?

Edited Tuesday at 12:27 by Dunsignalling

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

58 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

Can anybody advise how long these lasted in revenue-earning traffic on BR, please?

I can make a guess: a few years only. There was rough total of 1,200  of all varieties handed over to BR, which was annually building vans by the thousand, initially from final grouping design orders, and then it's own van designs; and also the conflat fleet and containers to reckon with, especially for the fresh meat trade. It's perhaps telling that Tatlow's excellent LNER wagon compendium manages just one photograph of an example in BR livery?

 

Won't stop me having a few still around in what is notionally 1955, couple each: in traffic, departmental use, condemned. Whether completely accurate or not, a few recognisably old pre-group wagons among so much more modern stock, aids representation of how it was.

[Dunsignalling]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

I can make a guess: a few years only. There was rough total of 1,200  of all varieties handed over to BR, which was annually building vans by the thousand, initially from final grouping design orders, and then it's own van designs; and also the conflat fleet and containers to reckon with, especially for the fresh meat trade. It's perhaps telling that Tatlow's excellent LNER wagon compendium manages just one photograph of an example in BR livery?

 

Won't stop me having a few still around in what is notionally 1955, couple each: in traffic, departmental use, condemned. Whether completely accurate or not, a few recognisably old pre-group wagons among so much more modern stock, aids representation of how it was.

As I suspected.

 

BR had one of their big wagon culls in 1955 and these vans would have been vulnerable on grounds of age and the 8-ton load.

 

My cut off date is 1958 so is probably pushing things. I think I'll wing it for just one though!  😇

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On 16/09/2024 at 21:29, manna said:

At last, a manufacturer has remember that there was a 'Great Northern Railway'. Everybody seems to avoid it like the Plague.

There was me thinking it has done quite well of late for a medium size pre-group company. Rapido have a J52 'Humpy'  on the way, Ellis Clark with Quad Arts announced, possibly the most distinctive of GN carriage stock, and there have been six RTR OO locos introduced over the last twenty years, and in addition the long serving N2 which has a very characterful tooling originating from Airfix GMR. Afficianados of such as the LNWR and NER might well envy...