Accurascale/ Irish Railway Models have just announced a range of new Unfitted CIE H Vans for OO Gauge!
Continuing their odyssey into the quintessential wagon load trains of the CIE era, and the maximum usage of the legendary Bulleid triangulated underframe, Accurascale have announced the humble H Van, this time in its widespread, "unfitted" format.
Coming in triple packs, there are six different packs available to pre-order, featuring original grey with Flying Snails, grey with CIE roundels and brown with CIE roundels, giving a wide range of possibilities and variety for the modeller. Due in Q3 2025, these models are already nearing production completion at the factory.
Order Book Deadline: Friday 23rd May - 5pm
Pre-Order Now
Product Features
Die-cast metal chassis with plastic body
Wheelbase of 40mm, allowing operation over a minimum radius of 438mm (2nd radius set-track).
Metal 3-hole wheels; chemically blackened 00 Gauge RP25-110 standard, set in brass bearings and on 2mm axles over 28mm pinpoints to aid 21mm conversion.
Eroded metal, plastic and wire detail parts, brake gear, draw gear, 3-link and Instanter couplings.
Turned metal sprung buffers.
Prototype Information
As part of the programme of standardisation and rolling stock renewal instigated by Corás Iompair Éireann (CIÉ)’s Chief Mechanical Engineer, Oliver Bulleid, in the 1950s, a fleet of over 1,300 H vans was introduced. With a body resembling earlier CIÉ types but mated to an underframe constructed to Bulleid’s patented triangulated design, these wagons quickly became a common sight across the entirety of the Irish railway system, being found at practically every station where goods were transhipped, from remote branch lines to the busiest yards, and could even be observed on through workings in Northern Ireland.
The loads conveyed in these vehicles was varied, often being employed to carry a broad range of wagonload sundries, as well as serving higher volume flows such as bottles and barrels from the Guinness brewery at St James’s Gate in Dubbin, and beet pulp from sugar factories to be used as fodder. H vans were commonly observed on a wide range of workings, from short branch services consisting of one or two wagons in the company of the locomotive and a brake van, to long rakes of vans or mixed wagon types, and even on mixed trains on branch and secondary lines.
The rise of fitted trainload ‘liner’ trains in the 1970s heralded the demise of CIE’s wagonload services, and the H Van fleet became increasingly redundant, with most being withdrawn by the latter half of the 1970s. Today, a single complete example has been preserved and is to be found at the Downpatrick & County Down Railway, though numerous bodies still survive, having been sold on by CIÉ upon withdrawal, mostly to farmers for use as animal shelters or equipment sheds.