Rapido have just announced a newly tooled range of Great Central Railway 19ft wagons in OO Gauge including newly tooled Diagram 17B Covered Vans, Diagram 9A/9B 6-Plank Open wagons and Diagram 6C 3-Plank Open wagons.
In total there are 36 different models to choose from including pre-grouping GCR and Cheshire Lines Committee liveries, War Department variations and Big-Four era/ Post-nationalisation era LNER, LMS and British Rail colour schemes.
These models all feature the same high specification you've come to know and love from Rapido including multiple accurate tooling variations, top quality detailing, intricate livery application, brass bearings and NEM coupling pockets. Build a rake today!
The new range of Rapido Trains UK OO Gauge GCR wagons will have the usual wealth of full external and underframe detail. The Dia. 9A / 9B 6-Plank Open wagons and Dia. 6C 3-Plank Open wagons also feature full internal detail. All four wagon types are fitted with GCR Ribbed buffers and have numerous tooling variants throughout the range.
Pre-Order Now - Dia.17B Covered Vans
Pre-Order Now - Dia.9A/9B 6-Plank Open Wagons
Pre-Order Now - Dia.6C 3-Plank Open Wagons
Product Features
Highly detailed models with various separately fitted parts
Accurate tooling variations covering multiple eras and detail differences
Split spoked or disc wheels where appropriate
Brass bearings
High quality livery application
NEM tension lock couplings
Prototype Information
GCR Dia. 17B Covered Van
In 1910, the Great Central Railway introduced new designs for its covered vans. These would all be 19’ long, with a steel underframe, and featured sliding doors on either side of the vehicle. The main difference between the variants was the type of brakes that they were fitted with. The unfitted variant of the design was assigned the Diagram number 17B.
Developed as an all-purpose vehicle, the Dia. 17B would have been seen up and down the Great Central network and was used far beyond the reaches of the GCR. The Dia. 17B were not fitted with any roof or end vents, which may have limited their use for perishables.
As co-owners of the Cheshire Line Committee with the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway, the GCR had a vested interest in its continued success. This was a joint effort to be a thorn in the side of the London and North Western Railway.
As such, the GCR was involved in designing a variety of rolling stock for the CLC and reused some of their own designs. The Dia. 17B covered van was one of these shared ideas. Two hundred and seventy were built by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Co Ltd at their Oldbury Works for the CLC. When built, they lacked external end-stanchions; however, these were later added to many, making them identical to their GCR counterparts.
Unlike the majority of the country's railways, the CLC avoided the grouping of the Big Four, retaining its own rolling stock into the late 1920s. In 1929, it was decided that the CLC’s wagon fleet would be divided up, with one third going to the LMS, and two thirds to the LNER.
This led to the uncommon occurrence of a single diagram being split between two companies. The LNER designated the ones they received as Dia. 43B. Several survived through to nationalisation, and although one was preserved, this was a version that had been heavily modified into a windowed mess vehicle by BR.
GCR Dia. 9A / 9B 6-Plank Open Wagon
There were several other wagons which shared the same underframe design as the Dia. 17B Covered Vans.
Designed and built by the Great Central Railway, the Diagram 9A and 9B 6-plank open wagons were two excellent examples. Conceived in 1911, these were introduced to maximise the load capacity of the open wagon fleet by increasing the common 5-plank design to a 6-plank vehicle.
The original Dia. 9A concept had a single-sided brake with a right-hand lever and lifting links on the side of the brake blocks.
However, the drawings were amended in 1918 to show brakes with independent levers on both sides. It had a load capacity of 10 tons. These drawings were altered again in 1923. Over 2000 wagons were produced to this diagram, making it one of the most numerous wagons built by the GCR.
In 1919, the Ministry of Munitions ordered 250 10-ton 6-plank open wagons. These were built to a very close approximation of Dia. 9A. However, after the first 40 had been built and sent overseas, the order was cancelled. The GCR kept the remaining wagons for its own fleet.
The 12-ton load capacity variant of the design was designated Diagram 9B. Outwardly, they appeared the same as their 10-ton counterparts; however, the GA drawing shows them as being fitted with RCH split axle boxes.
Both variants were general-purpose open wagons, so would have been seen loaded with a multitude of goods and minerals.
Unlike the Dia. 17B Covered Vans, there were no examples of 9A or 9B opens built for the CLC, so all of the remaining examples of these wagons were inherited by the LNER upon the grouping of the railways.
The LNER continued to produce hundreds of the Dia 9B wagons, and the number rose from the 229 that were identified in the 1922 census to a whopping 779 examples by 1928. Over 250 of each type were inherited by BR in 1948.
GCR Dia. 6C 3-Plank Open Wagon
Another candidate that reused the same steel underframe design was the Dia. 6C 3-Plank Open Wagon. Much like the 6-plank equivalents, these were general-purpose wagons with a 10-ton load capacity.
The GCR built these for both their own use and on behalf of the CLC. They featured dropside doors on both sides, GCR lifting link brakes and ribbed buffers.
Of the 50 originally built for the CLC in 1919, 49 of them survived until 1930, when they were split between the LNER and LMS using the same method as the Dia. 17B Covered Vans. They joined the surviving GCR versions that had already moved to LNER ownership as part of the grouping, but there are scant details of their lives after this date.