Rapido Trains UK have announced their first 00 gauge ready to run South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) / Southern Railway wagons. These new models cover the Diagram 1355 seven-plank open and both the Diagram 1347 and Diagram 1349 five-plank opens built by the South Eastern & Chatham Railway on the same Maunsell/Lyons steel underframe.
The 7 plank open, later SR Diagram 1355, were the SECR’s most numerous wagon with 2,121 wagons built between 1915 and 1927. The SR later fitted a sheet rail. British Railways had over 70 wagons still in service in the 1960s and the last withdrawals were not until the 1970s. Several were sold into private usage, including the Port of Bristol Authority. Three of these wagons are preserved on the Bluebell Railway.
The 5 plank opens utilised the same steel chassis as the 7 plank wagons, 550 were built between 1920 and 1925 with standard buffers that became SR Diagram 1347. A further 150 were built 1921/2 with self contained buffers and became SR Diagram 1349. There were withdrawn in the early 1960s. Two D1347 wagons are preserved, with one at the Bluebell Railway and the other at the Severn Valley Railway.
The model tooling allows for variations to be produced including the 7 plank open with or without sheet rails and the two different buffer styles on the 5 plank versions. They will include high levels of body and underframe detail, metal stamped parts, metal bearing cups and NEM coupler pockets.
The initial versions being produced are as follows:
Diagram 1355 7 plank open
- 907001: No.12221, SECR Grey
- 907002: No.16194, SECR Grey
- 907003: No.14997, SR Brown (Pre-1936)
- 907004: No.16227, SR Brown (Pre-1936)
- 907005: No.28666, SR Brown (Post-1936)
- 907006: No.28860, SR Brown (Post-1936)
- 907007: No.S16510, SR Brown (with BR markings)
- 907008: No.S28951, SR Brown (with BR markings)
- 907009: No.S28662, BR Grey
- 9070010: No.S28942, BR Grey
- 9070011: No.DS28635, BR Gulf Red (S&T Dept)
The full set of D1355 livery artworks can be seen here.
Diagram 1347 5 plank open
- 906001: No.9601, SECR Grey
- 906002: No.12522, SECR Grey
- 906003: No.14131, SR Brown (Pre-1936)
- 906004: No.14632, SR Brown (Pre-1936)
- 906005: No.14283, SR Brown (Post-1936)
- 906006: No.19081, SR Brown (Post-1936)
- 906007: No.S14271, SR Brown (with BR markings)
- 906008: No.S19220, BR Grey
- 906009: No.S19228, BR Grey
- 906010: No.DS14157, Engineers Black
Diagram 1349 5 plank open
- 906011: No.10789, SECR Grey
- 906012: No.10660, SECR Grey
- 906013: No.14621, SR Brown (Pre-1936)
- 906014: No.14707, SR Brown (Pre-1936)
- 906015: No.14599, SR Brown (Post-1936)
- 906016: No.14678, SR Brown (Post-1936)
- 906017: No.S14590, SR Brown (with BR markings)
- 906018: No.S14571, BR Grey
- 906019: No.S14708, BR Grey
The full set of D1347 / D1349 livery artworks can be seen here.
My friends, Andy and Richard at Rapido Trains UK advised: “that it their long-term aspiration to undertake some manufacturing in UK. Having a UK design team is the first step towards that. These wagons have been researched and designed 100% in the UK. All we’ve done is to send the completed CADs to our factory in China for manufacturing. We have a number of wagon projects that our UK designers are working on and we’ll announce these shortly. As the business grows and our range increases in size, we’re hopeful that more and more rolling stock projects will be designed in this country.”
Both the five and seven-plank wagons are available to order now (RRP £32.95 each) and the order book closes on September 1st 2021. They can be pre-ordered from Kernow Model Rail Centre here.
These wagons will certainly be an great addition to the fleet for both pre-grouping, Southern Railway and Southern Region modellers alike.
Surely as common user wagons after WW1, would not these wagoins have turned up anywhere on the railway system?
Yes they have been reported far and wide across the system including Scotland.
Excellent news albeit at a slightly eye-watering price – although it is acknowledged these are so much more than just a generic wagon…….
Although advertised by Rapido at £32.95, our friends at Kernow are stating £28.95.
The description for the 7 plank (005 and 006) says post 1936 livery but the pictures show large SR letters, can you clarify please?
Hi Robert,
Rapido are aware of the errors in their artwork illustrations. The item descriptions are correct and should be used for choosing the correct versions to order.
Many thanks Graham, the models with the sheet rail will be useful for variety on ready to run.
Hi Graham, this looks like an interesting development. For those of us modelling late ’30s (1938/9 in my case), would I be right in assuming that both pre- and post-’36 SR would be correct? Just a little extra weathering on the earlier wagons.
Yes the pre 1936 livery lasted a long time.
If you think how often wagons went into shops for routine overhaul – 7-10 years(?) – only a small proportion of the fleet would have been repainted by tthe end of 1939 and the beginning of WW2. After that wagons would only have been repainted if really necessary, if then. So the larger size SR would have been seen up to nationalization, and probably beyond, looking more and more the worse for wear.
Thank you both, Graham & John. This gives us early post-’36ers a nice variation to play with. This could get expensive! 🙂
One further thought – during 1942 the size of the 5 inch “SR” lettering , the running number and thee non common user “N” were reduced to 3 inches and the tare and load lettering to 2 inches.