Home
4mm Prices
View Kit Images
BR Departmental Kits
BR Open Wagon Kits
BR Steel Carriers
BR Salmons & Borail
GW Wagon Kits
LMS/LNER Wagon Kits
SR Wagon Kits
PO Wagon Kits
Wagon Bogies
Stockists
Prototype photos
16mm Products
Info & History
Email us
Links
Railway Books & DVDs,
+ Music CDs from Amazon
Railway Bookshop
Railway DVDs
NEW - CD shop
BRITISH RAILWAYS DEPARTMENTAL WAGON KITS
C11 CATFISH 19 ton BALLAST HOPPER WAGON
Catfish hoppers are similar to the Dogfish, the main differences being a lower hopper and lack of side chutes.
PROTOTYPE : These wagons have a hopper fitted with one central discharge door and were basically a welded version of the earlier "Mackerel".
236 Catfish were built from 1955-58 by Metropolitan-Cammell to BR Diagram
D1/586 and were numbered:
1955: Lot 2682/3 DB992531 - 650. Lot 2775 DB992651-710
1958: Lot 2929 DB993508 - 566.(152 in service 2/94)
Thcse were all built with oil axleboxes & self-contained buffers as on the model.
A further 471 were built to Lots 3039/3331 in 1960/61 (DB983376 576/627 - 896). These had Oleo buffers & roller bearings. (353 in scrvice 2/94)
Catfish were originally allocated to the LMR, but from the late 60s spread onto the ScR & ER. Some were loaned to the SR in the 1970s. Catfish were worked with most other types of ballast hoppers.
C12 DOGFISH 24ton BALLAST HOPPER WAGON
There were a large number of these 4 - wheeled hopper wagons which were seen on all regions. Built from 1956 to 1960. The kit includes alternative flared chutes for the Southern Region version (see text below).
PROTOTYPE : Based on the LMS/LNER "Trout" design, and the earlier hoppers built by Leeds Forge for, amongst others, the SECR in 1911. These wagons were the most numerous of ballast hopper designs in the engineers' fleet. Introduced in 1956, the basic design underwent various detail changes, the last Lots having roller bearings & Oleo buffers. The model is based on DB993461, built in 1957 (Lot 2823 Metro-Cammell). It has open-front axleboxes & self-contained buffers and is suitable to be numbered from DB992711 to DB993507. In all, 1249 wagons were built and were abundant on all Regions. SR & LMR stock had 'flared' chutes to allow the ballast to fall clear of the outside 3rd rail. Another variant was for carrying slag ballast, having 9" plates welded to the top edges of the hopper, e.g. DB993160/192/239. Dogfish were worked with other types of hoppers, a train of about 8 Dogfish and 4 Sealion wagons being common. On the Southern Region, some Dogfish were worked with Mermaid side-tippers, and lettered 'MER-DOG'. Surviving Dogfish received the "new" liveries such as Loadhaul and Departmental grey, then EWS maroon. Air-braked wagons are coded HPA.
C13 MERMAID 14 ton SIDE-TIPPING BALLAST WAGON
Built by Metro - Cammell, and almost identical to the GWR owned type (this and the first batch of BR wagons were unfitted). They were used for tipping ballast from an adjacent line onto the trackbed, before laying the track. The opposite side of the wagon to the tipping direction was clipped to the rail. Tipping too many wagons at once could tip the track as well!
Seahorse wagons were converted from OCA wagons during 1989 & early 1990, & total 30 wagons.
They were initially used to carry ballast from Meldon Quarry in Devon, to Hoo Junction in Kent.
This was to create a stockpile of ballast to refill half-empty Seacow/lion hoppers. This stockpile was termed a "virtual quarry", rather than the less trendy "heap of ballast". Some neighbours of other "virtual quarries" complained of "virtual dust" appearing on their washing.
Converted from OBA wagons in the early 1990s. The only remaining part of the OBA body appears to be the end stanchions,
the rest being replaced with new steel parts. The wagons have carried a variety of liveries. Can be adapted to the type which has flat topped sides & ends.
Built 1956 - 60, and based on the LMS design (Oyster), itself very similar to a Caledonian Railway plough van.
There are ploughs at each end to spread ballast discharged from hopper wagons, which are lowered when in use, using the large handwheels on the end platforms. Wooden blocks under the ploughs "skate" along the rail head (real ploughs can only be used on plain track). Includes moulded coupling bar for use with Hornby/Bachmann couplings.
C15 TURBOT 31tonne BALLAST/SPOIL/SLEEPER WAGON 
Kits produced from December 2007 have a one-piece floor and "one-piece" bogies.
One of the first "modern" type of P.W. wagons (though on 30 - year old underframes).
These are Bogie Bolster E's with new bodies added during 1982 - 3. There were about 900 Turbots built. In use they became very battered due to being struck by excavator buckets. If used for sand, they needed lining with polythene sheeting, as the doors were not exactly leakproof. The Turbot was apparently bad luck for the works rebuilding them as construction began at Shildon, which closed before all the wagons had been converted. The work then transferred to Swindon, which also closed; the rest were then done at BREL(RFS) Doncaster.
C29 "TAUNTON CONCRETE" WAGON
In the late 1950s sides were fitted to GWR sleeper wagons so that concrete products such as troughing could be carried.
These worked from the Concrete Works (north-east of Taunton Station, now a housing estate) to wherever the load was destined. Some survived until the late 80s on the Southern Region, one in particular, which had been air-piped, was based at Woking. Another found its way to the Isle of Wight. This late survival led to the preservation of some wagons, and removal of the sides e.g. West Somerset Railway.
C65 WALRUS 40ton BALLAST HOPPER WAGON
These were built in 1952 with plate bogies and slightly shorter end platforms than the later Sealion/Seacows. The overall length was thus less than the Sealions and Seacows (by 16" / 5.3mm). Apart from the bogies, they were virtually identical to the third batch of Southern Railway hoppers. (see kit C67)
C76 BR WHALE 50ton BALLAST HOPPER WAGON 
These larger hoppers had a roller-bearing plate bogie (this is a "one-piece" moulding) and were a basically a stretched Walrus, but air-braked. The wagons required strengthening and were moved off the Southern Region in 1982, some working, for example, from a quarry near Shrewsbury. It is said that the designer of the Whales travelled from Meldon Quarry to Taunton on their first trip, in the brake van at the rear of the train. He is said to have emerged onto the platform looking rather green and demanding disciplinary action, as the train had run at 60mph, and the wagons were only designed for 30-45mph! This was how they ended their days, as from 2000 Network Rail imposed a 30mph speed restriction on them.
The bogie ballast hoppers suffered from distortion, and some SR hoppers and Walruses got extra plates on the bottom edge at the end of the sides. Some of the SR ones had wider vertical channels fitted at the end of the sides. Even the later Sealions showed some bending at this point due to the hopper section sagging inboard of the bogie mounting. It is thought that all Whales have now been withdrawn.
Here's a Whale and a Sturgeon at Shrewsbury Coton Hill, about 1983:
