Dapol O Gauge 7F-053-011 BR 13-Ton HYBAR Open Wagon B485082 dia 1/044 Bauxite with Tarpaulin Rail
Dapol O Gauge BR diagram 1/044 13 ton open merchandise wagon B485082 bauxite livery lettered HYBAR.
Model with tarpaulin sheet rail.
Open wagons had long been a principal merchandise wagons on Britains' railways, even though the percentage of covered vans had increased steadily British Railways still found a need for new open merchandise wagons in the 1950s.
British Railways Ideal Stocks Committee favoured the LNER all-steel design wagons as the standard high sided open merchandise wagons, but recognised that the all-steel wagons proved unsuitable for some traffic and wooden bodied wagons would also be required. Wood body wagons noticeably suffered from damage to the end planking as loads shifted, often during shunting. The LMS had addressed this issue with robust corrugated steel end panels and as BR sorted out the left-over pre-nationalisation building programmes diagrams 1/039 and 1/044 appeared as the first of the BR design 5-plank wagons to be built in large numbers.
2,820 wagons were built to diagram 1/044, to the same basic plan as 1/039, equipped with vacuum train brakes but without the sheet support rail.