Dapol O Gauge 7F-057-005 BR B872150 Diagram 1/251 12-Ton Insulated Meat Van Blue Livery RTR
Model of the Insulated version of the standard British Railways covered box van design with unventilated ends and internal insulation for the carriage of frozen meat, using solid CO2 as a refrigerant. These wagons were painted in a distinctive livery to ensure easy identification, wagon B872150 is modelled in the blue livery.
British Railways standard design of box van could be built in several forms including with additional sheathing to provide an insulated van suitable for conveying refrigerated or frozen meat. Externally these vans were visually identical to the standard ventilated van, except that the ends lacked the ventilator bonnet. To ease prompt identification by staff insulated vans these were usually painted in blue or white livery.
Dapol are producing a range of BR standard design wagons using the standard 10-foot wheelbase 17ft6in length underframe. Many thousands of wagons were built using this frame in the 1950s and 60s, these wagons serving British Rail into the 1980s and still a familiar sight on heritage railways today.
A diecast chassis has been produced, providing plenty of weight for open wagons and any flat wagons which might be produced and are fitted with spring buffers and coupling hook with Instanter 3-link couplings.
Chilled meat had been moved by Britains railways since the earliest days, allowing fresh meat to be delivered from countryside to towns without driving cattle down the streets or the meat spoiling. Even after the invention of reliable refrigeration chilled meat commanded a higher price at the early morning meat markets. Before WW2 vans used for meat traffic were normally equiped with ice bunkers to maintain the required temperatures, but advances in insulation technology during the 1930s allowed chilled meat to be maintained at a suitably low temperature for long enough to dispense with the ice bunkers. British Railways 'standard' insulated wagons were heavily insulated, reducing load capacity from 12 to 10 tons, still pelnty for a full load of pre-shilled meat.
The British Railways insulated vans used the same basic body design as the standard diagram 1/208 plank sided ventilated vans, but fitted with corrugated steel end panels whioch lacked the ventilator bonnet at the top. Visually the vans are indistinguishable from standard ventilated vans, so British Railways applied a white or later blue livery to the vans to ensure rapid identification during shunting and train running. The vans were also used of other traffic requiring temperature regulation, including beer, and if no special traffic was on offer the vans could also be used as regular box vans for other 'clean' loads.