Bagged Cement Van N0.21, identical to the current 2229, but for the number.
The wagon which started it all!
2007
Great Northern Railway of Ireland
Open Coal Wagon No. 3164
2007
Great Northern Railway of Ireland
Open Coal Wagon No.5558
2008
Container Truck No.1997 with Furniture Container No.1
2008
East Downshire Steamship Company Limited
10 ton Coal Wagon No.14
2007
Sligo Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway
Cattle wagon No.158,
which was modelled complete with end numbers, as per prototype.
2008
Photo Courtesy Dapol Ltd
Another of the vans specially constructed for bagged cement traffic from the cement factory at Drogheda. It was built at Dundalk to Diagram 145A and joined the Company’s stock in 1956.
The vans were to be seen all over the GNR system, on CIE and the SL&NCR. At the dissolution of the GNR in 1958, all went to CIE, who simply added the suffix “N” to the GNR number.
They were unusually large for Ireland at that time – most other vans were of 10 tons capacity. Also, unusually for Ireland, the handbrake acted on both axles. So for once, a British outline model is very close to the Irish prototype. Our model comes with disc wheels, like the original van.
A
total of 138 of these wagons were built between 1954 and 1956 and the
modeller can easily represent another wagon in this series by dabbing
out the first "2", as no.229 was another member of the series.
This van as an ex-LMS(NCC) 12 ton van from the 2400 series. A hundred of these LMS vans were imported from the parent company to replace wagons lost during World War 2, when the NCC's York Road headquarters was heavily damaged by air raids.
Ours was offered in Ulster Transport Authority livery, which they bore after the nationalisation of the NCC in 1948. Being a fitted van, it is in a distinctive livery to highlight this fact. Photos (and memory!) show the livery these vans carried as near-orange and we have tried to replicate this. In fact, most were very dirty in their latter days ans if this van sells well, a weathered version might be offered later.
They were seen in goods trains on UTA and CIE lines until about 1965, when UTA goods traffic largely ceased.
2009