Parkside Kits O Gauge PS608 W-608 BR 27-ton Iron Ore Tippler Wagon Plastic Kit
Literally just a steel box on wheels, these wagons were designed to be emptied by turning them upside down in a 'tippler' mechanism, hence there are no side or end doors. Easy to assemble from the correctly coloured injection moulded components. Kits include Transfers. Buffers are sprung and 3-link couplings are included on all models, while the BR wagons also feature working axlebox springs and moveable brake levers. Fine scale metal tyred wheels on pin-point axles supplied, 3-hole disc for the BR types. Fully illustrated instructions included.
British Railways constructed over 8,500 tippler wagons, nominally for iron ore. These wagons had no side or bottom doors and were emptied by being rolled over or later by mechanical grab buckets. The wagons were used for a range of basic mineral ores and for aggregates including roadstone.
Iron ore can vary in density, so these wagons were designed for a 27 ton load, bringing the total loaded wagon weight up to the maximum which was accepted for all routes in the 1950s. When loaded with very dense ore this could still leave a load which appeared as just a low heap covering the bottom of the wagon.
The capacious but basic box body and high load capacity proved useful though, as quite heavy loads could be carried and a fleet of the vacuum braked versions of these wagons was dedicated to stone traffic from the Mendip quarries of Foster Yeoman and ARC in the 1970s and into the early 1980s.