GWR ‘Open C’ – PLA No.D3
- No.D3
- O19 ‘Open C’
- Port of London Authority livery
- Flat door
- Separately fitted tie-down hoops
- Spoked wheels running in metal bearings
- High level of detail above and below the floor line
- NEM coupler pockets
- 1:76 scale, (OO gauge)
- UK designed
Originally built for conveying timber loads the Open C was an long open wagon design which started life in 1907 as Diagram.O8. The Great Western Railway continued making tweaks to the 15ft wheelbase design, subsequently producing diagrams 016 in 1913/14 and O19 in 1914. The Open C were also one of the first wagons to be designed to use the right-handed, cross-cornered DC III version of the Dean-Churchward spring-applied hand brake.
Although originally designed as a timber wagons the Open C proved ideal for carrying long lengths of steel, particularly tube. The light-weight round tubes could prove difficult secure on bolster wagons and represented a significant traffic from the South Wales steel mills. By World War Two the Opne Cs were considered tube wagons, the type coding applied by British Railways and with steel their most common load the wagons were steadily uprated to 15 tons load capacity.
Over 300 diagram O19 wagons were built between 1914 and 1927, making it the longest-produced diagram of the Open C class wagons and one of the largest types numerically. Surviving the rigours of two World Wars the Open C continued to transport steel tubes across the nation through nationalisation and beyond. Due to their specific role, they often ventured further afield than the GWR or BR Western region network. As newer BR built and BR design Tube wagons entered service the older pre-nationalisation wagons were displaced, some being purchased by the Port of London Authority while many weer adopted by the engineering departments. A few examples, shorn of their bodywork and fitted with frames for use as cable carriers, were still in use in 1980.
Fortunately several examples have survived into preservation and thanks to the availability of detailed works drawings Rapido considered the long-lived diagram O19 wagon as the obvious choice. These Open Cs are suitable for anything from a pre-grouping freight train through to a busy 1950s industrial setting.