Tanked Up

 

Well, I haven't posted anything model railway related for a while, so here are a couple of pictures of my most recent acquisitions: a pair of TTA type tanker wagons.  Like most of my recent acquisitions, these were bought cheaply from a trader's bargain bin at a local Toy and Model Train Fair - the prices there are far more reasonable than anything you'll find on eBay, plus no postage and packing.  These two Hornby items date from the early seventies and have the very' plasticky' finish typical of their basic rolling stock of that era.  These wagons were often found in train sets in a variety of liveries.  Obviously, these are Shell, but there were also, as I recall, red Texaco and Green BP versions.  All of these liveries were, for these wagons, as far as  I know, fictitious.  While in pre-nationalisation days tanker wagons might have carried colourful private owners liveries, under British Railways there were only two basic liveries: black for those carrying heavy oil products, diesel, for instance and silver or light grey for lighter oil products, such as petroleum.  The logo of the oil compabny whose products there carrying was carried on their sides, but usually obscured by grime and oil.  As the real wagons these were based on first appeared in the sixties, there's no chance that they wore any other livery.

As noted, these were the basic versions of these wagons, Hornby also produced, in its 'Silver Seal' range a more detailed version which had access ladders, (although, on the real wagons, these were often removed for safety reasons) and a more realistic grey paint finish with, as I recall, Shell logos on the side.  Versions of these wagons are still marketed by Hornby.  As can be seen from the second picture, these type of tanker is somewhat larger than the older design, to which they are coupled.  Of the four tankers visible in this photo only one, the silver wagon (orginally an Esso tanker, one of the first I ever owned, received as a Christmas present back in the eighties, but it lost its stick on logos years ago), is close to carrying an authentic colour scheme.  Indeed, the majority of the tankers making up my tanker train (and yes, I know there should be a barrier wagon between the tankers and the brake van), still wear non-authentic liveries for the period it is meant to be running in.  I might, at some point, get around to remedying this, (a respray into black or gray being about the simplest paint job there is - reproduction logo stickers are also available), but it isn't a priority right now - I have too many other projects in various stages of completion at the moment to contemplate starting another.  Anyway, those visits to the monthly Model Train Fair are helping me to build up my freight stock very cheaply right now, with most needing either no attention or only minimal repairs.