Following the grouping of the railways in 1923, the newly formed London, Midland and Scottish Railway inherited a host of ageing and dilapidated freight stock from their pre-grouping predecessors.
To remedy this and remain competitive, the LMS undertook a massive modernisation program of its freight stock, though many of the designs were either adapted or simply copied from pre-grouping companies a swathe of brand-new prototypes started rolling off the production line in late 1923. The humble box van was no exception.
Production of the newly conceived 9ft wheelbase Dia.1663 12-Ton Vans began in 1924, and 850 wagons were produced over 2 years. Standing out amongst a sea of hinged doored and wooden-ended vans, the Dia.1663 vans featured a stylish sliding door, corrugated steel ends, and external steel cross braces at one end to facilitate the clearance of the sliding doors.
The LMS had a habit of applying new diagram numbers to almost identical prototypes that featured only minor differences, and the sliding door 12-Ton Vans of the 1920s and 30s were no different.
Much like their earlier counterparts, the Dia.1832A 12-ton vans had the same sliding door, 9ft wheelbase, corrugated steel end, and cross-brace design, however, they also featured a single ventilator bonnet at either end. Some variants were produced with roof vents for extra ventilation. The Dia.1832A were then fitted with different headstocks and buffers. With added ventilation, a greater variety of freight traffic could be transported throughout the LMS network and beyond.
This later diagram clearly refined the design as a whopping 3,450 vans were built between 1929 and 1931.
Surviving into the late years of Nationalisation, both the LMS D1832A and D1663 12-Ton Vans could be found up and down the country, some still soldiered on in departmental use way into the 1970s.
- Roof ventilators fitted
- 2-shoe unfitted braked and through piped
- LNER axleboxes
- Split-spoke wheels running in metal bearings
- High level of detail above and below the floor line
- High quality livery application
- NEM coupler pockets
- 1:76 scale, (OO gauge)
- UK designed
