Midland Railway & LMS

The Midland developed the Diagram 379 meat van to run an express freight requirement for meat and other perishable items. Although these predominantly ran on passenger services this was not exclusively so. The first batch of 13 built in 1881 were specifically for passenger train working and included Westinghouse piping. An additional 100 were ordered using vacuum brake equipment and would have worked in both passenger and freight trains. Additional handbrake only variants were built for goods only services and would have been seen not just on the Midland but further afield. In all a total of 203 vans were produced between 1881 and 1896. The early versions would often run in rakes with the Clayton six wheel carriages and similar non passenger coaching stock on the 25'0" wheel base such as the Parcels Van, and Fruit & Milk Van.

The early versions were withdrawn by 1905. In contrast the handbrake & vacuum fitted versions had along life. By the early 1920's, with the introduction of refrigerated vans, these vans were transferred into the general merchandise fleet.

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this wagon click Wizard Models.

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Made from etched brass our model includes separate white metal axleboxes with springs, sprung brass buffers, and a pre-formed brass roof. The model features a compensated suspension. Included is vacuum brake gear castings so a range of wagons may be built with or without vacuum brake gear. A fully detailed instruction sheet giving detailed lettering and painting information is included. To download the most recent assembly instructions, current Version 1.00 released August 2001, 4 Sides A4 (240Kb Acrobat 3.01 file).

To read the instructions you will need Adobe Acrobat reader (v3.01 or better). Click 'Get Acrobat Reader' to get a copy of Acrobat Reader: Note this may involve a long download of between 0.5 Mb & 8 Mb depending on the selected version.

Don't understand our terminology? most terms and phrases are explained in our glossary.

Items required to complete the model:-

• Wheels: 14mm diameter Mansell carriage wheels.
• Paint - we recommend Precision Paint or in some cases Humbrol Acrylic: see Midland Railway wagon liveries for suggested product numbers.
• Three link couplings.
• Transfers - we recommend HMRS see Midland Railway wagon liveries for suggested product numbers.

Paint, wheels and transfers are available from our sister company Wizard Models.

supplies a wide range of Midland Railway rolling stock components see here for details.

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this wagon click Wizard Models.

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The Midland Wagon, Volume 1, R Essery, P146-149

A list of railway book sellers may be found here.

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