Following the recent arrival of our PFAs, all balance invoices have been generated – if you were expecting a balance invoice but haven’t received it by email then please check your account on our website. If you can’t see a balance invoice (and you paid a deposit rather than in full) then please get in contact with us through the contact form on our website. If you pay your balance by Wednesday 13 September then your order will go out in the first batch of deliveries!
PFAs in N
If you need to change your delivery address please update the shipping address in your account but also please send us an email if you changed it since 11 September (otherwise your order might not get updated in time). Thanks!
If you missed out on our pre-orders some of our retailers still have models available to order (they should receive their allocations early next week).
Please note when you pay a balance invoice the website automatically updates the deposit part of your order to “Complete” and sends you an email saying your order has been despatched – this is an automatic software bug that we can’t change. Your order is actually despatched when we mark the balance part of the order as “Complete” ie despatched.
Customers wishing to collect their PFAs and/or gypsum container packs will be able to do so if you let us know by 2100 on Thursday 7 September.
PFAs in N
Shipments and balance invoices will begin to be sent out shortly, but if you would like to collect your order(s) at TINGS this weekend please complete the short form here (please make sure you click on Submit at the end of the form, you should get confirmation of submission on screen). You will be able to pay any balance due at the show (we will refund any postage paid after collection).
Revolution Trains is offering N gauge enthusiasts yet another load for their intermodal flat wagons in the form of two types of 20′ gypsum container.
A and B type containers on PFA flats. Wagons and gypsum containers being sold separately.
Gypsum is a vital constituent in plaster and plasterboard as well as cosmetics, toiletries and fertilizers. It can be mined, but is also a by-product from power stations, and gypsum traffic has been a lucrative source of revenue for the railways for many years.
It can be carried in open box wagons, but in the late 1980s various batches of 20′ containers, to several similar designs, were introduced and these remain in service. Gypsum trains run across the network; notable flows are between British Gypsum at Mountfield, near Hastings in East Sussex, and Newbiggin in Cumbria and power stations in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire among others.
60041 with gypsum containers on PFA wagons
Originally carried on 4-wheel PFA wagons, nowadays they are conveyed on standard 60′ intermodals such as KFAs (as previously manufactured by Revolution), FEA-Bs, FCAs and IFA Megafrets. When introduced they were painted white, with the blue British Gypsum logo of the time on a placard, however by the late 1990s they were being repainted blue and a revised logo was introduced.
Nowadays, many have had the logo, and even the placard on some containers, removed, and they tend to be fairly heavily weathered.
Gypsum containers as offered by Revolution on Tiphook KFA 93330. Photo courtesy Dan Adkins.
Gypsum containers currently in use are 20′ long with various arrangements of bodyside ribs, owner placards and end doors and Revolution is offering two types: one with full height bodyside ribs and one with a top rail.
Type A gypsum container
Type B gypsum container
The models are being manufactured for Revolution by Accurascale, based on their well-received 00 versions, and will be offered in two triple packs, priced at £17.95 each, less than £6 per container.
Pack 1 – British Gypsum original white livery. Please note contents may vary slightly from those shown.
Pack 2 – British Gypsum revised blue livery. Please note contents may vary slightly from those shown.
These models are expected to be produced alongside our forthcoming PFA container flats, and we hope to have them by Summer 2021.
Gypsum containers on Revolution Trains KFA container flat
Revolution Trains has received samples of its forthcoming PFA container wagons with open-top coal or half-height nuclear fuel containers.
The models feature a diecast chassis to give enough weight, even when running empty, and lots of separately fitted details.
The wagons were built in 1986 to carry containerised coal from collieries in the UK to Ireland, with the coal tranported in bright yellow “Cawoods” liveried open-top containers. In the mid-1990s the operation was taken on by British Fuels, and the containers repainted red.
56132 with Cawoods containers in 1989. Photo courtesy Mick Page
66208 with British Fuels and CPL containers in 2002. Photo courtesy Neil Harvey
In the 2000s several of the wagons were acquired by DRS and used to convey low level waste or as runners for other flask wagons. The coal containers had been designed for the wagons, and had cut-outs on the underside to clear the wheel flanges, however because the DRS containers did not have these the wagons were fitted with ISO-compatible frames to ensure the containers were clear of the wheels. Our models will replicate this feature with a removable photo-etched part.
DRS PFA seen in 2013 in use as a barrier wagon between the locomotive and a FNA flask carrier. Photo courtesy Ray Forster.
Once these models have been tested then decorated approval samples will be prepared, and the models will go into production. We are expecting to close the order book early in 2021, with the models likely to be shipped in summer 2021. Order now to take advantage of our low pre-production price.
Revolution Trains has received preliminary CAD drawings of our forthcoming PFA container flats from Accurascale.
PFA with coal container
The models are available to order loaded with either Cawoods yellow containers, British Fuels red, BNFL half-height low-level waste containers or in DRS black but unloaded for use as runners. Note that the placard on the container shown in the CAD will be removed, as it is not correct for the Cawoods type, being added for those containers in use with CPL distribution which at this time we are not producing and the “pips” on the top corners of the containers will also be taken off.
Because many modellers will want to run their wagons unloaded, the entire deck component (white in the CAD) will be in diecast metal to ensure there is enough low-down weight in the model for good running.
Beneath the wagon is all the detail you’ve come to expect from Revolution Trains, and the couplers are in pivoting NEM pockets, however the low deck and axle positions mean there is not enough room for a kinematic mechanism.
56132 on Blyth-Ellesmere Port Cawoods containers in 1989. Photo courtesy Mick Page.
68002 and 68004 with single nuclear flask wagon and three empty PFA runner wagons in 2019. Photo courtesy Andy Parkinson.
We have requested a few very minor tweaks to the CAD images, and we are still waiting for the diagram of the low level nuclear waste container, but once this is all signed off we will be ready to ask Accurascale to proceed to tooling.
Revolution is offering the PFA 4-wheel container flat to accompany the forthcoming KUA bogie flask wagon and further develop its successful relationship with Accurascale.
PFA DRSL92798 at Carlisle. Photo courtesy Ray Forster.
The wagons were built by Standard Wagon Co. in 1987 to carry containerised coal traffic for Cawoods Ltd from collieries across Britain to dockside terminals for onward shipping to Ireland.
56132 on Blyth-Ellesmere Port Cawoods containers in 1989. Photo courtesy Mick Page.
Open coal containers were also used by British Fuels and CPL, with the wagons, and some were also pressed into service on trains for British Gypsum, carrying their distinctive blue containers.
66208 and 56056 at Burton Salmon with British Fuels and CPL containers in 2002. Photo courtesy Neil Harvey.
60041 with gypsum containers at Hellifield in 2006. Photo courtesy Ian Tunstall.
PFA with blue gypsum container
In the early part of this century a batch were acquired by DRS who still use them as runner wagons and for the transportation of containerised nuclear waste, particularly in distinctive half-height 20′ containers.
68002 and 68004 on 6K73 Sellafield – Crewe in 2019. Photo courtesy Andy Parkinson.
The Revolution model will feature our usual refinements and we are expecting to open the order book in 2020.
We are also exploring the possibility of offering the wagons with coal, gypsum and nuclear containers and also offering these items as separate accessories.
